Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. Then came the Western innovations of the now overconfident British. The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. Some time in February 1857, a curious occurrence took place. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994);Mark Thornhill. The traditional story of the Sepoy Mutiny is that the introduction of a new cartridge for the Enfield rifle provoked much of the trouble. Mason, Philip (1974), page 225 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. [5], Dalrymple further points out that as late as 6 September, when calling the inhabitants of Delhi to rally against the upcoming Company assault, Zafar issued a proclamation stating that this was a religious war being prosecuted on behalf of 'the faith', and that all Muslim and Hindu residents of the imperial city, or of the countryside were encouraged to stay true to their faith and creeds. Mason, Philip (1974), page 226 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. } The quarter century following the bitter Indian revolt of 185759, though spanning a peak of British imperial power in India, ended with the birth of nationalist agitation against the raj (British rule). The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was doomed to fail, but the religious and cultural tensions it inflamed would ultimately topple the British raj. The events of 1857 have been considered the first outbreak of an independence movement against British rule. [6]. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British. No, it is not by any means a custom; I am 50 years old, and never heard of such a thing before. On May 9, 1857, some 4,000 British soldiers and sepoysnative Indian troopsformed a three-sided hollow square on the parade ground at the Meerut military cantonment, 40 miles northeast of Delhi, to witness punishment. Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-7cttp Musket cartridges circa 1858 The Sepoys in the East India Company were first issued with the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket in 1857. "useRatesEcommerce": false [11] If the caste of high-caste sepoys was considered to be "polluted", they would have to expend considerable sums of money on ritual purification before being accepted back into society. It is no surprise, the historian Kim Wagner notes, that, faced with such a plethora of portents, the British regarded with deep suspicion, bordering on paranoia, any type of communication in India which they could not understand. The colonial administration well understood that rumors, however unfounded, could have serious consequences, and there were plenty of notably more dangerous urban legends about. Jaiwant Paul "The Greased Cartridge: The Heroes and Villains of 1857-58" In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames o. The first sepoy who rebelled by aiming his loaded weapon at a British officer was Mangal Pandey who was later executed.[25]. The military cause was both particular and general. They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith? The lack of planning after the outbreak rules out these two explanations, while the degree of popular support argues more than a purely military outbreak. Eleven of the sepoys were executed and hundreds more sentenced to hard labor. The next phase was the central Indian campaign of Sir Hugh Rose. The Revolt of 1857 began as a Mutiny of the Bengal Army sepoys, who throughout the course of the Revolt, proved themselves to be the most . In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames of rebellion. Such measures were considered a valid negotiating tactic by the sepoys, likely to be repeated every time such issues arose. It was against this backdrop of uneasiness in which the mutiny erupted in 1857. The revolt failed in overthrowing British Rule. The mutiny and great revolt of 1857-59. The ratio of British to Indian troops was fixed at roughly 1:2 instead of 1:5one British and two Indian battalions were formed into brigades so that no sizable station should be without British troops. Click to view in higher resolution. Thornhill came into his office one morning to find four dirty little cakes of the coarsest flour, about the size and thickness of a biscuit lying on his desk. A private company which first entered India to trade in the 1600s, the East India Company had eventually transformed into a diplomatic and military operation. To load both the old musket and the new rifle, soldiers had to bite the cartridge open and pour the gunpowder it contained into the rifle's muzzle, then stuff the paper cartridge (overlaid with a thin mixture of beeswax and mutton tallow for waterproofing) into the musket as wadding, the ball being secured to the top of the cartridge and guided into place for ramming down the muzzle. However, nearly every sepoy was either Muslima religion that forbids eating the fat or any other part of a pig, or Hinduwhere the same rule applies to cows. As early as 1806, concerns that the sepoys' caste may be polluted had led to the Vellore Mutiny, which was brutally suppressed. He first defeated the Gwalior contingent and then, when the rebels Tantia Topi and Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi had seized Gwalior, broke up their forces in two more battles. Whether the cartridge was unballed or balled, it was necessary, in loading a muzzle-loader, to open the end of the cartridge. The immediate cause of military disaffection was the deployment of the new breech-loading Enfield rifle, the cartridge of which was purportedly greased with pork and beef fat. A rumor spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. But the back of the rebellion had been broken and time gained for reinforcements to restore British superiority. Most Indians thought they were the work of the British, whothrough the East India Companyhad ruled over large portions of the country for almost a century (and were, according to one well-known prophecy, due to be unseated at that centurys end). "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." Feature Flags: { Saul, David (2003), page 294 "The Indian Mutiny", Penguin Books. These are deep waters that we trawl in, and dangerous ones, too. The Lucknow garrison held out in the residency from July 1, in spite of the death of Sir Henry Lawrence on July 4. [27][28], After the rebellion, there was rumour in Britain that Russia was responsible.[28]. In the illustration, a mutineer was depicted chained to the front of a British cannon, awaiting his imminent execution, as others were gathered to watch the grisly spectacle. Rumors began to spread that the grease used to make the cartridges was derived from pigs and cows, which would be highly offensive to Muslims and Hindus. But something important was required to provoke so many to seize the opportunity of a military uprising to stage a war of independence. [1] As early as the Charter Act of 1813 Christian missionaries were encouraged to come to Bombay and Calcutta under EEIC control. Many Indians felt that the company was asking for heavy tax from the locals. The resumption of tax-free land and confiscation of jagirs (the grant or right to locally control land revenue) caused discontent among the jagirdars and zamindars. This meant that when they came to be threatened by modernizing regimes in Calcutta, from the 1840s onwards, the sepoys had become accustomed to very high ritual status, and were extremely sensitive to suggestions that their caste might be polluted. The mutineers, on the other hand, lacked good leadership until nearly the end, and they had no confidence in themselves and suffered the guilt feelings of rebels without a cause, making them frantic and fearful by turns. By the time the British came to examine the causes of the rebellion, therefore, the chupatty movement had assumed a fresh significance. In sum, this combination of factors produced, besides the normal tensions endemic in India, an uneasy, fearful, suspicious, and resentful frame of mind and a wind of unrest ready to fan the flame of any actual physical outbreak. It was a major event in South Asian and British colonial history that signicantly challenged imperialism in India. Some currents simply ran cold, while others moved in parallel, or paused before continuing. A cartridge for the new Enfield rifle. Furthermore, legal changes introduced by the British were accompanied by prohibitions on Indian religious customs and were seen as steps towards forced conversion to Christianity. The chupatty movement first came to British attention early in February 1857. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine He survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. That, combined with a declining number of British officers who understood India, spoke Indian languages fluently or had any real sympathy for the people whom they ruled, meant that the colonial hierarchy remained perpetually jittery. In spite of their apparently desperate situation, the British possessed long-term advantages: they could and did receive reinforcements from Britain; they had, thanks to the resolution of Sir John Lawrence, a firm base in the Punjab, and they had another base in Bengal, where the people were quiet; they had virtually no anxiety in the south and only a little in the west; and they had an immense belief in themselves and their civilization, which gave resolution to their initial desperation. The British officer Richard Barter wrote: Lotus flowers and bits of goats flesh, so it was rumoured, were being passed from hand to hand, as well as chupatties. The army became an efficient professional body, drawn largely from the northwest and aloof from the national life. The immediate cause of military disaffection was the deployment of the new breech-loading Enfield rifle, the cartridge of which was purportedly greased with pork and beef fat. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. What are the major holidays and festivals of India? Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. In 1877, outside Delhi, essentially in the spot where bloody fighting had taken place 20 years earlier, an event called the Imperial Assemblage was held. To these points may be added the fact that the British garrison in Bengal had been reduced at this time to 23,000 men because of troop withdrawals for the Crimean and Persian wars. Underlying grievances over British taxation and recent land annexations by the English East India Company (EEIC) also contributed to the anger of the sepoy mutineers, and within weeks, dozens of units of the Indian army joined peasant armies in widespread rebellion. His name has become synonymous with the revolt of 1857. This would have insulted both Hindu and Muslim religious practices; cows were considered holy by Hindus, while pigs were considered unclean (Haram) by Muslims. The whole episode falls into three periods: first came the summer of 1857, when the British, without reinforcements from home, fought with their backs to the wall; the second concerned the operations for the relief of Lucknow in the autumn; and the third was the successful campaign of Sir Colin Campbell (later Baron Clyde) and Sir Hugh Henry Rose (later Baron Strathnairn of Strathnairn and Jhansi) in the first half of 1858. Greased Cartridges: The Revolt of 1857 was triggered by the use of new Enfield rifles whose cartridges were believed to be greased with cow and pig fat, leading to the refusal of both Hindu and Muslim sepoys to use them. Wild stories circulated freely in the panic-stricken atmosphere of 1857, and there were enough real massacres and murders to make almost anything seem possible. The serving high-caste sepoys were fearful that this requirement would be eventually extended to them, violating observance of the kala pani prohibition on sea travel. Q. A man had come out of the jungle with them, and given them to the watchman with instructions to make four like them and to take these to the watchman in the next village, who was to be told to do the same.. Further, the British were becoming increasingly hostile toward traditional survivals and contemptuous of most things Indian. There is reason to believe that this was originated by some intriguers of the old Court of Lucknow. A. By the time of the chupatty movement, no more than a handful of aged India hands could remember such long-ago events as the Vellore Mutiny. In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. And the uprising became extremely violent. Thousands of entirely blameless Indians who found themselves caught up in the hysterical aftermath of the rebellion were flogged, or blown from cannon, or forced to clean bloodied paving stones using only their tongues before being summarily hanged. Sepoys throughout India were issued with a new rifle, the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musketa more powerful and accurate weapon than the old but smoothbore Brown Bess they had been using for the previous decades. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. From Delhi the revolt spread in June to Kanpur (Cawnpore) and Lucknow. [7] Several years before the sepoys' mutiny, Lord William Bentinck had attacked several jagirs in western Bengal. History of the Siege of Delhi (Edinburgh: A&C Black, 1861);John Kaye. Large numbers of native soldiers, known as sepoys, were employed by the company to maintain order and defend trading centers. Beyond that, however, opinions remained divided. British and Indian military drills of the time required soldiers to bite off the end of the Beeswax paper cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, stuff the remaining paper cartridge into the barrel, ram the paper cartridge (which included the ball wrapped and tied in place) down the barrel, remove the ram-rod, return the ram-rod, bring the rifle to the ready, set the sights, add a percussion cap, present the rifle, and fire. In fact, it was rather the last effort of traditional India. As further evidence, he observes that the Urdu sources of the pre- rebellion and post- rebellion periods usually refer to the British not as angrez (the English), goras (whites) or firangis (foreigners), but as kafir (disbeliever) and nasrani (Christians). What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? The old aristocracy, both Muslim and Hindu, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the EEIC, also rebelled against British rule. The officers continued to be British, but they were more closely linked with their men. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. | READ MORE. But those who did would not have been surprised by what happened next, for some very similar beliefs were spreading in the early months of 1857. Numerous explanations were considered. A New Type of Rifle Cartridge Caused Problems, The Indian Revolt of 1857 Brought the End of the East India Company. The system was subject to abuse, and the company used it to annex territories in a questionable manner. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. Muslim religion opposed pork and Hindus were against the beef so it harmed the sentiment of all the sepoys. Outraged by events such as the massacre of women and children at Cawnpore, some British officers believed that hanging mutineers was too humane. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. Total loading time: 0 [15], The varying stances of the British government, the reduction of allowances, and harsh punishments, contributed to a feeling amongst the troops that the Company no longer cared for them. "[4] Those European men and women who had previously converted to Islam such as Sergeant-Major Gordon, and Abdullah Beg, a former Company soldier, were spared. But in the 1830s and 1840s, tensions began to emerge. Your Privacy Rights The grotesque executions by cannon became even became widely known in America. Indian soldiers in the East India Company's armies believed they risked defilement because the new rounds were being issued greased with the fat of pigs and cowsuntrue, but sufficient to spark the most dangerous uprising against British imperial rule since the American Revolution. The movement that Hadow was describing was a remarkable example of rumor gone wild. Seven Years' War: Major General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, Biography of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, 20 Facts About the Life of Mahatma Gandhi, independence movement against British rule. When Muslim and Hindu troops learned that the tip of the Enfield cartridge had to be bitten off to prepare it for firing, a number of troops refused, for religious reasons, to accept the ammunition. The Indian papers are full of surmises as to what it means. Kim Wagner, who has made the most recent study of the phenomenon, concludes that the movement had its origins in Indore, a princely state still nominally independent of British rule, and that it began as an attempt to ward off the ravages of cholera: The geographic circulation of the chapattis was not systematic or exponential; their transmission was erratically linear and different currents moved at different speeds. Time the British raj British raj and festivals of India University Press, 1994 ) ; Mark Thornhill the Enfield..., the Indian rebellion of 1857 Brought the end of the sepoys, to! Grotesque executions by cannon became even became widely known in America ], After the rebellion there... Of 1857-58 was the central Indian campaign of Sir Henry Lawrence on July 4 British. ; Mark Thornhill South Asian and British colonial history that signicantly challenged imperialism in India the biggest bloodiest! 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