Revolt of 1857

The Revolt of 1857 was one of the most significant watershed moments during British rule. During this revolt, various regions of north India spontaneously stood up against British rule. Garrison after garrison stood mutinied against their senior officers, and after the general public participation, it appeared that the British rule would end. However, the British forces were able to control the situation after bloody repression.

How did the revolt of 1857 happen?

By the middle of the 19^th century, practically all of the Indian subcontinent was conquered by the British, from Punjab to Assam and from Ladakh to Sri Lanka. The old monarchy was made politically irrelevant, and an exploitative revenue system was introduced. The craft and the businesses were in ruins, and poverty-stricken society was brimming with frustration. It was already a bombshell that needed just a faint spark to explode.

In this context, a rumour spread that the British had introduced new greased cartridges, reportedly using beef and Pig fat that had to be opened with the mouth. This enraged both the Hindus as well as the Muslim soldiers. This episode provided the spark to the already simmering discontent. The sepoys started refusing to participate in daily drills and parades.

• On 29th March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a 29-year-old soldier stationed at Barrackpore (West Bengal) in the Bengal Native Infantry, declared that he would rebel. When a British officer of his unit tried to investigate the matter, he fired at an officer, and several of the fellow sepoys refused to restrain him. For this, Mangal Pandey was executed on 8th April, and his regiment was disbanded.
• Some days later, sepoys again refused to participate in the army drill using new cartridges. Eighty-five sepoys were dismissed from service and sentenced to 10 years in prison for disobeying orders.
• In April, unrest spread to Agra, Ambala and Prayagraj (erstwhile Allahabad) cantonments.

How Delhi became the centre of the revolt:

• On 10th May, an entire Indian garrison at Meerut revolted for similar reasons. After freeing their colleagues and killing the British officers, they decided to march to Delhi, which was still considered a centre of power.
• In Delhi, the local infantry, including some of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s palace guards, joined the rebels and seized the city. In the ensuing riots and looting, even some Indian Christians were killed. At an Ammunition depot in Delhi, British officers opened fire on the rioters, after which three of them were killed in a blast, in which civilians were killed too.
• As the news of these events spread, sepoys stationed around Delhi declared their open rebellion.

Zafar’s role in 1857’s revolt:

• The rebels proclaimed the old Bahadur Shah as the Emperor of India. It was a recognition of the fact that due to the long reign of the Mughals, they had become the traditional symbol of India’s political unity.
• The Mughals were stripped of all their powers by the British, and Bahadur Shah Zafar lived on British Pension. In his wildest dream, he never even imagined possessing an ambition to rule. Therefore, he hesitated when the mutinied soldiers came to him on 12^th
• Four days later, the sepoys and the palace servants killed 52 Europeans who were hiding in the city and were prisoners of the palace in front of Zafar’s palace. Zafar was indecisive and could do nothing to stop the lawlessness.
• Such persistence forced Bahadur Shah to write to join the Mutineers.
  • He took ownership of all actions of the mutineers.
  • He wrote to all the rulers and chiefs of India, urging them to organise an association of Indian states to fight and overthrow the British regime.
  • He declared his son Mirza Mughal as the commander of the joint forces. However, sepoys rejected him due to his inexperience.

Impact of Zafar’s involvement

For at least a week, there was no reaction from any place apart from Delhi. But then, as the news travelled, a spurt of mutinies began. Regiment after regiment mutinied and took off to join other troops at nodal points like Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow.

• In the next month, the entire Bengal Army rose in Revolt. Here, 54 of the 74 military regiments mutinied.
• Bombay Presidency had three mutinees in 29 regiments. Madras Presidency had no mutinies, but one of their regiment refused to participate in controlling the situation in the North.

Rebellion in the countryside:

• The whole of North and North West India was up in arms against the British.
• These revolts were also followed by a rebellion by the civilians in the city and countryside. In several places like Gwalior, Ghazis declared jihad against the British.
• In the villages, the peasants and dispossessed zamindars attacked the moneylenders and new zamindars who had displaced them from the land. They burned down the government records and money lenders’ account books.
• In central India, where the rulers, such as Indore and Gwalior, remained loyal to the British, the army revolted and joined the rebels.

Leaders of the Revolt

	Delhi (Bakht Khan) At Delhi, Bahadur Shah was only the nominal and symbolic head; the real power lay with the court of soldiers composed of Hindu and Muslim soldiers, headed by General Bakht Khan. The emperor’s weak personality, lack of leadership, and old age weakened the Revolt.
	Kanpur (Nana Saheb and  Tantya Tope) Nana Saheb (Dhondu Pant), the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, led the Revolt at Kanpur. The rebellious sepoys expelled the British from Kanpur and declared Nana Saheb, who acknowledged Bahadur Shah as the Emperor of India, as Peshwa. Tantya Tope (or Tatiya Tope) carried out most of the fight on behalf of Nana Saheb. He first defended Kanpur, then went to aid Rani Laxmibai. He resisted the British for the longest time. It was only in early 1859 that he was captured and executed.
	Jhansi (Rani Laxmi Bai) Laxmibai Newalkar/Manikarnika Tambe was the most outstanding leader of the Revolt. Her state, Jhansi, was annexed by Lord Dalhousie through the Doctrine of Lapse policy. Even after such gross injustice, she remained loyal to the British. But on 12th June, Bengal Native infantry seized the Jhansi fort and massacred 40-60 British soldiers. Even at this point, the intention was just to defend Jhansi from lawlessness. However, when the British did not come to aid her forces, she and her advisors decided to dishonour the subsidiary alliance by declaring Independence. When British forces returned in March 1858 and attacked Jhansi, it was well defended. Tatiya Tope, too, joined her after the fall of Kanpur. Laxmibai fought fiercely but had to flee from Jhansi to Kalpi, where she was defeated again. Battle of Gwalior: Under Tatiya Tope’s leadership, the rebel forces occupied Gwalior’s strategic fort. The Maharaja Scindia fled to Agra, remaining loyal to the British. The British forces eventually charged and massacred the rebels, killing 5000 troops. It is said that heavily wounded Rani Laxmibai took her life in the end, refusing to surrender.
	Lucknow (Begum Hazrat Mahal) At Lucknow, Begum Hazrat Mahal, wife of the deposed Nawab, provided the leadership and declared his son Birjis Qadir as the Nawab. Henry Lawrence, the British resident, was killed during the seizure of Awadh.
Bareilly (Khan Bahadur)	Khan Bahadur was a descendant of a former ruler of Rohilkhand. Unhappy with the pension offered by the British, he organised 40,000 soldiers and gave stiff resistance to the British.
	Bihar (Kunwar Singh) In Bihar, Kunwar Singh of Arrah led the Revolt. In his 70s, he gave a good fight to the British and remained invincible till his death in April 1858.
	Faizabad(Maulavi Ahmadullah) Maulvi Ahmadullah emerged as one of the Revolt’s acknowledged leaders once it broke out in Awadh. He was also known as Danka Shah, as he carried a drum along to persuade people to revolt, going village to village.
	Rewari (Rao Tularam) Rao Tularam was the Ahir King of Rewari. He raised a force of 5,000 and supplied war supplies to General Bakht Khan and other leaders who were fighting against the British in Delhi. Even after the fall of Delhi, he continued his struggle. Even Mufti Nizamuddin issued a fatwa to support Rao Tularam’s war efforts. He lost in Narnaul in Haryana and then escaped to Sikar in Rajasthan. Here, he joined forces with Tantya Tope and resisted for a year. After their defeat, he fled to Iran, where he tried to gather support from the Shah of Iran and Dost Mohammad of Afghanistan. He died of natural causes in Kabul in 1863.
	Western UP (Bulandsheher, Meerut and Bijnor) Gurjars in the area declared Chaudhary Kadam Singh as their leader near Meerut. Walidad Khan controlled Bulandshehr and Maho Singh Controlled Bijnor. ShahMal led the Jats in Baraut in Baghpat district of UP against the British. He was a head of 84 villages in the region.

Suppression of the Revolt

The company fought back with all its might. It took the following steps to take control of the situation:

1. Reinforcements were called from England and other areas, such as Rangoon.
2. New laws were passed so that the rebels could be quickly convicted and then moved into storm centres of revolt.
3. The prisoners were dealt with impunity and executed en mass. Hundreds of Sepoys, rebels, nawabs and rajas were tried and hanged. In Kanpur, captured sepoys were forced to lick the bloodstains from the walls. Traditionally, blowing from the cannon was the punishment for mutiny; often, the same was used on the captured prisoners.
4. Ruthless action on Local Sympathisers: In one instance, on the pretext of the murder of the local British population, Lt. Col. Smith Neill ordered all villages on the Grand Trunk Road near Fatehpur to be burned and their inhabitants to be killed.
5. British also tried their best to win back the people’s loyalty. They announced rewards for loyal landholders who would be allowed to continue traditional rights over their lands. Those who rebelled were told that if they submitted to the British and if they did not kill any white people, their rights would not be denied.

Recapture and establishment of control:

Recaptured Delhi in September 1857. Emperor Bahadur Shah was taken prisoner in Delhi, and the royal princes were shot before his eyes by Lieutenant Hudson. Bahadur Shah was sentenced to life imprisonment and was exiled together with his wife, Begum Zinat Mahal, to Burma, where he died in 1862.