- Also called:
- Revolt of 1857, Indian Mutiny, Sepoy Mutiny, or First War of Independence
- Date:
- May 10, 1857 - July 8, 1859
- Participants:
- Mughal dynasty
- United Kingdom
- Major Events:
- Siege of Lucknow
- Siege of Delhi
Indian Rebellion of 1857
What was the Indian Rebellion of 1857?
What were the main causes of the Indian Rebellion of 1857?
Who were some notable leaders during the Indian Rebellion of 1857?
What was the outcome of the Indian Rebellion of 1857?
Indian Rebellion of 1857, widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against British rule in India in 1857–59. The revolt began in Meerut with an uprising of Indian troops (sepoys) in the service of the British East India Company, and it spread to Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, and Lucknow. It was long described by Western historians as the “Indian Mutiny,” or “Sepoy Mutiny.” In India it is also called the “First War of Independence” and other similar names.
Background
India in the mid-19th century was not a unified country. It was ruled by different rulers in various territories. The rather visible decline of the Mughals after Aurangzeb’s death combined with the efforts by the Marathas to establish dominions in the Mughal-ruled territories and the gradual breakdown of some Indian provinces such as Deccan, Bengal, and Oudh, further destabilized by the invasion of the Iranian ruler Nadir Shah, created a political vacuum and unrest. The British East India Company gained from this instability and established British dominions in India, thus creating tensions that would culminate in the rebellion. To regard the rebellion merely as a sepoy mutiny is to underestimate the root political and social causes leading to it, as the company increasingly undermined older authorities and practices.
British oppression
When the Mughal emperor Alamgir II was seated in Delhi, Bengal was being governed by nawab Siraj-ud-Dawlah. The British took advantage of the nawab’s strained relations at court and colluded with the nawab’s general, Mir Jafar. At the Battle of Plassey (1757), Mir Jafar withheld his troops and encouraged the nawab to withdraw his forces, leading to the British capture and execution of Siraj-ud-Dawlah. Mir Jafar was installed as a titular nawab, and the company emerged as the real power in Bengal. The British victory in the Battle of Plassey marked the company’s transformation from a mere mercantile presence into a military and political power in India, and the battle is often considered to be the starting point of British rule over the subcontinent.
Over the next few decades, the East India Company expanded its control across the Indian subcontinent through a series of military campaigns. It solidified its dominance in Bengal and Bihar with its victory in the Battle of Buxar (1764), in southern India with its victory over Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Mysore War (1799), and in Punjab with its victory in the Second Sikh War (1848–49).
British paramountcy
Devised by Lord Dalhousie, the doctrine of lapse was formulated to deal with questions of succession to Hindu Indian states. According to Hindu law, an individual or a ruler without natural heirs could adopt a person who would then have all the personal and political rights of a son. Dalhousie asserted the British right to approve such adoptions and to act at British discretion in their absence in the case of dependent states. In practice this meant the rejection of last-minute adoptions and British annexation of states without a direct natural or adopted heir, because Dalhousie believed that Western rule was preferable to Eastern rule and should be enforced where possible.
British paramountcy—i.e., the belief in British dominance in Indian political, economic, and cultural life—was introduced in India about 1820. The British increasingly used a variety of tactics to usurp control of the Hindu princely states that were under what were called subsidiary alliances with the British. The old Indian aristocracy was being replaced by British officials everywhere. One notable British technique was called the doctrine of lapse, first perpetrated by Lord Dalhousie in the late 1840s. It involved the British prohibiting a Hindu ruler without a natural heir from adopting a successor and, after the ruler died or abdicated, annexing his land. To those problems may be added the growing discontent of the Brahmins, many of whom had been dispossessed of their revenues or had lost lucrative positions. Through his conquests and annexations of independent provinces, Lord Dalhousie helped shape the map of India. In 1856 he annexed Oudh (Awadh). Although the doctrine of lapse could not be enforced on the nawab of Oudh, the cited reason for the annexation was poor governance by the nawab. This move deeply affected Indian soldiers in the British army, many of whom came from Oudh. Before annexation, they enjoyed a high social status in their region. Under British rule, however, their prestige was reduced. Oudh’s takeover is often cited as one of the causes of the 1857 rebellion.
Another serious concern was the increasing pace of Westernization, which affected Hindu society through the introduction of Western ideas. Missionaries were challenging the religious beliefs of the Hindus. The humanitarian movement led to reforms that went deeper than the political superstructure. During his tenure as governor-general of India (1848–56), Lord Dalhousie made efforts toward emancipating women and had introduced a bill to remove all legal obstacles to the remarriage of Hindu widows. Converts to Christianity were to share with their Hindu relatives in the property of the family estate. There was a widespread belief that the British aimed to break down the caste system. The introduction of Western methods of education was a direct challenge to orthodoxy, both Hindu and Muslim.
Cause of conflict
The rebellion broke out in the Bengal army because it was only in the military sphere that Indians were organized. The pretext for revolt was the introduction of the new Enfield rifle. To load it, the sepoys had to bite off the ends of lubricated cartridges. A rumor spread among the sepoys that the grease used to lubricate the cartridges was a mixture of pig and cow lard; thus, to have oral contact with it was an insult to both Muslims and Hindus. There is no conclusive evidence that either of these materials was actually used on any of the cartridges in question. However, the perception that the cartridges were tainted added to the larger suspicion that the British were trying to undermine Indian traditional society. For their part, the British did not pay enough attention to the growing level of sepoy discontent.
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The rebellion
In late March 1857 a sepoy named Mangal Pandey attacked British officers at the military garrison in Barrackpore. He was arrested and then executed by the British in early April. Later in April sepoy troopers at Meerut refused the Enfield cartridges, and, as punishment, they were given long prison terms, fettered, and put in jail. This punishment incensed their comrades, who rose on May 10, shot their British officers, and marched to Delhi, where there were no European troops. There the local sepoy garrison joined the Meerut men, and by nightfall the pensionary Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II had been nominally restored to power by a tumultuous soldiery. The seizure of Delhi provided a focus and set the pattern for the whole rebellion, which then spread throughout northern India. With the exception of the Mughal emperor and his sons and Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the deposed Maratha peshwa, none of the important Indian princes joined the rebels.
Oral contact with pig and cow fat was deeply offensive to both Hindus and Muslims because each animal holds powerful religious significance in their respective faiths: Cows are revered as sacred in Hinduism, whereas pigs are regarded as unclean and therefore forbidden in Islam.
From the time of the rebels’ seizure of Delhi, the British operations to suppress the uprising were divided into three parts. First came the desperate struggles at Delhi, Kanpur, and Lucknow during the summer; then the operations around Lucknow in the winter of 1857–58, directed by Colin Campbell; and finally the “mopping up” campaigns of Hugh Rose in early 1858. Peace was officially declared on July 8, 1859.
A grim feature of the rebellion was the ferocity that accompanied it. The rebels commonly shot their British officers on rising and were responsible for massacres at Delhi, Kanpur, and elsewhere. The murder of women and children enraged the British, but in fact some British officers began to take severe measures before they knew that any such murders had occurred. In the end the reprisals far outweighed the original excesses. Hundreds of sepoys were bayoneted or fired from cannons in a frenzy of British vengeance (though some British officers did protest the bloodshed).
| date(s) | region | outbreak and mobilization | British response |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 29, 1857 | Barrackpore | Mangal Pandey, a sepoy in the British Indian army, attacks British officers at Barrackpore, marking one of the first major incidents of the uprising. | Mangal Pandey is publicly executed by the British on April 8, 1857. |
| May 10, 1857 | Meerut | The mutiny breaks out in Meerut, and Indian sepoys ransack an army base and murder European people. | British forces fail to quash the mutiny. |
| May 11–September 21, 1857 | Delhi | Mutineers from Meerut seize Delhi on May 11 and proclaim Mughal legitimacy under Bahadur Shah II. | Delhi is recaptured on September 21, 1857, after a weeklong battle aided by reinforcements from Punjab. |
| May 30–November 1857; 1858 | Oudh (Awadh) | Oudh sees mass mobilization with a strong rural participation including taluqdars and peasants. | The garrison is relieved on November 1857; the province subdued in 1858. |
| July–December 1857 | Cawnpore (Kanpur) | After the British garrison surrenders, Nana Sahib offers them safe passage; however, his forces subsequently kill about 400 British women and children. | Cawnpore is recaptured on December 6, 1857. |
| July 25–August 1857 | Bihar and Bengal hinterlands | On July 25, 1857, the Danapur forces rise in rebellion and move toward Arrah. In the fighting 185 European and 26 Sikh soldiers are killed, and most of the European force is injured. | British forces recapture key river towns such as Benares and Allahabad within weeks. |
| June 1857–June 1858 | central India (Jhansi-Gwalior belt) | Jhansi becomes a focal point in central India in resistance to the British. Queen Lakshmi Bai opposes the annexation of her state. In June 1857 the Bengal army regiments stationed in central India mutiny. On June 5 British officers, civilians, and Indian servants who were taking refuge in the fort at Jhansi are allegedly killed by Lakshmi Bai’s forces. On June 1, 1858, rebellion begins in Gwalior. | The British begin a counteroffensive in December 1857. On April 3, 1858, Jhansi falls and is looted. On June 19, 1858, Gwalior is recaptured. |