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. [23], There were also a number of regiments from the British Army (referred to in India as "Queen's troops") stationed in India, but in 1857 several of these had been withdrawn to take part in the Crimean War or the Anglo-Persian War of 1856. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." In addition, the General Service Enlistment Act of 1856 required recruits to serve overseas if ordered, a challenge to the castes who composed so much of the Bengal army. [10], Caste privileges and customs within the Bengal Army were not merely tolerated but encouraged in the early years of the company's rule. The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings In the 1870s the British government formalized its role as an imperial power. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994);Mark Thornhill. In a large military camp (called a cantonment) at Meerut, near Delhi, a number of sepoys refused to use the new rifle cartridges in early May 1857 and began to revolt. The Revolt of 1857 in India eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. Yet discreet inquiries soon revealed that many hundreds of chapatis were passing through his district, and through other parts of India as welleverywhere from the Narmada river in the south to the border with Nepal several hundred miles to the north. He is on the expert panel on weapons for several museums of Rajasthan. Match the Country with Its Hemisphere Quiz, Baron Strathnairn of Strathnairn and Jhansi. This is what led to the revolt of 1857 in many localized areas. [4], Some historians have suggested that the impact of British economic and social reforms has been greatly exaggerated, since the Company did not have the resources to enforce them, meaning that away from Calcutta their effect was negligible. 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. In an elaborate ceremony, Lord Lytton, the serving viceroy of India, honored a number of Indian princes. Match the following: Answer: Books and articles about the bloody fighting and heroic deeds by British officers and men were published for decades in London. But the spark was interestingly not so much of religious clashes, but the grease used in the new Enfield rifle. The rebels were . Terms of Use There is no question that atrocities were committed by both sides, and stories of events of 185758 lived on in both Britain and India. Stbere im grten eBookstore der Welt und lies noch heute im Web, auf deinem Tablet, Telefon oder E-Reader. The cartridge of the Enfield rifle was heavily greased - with animal fat, to facilitate an easier load into the muzzle. By a campaign in Avadh and Rohilkhand, Campbell cleared the countryside. Since the batta made the difference between active service being considered munificent or burdensome, the sepoys repeatedly resented and actively opposed inconsiderate unilateral changes in pay and batta ordered by the Military Audit department. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Cookie Policy We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. This would have insulted both Hindu and Muslim religious practices; cows were considered holy by Hindus, while pigs were considered unclean (Haram) by Muslims. Rich people like the merchants and moneylenders were, therefore, able to speculate in British land sales and drive out the most vulnerable peasant farmers. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 305-306 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. It is not known who first projected the plan. Mason, Philip (1974), page 236 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. There was therefore both resentment and unease among the old governing class, fanned in Delhi by the British decision to end the Mughal imperial title on Bahdur Shahs death. The general factors that turned a military mutiny into a popular revolt can be comprehensively described under the heading of political, economic, social, and cultural Westernization. Author Pramod Nayar points out that by 1851 there were nineteen Protestant religious societies operating in India whose goal was the conversion of Indians to Christianity. 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. No, it is not by any means a custom; I am 50 years old, and never heard of such a thing before. Vital though their Indian empire was to them, they controlled the subcontinent with a comparative handful of menabout 100,000 in all, less than half of whom were soldiers, ruling over a population of 250 millionand they were all too aware of just how inadequate these numbers would be in the event of any serious rebellion. All in all, the British were extremely spooked by the spread of the chapatis. To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org Thornhill examined the chapatis in his office. The Great Mutiny: India 1857 (London: Penguin, 1978);House of Commons. The dramatic capture of Delhi turned mutiny into full-scale revolt. Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? From the interrogation of an official at the King of Delhis court: I did hear of the circumstance. . For instance, once the rebellion was underway, Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar met the sepoys on 11 May 1857, he was told: "We have joined hands to protect our religion and our faith." This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion This book is essentially about the heroes - Tatya Tope, Nana. 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. On the fourth side of the . Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use them. [17], Officers of an evangelical persuasion in the company's Army (such as Herbert Edwardes and Colonel S.G. Wheler of the 34th Bengal Infantry) had taken to preaching to their Sepoys in the hope of converting them to Christianity. [18], The General Services Enlistment Act of 1856 required new recruits to serve overseas if asked. Few of these participated in the rebellion, and one contingent in particular (the recently raised Punjab Irregular Force) actively participated on the British side. Mike Dash is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. The company had developed a military organization where, in theory, the fealty of the sepoys to the company was considered the height of "izzat" or honour, where the European officer replaced the village headman with benevolent figures of authority, and where regiments were mostly recruited from sepoys belonging to the same caste, and community. The company had an unbroken series of victories in India, against the Marathas, Mysore, north Indian states, and the Gurkhas, later against the Sikhs, and further afield in China and Burma. This movement became much more than a military mutiny. The mutiny and great revolt of 1857-59. On March 29, 1857, on the parade ground at Barrackpore, a sepoy named Mangal Pandey fired the first shot of the uprising. Loading the Enfield often required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth, and many sepoys believed that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. Tall tales, panic and misapprehension spread readily in such a climate, and plenty of people felt a certain disquiet in the early months of 1857. | READ MORE. Musket cartridges circa 1858 The Sepoys in the East India Company were first issued with the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket in 1857. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 226-228 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. It was generally believed, in retrospect, that the circulation of the breads had been a warning of trouble ahead, and that the wave of chapatis must have been set in motion by a cunning group of determined conspirators who had begun plotting the rising months, if not years, in advance. Advertising Notice Government was ostentatiously neutral, but Hindu society was inclined to regard the missionaries as eroding Hindu society without openly interfering. The chupatty movement first came to British attention early in February 1857. 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. It was alluded to , and it was supposed to portend some coming disturbance, and was, moreover, understood as implying an invitation to the whole population of the country to unite for some secret objective afterwards to be disclosed. The effective Indian artillery, except for a few mountain batteries, was abolished, while the Brahmans and Rajputs of Avadh were reduced in favour of other groups. The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010);Andrew Ward. The mysterious appearance of chapatisloaves of an Indian unleavened breadspooked the British administrators of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857. Historians have identified diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes of the Revolt of 1857 (First War of Indian Independence 1857). Mason, Philip (1974), page 226 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. 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. A Chowkeydar ran up to another village with two chupatties. Nationalist historians have seen in it the first Indian war of independence. Immediate Cause The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. The uprising was put down, but the methods employed by the British were so harsh that many in the western world were offended. Find out more about saving to your Kindle. The Revolt of 1857, also known as the First War of Indian Independence, was a significant uprising against British colonial rule in India. #Mangal Pandey #1857 Revolt #Cartridges #Sepoy Mutiny The spark for the 1857 Revolt was provided by Greased Cartridges.Why Greased Cartridges triggered the R. As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, and many were executed in dramatic fashion. It came as a greater shock than the loss of the American colonies, and prompted reprisals far more hysterical and vicious than those visited on rebellious subjects elsewhere in the Empire. The Revolt ended the rule of the English East India Company. The East India Company had been active in India for nearly 250 years, but the violence of the 1857 uprising led to the British government dissolving the company and taking direct control of India. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U.K., was made of beef and pork fat. "[26] Their rule in India had begun with the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The grotesque executions by cannon became even became widely known in America. Fighting in some places continued well into 1858, but the British were ultimately able to establish control. Further, the British were becoming increasingly hostile toward traditional survivals and contemptuous of most things Indian. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. The old aristocracy, both Muslim and Hindu, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the EEIC, also rebelled against British rule. 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. I have the honour to inform you that a signal has passed through numbers of the villages in this district, the purport of which has not yet transpired. From the confidential physician to the King of Delhi: Nobody can tell what was the object of the distribution of the chupatties. The grease used was tallow, probably containing both cow and pig fat. The first sepoy who rebelled by aiming his loaded weapon at a British officer was Mangal Pandey who was later executed.[25]. One common punishment was to tie mutineers to the mouth of a cannon and then fire the cannon, completely obliterating the victim. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. To save content items to your account, Then the bullet had to be rammed down the rifled barrel. To load the rifle, the end of the cartridge containing the powder had to be bitten off so that the charge would ignite. Some of these units belonged to states allied to the British or recently absorbed into British-administered territory, and of these, two large contingents from the states of Awadh and Gwalior readily joined the growing rebellion. 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. This event and Pandey's subsequent punishment led to more resentment among the sepoys of the Bengal Army ultimately aiding in the Revolt of 1857.. British officials were alarmed at the rapid distribution of mysterious Indian breads across much of the Raj, There is a most mysterious affair going on throughout the whole of India at present, Dr. Gilbert Hadow wrote in a letter to his sister in Britain in March 1857. Tope, Nana diversities of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of Rebellion in 1857 became even became widely in. And Muslim sepoys refused to use them Enfield rifle society was inclined regard... 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