Indian Mutiny

I

Introduction

Indian Mutiny, sometimes also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, mutiny by Indian soldiers of the British East India Company (known as Sepoys), that led to a major revolt against the Company’s rule between 1857 and 1859.

The mutiny and the rebellion that emerged out of it in 1857, exactly 100 years after the Battle of Plassey that marked the beginning of the British conquest of India, was the greatest armed challenge to the authority of the British East India Company. The mutiny’s origins lay in the multiple grievances of the Indian people against the Company's rule. It began as a mutiny of the Company's soldiers, especially the Bengal Native Infantry, mercenaries who came to feel that the fruits of conquest had been expropriated exclusively by the British. Their apprehension that the British also had secret plans to Christianize India was shared by others. Within a short time the rebellion drew in many elements in northern and central India. Disinherited Indian princes, landlords loyal to them along with their retainers, armed peasants who had suffered from the British intrusion, and Muslim clergy all joined in a combined effort to overthrow the Company's government. Their efforts converged into a programme to restore the Mughal Empire.

II

Immediate Causes

The rising began with the Bengal Native Infantry's acts of insubordination at Berhampore and Barrackpore: its immediate cause was the refusal of caste Hindu and Muslim soldiers to accept cartridges greased with ritually polluting beef and pork fat that they had to tear open with their teeth before loading. The government's assurance that the tabooed cartridges had been discontinued was not believed and the soldiers suspected some secret plan to convert them to Christianity. Actually, dissatisfaction with the government had produced rumours that the Company's rule would come to an end after a tenure of 100 years, and chapatties, a type of unleavened bread, had been circulating in northern India probably as a sign of call to rebellion. The Doctrine of Lapse promulgated by governor-general James Dalhousie, which rejected the age-old Hindu practice of adopted sons succeeding to their father's throne, had led to highly unpopular annexations of territories. Among the disinherited potentates were such leaders of the rebellion as the Rani of Jhansi in Central India and Nana Sahib who would have succeeded the Peshwa, the head of the Maratha Confederacy. In 1856, the kingdom of Oudh was annexed on the grounds of bad government, creating intense dissatisfaction among the Nawab's feudatories, their retainers, and the local peasantry. The government's policies of reform, including measures such as abolition of suttee, had also been resented by orthodox elements, and the Muslim clerics had been hard hit by the resumption of land grants wherever documents proving the grantees' rights could not be produced. The combination of long- and short-term causes was responsible for a massive rebellion that took nearly two years to quell.

III

From Mutiny to Wider Rebellion

The rebellion began with acts of incendiarism at Barrackpore and Ranigunj in the Bengal Presidency and, on March 29, 1857, the revolt of a Brahmin soldier of the Bengal Native Infantry, Mangal Pande, who was hanged. The sepoys' mutiny soon spread to Lucknow, Ambala, Bareilly, and Meerut: European bungalows were burnt, treasuries looted, officers shot, and European men, women, and children murdered indiscriminately. The sepoys from Meerut and other cantonments marched on Delhi where, in May, the Mughal, Bahadur Shah, a pensioner of the East India Company, was declared emperor, much to his embarrassment. Some taluqdars (wealthy landowners) of Oudh now repossessed their confiscated land; in Lucknow, militant citizens joined the rebels, as did the rural population in many areas, incensed by the land settlement, even though they were not in sympathy with the sepoys. All traces of British rule were effaced from extensive parts of Oudh and the North-Western Province by the end of May with local grandees and maulvis (Muslim scholars) declaring themselves viceroys or governors. The mutineers from Allahabad laid siege to the British 'entrenchment' at Kanpur.

The mutiny acquired the character of a general revolt against British rule when the Rani of Jhansi became, somewhat unwittingly, the leader of a general rebellion in her area and the very pro-British Nana Sahib, the last Peshwa's dispossessed adopted son, was drawn into the revolt by the mutineers and declared Peshwa. Nana and his right hand man, Tantia Tope, were responsible for several massacres of European men, women, and children, in some cases after they had been assured safe passage. The Bibighar massacre at Kanpur and of British fugitives at Satchaura Ghat are the most notorious among these. Several proclamations by the leaders of the rising including Bahadur Shah, Prince Feroze Shah, and the Rani of Jhansi, that called upon all Hindus and Muslims to rise emphasized the alleged threat to their religion and the perfidy of the British, such as in the case of the Nawab of Oudh.

While popular support for the rebellion varied from area to area, Bundelkhand was in rebellion from Jhansi to Sagar and the entire province of Oudh was in rebel hands as were parts of Rohilkhand. Central India was in turmoil. Hostile sentiments, occasionally bursting into rebellion as in Mount Abu, spread to Rajasthan and even to the Southern Maratha country. The sepoys' rebellion spread even to Chittagong and Dhaka, in East Bengal, though the people in Lower Bengal remained quiescent. There were stirrings of revolt even in a section of the Bombay Native Infantry and Sikh soldiers. During the protracted conflict with Nana, Tantia Tope, and the Bihar zamindar (a class of landowner, see Zamindari System) Kunwar Singh, the local people were very much on the side of the rebels. Even the offer of 100,000 rupees as reward failed to find any informers to help capture Nana or Tantia.

The British recovery was rendered possible by the loyalty of the Sikhs and the Bombay and Madras Native Infantries, the assistance of the Gurkhas from Nepal, and the arrival of reinforcements from Britain. General Thomas Reed and Colonel John Nicholson formed a moving column inflicting severe retribution on defeated rebels, amounting to atrocity. Delhi was captured after fierce fighting in September 1857: mass killings followed. Bahadur Shah was captured, tried, and banished to Rangoon, and three of his princes were shot by Captain William Hodson without trial.

The recapture of Delhi did not mark the end of the rising. The regular campaign continued until June 1858, but it took another ten months to capture Tantia Tope, who was hanged. The Rani of Jhansi died of a battle wound. Earlier in March, Lucknow, where the British had suffered a long siege in the Residency, was finally recaptured.

In November 1858, the Queen's Proclamation whereby the Company's rule was ended and the Crown-in-Parliament (the British Sovereign as head of state, exercising her authority through the elected parliament) took over the governance of India marked the formal end to the rising. Rebel activity persisted until April 1859, and peace was established finally only by August that year, though some activity continued for nearly two more years. Nana and Begum Hazrat Mahal of Oudh escaped, probably to Nepal, and were never caught.

IV

The Aftermath

The rebellion ushered in direct rule by Crown-in-Parliament: the responsibility for the rising was laid squarely at the Company's door. The Queen's proclamation promised equal opportunity for all her subjects in India, but this promise was never fulfilled. Instead, the atrocities on both sides left a bitter inheritance of racial animosity and easy social contact between ruler and ruled was at an end. On the other hand, at the level of responsible policy makers there was a new sensitivity to popular reactions in India. It was a retired officer of the Indian Civil Service who took the initiative to establish the Indian National Congress because he apprehended the outbreak of another mutiny if there was no legitimate forum for airing Indian grievances.