1857 Indian Uprising PDF

BXhadtheestablished mid-nineteenth centurv, the British themselves as the supreme exposed them to competition with goods from abroad. Eve...

BXhadtheestablished mid-nineteenth centurv, the British themselves as the supreme exposed them to competition with goods from abroad. Even the sepoys, the backbone of the political power in India. A large part of India British army, were unhappy as they wer was under direct British administration. Other treated unfairly by the British officers. areas were under indirect British control as The different sections of society expressed the rulers of these areas acknowledged British their anger through protests and revolts. supremacy. The Mughal Empire existed only in Between 1757 and 1856, there were numerous nameeas the emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, had revolts in different parts of the country. These neither territory nor power. protests, however, were largely localized. You have read in Lesson 2 that the Battle Hence the British suppressed them easily. of Plassey was the first major British victory in India. After that, the British slowly conquered CAUSES OF THE UPRISING the whole of India and began to systematically The biggest exploit it. challenge to British authority came in 1857. In this year, the people of India Nearly 100years of British presence in India rose up had made all sections of Indian society very against them. The uprising was a culmination of the accumulated grievances of unhappy. The rulers resisted the annexation of the people against the their territories. The noblemen were tyrannical British rule. by the loss of their zamindaris. The angered peasants Economic causes hated the exploitative system of revenue The main collection. The tribal people feared a threat to British cause of popular discontent was the their livelihood. The craftsmen were against policy of economically exploiting India. the new economic policies which This affected all sections of society. 8 suddenly The peasant suffered due to high revenue  demands and the strict policy of its collection Awadh You have read in Dalhousie annexed Lesson that The British took away a large part of his Lord 2 produce. Most often, the peasant and his The Awadh in 1856. family starved. Even when crops failed, he the annexation was greatly resented since was forced to pay the land revenue) He often nawabs of Awadh had always been loyal to the borrowed money from the monelender to British. The payit. If he was unable to pay back the loan, annexation Was seen the moneylender took away his land. Once as an act of betrayal rendered landless, the peasant found it even and back-stabbing by more difficult to survive. the British. It deeply e Artisans and craftsmen were ruined by hurt the sentiments of unfair competition. In Britain, goods were the people, particularly manufactured on machines. Hence thev the sepoys, because were cheaper to produce. But the Indian most of them were Lord Dalhousie from Awadh. craftsmen made goods by hand. These ost more than machine-made goods) Thus Social causes machine-made goods from Britain were The imported into India without any duty being British passed laws banning 'sati' and levied on them. People preferred to buy legalising widow remarriage (see Women were encouraged to take upLesson 8),. these goods as they were much cheaper. So, education. Some western the traditional handicraft industry of sections India however, looked at these of Indian society, was ruined. measures with suspicion. They "The old ruling classes were displaced by of interference ininterpreted them as examples the country'ssocial customs. the British. Due to the withdrawal of royal The social discrimination faced by the people patronage, people who earned a living by due to the British attitude of racial following religious and cultural professions, also led to much superiority like priests, poets and musicians, lost their Indians were not resentment.) For example, allowed to travel in first class source of livelihood.) compartments in trains (the railways had been introduced in India in 1853). Educated Indiáns Political causes were denied promotions and the opportunity The British policy of annexing territories led to be appointed to high posts. When the time to the displacement of the ruling classes. The came, the educated Indians turned against the dynasty of the Mughals was all but gone. British. The rulers who accepted the terms of the Subsidiary Alliance (refer to Lesson 2) lost their Religious caUses Independence. Their armies were disbanded A major cause of the uprising was the fear ana they became dependent on the Company among the people that the Company wanted tor all their needs. The strict enforcement of to convert all Indians to Christianity. The the policy of Doctrine of Lapse (again, refer to Christian missionaries were very active at Lesson 2) turned Rani Lakshmi Bai against the this time. As many natives converted to British. She led the revolt in Jhansi. ) Christianity, these conversions were taken as A1:Who devised the policies of Subsidiary proof of this fear. Further, a law passed in 1850 Alliance and Doctrine of Lapse? allowed aChristian convert to inherit ancestral 39  unfairly by their British officers. A Britisher wrote"The sepoy is [regarded as] an inferior creature. He is sworn at. He is treated roughly. He is spoken of as nigger. He is addressed as suar or pig. The younger men seem to regard it as an excellent joke, as an evidence of spirit and a praiseworthy sense of superiority over the sepoy to treat him as an inferior animal. " Alhigh posts in the army were reserved for The sepoys the British. Hence, the scope of promotion tor asepoy was very limited. No Indian propertv. This lent further support to this mass could rise higher than a subedar. fear. The belief that their religion was under The sepoys were not allowed to wear caste threat united all sections of society against and religious marks. the British. " An act was passed that required the new recruits to travel overseas, if needed. The Military causes Hindu sepoys resented this as according to Indian soldiers or 'sepoys' formed the bulk of a popular belief, travel across the sea led to the Company's army in India. As they were loss of caste. a part of society, they too suffered the " The foreign service allowance or bhatta', consequences of oppressive British rule. The which the sepoys got when they were annexation of Awadh angered them greatly. sent to fight outside the country, was They were also influenced by the fear that their discontinued. religion was under threat. Besides, they had other grievances. Immediate cause The sepoys were paid much less than the There was widespread discontentment against British soldiers. They were also treated the British rule. By 1857, the stage was set for a massive outbreak. Only a spark was needed to set the country ablaze. A rifle cartridge "We make a grand mistake in supposing that provided that spark. because we dress, arm and drill Hindustani soldiers as Europeans, they become one bit European in their feelings and ideas. Isee Greased cartridges incident A new rifle them on parade for two hours daily, but what had been introduced in the army at this time. do Iknow of them for the other 22? What do It was called the Enfield rifle or the Enfield they talk about in their lines, what do they Pritchett rifle, as Enfield (which is in England) plot?... at the present moment an unusual was the place where it was manufactured and agitation is pervading the ranks of the entire Pritchett was the person who had designed native army, but what it will exactly result in, Iam afraid to say. Ican detect the near its bullet. The cartridges of this rifle were approach of the storm... but Ican't say how, covered with a greased paper wrapper. The when or where it will break forth' sepoy had to bite off the greased wrapper -A British officer, April 1857 before loading the cartridge (which consisted 40 of gunpowder and an iron ball) into the rifle. News spread that the grease was made from The rebels were emboldened by a the fat of cows and pigs. Hindus consider the prophecy circulating in North India cow sacred. They neither kill it nor do they that the British rule would end at the centenary of thecome to an eat beef. Muslims consider the pig dirty Battle of and do not eat pork. Hence, sepoys of both Plassey. Asepoy, Sitaram Pande, wrote communities were enraged at such disrespect 'Our learned men... told us that the shown for their religious sentiments. They felt Company's rule would come to an end in 1857, since this was one hundred years that it was an attempt to make them outcastes. after the Company's first great battle! BEGINNING OF THE UPRISING Cavalry, stationed at Meerut, refused to use The first soldier to protest against the new the cartridges. On 9 May, they cartridges was Mangal Pandey. He was a humiliated, dismissed from were publicly Senoy in the 5th service and jailed. Company the 34th Native This sparked off a mutiny among the of Infantry Regiment, stationed at Barrackpore. at Meerut-On 10 May, these Sepoys On 29 March 1857, he fired at his British the banner of revolt. Theysoldiers raised commander and asked the other sepoys to join officers, released the killed the British / him to end the rule of the Company. He was, seized arms and imprisoned sepoys, however,soon arrested and hanged on 8 April. British properties.ammunition, and set fire to jThis was the beginning Recall Some vears ago, a movie was made of the biggest arned resistance since the on the life of Mangal Pandey. Who played the character of Mangal Pandey? establishment of Company Raj. The sepoys then set off The hanging of Mangal Pandey caused travelling all night, they for Delhi. After great unrest in army camps across India. On next reached Delhi the 24 April, 85 sepoys of the 3rd Bengal Light the morning. Here the sepoys belonging to regiments stationed at Delhi joined them. Main centres of the Revolt of 1857 Present International Boundary indus