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The Revolt of 1857
By the first half of the 19th century, the East
India Company had brought major portions of
India under its control.
One hundred years after the Battle of Plassey,
anger against the unjust and oppressive British
Government took the form of a revolt that shook
the very foundations of British rule in India.
While British historians called it the Sepoy
Mutiny, Indian historians named it the Revolt of
1857 or the First War of Indian Independence.
The Revolt of 1857 had been preceded by a
series of disturbances in different parts of the
country from the late eighteenth century
onwards.
HOW THE REVOLTS ORIGINATE?
It is also interesting to note that, in 1857, the
British had completed their centenary (100
years) of colonial rule. The Brahmins had proph-
esied that the Company would meet its doom for
having destroyed caste and religion of both
Hindu and Muslims. There were other types of
rumors as well, like the distribution of chapattis
from village to village, which would be collected
at night. These chapattis were distributed for
rejoicing that an upheaval would soon take place
to see the end of the British rule. The rumors and
events played a crucial role in the subsequent
events that took place.
REBELLION IN THE ARMY
The rebellion originally started on March 29,
1857. A sepoy named Mangal Pandey, stationed
at Barrackpore near Calcutta, refused to use the
newly introduced Enfield cartridges. He and his
Social Science-8
fellow sepoys had the
grouse that these car-
tridges
dges were greased with
fats of cows and pigs.
These substances were
offensive to the religious
sentiments of the Hindus
and Muslims. Two British
officers who tried to
grapple with Mangal Mangal Pandey
Pandey over the issue
were shot dead by him. Mangal Pandey was
finally hanged on April 8, 1857.
The rumors and general discontent resulted in an
uprising at Meerut on 10th of May, 1857. In the
uprising, 87 Indian soldiers, were convicted and
dismissed from service. The soldiers organised
themselves in a group, killed the British officers
of their regiment and started for Delhi the very
next day. They were joined by local people and
many more soldiers. The rebels proclaimed
Bahadur Shah Zafar as the emperor of India.
They told the ageing emperor about the rumors
and prophesied that the British rule would soon
come to an end on the occasion of the centenary
celebration by the British on 23rd June, 1857.
This gave the rise to unorganised rebellion.
CAUSES OF 1857 REVOLT
The issue of greased cartridges and military
grievances has been over-emphasized, as the
factor for the Revolt of 1857. However, the
recent research has proved that the cartridge was
neither the only cause nor even the most impor-
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