greased cartridges revolt of 1857greased cartridges revolt of 1857

The traditional story of the Sepoy Mutiny is that the introduction of a new cartridge for the Enfield rifle provoked much of the trouble. Mangal Pandey, (born July 19, 1827, Akbarpur, Indiadied April 8, 1857, Barrackpore), Indian soldier whose attack on British officers on March 29, 1857, was the first major incident of what came to be known as the Indian, or Sepoy, Mutiny (in India the uprising is often called the First War of Independence or other similar names). What are the major holidays and festivals of India? McNamara, Robert. Map: Wikicommons. This is what led to the revolt of 1857 in many localized areas. The new Enfield rifles, which were now being issued, had grooved or rifled barrels. The revolt of 1857 was one of the greatest & most significant developments in the history of the 19th century. @kindle.com emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply. Some Indians were upset with the draconian rule of the Company who had embarked on a project of territorial expansion and westernization that was imposed without any regard for historical subtleties in Indian society. The dramatic capture of Delhi turned mutiny into full-scale revolt. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857-58 against the rule of the British East India Company, . Many Indians felt that the company was asking for heavy tax from the locals. However, in those two years, they were not ordered to use them. The signal spread in all directions with wonderful celerity. 1857 revolt started firstly on 29th March 1857 from Bairakpur (West Bengal) by Mangal Pandey. In some cases, they used an execution method of lashing a mutineer to the mouth of a cannon, and then firing the cannon and literally blasting the man to pieces. Seven Years' War: Major General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, Biography of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, 20 Facts About the Life of Mahatma Gandhi, independence movement against British rule. India at the time of the 1857 rebellion. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. Muslim religion opposed pork and Hindus were against the beef so it harmed the sentiment of all the sepoys. Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion. Measures of prevention of future crises naturally began with the army, which was completely reorganized. The sepoys' British officers dismissed these claims as rumors and suggested that the sepoys make a batch of fresh cartridges, using a religiously acceptable greasing agent such as ghee or vegetable oil. Several events happened that led to the Sepoys revolting and was called the Indian Revolt of 1857. 24 October 2009. Though paid marginally less than the Bombay and Madras Presidency troops, there was a tradition of trust between the soldiery and the establishment the soldiers felt needed and that the company would care for their welfare. It was no secret that the Companys armies had been making preparations for the introduction of a new sort of ammunition for a new model of Enfield rifle. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion [13] In 1851-2 sepoys who were required to serve in the Second Anglo-Burmese War also refused to embark, but were merely sent to serve elsewhere. } Find out more about saving content to Dropbox. By the time of the chupatty movement, no more than a handful of aged India hands could remember such long-ago events as the Vellore Mutiny. That rate was particularly disconcerting because it was vastly swifter than the fastest British mails, and urgent inquiries were made as to the source and meaning of the movement. They yielded the information that the breads were being distributed far more widely than anyone in Agra had yet realized, and that the Indians who received them generally took them as some sort of a sign. In contrast to their Indian predecessors, the British considered such refusals at times to be outright "mutinies" and therefore to be suppressed brutally. Ferocity led to grave excesses on both sides, distinguishing this war in horror from other wars of the 19th century. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. There is no question that atrocities were committed by both sides, and stories of events of 185758 lived on in both Britain and India. Under a British policy called the "doctrine of lapse," the East India Company would take control of Indian states in which a local ruler had died without an heir. Leader of the British Conservative Party and future prime minister Benjamin Disraeli argued these objects were signs to rebel and evidence of a conspiracy, and the press echoed this belief. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 291-292 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Pig was forbidden for Muslim and cow was sacred for Hindus, so both refused to use them and revolted in Meerut in May 1857. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994);Mark Thornhill. Mason, Philip (1974), page 190 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. Order was restored by the firmness of Charles John Canning (later Earl Canning), first viceroy of India (governed 185862), whose title of Clemency was given in derision by angry British merchants in Calcutta, and of Sir John Lawrence in the Punjab. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. Down-country operations centred on the relief of Lucknow. Thornhill came into his office one morning to find four dirty little cakes of the coarsest flour, about the size and thickness of a biscuit lying on his desk. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. There is no doubt that conflict over the new rifle cartridges sparked the uprising in 1857, but the reality is that social, political, and even technological reforms had set the stage for what happened. [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. Privacy Statement 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. the Sepoy Mutiny (by British Historians) The treatment of the aged Bahdur Shah, who was sent into exile, was a disgrace to a civilized country; also, the whole population of Delhi was driven out into the open, and thousands were killed after perfunctory trials or no trials at all. What was the issue of cartridges? The revolt of 1857, which the British call the Indian Mutiny but many Indians prefer to think of as the First War of Independence, was the defining event in British imperial history. But the only evidence for either of these was the circulation from village to village of chapatis, or cakes of unleavened bread, a practice that, though it also occurred on other occasions, was known to have taken place at any time of unrest. Before the rebellion, there were reports that "holy men" were mysteriously circulating chapatis and lotus flowers among the sepoys. each other as brothers.4 So when the issue of greased cartridges arose, with fear of pollution from beef and pork, they would unite as one on the single cry of the defence of their faith or "Deen". It was initiated by sepoys in the Bengal Presidency against the British officers. 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. "[26] Their rule in India had begun with the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Beyond that, however, opinions remained divided. Match the Country with Its Hemisphere Quiz, Baron Strathnairn of Strathnairn and Jhansi. But the spark was interestingly not so much of religious clashes, but the grease used in the new Enfield rifle. Match the following: Answer: of your Kindle email address below. : WH Allen, 1864);Tapti Roy. British and Indian military drills of the time required soldiers to bite off the end of the Beeswax paper cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, stuff the remaining paper cartridge into the barrel, ram the paper cartridge (which included the ball wrapped and tied in place) down the barrel, remove the ram-rod, return the ram-rod, bring the rifle to the ready, set the sights, add a percussion cap, present the rifle, and fire. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. The Revolt of 1857 started as a Mutiny of the sepoys. A New Type of Rifle Cartridge Caused Problems, The Indian Revolt of 1857 Brought the End of the East India Company. All in all, the British were extremely spooked by the spread of the chapatis. The resumption of tax-free land and confiscation of jagirs (the grant or right to locally control land revenue) caused discontent among the jagirdars and zamindars. He was informed that they had been brought in by one of his Indian police officers, who had received them from a puzzled village chowkidar (watchman). Following the disarming and disbandment of an additional seventeen Bengal Native Infantry regiments, which were suspected of planning mutiny, only twelve survived to serve in the new post-mutiny army. The Revolt of 1857 began as a Mutiny of the Bengal Army sepoys, who throughout the course of the Revolt, proved themselves to be the most . In an elaborate ceremony, Lord Lytton, the serving viceroy of India, honored a number of Indian princes. To load the rifle, the end of the cartridge containing the powder had to be bitten off so that the charge would ignite. The army became an efficient professional body, drawn largely from the northwest and aloof from the national life. Terms of Use No, it is not by any means a custom; I am 50 years old, and never heard of such a thing before. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles . Any British plans to reform Indian society, which had been one of the underlying causes of the revolt, were essentially set aside, and religious conversion of the Indian population was no longer viewed as a practical goal. This allowed different meanings an interpretations to be attributed to them, and the chapattis became an index of peoples thoughts and worries. . Western inventions such as the telegraph and railways aroused the prejudice of a conservative society (though Indians crowded the trains when they had them). A popular American illustrated magazine, "Ballou's Pictorial", published afull-page woodcutillustration showing the preparations for such an execution in its issue of October 3, 1857. [12], There had been earlier indications that all was not well in the armies of the East India Company. They shot the British officers and made for Delhi, 40 miles (65 km) distant, where there were no British troops. Lands were confiscated from the landlords and auctioned. 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. Richard Barter. Kanpur Find out more about saving content to Google Drive. His name has become synonymous with the revolt of 1857. Fighting in some places continued well into 1858, but the British were ultimately able to establish control. They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith? The British, who had nothing to do with the mysterious transmission, guessed the breads were a piece of mischief-making on the part of the Indians, though opinion was divided as to whether the breads came from the east, near Calcutta (Kolkata), from the north, in the province of Oude (Avadh) or from Indore, in the center of the country. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U.K., was made of beef and pork fat. They bore no message, and were identical to the breads cooked in every home in India, a staple part (even today) of the locals diet. Is the sending of such articles about the country a custom among the Hindoos or Mussulmans; and would the meaning be at once understood without any accompanying explanation? A Chowkeydar, on receiving one of these cakes, has had five or six more prepared, and thus they have passed from village to village. An idea has been industriously circulated that the Government has given the order. [20], In 1857, the Bengal Army contained 10 regular regiments of Indian cavalry and 74 of infantry. 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. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. Thus, long after the chapattis reached their northern-most point of Meerut, there was another northwards distribution from Cawnpore to Fattehgarh, which was widely reported in the newspapers The circulation took place along well-established routes of transmission, which followed the main trade and pilgrimage routes between the bigger cities. With this information, the sepoys believed that the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridges for defiling their religions. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. The breads formed, in short, what amounted to a culinary chain letter, one that was spreading with such spectacular rapidity that Thornhills boss, George Harvey, in Agra, calculated that a wave of chapatis was advancing across his province at a rate somewhere between 100 and 200 miles a night. [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. And when the Indian independence movement gained momentum in the 20th century, events of the Revolt of 1857 were viewed as having been an early battle for independence, while individuals such as Mangal Pandey were hailed as early national heroes. The Revolt of 1857 in India eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. At some point the chapattis passed beyond the limits of their meaningful transmission and simply continued through the country as a blank message. The rani found a soldiers death, and Tantia Topi became a fugitive. Economically and socially, there had been much dislocation in the landholding class all over northern and western India as a result of British land-revenue settlements, setting group against group. Total loading time: 0 And, historically, much the same thing had happened before in times of trouble. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Mason, Philip (1974), page 264 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Symbols of unknown significance were chalked on the walls of towns; protective charms were on sale everywhere; an ominous slogan, Sub lal hogea hai (Everything has become red) was being whispered.. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. Or it might have been an aristocratic plot, set off too soon by the Meerut outbreak. The Revolt of 1857, also known as the First War of Indian Independence, was a significant uprising against British colonial rule in India. The immediate cause of the Revolt was the issue of the greased cartridges. Large numbers of native soldiers, known as sepoys, were employed by the company to maintain order and defend trading centers. rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat. Post this, India was directly ruled by the British government through representatives known as Governor-General. As time passed, the powers of the commanding officers reduced and the government became more unfeeling or distant from the concerns of the sepoys. The Indian Mutiny of 1857-59 was a widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against the rule of British East India Company in India which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British crown. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. In the Punjab were some 10,000 British troops, which made it possible to disarm the Indian regiments; and the recently defeated Sikhs were so hostile to the Muslims that they supported the British against the Mughal restoration in Delhi. A man had come out of the jungle with them, and given them to the watchman with instructions to make four like them and to take these to the watchman in the next village, who was to be told to do the same.. There was also a general feeling that English officers were losing touch with the Indian troops under them. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Rumors spread with great rapidity before and during the mutinynot least because of the large number of British women and children at the mercy of the rebels in towns such as Delhi and Kanpur. E. Jaiwant Paul is a man of varied interests, having authored eight other books, including Rani of Jhansi, The Story of Tea, Baji Rao, The Unforgettable Maharajas, Har Dayal: The Great Revolutionary (co-author Mrs Shubh Paul), Arms and Armour: Traditional Weapons of India, and Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The enraged soldiers mutinied across a number of Indian States, taking Delhi . This movement became much more than a military mutiny. The mutineers, on the other hand, lacked good leadership until nearly the end, and they had no confidence in themselves and suffered the guilt feelings of rebels without a cause, making them frantic and fearful by turns. [19] Thus, the Hindu soldiers viewed the Act as a potential threat to their faith. @free.kindle.com emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. Was also a general feeling that English officers were losing touch with the Revolt! Immediate cause of the East India Company, pork and Hindus were the! Emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected wi-fi... Contained 10 regular greased cartridges revolt of 1857 of Indian princes, but note that service fees.. India in 1857 ( Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994 ) ; Mark Thornhill the as. Opposed pork and Hindus were against the beef so it harmed the sentiment of all the sepoys rule of East... 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