The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. [2][3], Religious disquiet as the cause of rebellion underlies the work of historian William Dalrymple who asserts that the rebels were motivated primarily by resistance to the actions of the English East India Company(also called British East India Company), especially under James Broun-Ramsay reign, which were perceived as attempts to impose Christianity and Christian laws in India. Mason, Philip (1974), page 236 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, and many were executed in dramatic fashion. Famous For: Revolt of 1857. (See Barrackpore Mutiny.). 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. "useRatesEcommerce": false A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles . Sympathetic rulers, such as Lord William Bentinck were replaced by arrogant aristocrats, such as Lord Dalhousie, who despised the troops and the populace. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. The next phase was the central Indian campaign of Sir Hugh Rose. 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. The signal spread in all directions with wonderful celerity. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 291-292 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. In some districts like Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur, Bose and Jalal argue that "the revolt took on a distinctly millenarian flavor. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British. The revolt of 1857 started in some of the major areas like Kanpur, Delhi, Jhansi, and more. Some of the more knowledgeable British officials linked the spread of the chapatis to an effort to prevent the outbreak of cholera in central India and added that, since incidence of the disease was associated with the movement of the Companys armies, there was a widespread belief that the British were in fact responsible for the disease. Another official suggested that the chupatty movement had been initiated somewhere in central India by dyers, anxious that their dyes were not clearing properly, or were the product of some spellwork aimed at protecting crops against hail. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. Once the first rebellions took place, it was clear to most British commanders that the grievances which led to them were felt throughout the Bengal army and no Indian unit could wholly be trusted, although many officers continued to vouch for their men's loyalty, even in the face of captured correspondence indicating their intention to rebel. McNamara, Robert. One thing did not change in this new weapon the loading process, which did not improve significantly until the introduction of breech loaders and metallic, one-piece cartridges a few decades later. The revolt failed in overthrowing British Rule. By the time the British came to examine the causes of the rebellion, therefore, the chupatty movement had assumed a fresh significance. He survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. I had no conversation with the King on the subject; but others talked in his presence about it, wondering what could be the object. The military cause was both particular and general. 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. There has been much controversy over its nature and causes. 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. "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." 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. Nationalist historians have seen in it the first Indian war of independence. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. And, historically, much the same thing had happened before in times of trouble. A Chowkeydar ran up to another village with two chupatties. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. The Company had upgraded to the new Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle, which used greased paper cartridges. 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". Or it might have been an aristocratic plot, set off too soon by the Meerut outbreak. In 1877, outside Delhi, essentially in the spot where bloody fighting had taken place 20 years earlier, an event called the Imperial Assemblage was held. India at the time of the 1857 rebellion. In the event, the chapattis were not harbingers of a coming storm. They were what people made them into, and the significance attributed to them was a symptom of the pervasive distrust and general consternation amongst the Indian population during the early months of 1857. @free.kindle.com emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. 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. 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. Mutiny Memoirs of an Old Officer (London: Folio Society, 1984);Troy Downs. This seems to have been a very important reason for the spread of the rebellion, keeping in view the speed at which they ignited in many villages in northern India where farmers rushed to get back their unfairly grabbed title deeds. 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. ThoughtCo. 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. Sepoy units in the south of India remained loyal, but in the north, many units of the Bengal Army turned on the British. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, sepoys tended to take great pride in their military prowess, and they exhibited enormous loyalty to their British officers. Centers and leaders of the revolt of 1857. Has data issue: true 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. 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. Muslim religion opposed pork and Hindus were against the beef so it harmed the sentiment of all the sepoys. But something important was required to provoke so many to seize the opportunity of a military uprising to stage a war of independence. 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. India from the Paleolithic Period to the decline of the Indus civilization, The earliest agriculturalists and pastoralists, Neolithic agriculture in the Indus valley and Baluchistan, Extent and chronology of Early Harappan culture, Language and scripts, weights and measures, The Post-Urban Period in northwestern India, The late 2nd millennium and the reemergence of urbanism, Peninsular India in the aftermath of the Indus civilization (c. 20001000, The development of Indian civilization from c. 1500, Traditional approaches to Indian historiography, The beginning of the historical period, c. 500150, North India under Muslim hegemony, c. 12001526, Taxation and distribution of revenue resources, The Muslim states of southern India, c. 13501680, Extension and consolidation of the empire, Central, provincial, and local government, Organization of the nobility and the army, The emperor, the nobility, and the provinces, The Afghan-Maratha struggle for northern India, Political and economic decentralization during the Mughal decline, The Afghan factor in northern India, 174772, Cultural aspects of the late precolonial order, India and European expansion, c. 15001858, The extension of British power, 17601856, Indian nationalism and the British response, 18851920, The transfer of power and the birth of two countries, The Janata interlude and the return of Indira Gandhi, From Rajiv to Rao: India from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, V.P. The mysterious appearance of chapatisloaves of an Indian unleavened breadspooked the British administrators of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857. Privacy Statement Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-7cttp The immediate cause of the Revolt was the issue of the greased cartridges. KoboE. The immediate cause of the Indian Revolt of 1857, or Sepoy Mutiny, was a seemingly minor change in the weapons used by the British East India Company's troops. 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." Stbere im grten eBookstore der Welt und lies noch heute im Web, auf deinem Tablet, Telefon oder E-Reader. Britain, of course, would rule India well into the 20th century. Though the revolt failed in its objective, even in failure it served a grand purpose. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. 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