In spite of their apparently desperate situation, the British possessed long-term advantages: they could and did receive reinforcements from Britain; they had, thanks to the resolution of Sir John Lawrence, a firm base in the Punjab, and they had another base in Bengal, where the people were quiet; they had virtually no anxiety in the south and only a little in the west; and they had an immense belief in themselves and their civilization, which gave resolution to their initial desperation. Vital though their Indian empire was to them, they controlled the subcontinent with a comparative handful of menabout 100,000 in all, less than half of whom were soldiers, ruling over a population of 250 millionand they were all too aware of just how inadequate these numbers would be in the event of any serious rebellion. Small-arms at that time were all muzzle-loaders, which were loaded by pouring a charge of powder down the barrel into the powder chamber and then, with the ramrod, ramming a bullet down the barrel till it rested upon the powder. Another important source of discontent among the Indian rulers was that the British policies of conquest had created significant unrest. 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. In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames of rebellion. It consisted of the distribution of many thousands of chapatisunleavened Indian breadsthat were passed from hand to hand and from village to village throughout the mofussil (interior) of the subcontinent. A New Type of Rifle Cartridge Caused Problems, The Indian Revolt of 1857 Brought the End of the East India Company. [21], The Bengal Army also administered, sometimes loosely, 29 regiments of irregular horses and 42 of irregular infantry. 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. Rumors began to spread that the grease used to make the cartridges was derived from pigs and cows, which would be highly offensive to Muslims and Hindus. 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. By the time the British came to examine the causes of the rebellion, therefore, the chupatty movement had assumed a fresh significance. 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. Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion. He survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. 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. 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 soldiers performed well on the field of battle in exchange for which they were rewarded with symbolic heraldic rewards such as battle honors in addition to the extra pay or "batta" (foreign pay) routinely disbursed for operations committed beyond the established borders of Company rule. Its cartridges consisted of a .577 inch ball projectile and a charge of gun powder propellant wrapped in waterproofed cartridge paper. By a campaign in Avadh and Rohilkhand, Campbell cleared the countryside. Such measures were considered a valid negotiating tactic by the sepoys, likely to be repeated every time such issues arose. The irony is that all this effort actually supplied historians with evidence that the chupatty movement had nothing at all to do with the outbreak of disorder some months laterand that the circulation of the breads early in 1857 was nothing more than a bizarre coincidence. I had no conversation with the King on the subject; but others talked in his presence about it, wondering what could be the object. In a few hours the whole country was in a stir, from Chowkeydars flying around with these cakes. A cartridge of this kind, containing powder and nothing more, is often specified as an unballed cartridge. His name has become synonymous with the revolt of 1857. A small British army was improvised, which held the ridge before Delhi against greatly superior forces until Sir John Lawrence was able to send a siege train under John Nicholson. Before the rebellion, there were reports that "holy men" were mysteriously circulating chapatis and lotus flowers among the sepoys. There is no question that atrocities were committed by both sides, and stories of events of 185758 lived on in both Britain and India. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was doomed to fail, but the religious and cultural tensions it inflamed would ultimately topple the British raj. "[26] Their rule in India had begun with the Battle of Plassey in 1757. On the fourth side of the . Measures of prevention of future crises naturally began with the army, which was completely reorganized. The mutiny and great revolt of 1857-59. Map: Wikicommons. Match the Country with Its Hemisphere Quiz, Baron Strathnairn of Strathnairn and Jhansi. Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs. In some districts like Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur, Bose and Jalal argue that "the revolt took on a distinctly millenarian flavor. Privacy Statement Prior to the period of British rule, any refusal to proceed on service until pay issues were resolved was considered a legitimate form of displaying grievance by Indian troops serving under Indian rulers. 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. Furthermore, the superstitious impulse that still encourages the transmission of chain letters clearly applied in 1857: Although the original specific meaning of the chapattis had been lost early in the distribution, the dire consequences of breaking the chain of transmission remained, and thus ensured their successful circulation over an immense area. That, combined with a declining number of British officers who understood India, spoke Indian languages fluently or had any real sympathy for the people whom they ruled, meant that the colonial hierarchy remained perpetually jittery. The cartridge of the Enfield rifle was heavily greased - with animal fat, to facilitate an easier load into the muzzle. This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion The enraged soldiers mutinied across a number of Indian States, taking Delhi . The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. [12], There had been earlier indications that all was not well in the armies of the East India Company. Mason, Philip (1974), page 226 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. @free.kindle.com emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. They shot the British officers and made for Delhi, 40 miles (65 km) distant, where there were no British troops. Politically, many princes of India had retired into seclusion after their final defeat in 1818. The surrender of Kanpur, after a relatively brief siege, was followed by a massacre of virtually all British citizens and loyal Indian soldiers at Kanpur. This war of Independence marked the end of rule by the British East India company. The rapid spread of disorder in 1857when regiment after regiment had mutinied, and revolts against British rule had sprung up throughout most of northern and central Indiamade it almost impossible to believe that the rebellion could have been spontaneous (as most modern historians concede it was), and considerable effort was made to chronicle the movement and trace the spread of the anomalous chapatis. The East India Company had been active in India for nearly 250 years, but the violence of the 1857 uprising led to the British government dissolving the company and taking direct control of India. 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. However, nearly every sepoy was either Muslima religion that forbids eating the fat or any other part of a pig, or Hinduwhere the same rule applies to cows. The movement that Hadow was describing was a remarkable example of rumor gone wild. Wild stories circulated freely in the panic-stricken atmosphere of 1857, and there were enough real massacres and murders to make almost anything seem possible. Prior to the outbreak of the Revolt, Bahadur Shah Zafar lived in Delhi as a Pensioner of the British. What are the oldest known civilizations of India? What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? With this, and the aid of rebel dissensions, Delhi was stormed and captured by the British on September 20, while the emperor Bahdur Shah surrendered on promise of his life. 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. "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." Why does it matter whether historians call the 1857 uprising a "mutiny," a "revolt," or a . 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. Host of Midian: the chapati circulation and the Indian Revolt of 1857-58. Studies in History 16 (2000);Christopher Hibbert. To save content items to your account, Some time in February 1857, a curious occurrence took place. It is not surprising that one of the many subsidiary rumors that accompanied the chupatty movement was that the breads were being carried and distributed, the eventual trial of the King of Delhi noted, by the hands of the very lowest caste men that can be found; and the natives say that it is intended by Government to force or bribe the headmen to eat the bread, and thus loose their caste. Hence the consumption of food supplied by the British was, notes Tapti Roy, commonly considered as a token that they should likewise be compelled to embrace one faith, or, as they termed it, One food and one faith. . Scottish Highlanders charge during the suppression of the rebellion of 1857. The first sepoy who rebelled by aiming his loaded weapon at a British officer was Mangal Pandey who was later executed.[25]. The Revolt of 1857 in India eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. The Siege of Delhi. The rifling inside the musket barrel ensured accuracy at much greater distances than was possible with old muskets. 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. This took the form of Muslim millenarianism, with preachers in Lucknow foretelling the end of the raj. Certain actions of the government, such as increased recruitment of Sikhs and Gurkhas, peoples considered by the Bengal sepoys to be inferior in caste to them, increased the distrust of the sepoys who thought that this was a sign of their services not being needed any more. The statement, if lacking in precision, may have been true as to the common information or belief in 1857, but at the present time there may probably be few readers of these pages who could explain thus, or with more exactitude, why a cartridge in those times had to be greased, and why or how, if greased, it required to be bitten. No one seems to know the meaning of it. It is not known where it originated, by whom or for what purpose, whether it is supposed to be connected to any religious ceremony or whether it has to do with some secret society. One popular story, widely believed, suggested that the British were attempting the mass conversion of their subjects to Christianity by adulterating their flour with bone meal from cows and pigs, which was forbidden to Hindus and Moslems, respectively. The greased cartridges had to be opened by biting off the top with your teeth. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine [1] As early as the Charter Act of 1813 Christian missionaries were encouraged to come to Bombay and Calcutta under EEIC control. This included an increase in the taxation on land. Stbere im grten eBookstore der Welt und lies noch heute im Web, auf deinem Tablet, Telefon oder E-Reader. In India, it has been viewed quite differently. Finally, there was the activity of Christian missionaries, by that time widespread. 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