TREK TO PAKISTAN

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (1857)

War or Rebellion
 The events of 1857 were not confined to soldiers
 Soldiers had previously revolted on numerous occasions
o In 1806, soldiers in Madras rebelled against the ban on using the Tilak
o In 1842, four regiments of Bengal refused to go to Sindh
 The events of 1857 were a general uprising by the locals against the immoral and unjust
British occupation of India
 Lord Salisbury stated in the House of Commons that it was impossible to believe that
such a widespread and massive movement was triggered only by the cartridges
 Benjamin Disraeli stated he had no hesitation in saying that the revolt in India was not
merely the outcome of the sufferings of the soldiers
 Justice Carthey: “the truth is that the peoples in most parts of Northern and North-
Western India, had risen in revolt against the English domination. The cartridge affair
was only a spark which found its way into this ammunition depot and ignited it. It was
indeed a religious and national war.”
 Sir Sayyid Ahmad: in his treatise on the causes, Sir Sayyid wrote that a single event can
never become the cause of a general uprising. The same was the case with the uprising of
1857

Causes of the War

1. Military
 In 1806, Sir George Barlow banned both Tilak and Safa in military parades.
 Indian soldiers were discriminated against.
o Indian soldiers accounted for approximately 85% of the total soldiers but were
only allocated approximately 40% of the total military budget.
o High posts were exclusively reserved for English soldiers. The gallantry and
loyalty of Indian soldiers was awarded by a mere premature retirement.
 Christian officials enraged the religious sentiments of the Indian soldiers
o Barracks were considered an ideal place to preach Christianity
o Lt. Col. Wheeler in Barrackpur was one such example because he openly
distributed Christian tracts among Indian sepoys in order to proselytize them to
Christianity

2. Religious
The East Indian Company had always regarded the propagation of Christianity as its first and
foremost duty.
 Mangles, former chairman of EIC, stated: “providence has bestowed upon us the Empire
of India so that the banner of Christ should wave triumphant from end of India to the
other.”
  In 1854, Dr. Pfander enraged Muslims with his polemic on the Islamic faith titled
Mizan-ul-Haq.
 Priest E. Edmond declared that since India had come under one government, it should
also have one religion – the religion of Christianity.
 Company officials invited their Indian subordinates to their homes and compelled them to
listen to Christian sermons
 Most notably, Christian priests targeted and indoctrinated helpless orphans. E.g., the
youth in the orphanages of Sikandra during the famine of 1857.
 In 1850, the Company passed a law stating that the change of religion would have no
impact on inheritance in order to promote conversion to Christianity.
 Sir Sayyid Ahmad believed that English involvement into local religious affairs was the
primary cause of the 1857 uprising.

3. Political
The English colonial rulers started a campaign in order to malign the history, culture, and
religion of the Muslims in order to remove any vestiges of the old order and firmly entrench their
rule.
 History books were rewritten to portray former Muslim rulers as barbaric, brutal, wild,
uncultured, and uncivilized.
 Lord Hastings forced the ruler of Avadh to abdicate his title of Nawab and confined him
to the city of Delhi.
 In 1827, Lord Amherst gave up the old style of writing letters to the Mughal Emperor.
Under the new strategy, the emperor’s superiority was recognized but all references to
either his suzerainty or the EIC’s allegiance to the Mughal Emperor were excluded.
 In 1843, Lord Ellenborough stopped sending gifts to the Emperor on behalf of the
Company on Eid, Norooz, and other occasions.
 Lord Dalhousie decreed that after the death of Bahadur Shah Zafar, his heirs would have
to vacate the Red Fort and would not be allowed to use the title of Emperor themselves.

4. Accession of States
Lord Dalhousie annexed the following eight states: Satara, Jhansi, Sambalpur, Jaitpur, Tanjore,
Carnatic, and Avadh.
 Annexation led to dire economic conditions
o Nawab of Avadh was compelled to pay 16 lac annually for military upkeep as
part of the notorious subsidiary system. His fertile lands were gradually seized
including the territories of Rohailkhand and Doaba.
o Sir Henry Lawrence stated; “Avadh is a shameful and ignominious episode in
our history of India.”
o Colonel Henry Sleeman was charged with the annexation of Avadh. He refused
and warned Lord Dalhousie that annexation of the state could lead to a mutiny in
the Bengal army.

5. Injustice with Nana Sahib

 Doctrine of Lapse: prohibited a Hindu ruler without a natural heir from adopting a
successor.
 o Nana Sahib, the adopted son of last Peshwa, was deprived of any inheritance after
the death of his adoptive father, and Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmi Bai whose adopted
son was deprived of the right to succeed to the throne, took a leading part in the
rebellion.

6. Economic exploitation
 As with military, all important and well-paying government posts were exclusively
reserved for the Englishmen. Even worse, the Englishmen would transfer all assets from
India to UK post retirement.
 The English destroyed local industry through poor policies and sheer greed. E.g., Indian
Silk at one point was considered a better alternative to Italian and French Silk due to its
price and quality. However, it was so heavily taxed that by 1849, its export had decreased
90% to roughly 36,000 pounds from the roughly 360,000 pounds in 1793.

7. Immediate Causes
 The Cartridge affair
o Enfield rifle was introduced in India in 1857
o Its cartridges were greased in cow and pork fat
o In 1857, some soldiers in Meerut cantonment refused to use these cartridges due
to religious concerns

CAUSES OF FAILURE
1. Changes in the Plan
 The revolutionaries had planned to start the War of Independence on May 31, 1857.
 However, the war started earlier due to the cartridge incident, and the proposed plan to
start an uprising everywhere at once could not materialize.
 British experts like Malleson and Wilson acknowledged that had the uprisings started as
scheduled, the Company would likely have failed to suppress them.

2. The Treachery of the Sikhs

 The Sikh states of Hind and Patiala in the Punjab gave generous financial and military
assistance to the English.
 John Lawrence noted that had the Sikhs and Gorkhas not helped them, the English
likely would not have been able to recapture India.

3. Absence of an Active and Efficient Leader

 The freedom fighters were not fighting under a single commander.
 Many pledged loyalty to Bahadur Shah Zafar, but he was in his eighties and could not
play the role of an energetic and experienced commander.

4. The Company’s Control Over the Means of Communication and Transport

 In contrast to the English, the freedom fighters did not have access to quick and reliable
means of communication or transportation to efficiently mobilize. Robert Montgomery
noted that India was saved by the electronic wire.
5. Economic Conditions
 The Company was in control of most of the prosperous regions in the country. The locals
did not have the economic means to sustain the war.