[SIR UMAR KHAN DAWAR (0325-2512225)] 1

War of Independence

Causes
Political:
Ø Doctrine of Lapse: introduced by Lord Dalhousie in 1852. If ruler of a state dies without a natural male
successor, his state would be taken over by British, e.g. Jhansi & Nagpur. Indians were very angry for this
policy and thought of British as greedy land grabbers.
Ø Annexation Policy: in 1843 Sindh, and in 1849 Punjab and NWFP were annexed.
Ø Indians were not offered share in administration.
Ø Shifting of royal family from Red Fort to Qutb Sahib was taken as an insult by Indians loyal to Mughals.
Ø Some 20,000 landlords lost lands to British in Deccan only.
Ø The justice system was unfair to the Indians.

Economic:
Ø British would protect their goods.
Ø Loss of profit for Indians led to closure of local industries.
Ø It also resulted in unemployment.
Ø British ruthlessly exploited local resources.
Ø The British would force the locals to grow cash crop instead of staple crop. It would lead to frequent famines.
Ø Heavy taxation imposed by British on locals added to the bitterness.
Ø British would buy local raw material at cheaper rates.
Ø Personnel of disbanded militaries of states taken over by British also added to unemployment.

Military:
Ø Indian sepoys were lowly paid.
Ø Indians sepoys had no promotions and all higher posts were reserved for British.
Ø Hindu sepoys would hate being sent overseas for the fear of being out-caste/caste-less.
Ø Muslim sepoys would hate being made to fight against fellow Muslim countries.
Ø Greased cartridge incident:
• Enfield rifles introduced.
• Its cartridges were greased with cow or pig fat.
• Cartridges had to be chewed open, which Hindus
and Muslim sepoys refused to do, for religious
reasons.
• Both thought that it was against their respective
religion to do so.
• In May 1757 when a group of Sepoys refused
these Cartridges at Meerut they were imprisoned.
This sparked a revolt my other sepoys in Meerut
leading to the killing of British officers in the town.
• It happened to be the immediate reason of the war of Independence.
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Religious:
Ø Hindu sepoys would hate being sent overseas.
Ø Muslim sepoys would hate being made to fight fellow Muslims.
Ø Greased cartridge incident.
Ø Christian Missionaries activities. They were trying to convert Indians to Christianity. Indians feared that their
religions were in threat.
Ø There were also cases of forced conversions.
Ø British would ridicule local religions.

Social:
- Racial discrimination was believed to be a major reason for the revolt of 1857 where in Indians were exploited and were
kept away from mixing with Europeans.
- Banning of many local practices such as Suttee, Thugee, child marriages, was seen as interference by Indians in their
culture.
- British had sense of superiority and would look down upon Indians.
- The British were convinced that the western civilization was superior to the rest. Thus serious efforts were made to
impose western culture on India.

Educational:
- The British started interfering in local education system after 1830.
- The British policy was influenced by Thomas Babington Macaulay’s work ‘Minute on Indian Education' that sought to
establish the need to impart English education to Indian 'natives'.
- Macaulay had contempt for local education given in Persian and Sanskrit. He criticised Indian knowledge and languages
and thought them completely worthless.
- 1834 English replaced Persian as official language
- From 1835, English was to be taught in public schools.
- With the introduction of subjects like English literature and western political studies, Indians feared that the children
would move away from their culture.

Results of the Revolt:

Ø BEIC abolished in 1858, India brought under direct crown rule.
Ø Office of secretary of state was created to assist the viceroy of India.
Ø Indian army was reorganized (ratio of British soldiers increased).
Ø Policy of conquests and annexation of Indian states given up (Doctrine of Lapse).
Ø Policy of interference in local customs and religion ended.
Ø Indians were assured to be given high posts and share in administration.
Ø Political parties formation starts, and Indian struggle becomes constitutional.
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Reasons of the Failure of the War of

1857

Lack of Unity & Coordination:

Ø There was lack of unity among different groups of rebels, after having captured different areas.
Ø These rebel groups lacked general organization, and coordination among them was missing.
Ø There was lack of proper strategies, and whatever plans of attack they had were not properly implemented
due to disagreements.
Ø Delay in action, and failure to unify forces against British gave British an advantage to avoid superior numbers.

No Single Aim/Different Aims of Rebels:

Ø Rebels were united in the aim of overthrowing the British, but differed what to do after the British would be
expelled.
Ø There were different goals for what rebels were fighting, and there was no unity of purpose.
• Most of Muslim sepoys were fighting for Mughal rule.
• Nana Sahib and TatyaTopi wanted to establish Marathan power.
• Nana Shaib had joined the revolt as his pension had been stopped.
• Rani of Jhansi fought to regain her lost state.

Absence of Spirit of Nationalism:

Ø There was absence of spirit of nationalism and India was still not a nation.
Ø People in many areas did not join the revolt and were uninterested.
Ø Many local rulers and traders sided with the British (ruler of Kashmir sent a force of 2000 to help the British).
Ø Sikhs and Gurkhas were not loyal to the case of independence and fought for British.

Absence of Single/Capable Leadership:

Ø There was no single leadership. Rebels were loyal to local leaders than the symbolic head Bahadur Shah II.
Ø Bahadur Shah IIwas old and unwilling to become the leader of the revolt. He lacked enthusiasm to lead.
Ø Other rebel leaders were of no match to the British generals. Lakshmi Bai, Tatya Topi, AzeemUllah
were courageous, but were not good generals and leaders with foresight.

Strength of the British:

Ø British successfully restricted the revolt to Central India, thus preventing others from joining the revolt.
Ø British retained control over major part of the Sub-continent, using men and material from those areas.
Ø British mastery over seas enabled them to get timely help from England and other colonies.
Ø British were better organized and had superior leadership.
Ø British had modern weapons (greater quantity of weapons too).
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Nana Sahib Peshwa:

He was an Indian Peshwa of the Maratha empire.
He was an adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao.
The Company refused to continue the pension after his father's death.
Nana Sahib offended by both the termination of the pension and by the suspension of various titles of the Peshwa.
He later joined the rebellion and let the rebels in Kanpur during the Great Revolt of 1857.
He forced the British garrison in Kanpur to surrender. After the defeat of his forces by the British at the Battle of Kanpur
he disappeared.

Rani of Jhansi:
She was an Indian queen, the Maharani of the princely state of Jhansi.
She was the wife of Maharaja Gangadhar Rao.
Lakshmi Bai lost her state of Jhansi to the British under Doctrine of Lapse.
She joined the 1857 revolt against the British and became a symbol of resistance to the British Rule In India for Indian
nationalists.
She got killed while fighting the British, dressed as a man in Gwalior in June 1858.

*Details of the topics given in class lectures