The Revolt of

1857
HISTORY

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The Revolt of 1857

The cumulative effect of British expansionist policies, economic exploitation, and administrative
innovations over the years had adversely affected all the people of India. This simmering discontent burst
in the form of the violent revolt of 1857 which shook the British Empire. Let’s see the details of the Revolt of
1857:

The Revolt of 1857

 British political and economic policies in the 18th & 19th centuries antagonized the people of India.
Earlier small-scale revolts were emerging in the different parts of the regions of India.

 But, The 1857 revolt was the biggest and most impactful.

 However, the period between 1757 and 1857 was not all peaceful and trouble-free. It's a series of
sporadic popular outbursts in the form of religiopolitical violence, tribal movements, Peasant uprising,
Agrarian riots, and civil rebellions.

 The 1857 revolt was a culmination of all these revolts together.

Source: NCERT Book

Scene: 1857 Revolt

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Reasons
The causes of the 1857 revolt emerged from all the aspects like socio-cultural, economic, and political.

These aspects were triggered by the British policies that affected all sections of society.

Let’s understand the reasons:

Economic:

 The British policies led to the destruction of the traditional economic structure of India.

 Eg. Indian goods remained unattractive in the market because of heavy duties imposed by the
British.

 Revenue policies of the British were exploiting in nature.

 Eg. Peasants suffer severe poverty and a miserable lifestyle due to non-payment of debts.

 Villages lost self-sufficiency in food security.

 Eg. British policies led to the commercialization of agriculture which reduced the demand for
food crops. Sugarcane, cotton, Indigo, Tea, etc. replaced Wheat and rice.

 The misery of artisans and handicrafts.

 Eg. The annexation of the Indian states led to the patronage cut off of craft workers. The Indian
handicrafts became unaffordable and many artisans left their work and went to do agriculture in
their hometowns.

 The destruction of handicrafts was not accompanied by the development of modern industries.

 Deindustrialization:

 The Indian product exports in the European market were highly taxed.

 Eg. More than 80% of the tariff was imposed on textiles.

 British products got zero import duty.

 British imports got the advantage of the modernization of transport like Railways, ships, etc.

 This led to a reduction in Indian-owned manufacturing.

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Source: www.hindustantimes.com

Scene: Revenue collection by British

Administrative:
 Rampant corruption by police officers & the judiciary led to the loss of faith in the system.

 The expulsion of Indians from superior posts was a major discontent amongst the educated Indians.

 Artists, musicians, dancers lost the patronage of Indian rulers. Their life became miserable.

Socio-religious:
 High racial segregation was started. Eg. Indian soldiers, clerks were not treated respectfully.

 The British administration was arrogant towards Indians.

 The administration always looked towards Indians with contempt.

 The Religious Disability Act,1850 changed the earlier customary rule of inheriting the property. It made
possible the conversion to Christianity to be eligible to inherit the Hindu property. Before the Act, it was
not allowed to inherit Hindu property if converted to another religion. It hurt the religious sentiment of
the people.

 Abolition of sati Act,1829, Widow remarriage Act,1856, and Promotion of education among girls hurt
the sentiment of Indians as interference in their social customs.

Political:
 Political policies like Subsidiary alliance, Direct annexation, Doctrine of lapse, etc affected all the
sections of society especially the rulers.
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 It devalued the kings and kingdoms. It was felt that the respect of the king declined.

 It was taken as the destruction of their identities.

 There was a total loss of morality which was not at all accepted by the Kings.

Military:
 It made uniformity in the army. Higher varna class people were reluctant to work with lower-class
people in the same position.

 Military policies curtailed the initial privileges of caste, religion, symbols, practices, etc;

 General service establishment Act,1856 made it mandatory for sepoys to serve anywhere in the
country.

 It caused overall resentment towards the British administration.

Immediate:
 The conditions of service in the company's army and sentiments increasingly come into conflict with the
religious beliefs and produce his sepoys.

 The Indian sepoys were feeling subordinate to the European as they were not giving equal promotions
and allowances despite working hard.

 The spark grew when the British introduced Enfield Rifles.

 These Enfield rifles used the Brown Bess wrapped in paper. This paper had to be bitten off
before loading by mouth. It consisted of Pig fat and beef.

 The cow was sacred to Hindus and Pig was taboo to Muslims.

 The Indians felt that their religions were in danger which triggered the revolt by Mangal Pandey
at Meerut on 10th May 1857.

The Course of the War

Meerut at the start:

 The Revolt began at Meerut on 10th May 1857.

 It was a gathering of forces from Punjab in the north and the Narmada in the south to Bihar in the east
and Rajputana in the west.

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 Before this incident, Mangal Pandey shot the Sergeant Major of his unit at Barrackpore on 8 April 1857
against the use of these Enfield rifles.

 The explosion happened at Meerut where 90 men refused to accept the Enfield Rifles. They were sent
to imprisonment for 10 years.

 This was part of a general mutiny among the Indian soldiers stationed on 9th May.

 The next day, the Indian soldiers released their imprisoned Comrades, killed their officers, and set off for
Delhi after sunset.

Source:www.wikipedia.com

Mangal Pandey

Bahadur Shah as a symbol of unity:

 The Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah of Delhi was proclaimed as a Symbol of Unity.

 With this single act, the sepoys had transformed a mutiny of soldiers into a revolutionary war while
all Indian chiefs who took part in the revolt proclaimed their loyalty to the Mughal emperor.

 It also signifies that the rebels were politically motivated. Though religion was a factor, the broad
outlook of the rebels was not influenced by religious identity but by the perception of the British as a
common enemy.

 Bahadur Shah wrote letters to all the chiefs and rulers of India urging them to organize a
confederacy of Indian states to fight and replace the British regime.

 The Bengal Army soon rose in revolt which spread quickly.

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 Awadh, Rohilkhand, The Doab, Bundelkhand, Central India, large parts of Bihar, and East Punjab shook
off the British authority.

Joined by Civilians:
 The revolt of sepoys was accompanied by the civilians particularly in North-Western provinces and
Awadh.

 It was widespread participation in the revolt by peasants, shopkeepers, daily labourers, religious monks,
priests, and civil servants which gave it real strength as well as the character of a popular revolt.

 Civilians especially peasants and zamindars attacked money lenders and destroyed their account books
and death records.

 They also attacked the British law courts, revenue officers, revenue records, and police stations.

 A total of 1,50,000 soldiers died fighting the English and 1,00,000 civilians were killed.

 Within a month, the revolt spread across the different parts of India.

Centers of the Revolt:

Places of revolts Leaders

Delhi Bahadur Shah Zafar & General Bakht Khan.

Lucknow Begum Hazrat Mahal & Birjis Quadir

Kanpur Nana saheb & Tatiya Tope

Bareilly Khan Bahadur Khan

Faizabad Maulavi Ahamadulla

Jhansi Laxmi Bai

Arra Kunwar Singh

Baghpat Shah mahal

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Source: NCERT Book

Heroes of 1857 Revolt

Significance of the Revolt

 British captured Delhi on September 20, 1857, after prolonged and bitter fighting.

 Bahadur Shah was imprisoned and sent to Rangoon where he died in 1862.

 All his sons were captured and hanged at Delhi called Khooni Darwaza.

 Military operations were launched to recapture Kanpur and Lucknow.

 On December 6, 1857, Nana Sahib at Kanpur was defeated and escaped to Nepal in 1859.

 Tantiya Tope was deceived by his closest associate and killed in April 1859 in the jungles of Central
India.

 Rani Jhansi was killed by sir Hugh Rose on the battlefield in June 1858.

 By 1859, Kunwar Singh, Bhakt Khan, Khan Bahadur Khan of Bareilly, Rao Sahib, and Maulvi Ahmadullah
were all dead and Begum of Awadh was compelled to hide in Nepal.

 At Banaras, a rebellion had been organized which was brutally suppressed by Colonel Neill who put to
death all the suspected Rebels.

 By the end of 1859, the British Authority of India was fully reestablished.

 The British government had to pour intense supplies of man, money, and arms into the country.

 The Indians had to repay later the entire cost through their suppression.

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Point To Remember:

British Residents Personnel

Delhi Lt. Willoughby, John Nicholson, Lt. Hudson

Kanpur Sir Hugh Wheeler, Sir Colin Campbell

Lucknow Henry Lawrence, Brigadier Inglis, Henry Havelock, James

Jhansi Sir Hugh Rose

Banaras Colonel James Neill

Source: www.zigya.com

Important centers of 1857 revolt

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The Failure of the Revolt

Absence of All India Participation
 The limited territorial extent was one factor. It means the eastern, southern, and western parts of India
remained more or less unaffected.

 This became easy for the British to suppress the Rebels.

Classes absence
 Big zamindars acted as ‘Breakwaters to Storm’.
 Awadh taluqdars backed off one's Promises of land restitution.
 Moneylenders and merchants prefer to be under the protection of the British.
 Modern educated Indians looked at The Revolt as backward-looking, supporting feudal order, and as a
reaction of traditional conservative forces to modernity.
 Many rulers did not participate. Eg. Scindia of Gwalior, Holkar of Indore, rulers of Patiala, Sind, and
Sikhs.
 One estimate says that not more than one-fourth of the total area and not more than one-tenth, of the
total population, was affected.

Poor Arms and Equipment

 The Indian soldiers were poorly equipped materially, fighting with swords and spears and very few guns
and muskets.

 They were weak in front of the Enfield Rifles.

 Electric telegraph kept the commander-in-chief informed about the movements and strategy of the
rebels.

 These gave adequate advantages to the British to suppress the revolts.

Uncoordinated and Poorly organized:

 The Revolt was poorly organized with no coordination and central leadership.

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 The principal rebel leaders like Nana Sahib, Tatiya Tope, Kunwar Singh, Lakshmi bai were no match for
the British opponents in generalship.

 British officers were highly skilled in comparison with the local leaders.

No Unified Ideology

 The rebels lacked a clear understanding of colonial rule.

 They did not have a concrete forward-looking program or any ideology.

 The political perspective and social alternative were absent in their vision.

 The Rebels represented diverse elements with different grievances and concepts of current politics.

 Modern nationalism was yet to know the people of India.

The Nature of Revolt

 The views differ on the nature of the 1857 revolt.

 It was a near sepoy mutiny to some British historians like Sir John Seeley. According to him, “It was a
wholly unpatriotic and selfish Sepoy Mutiny with no native leadership and popular support”.

 According to Dr. K. Dutta, “the revolt of 1857 was a military outbreak whose advantage was taken by
certain discontented princes and landlords and whose interest had been affected by the new political
order”.

 According to V.D. Savarkar in his book, “The 1857 Revolt was interpreted as a planned war of national
independence called Indian War of Independence 1857”.

 T.R.Homes said that it was a conflict between civilization and barbarism.

 According to James Outram, one of the British officials who participated in suppressing the revolt said “It
is the Mohammedan conspiracy making it the capital of Hindu grievances”.

 It was a deliberate attempt to break the Hindu-Muslim unity.

 However, R.C. Majumdar considers it neither the first nor National nor the war of independence as
large parts of the country remained unaffected and many sections did not take part.
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 The conclusion was the revolt of 1857 was not the complete act of Independence that it sowed the
seeds of nationalism and the quest for freedom from the British.

The Consequences of the Revolt:

 The Revolt of 1857 marked a turning point in the history of India; it led to far-reaching changes in the
system of administration and policies of the British government.

Queen’s proclamation, 1858 passed the Act for the Betterment of

India
 It appointed the Secretary of State for India as a part of the British cabinet and he was guided by the
Indian Advisory Council(15 advisories).

 The direct responsibility of India was assumed by the Crown and the company's rule was abolished.

 The Governor-General term was replaced by the ‘Viceroy’.

 It ended the era of annexation and expansion and promised to respect the dignity and rights of the
native princes.

 Indian states were henceforth to recognize the paramountcy of the British crown and where to be
treated as parts of a single charge.

 The people of India were promised freedom of religion without any interference from the British
officials.

 The British administration promised equal opportunities to Indians in government services without
considering race or creed but this commitment was not followed.

 It promised Indians that their rights, customs, and practices would be given by framing and
administering the laws.

Peel Commission
 After the 1857 revolt, the British government of India Act,1858, constituted a Commission on
restructuring the Army.

 Recommendations by the Peel commission as follows:

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 Reshuffling in the regiment formation based on divisions like caste, religion, etc. to have checks
on the regiments and to avoid rebellion in the future.

 Indian soldiers at maximum to the Subedar level.

 Indian soldiers should be kept away from newspapers and journals.

 Formulate General Service Establishment Act act to make Indians follow the order of serving
anywhere.

 Indians were excluded from Artillery and Arsenal.

 European soldiers to Indian soldier’s ratio increased from 1:2 to 5:2.

 The motive was to check any kind of future revolts and suppress it even before getting the momentum.

Significance of the Revolt

 The Revolt showed the shortcomings of the East India Company Administration and its Army.

 The 1857 Revolt had a major influence on the people of India for the struggle for freedom.

 It brought out the open grievances of people and the sepoys.

 It showed the weakness of Indians to fight directly with arms against the British.

 It convinced the Indian intellectual that violence is not the way to achieve freedom. Hence, the initial
political phase of the Indian National Congress was shipped by moderate leaders.

 It did establish local traditions of resistance to British rule which were to be of help in the course of the
national struggle for freedom.

Mains Questions For Practice:

Q.1 Discuss the reasons and failures of the 1857 Revolt. (250 words-15 Marks)

Q.2 What were the major changes the British brought after the 1857 revolt?(150 Marks-10 Marks)

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