THE REVOLT OF 1857

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  • THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
  • THE REVOLT OF 1857

  • The 1857 Revolt has been termed as the first war of Independence by many Historians as it was the first uprising to take place simultaneously in many places across India
  • The main causes of the revolt
  • Growing suspicion among native rulers over Lord Dalhousie’s policies of “Doctrine of Lapse”
  • Racialism in civil and military administration
  • Spread of Christianity through missionaries and social  discrimination of the British against Indians.
  • social reform", including the abolition of sati and the legalisation of widow remarriage
  • Enactment of the Religious Disabilities act 1850, which enabled a convert to inherit his ancestral property.
  • annexation of Oudh (Awadh) by the East India Company in 1856, many sepoys were disquieted
  • Greased Cartridges : The Hindu as well as Muslim sepoys were enraged because of the use of new greased cartridges for the new Enfield P-53 rifle, which was made of ghee and pig fat, and that was against their religious faith.  
  • They were compelled to chew the cartridges that led displeasure among them.
  • chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east.
  • Company-controlled India—the Bengal Presidency, the Bombay Presidency and the Madras Presidency—remained largely calm.
  • In the Punjab, the Sikhs crucially helped the British by providing both soldiers and support.
  • The large princely states (Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir), as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana, did not join the rebellion, serving the British,
  • in the words of Governor-General Lord Canning, as "breakwaters in a storm.
  • The mutiny first broke out at Meerut in United Provinces on May 10, 1857.
  • Before this a young Sepoy by the name of Mangal Pandey 29 fired at the Sergeant Major of his unit at Barrackpore
  • At Delhi the symbolic leadership belonged to the 81-year-old Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah, but the de facto or real command was in the hands of General Bakht Khan who had led the revolt of bareilly troops and brought them to Delhi.
  • General John Nicholson-Captured Delhi 1857- died soon due to a mortal wound received during the fighting to breach the Kashmiri Gate
  • The British soon arrested Bahadur Shah, and the next day the British agent William Hodson had his sons Mirza Mughal, Mirza Khazir Sultan, and grandson Mirza Abu Bakr shot under his own authority at the Khooni Darwaza (the bloody gate) near Delhi Gate.

  • Maulvi Ahmadullah emerged as one of the revolt’s acknowledged leaders once it broke out in Awadh in 1857.
  • Khan Bahadur sounded the bugle at Bareilly since he was not satisfied with the pension granted by the British.
  • He organised an army of 40,000 soldiers and offered stiff resistance to the British.
  • Kanpur was led by Nana Saheb, the adopted son of the last Peshwa, Baji Rao II.
  • Nana Saheb defeated the British army and proclaimed himself the Peshwa.
  • Nana Saheb further acknowledged Bahadur Shah as the Emperor of India and declared himself to be his governor.
  • Lucknow the was led by Begum Hazrat Mahal.
  • Her son, Birjis Qadir, was proclaimed the Nawab and a regular administration was organised with important offices shared equally by Muslims and Hindus.
  • Sir Colin Campbell-Final recovery of Kanpur in 1857. Final reoccupation of Lucknow 1858. Recapture of Bareilly, 1858.
  • Kunwar Singh, the zamindar of Jagdishpur was above 70 years and held a grudge against the British for depriving him of his estates.
  • l
  • Rani Laxmibai led the revolt at Jhansi since her adopted son was refused to succeed to the throne after her husband had died and had annexed Jhansi by applying the ‘Doctrine of Lapse’.
  • She was joined Tantia Tope, a close associate of Nana Saheb, after the loss of Kanpur.
  • Hugh rose Suppressed the revolt at Jhansi and recaptured Gwalior on June, 1858. 
  • The whole of Central India and Bundelkhand was brought under British control by him.

  • The major impacts of the Revolt

  • The control of the British government in India was transferred to the British Crown and a minister of British government, called the Secretary of State, made responsible for the Government of India.
  • Doctrine of Lapse was withdrawn.
  • The Peshwaship and the Mughal rule were ended.
  • Changes were made in the administration and English soldiers were increased in the army.

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