With this information, the sepoys believed that the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridges for defiling their religions. It began on a point of caste pollution; its leaders were traditionalists who looked to reviving the past, while the small new Westernized class actively supported the British. The Company had upgraded to the new Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle, which used greased paper cartridges. All of the Bengal Native Cavalry regiments and 45 of the infantry units rebelled at some point. Privacy Statement 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. 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. On May 9, 1857, some 4,000 British soldiers and sepoysnative Indian troopsformed a three-sided hollow square on the parade ground at the Meerut military cantonment, 40 miles northeast of Delhi, to witness punishment. 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. His unit in the Bengal Army, which had refused to use the new rifle cartridges, was about to be disarmed and punished. In 1885, however, the founding of the Indian National Congress marked the beginnings of effective, organized protest for national self-determination. Cookie Policy Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion The Indian papers are full of surmises as to what it means. The musketry books also recommended that, "Whenever the grease around the bullet appears to be melted away, or otherwise removed from the cartridge, the sides of the bullet should be wetted in the mouth before putting it into the barrel; the saliva will serve the purpose of grease for the time being" This meant that biting a musket cartridge was second nature to the Sepoys, some of whom had decades of service in the company's army, and who had been doing musket drill for every day of their service. Along with the previously mentioned illustration in Ballou's Pictorial, numerous American newspapers published accounts of the violence in India. rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat. Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion. 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. Click to view in higher resolution. Other irregular units were raised in frontier areas from communities such as Assamese or Pashtuns to maintain order locally. The grotesque executions by cannon became even became widely known in America. Some time in February 1857, a curious occurrence took place. Company officers became aware of the rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum. Setting out from Allahabad, Sir Henry Havelock fought through Kanpur to the Lucknow residency on September 25, where he was besieged in turn. Further, the British were becoming increasingly hostile toward traditional survivals and contemptuous of most things Indian. Such measures were considered a valid negotiating tactic by the sepoys, likely to be repeated every time such issues arose. This is what led to the revolt of 1857 in many localized areas. The British Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856 was Lord Dalhousie who passed the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 which allowed widows to remarry, like Christian women. The greased cartridges had to be opened by biting off the top with your teeth. In the illustration, a mutineer was depicted chained to the front of a British cannon, awaiting his imminent execution, as others were gathered to watch the grisly spectacle. At some point the chapattis passed beyond the limits of their meaningful transmission and simply continued through the country as a blank message. Government was ostentatiously neutral, but Hindu society was inclined to regard the missionaries as eroding Hindu society without openly interfering. https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014 (accessed March 1, 2023). 2023 Smithsonian Magazine On 29 March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy of the 34 th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) mutinied against his commanding officers of the East India Company. He is on the expert panel on weapons for several museums of Rajasthan. The uprising was officially declared over on July 8, 1859. The magistrates tried to stop it, but, in spite of all they could do, it passed along to the borders of the Punjab. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. Later, the attitudes of British officers changed with increased intolerance, lack of involvement and unconcern of the welfare of troops becoming manifest more and more. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. The uprising was put down, but the methods employed by the British were so harsh that many in the western world were offended. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. It was alluded to , and it was supposed to portend some coming disturbance, and was, moreover, understood as implying an invitation to the whole population of the country to unite for some secret objective afterwards to be disclosed. A popular American illustrated magazine, "Ballou's Pictorial", published afull-page woodcutillustration showing the preparations for such an execution in its issue of October 3, 1857. The cartridge was then rammed down the muzzle of the rifle.. As the East India Company annexed Indian states in the 1840s and 1850s, the Indian soldiers in the company's employ began to feel offended. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. What was the issue of cartridges? You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. [9], Until the 1840s there had been a widespread belief amongst the Bengal sepoys in the Iqbal or continued good fortune of the East India Company. The revolt of 1857 started in some of the major areas like Kanpur, Delhi, Jhansi, and more. In the 1870s the British government formalized its role as an imperial power. The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. For instance, once the rebellion was underway, Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar met the sepoys on 11 May 1857, he was told: "We have joined hands to protect our religion and our faith." During the late eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, the armies of the East India Company, in particular those of the Bengal Presidency, were victorious and indomitable the term "high noon of the sepoy army" has been used by a military historian. Is the sending of such articles about the country a custom among the Hindoos or Mussulmans; and would the meaning be at once understood without any accompanying explanation? When the mood of the sepoys turned against their masters, they remembered Kabul and that the British were not invincible. I have the honour to inform you that a signal has passed through numbers of the villages in this district, the purport of which has not yet transpired. Though the revolt was suppressed later, it shook the foundation of British rule in India. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, sepoys tended to take great pride in their military prowess, and they exhibited enormous loyalty to their British officers. Once the first rebellions took place, it was clear to most British commanders that the grievances which led to them were felt throughout the Bengal army and no Indian unit could wholly be trusted, although many officers continued to vouch for their men's loyalty, even in the face of captured correspondence indicating their intention to rebel. In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 305-306 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. The army became an efficient professional body, drawn largely from the northwest and aloof from the national life. Sepoy units in the south of India remained loyal, but in the north, many units of the Bengal Army turned on the British. Seen from a distance of 150 years, the chupatty movement can appear a quaint anomaly, a strange and colorful rumor of interest mostly to historians and psychologists. A hardcore corporate, he initially worked for Hindustan Unilever and was later Director of Brooke Bond, India. In an elaborate ceremony, Lord Lytton, the serving viceroy of India, honored a number of Indian princes. The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progression and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny (London: John Murray, 1884);Kim A. Wagner. Order was restored by the firmness of Charles John Canning (later Earl Canning), first viceroy of India (governed 185862), whose title of Clemency was given in derision by angry British merchants in Calcutta, and of Sir John Lawrence in the Punjab. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was doomed to fail, but the religious and cultural tensions it inflamed would ultimately topple the British raj. 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