1
Summary
Modern Indian History Class 16

1857 Revolt (5:02 PM)

  • On 19 march 1857, Mangal Pandey at Barakhpur at Calcutta fired at British officers and his fellow sepoys refused to arrest him, and all hanged him.
  • On the 10th of May Meerut sepoys mutiny and reached Delhi on the 11th of May and proclaimed BS Jazar as emperor of Hindustan.
  • The revolt spread to other contentment in north-west provinces and Awadh and the civil population joined.
  • British rule collapsed from 11th May till the spring of 1858.
  • Delhi was recaptured by the British only by 20th September 1857.
  • Reasons for sepoy mutiny:
  • Racism:
  • Discrimination in salaries and pension.
  • The highest post an Indian sepoy could reach was Subadar which gave only 60-70 rupees a month.
  • Racist slurs like Indians were referred to as pigs.
  • Economic reasons:
  • To compensate for high war expenditure, the salaries of sepoys decreased, and allowance for service outside their region ended in 1856.
  • Socio-religious reasons:
  • Initially, EIC recruited sepoys in line with Indian tradition that is upper castes were recruited and their caste and religious customs were respected.
  • But as the empire expanded different communities joined the EIC army.
  • Therefore difficult to respect the religious customs of the upper caste.
  • British tried developing a uniform culture in the army as it would decrease loyalty to caste/religion and increase loyalty to the empire, to have better control over sepoys.
  • Therefore EIC reduced caste privileges, like wearing religious symbols, food preferences, etc, and sepoys were forced to go abroad to Burma, Sindh, and Afghanistan, leading to caste loss.
  • And those who refused were punished or dismissed.
  • Also since the charter act of 1813, there was a focus on the spread of Christianity and Christian missionaries in barracks created the fear of conversion.
  • The whole rural society has fear that their religion was under threat.
  • Forced conversion and arrivals of missionaries.
  • Socio-religious reform post-1801 escalated fears that the British wanted to destroy traditional customs like:
  • Sati abolition.
  • Hindu widow remarriage act.
  • Lex-Loki act(caste disability removal act, removal of religious disabilities act), 1850 gave the right of inheritance to Hindu and Muslim converts to other regions.
  • British began taxing mosques and temples.
  • Rumours:
  • Rumour of mixing cow and pig bone dust in flour.
  • The cartridges of Enfield rifles replaced brown bass muskets having Greece made up of cow and pig fats.
  • These bullets were to be bitten off before loading.
  • Therefore sepoys feared that the British wanted to make them lesser Hindus/Muslims for easy conversion
  • The revolt began in the Bengal army as high caste identity was still maintained, leading to more unity among sepoys.
  • Political reasons:
  • The majority of sepoys in the Bengal army were from Awadh and nearly every family in Awadh sent a member to the EIC army.
  • Annexation of Awadh was seen as a betrayal and hurt the loyalty of the sepoys.
  • Agrarian reasons:
  • Britsih did a summary settlement in Awadh that determined the land revenue demand without proper field surveys leading to high land revenue demand.
  • In northwest provinces, field surveys were improperly dealing with high land revenue demand.
  • When peasants could not pay land revenue, they lost land in the government auctions
  • Peasants became indebted to moneylenders and then lost lands due to defaulting on loans.
  • Sepoy was a peasant in uniform since he came from a peasant family therefore his loyalty was hurt by British policy.
  • Therefore the issue of cartridges was only a trigger that gave voice to multiple grievances.
  • Reasons for civil rebellion:
  • Grievances of feudal elements:
  • Loss of kingdoms due to annexation like the doctrine of lapse led to grievances among ex-rulers and nobility.
  • therefore they offered leadership in the revolt.
  • For example:
  • Nana saheb in Kanpur was the adopted son of Bajirao-II and was denied a pension.
  • He was assisted by Tatia Tope.
  • Began Hazat Mahal in Lucknow(wife of ex-nawab Wazid Shah) ruled in name of young son during the revolt.
  • Khan Bahadur Khan, a Rohilla afghan in Bareilly.
  • Rani Lakshmi Bai in Jansi whose adopted son was not recognized as the next ruler.
  • Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur, Bihar was a big Zamindar and local Raja whose estates were taken over.
  • BS Zafar as Canning announced in 1956 would now be called a prince and he to vacate red fort and shift to humbler Qutab, therefore losing of status.
  • Grievances of Talukdars:
  • Application of Mahalwari settlement in north-west provinces and Awadh led to the last of lands/estates as ryots were made legal and owner leading to loss of economic status.
  • Their private forts were demolished and their private army was disbanded, leading to a loss of political and military status.
  • British rule of law hurt their social status.
  • Therefore Talukdars provided leadership to the revolt.
  • Peasants and Artisans:
  • Destruction of the handicraft sector due to cheaper machine-manufactured goods imported from Britain hurt artisans' livelihoods.
  • Landlessness for peasants due to high land revenue demand and indebtedness to moneylenders.
  • As they lost land in government action on non-payment of land revenue and lost land to money lenders due to default on loans that were given at very high-interest rates.
  • The new British courts supported money lenders, therefore moneylenders also became targets during the 1857 revolt.
  • The goal of the revolt was to restore the pre-British order.

Reasons for the victory of the British in the 1857 revolt (6:20 PM)

  • Sepoys lacked financial resources.
  • Lack of modern weapons and training among peasants
  • British had better leadership and a strong centralized bureaucracy, army, and an effective communication system leading to efficient decision-making and coordination.
  • Tactical mistakes as Sepoys focused on coming to Delhi, therefore movement did not spread properly and the defeat of Delhi meant the defeat of revolt.
  • Lack of unified leadership on the Indian side as there were multiple regional leaders and no central leadership, therefore coordination suffered.
  • Due to the localized nature of the uprising British could defeat rebels one after other.
  • The whole EIC army did not revolt, the Bombay and Madras regiments were quiet, while Punjabi and Gurkha actively helped the British.
  • The civil rebellion was limited to mainly north and central India and mainly minor participation elsewhere.

Was the 1857 revolt a war of independence? (6:57 PM)

  • The colonial view is that the 1857 revolt was mainly a sepoy mutiny due there service-related grievances and the civil uprising was nothing but mob violence due to the breakdown of law and order.
  • However, VD Savarkar called it the Indian war of independence and fought for Swadrama and Swaraj.
  • Karl Marx also argued that it was a nationalist revolt.
  • The mainstream stand is that it was much more than mutiny but modern nationalism was not present therefore not a proper war of independence based on modern nationalism.
  • The whole of India did not participate and those sections that benefited from colonial rule did not participate.
  • For example, Zamindar of Bengal became a big landlord after a permanent settlement in 1793, therefore stayed loyal to the British.
  • Those rulers who did not lose their kingdoms stayed neutral.
  • Western-educated gained from jobs created by British rule and believed that British rule will modernize India.
  • Talukdars who did not lose their estate stayed loyal.
  • In Ryotwadi areas like Sindh, Coorg, Assam, and Bengal ryot benefited as they made landowners.
  • There was no proper planning and the revolt was spontaneous bursts.
  • There was no modern alternative in form of democracy.
  • Yes, modern nationalism was absent however common enemy was there.
  • Common hatred was there against disruption brought by British rule.
  • That is a common feeling that British rule is immoral
  • A common fear of threat to religion.
  • Sepoys' declaration in Delhi went beyond their selfish grievances and listed the following reasons for mutiny:
  • There was high land revenue demand.
  • Increase chowkidar tax.
  • Increase in unemployment of artisans and learned men.
  • Tol tax for travelling on public roads.
  • Decrease in the status of in status of Indian ruling class.
  • Therefore sepoys were fighting all Indians.
  • The common goal of restoring moral order was disturbed by British rule.
  • Hindu-Muslim unity was there with belief that Hindustan is for Hindus and Muslims.
  • All agreed among rebels that Delhi should be the capital and BS Zafar as emperor.
  • Rebels did not desire the dictatorship of an all-Indian monarch, that does not desire a 17th-century unitary structure but wanted decentralized polity with real power at the province level.
  • Therefore desired a form of federalism.
  • Rebels did not want the British not just out of their areas but out of Hindustan.
  • Also this time there was communication between regional leaders
  • It was a movement of the masses and not of elites:
  • Elites were forced to take up leadership in many cases by those who revolted like BS Zafar, Nana Saheb, and Jhansi ki Ranni, therefore initiative was of the common man and in many cases, peasants and artisans continued revolts.
  • The main initiative was of sepoy and he was a peasant in uniform
  • Therefore 1857 revolt was led by peasants.

Why 1857 revolt is an important watershed in Indian history? (7:43 PM):

  • Political impact:
  • British became distrustful of Indians, and authoritarianism and racism increased.
  • Indian were now considered racially inferior and beyond reforms and the British did not want Indians in senior positions, therefore did not want to share power with Indians.
  • They wanted stronger control over India, however, this frustrated educated Indians who wanted a share in power and this anger led to the starting modern nationalism-based Indian national movement.
  • EIC was blamed for the mismanagement of Indian affairs and public pressure in Britain increased in favour of ending absentee sovereignty(as the real sovereign, the British government ruled India through an agent EIC).
  • Therefore GOI act of 1858 ended EIC rule and declared queen victoria as the sovereign ruler of India with direct rule over British India and paramountcy over Indian princes.
  • Therefore queen was now the empress of India and Mughal rule ended legally with BS Zafar being deported to Burma and pensioned off.
  • Queen's proclamation of November 1858, promised religious tolerance and that India would be governed as per its customs and traditions, therefore spread of Christianity and socio-religious reforms took a backseat.

The topic of the next class: administrative impact of the 1857 revolt.