on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. ThoughtCo. Any British plans to reform Indian society, which had been one of the underlying causes of the revolt, were essentially set aside, and religious conversion of the Indian population was no longer viewed as a practical goal. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. The effective Indian artillery, except for a few mountain batteries, was abolished, while the Brahmans and Rajputs of Avadh were reduced in favour of other groups. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? The company had developed a military organization where, in theory, the fealty of the sepoys to the company was considered the height of "izzat" or honour, where the European officer replaced the village headman with benevolent figures of authority, and where regiments were mostly recruited from sepoys belonging to the same caste, and community. When soldiers of the Bengal army mutinied in Meerut on May 10, 1857, tension had been growing for some time. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857-58 against the rule of the British East India Company, . Or it might have been an aristocratic plot, set off too soon by the Meerut outbreak. Increasing numbers of Christian missionaries began arriving in India, and their presence gave credence to rumors of impending conversions. Find out more about saving to your Kindle. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. 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. Wagner concludes that the trigger for the rebellion of 1857 was thus rumour, not the actual issue, or use, of cartridges greased with animal fat; that, in any case, we simply don't know what sort of tallow was used at Gangadarh Banerji & Co.; and that - remarkable as it now seems - the truth of the matter never was established, even by the From Delhi the revolt spread in June to Kanpur (Cawnpore) and Lucknow. 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. Thus, long after the chapattis reached their northern-most point of Meerut, there was another northwards distribution from Cawnpore to Fattehgarh, which was widely reported in the newspapers The circulation took place along well-established routes of transmission, which followed the main trade and pilgrimage routes between the bigger cities. Render date: 2023-03-01T21:49:14.745Z Then came the Western innovations of the now overconfident British. It is called the chupatty movement. . Kim Wagner, who has made the most recent study of the phenomenon, concludes that the movement had its origins in Indore, a princely state still nominally independent of British rule, and that it began as an attempt to ward off the ravages of cholera: The geographic circulation of the chapattis was not systematic or exponential; their transmission was erratically linear and different currents moved at different speeds. } By the time of the chupatty movement, no more than a handful of aged India hands could remember such long-ago events as the Vellore Mutiny. E. Jaiwant Paul is a man of varied interests, having authored eight other books, including Rani of Jhansi, The Story of Tea, Baji Rao, The Unforgettable Maharajas, Har Dayal: The Great Revolutionary (co-author Mrs Shubh Paul), Arms and Armour: Traditional Weapons of India, and Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. Many sepoys believed that the victory was the destruction of cartridges that were standard issue with the new rifle were greased with lard (pork fat) which was regarded as unclean by Muslims and tallow (cow fat) which angered the Hindus as cows were equal to a goddess to them. But something important was required to provoke so many to seize the opportunity of a military uprising to stage a war of independence. the Sepoy Mutiny (by British Historians) The cartridge of the Enfield rifle was heavily greased - with animal fat, to facilitate an easier load into the muzzle. The next phase was the central Indian campaign of Sir Hugh Rose. A chowkidaran Indian village watchman. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. To save content items to your account, Immediate Cause The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. There was thus a suppressed tension in the countryside, ready to break out whenever governmental pressure might be reduced. The mutiny and great revolt of 1857-59. [14], The pay of the sepoy was relatively low and after Awadh and the Punjab were annexed, the soldiers no longer received extra pay (batta or bhatta) if posted there, because this was no longer considered "foreign service". Sepoy units in the south of India remained loyal, but in the north, many units of the Bengal Army turned on the British. These changes caused widespread resentment not only among the landed aristocracy but also caused great havoc to a larger section of the middle-class people. The first sepoy who rebelled by aiming his loaded weapon at a British officer was Mangal Pandey who was later executed.[25]. The surrender of Kanpur, after a relatively brief siege, was followed by a massacre of virtually all British citizens and loyal Indian soldiers at Kanpur. Post this, India was directly ruled by the British government through representatives known as Governor-General. Thornhill examined the chapatis in his office. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. At other times however, the Company directly or indirectly conceded the legitimacy of the sepoy's demands, such as when troops of the Bengal and Madras armies refused to serve in Sindh without batta after its conquest. Thornhill came into his office one morning to find four dirty little cakes of the coarsest flour, about the size and thickness of a biscuit lying on his desk. Sepoys throughout India were issued with a new rifle, the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musketa more powerful and accurate weapon than the old but smoothbore Brown Bess they had been using for the previous decades. 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. One popular story, widely believed, suggested that the British were attempting the mass conversion of their subjects to Christianity by adulterating their flour with bone meal from cows and pigs, which was forbidden to Hindus and Moslems, respectively. [11] If the caste of high-caste sepoys was considered to be "polluted", they would have to expend considerable sums of money on ritual purification before being accepted back into society. Few of these participated in the rebellion, and one contingent in particular (the recently raised Punjab Irregular Force) actively participated on the British side. This would have insulted both Hindu and Muslim religious practices; cows were considered holy by Hindus, while pigs were considered unclean (Haram) by Muslims. In one sense, this was not surprising; since India had a large and settled British population, there were more women and children around for the rebels to kill. The grotesque executions by cannon became even became widely known in America. The mysterious appearance of chapatisloaves of an Indian unleavened breadspooked the British administrators of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857. It is also known by other names: the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames of rebellion. This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion Most Indians thought they were the work of the British, whothrough the East India Companyhad ruled over large portions of the country for almost a century (and were, according to one well-known prophecy, due to be unseated at that centurys end). B. When the mood of the sepoys turned against their masters, they remembered Kabul and that the British were not invincible. The sepoys were generally under the command of British officers. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. His unit in the Bengal Army, which had refused to use the new rifle cartridges, was about to be disarmed and punished. It is not known who first projected the plan. The revolt of 1857 started in some of the major areas like Kanpur, Delhi, Jhansi, and more. All in all, the British were extremely spooked by the spread of the chapatis. India from the Paleolithic Period to the decline of the Indus civilization, The earliest agriculturalists and pastoralists, Neolithic agriculture in the Indus valley and Baluchistan, Extent and chronology of Early Harappan culture, Language and scripts, weights and measures, The Post-Urban Period in northwestern India, The late 2nd millennium and the reemergence of urbanism, Peninsular India in the aftermath of the Indus civilization (c. 20001000, The development of Indian civilization from c. 1500, Traditional approaches to Indian historiography, The beginning of the historical period, c. 500150, North India under Muslim hegemony, c. 12001526, Taxation and distribution of revenue resources, The Muslim states of southern India, c. 13501680, Extension and consolidation of the empire, Central, provincial, and local government, Organization of the nobility and the army, The emperor, the nobility, and the provinces, The Afghan-Maratha struggle for northern India, Political and economic decentralization during the Mughal decline, The Afghan factor in northern India, 174772, Cultural aspects of the late precolonial order, India and European expansion, c. 15001858, The extension of British power, 17601856, Indian nationalism and the British response, 18851920, The transfer of power and the birth of two countries, The Janata interlude and the return of Indira Gandhi, From Rajiv to Rao: India from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, V.P. In addition, the General Service Enlistment Act of 1856 required recruits to serve overseas if ordered, a challenge to the castes who composed so much of the Bengal army. @free.kindle.com emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. The rifle's cartridges contained 68 grains of FF black powder, and the ball was typically a 530-grain Pritchett or a Burton-Mini ball. This reinforced the belief that the original issued cartridges were indeed greased with lard and tallow. Their educational policy was a Westernizing one, with English instead of Persian as the official language; the old elites, schooled in the traditional pattern, felt themselves slighted. The greased cartridge - what was it all about? Match the Country with Its Hemisphere Quiz, Baron Strathnairn of Strathnairn and Jhansi. The grease used was tallow, probably containing both cow and pig fat. A New Type of Rifle Cartridge Caused Problems, The Indian Revolt of 1857 Brought the End of the East India Company. The revolt began on May 10, 1857, at Meerut as a sepoy mutiny. https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014 (accessed March 1, 2023). [6]. As further evidence, he observes that the Urdu sources of the pre- rebellion and post- rebellion periods usually refer to the British not as angrez (the English), goras (whites) or firangis (foreigners), but as kafir (disbeliever) and nasrani (Christians). What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? Yet discreet inquiries soon revealed that many hundreds of chapatis were passing through his district, and through other parts of India as welleverywhere from the Narmada river in the south to the border with Nepal several hundred miles to the north. 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. : WH Allen, 1864);Tapti Roy. Scottish Highlanders charge during the suppression of the rebellion of 1857. Queen Victoria, at the prompting of Benjamin Disraeli, announced to Parliament that her Indian subjects were "happy under My rule and loyal to My throne.". hasContentIssue true, THE FIRING PARADE OF 24 APRIL AND ITS SEQUEL, THE OUTBREAK: (a) The Native Infantry Lines, THE OUTBREAK: (b) The Native Cavalry Lines, THE OUTBREAK: (d) The European Troop Movements and the European Lines, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563386.003, Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. It is no surprise, the historian Kim Wagner notes, that, faced with such a plethora of portents, the British regarded with deep suspicion, bordering on paranoia, any type of communication in India which they could not understand. The colonial administration well understood that rumors, however unfounded, could have serious consequences, and there were plenty of notably more dangerous urban legends about. By a campaign in Avadh and Rohilkhand, Campbell cleared the countryside. To these points may be added the fact that the British garrison in Bengal had been reduced at this time to 23,000 men because of troop withdrawals for the Crimean and Persian wars. In fact, it was rather the last effort of traditional India. In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. This allowed different meanings an interpretations to be attributed to them, and the chapattis became an index of peoples thoughts and worries. A few suggested that the chapatis might conceal seditious letters that were forwarded from village to village, read by the village chief, again crusted over with flour, and sent on in the shape of a chupatty, to be broken by the next recipient, but examination of the breads revealed no hidden messages. This book is essentially about the heroes - Tatya Tope, Nana. The British had accentuated caste consciousness by careful regulations, had allowed discipline to grow lax, and had failed to maintain understanding between British officers and their men. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The Siege of Delhi. The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. Your Privacy Rights Sepoys were forced to watch such displays as it was believed it set an example of the horrific death that awaited mutineers. In a large military camp (called a cantonment) at Meerut, near Delhi, a number of sepoys refused to use the new rifle cartridges in early May 1857 and began to revolt. It was no secret that the Companys armies had been making preparations for the introduction of a new sort of ammunition for a new model of Enfield rifle. He also passed decrees allowing Hindus who had converted to Christianity to be able to inherit property, which had previously been denied by local practice. The British, who had nothing to do with the mysterious transmission, guessed the breads were a piece of mischief-making on the part of the Indians, though opinion was divided as to whether the breads came from the east, near Calcutta (Kolkata), from the north, in the province of Oude (Avadh) or from Indore, in the center of the country. [17], Officers of an evangelical persuasion in the company's Army (such as Herbert Edwardes and Colonel S.G. Wheler of the 34th Bengal Infantry) had taken to preaching to their Sepoys in the hope of converting them to Christianity. There was rumor about an old prophecy that the company's rule would end after a hundred years. However much of this sense of the invincibility of the British was lost in the First Anglo-Afghan War where poor political judgment and inept British leadership led to the massacre of Elphinstone's army (which included three Bengal regiments) while retreating from Kabul. There was also a general feeling that English officers were losing touch with the Indian troops under them. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. . Mike Dash is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. [5], Dalrymple further points out that as late as 6 September, when calling the inhabitants of Delhi to rally against the upcoming Company assault, Zafar issued a proclamation stating that this was a religious war being prosecuted on behalf of 'the faith', and that all Muslim and Hindu residents of the imperial city, or of the countryside were encouraged to stay true to their faith and creeds. . Another important source of discontent among the Indian rulers was that the British policies of conquest had created significant unrest. 31, 2021, thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014. And yet its just as possible to see the bloody results of the mutual incomprehension between the British and native communities in India as a potent reminder that mistrust and panic can have serious consequences. To load the rifle, the end of the cartridge containing the powder had to be bitten off so that the charge would ignite. Furthermore, legal changes introduced by the British were accompanied by prohibitions on Indian religious customs and were seen as steps towards forced conversion to Christianity. Down-country operations centred on the relief of Lucknow. The rebels were . In 1885, however, the founding of the Indian National Congress marked the beginnings of effective, organized protest for national self-determination. More disturbing to traditional sensibilities were the interventions, in the name of humanity, in the realm of Hindu custome.g., the prohibition of suttee, the campaign against infanticide, the law legalizing remarriage of Hindu widows. Furthermore, the superstitious impulse that still encourages the transmission of chain letters clearly applied in 1857: Although the original specific meaning of the chapattis had been lost early in the distribution, the dire consequences of breaking the chain of transmission remained, and thus ensured their successful circulation over an immense area. This meant that when they came to be threatened by modernizing regimes in Calcutta, from the 1840s onwards, the sepoys had become accustomed to very high ritual status, and were extremely sensitive to suggestions that their caste might be polluted. [8], Unlike the Madras and Bombay Armies of the BEIC, which were far more diverse, the Bengal Army recruited its regular soldiers almost exclusively amongst the landowning Bhumihars and Rajputs of the Ganges Valley. To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org The revolt failed in overthrowing British Rule. The army so far had been quipped with the smooth-barrelled musket, which had a protracted loading procedure and was not accurate over long ranges. each other as brothers.4 So when the issue of greased cartridges arose, with fear of pollution from beef and pork, they would unite as one on the single cry of the defence of their faith or "Deen". Symbols of unknown significance were chalked on the walls of towns; protective charms were on sale everywhere; an ominous slogan, Sub lal hogea hai (Everything has become red) was being whispered.. Victoria added the title "Empress of India" to her royal title. Whether the cartridge was unballed or balled, it was necessary, in loading a muzzle-loader, to open the end of the cartridge. 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. The campaign then settled down to British attempts to take Delhi and relieve Lucknow. The military cause was both particular and general. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U.K., was made of beef and pork fat. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. [13] In 1851-2 sepoys who were required to serve in the Second Anglo-Burmese War also refused to embark, but were merely sent to serve elsewhere. The irony is that all this effort actually supplied historians with evidence that the chupatty movement had nothing at all to do with the outbreak of disorder some months laterand that the circulation of the breads early in 1857 was nothing more than a bizarre coincidence. Published online by Cambridge University Press: The revolt of 1857, which the British call the Indian Mutiny but many Indians prefer to think of as the First War of Independence, was the defining event in British imperial history. A keen cricketer and tennis player, he now lives in Delhi and serves as director of a few companies. At some point the chapattis passed beyond the limits of their meaningful transmission and simply continued through the country as a blank message. The cartridge had to be bitten off before loading it into the gun. The dramatic capture of Delhi turned mutiny into full-scale revolt. This seems to have been a very important reason for the spread of the rebellion, keeping in view the speed at which they ignited in many villages in northern India where farmers rushed to get back their unfairly grabbed title deeds. But those who did would not have been surprised by what happened next, for some very similar beliefs were spreading in the early months of 1857. What are the major holidays and festivals of India? Terms of Use Advertising Notice As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, and many were executed in dramatic fashion. In a few hours the whole country was in a stir, from Chowkeydars flying around with these cakes. In the event, the chapattis were not harbingers of a coming storm. They were what people made them into, and the significance attributed to them was a symptom of the pervasive distrust and general consternation amongst the Indian population during the early months of 1857. The traditional story of the Sepoy Mutiny is that the introduction of a new cartridge for the Enfield rifle provoked much of the trouble. In the Punjab were some 10,000 British troops, which made it possible to disarm the Indian regiments; and the recently defeated Sikhs were so hostile to the Muslims that they supported the British against the Mughal restoration in Delhi. Although the armies of many Rajas or states which rebelled contained large numbers of guns, the British superiority in artillery was to be decisive in the siege of Delhi after the arrival of a siege train of thirty-two howitzers and mortars. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. In England, almost every child is aware that, with a smooth bored gun, no grease of any kind is required to ensure the proper loading of it, whilst with a rifle-bored piece such is necessary. So writes Mrs Peile, one of those who escaped from Delhi on 11 May 1857. was the rumour that the newly issued rie cartridges would be greased either with tallow, derived from beef and thereby oensive to Hindus, or lard, derived from pork and thereby oensive to Muslims. Thousands of entirely blameless Indians who found themselves caught up in the hysterical aftermath of the rebellion were flogged, or blown from cannon, or forced to clean bloodied paving stones using only their tongues before being summarily hanged. To load both the old musket and the new rifle, soldiers had to bite the cartridge open and pour the gunpowder it contained into the rifle's muzzle, then stuff the paper cartridge (overlaid with a thin mixture of beeswax and mutton tallow for waterproofing) into the musket as wadding, the ball being secured to the top of the cartridge and guided into place for ramming down the muzzle. However, nearly every sepoy was either Muslima religion that forbids eating the fat or any other part of a pig, or Hinduwhere the same rule applies to cows. The Revolt ended the rule of the English East India Company. Pandey, it should be noted, is considered a hero in India, and has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in films and even on an Indian postage stamp. Has data issue: true Greased Cartridges: It is believed to be one of the major causes behind the 1857 uprising. 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. the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. And when the Indian independence movement gained momentum in the 20th century, events of the Revolt of 1857 were viewed as having been an early battle for independence, while individuals such as Mangal Pandey were hailed as early national heroes. From the confidential physician to the King of Delhi: Nobody can tell what was the object of the distribution of the chupatties. Britain, of course, would rule India well into the 20th century. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. Another suggestion they put forward was to introduce a new drill, in which the cartridge was not bitten with the teeth but torn open with the hand. 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 Indian Mutiny of 1857-59 was a widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against the rule of British East India Company in India which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British crown. Dalhousie had also appointed Inam Commission with powers to confiscate land. A hardcore corporate, he initially worked for Hindustan Unilever and was later Director of Brooke Bond, India. The mutineers, on the other hand, lacked good leadership until nearly the end, and they had no confidence in themselves and suffered the guilt feelings of rebels without a cause, making them frantic and fearful by turns. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. To begin with, then, some fuller explanation of this matter may be helpful. This is what led to the revolt of 1857 in many localized areas. Large numbers of native soldiers, known as sepoys, were employed by the company to maintain order and defend trading centers. Loading the Enfield often required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth, and many sepoys believed that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat.
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