This document discusses different historians' perspectives on the nature of the 1857 rebellion in India. Some key points of debate include: 1) Some historians saw it as a struggle between British rulers and Indian sepoys, others as a feudal reaction, while others consider it India's first war of independence. 2) The rebellion started among sepoys but eventually involved common people, suggesting it was a popular revolt across large areas of northern and central India. 3) While some British historians initially viewed it as a sepoy mutiny, others like Disraeli eventually acknowledged its national character, as did Karl Marx and some Indian historians. 4) Nationalist historians like Savarkar explicitly characterized

1. Various Aspects of
“The Rebellion of 1857”
Name :- Amit Mishra
Class :- 8th
Section :- (B)
Roll No. :- 03

2. The Great revolt of 1857 is often
remarked as “India’s first war of
Independence. The aspects of the
revolt is discussed inn the following
slides :-

3. 1. This binary portrayal of
the aspects of the 1857
revolt continued even after
independence. Dr. R.C.
Mazumder found no trace
of nationalist spirit in it.

4. 2. Sharply contradicting
Mazumder’s views, Dr. S.B.
Chaudhuri thinks the revolt had a
national character. The active
participation of different cross-
sections of Indian society, all
impelled by hatred for the British,
and entitles it to be called a
national uprising.

5. 3. More recently, historians have
focused on the revolt in its local
and especially agrarian settings.
They suggest that the participation
of peasants provides the link
between the military mutiny and
the rural uprisings.

6. 4. Peasants participated in it for
many different reasons in many
different regions. Sometimes, as in
Awadh, they made common cause
with the talukdars against the
common enemy. Hence they
followed the lead given by the
talukdars.

7. 5. But there are many
instances where the peasants
in revolt chose their leaders
from the ranks of ordinary
people. Thus the civil
rebellions in the countryside
were ‘more than simply a
feudal reaction’.

8. 6. Areas where grievances of
disgruntled aristocracy
coincided with the outbursts of
peasants and artisans, there
were broad based insurgencies

9. 7. Nationalism in its developed form might
not have motivated the rebels. The time was
not appropriate for that. But patriotism in the
sense of a shared antipathy against the British
was not altogether absent in 1857. It is this
vague patriotism that underlay many acts of
individual bravery and collective defiance. And
it is this that invests the Revolt with a new
meaning. In the words of Eric Stokes, “To India
1857 bequeathed a more living and enduring
presence”.

11. 1. Historians differ regarding the nature of
the Sepoy Mutiny. According to some this was
a struggle between the whites and the black,
some found feudal reactions and dying voices
of feudalism in it, while others regard it as a
revolt of the sepoys. Some attribute the revolt
to the annexation policy of Lord Dalhousie.
Some find in it a national revolt, while some
regard it as the first war of Indian
Independence.

12. 2. The most important among those who
regard as a Sepoy Mutiny were Charles Reikes,
Charles Roberts, John Silly, John Lawrence,
John Key, etc. Among the Indians who named
it as a Sepoy Mutiny, mentioned should be
made of Ishwar Chandra Gupta, Sambhu
Chandra Mukherjee, Harish Chandra
Mukherjee, Akshay Kumar Datta, Durgadas
Banerjee, Syed Ahmed Khan, Raj Narain Bose,
Dadabhai Naoroji etc.

13. 3. The Sepoys started but finally common
people joined it, so it was a popular revolt
no doubt. From Eastern Punjab to
Western Bihar it was a revolt of
commoners. In Oudh more than one lac
people joined the revolt of 1857. In the
July of 1857 A.D. Disraeli, the leader of
the Tory Party declared the rebellion as a
‘National Revolt’ in the British Parliament.

14. 4. Many British historians like J.B.
Norton, Alexander Duff, Malleson,
Charles Ball, James Outram, and
Holmes also regarded it as a
national revolt.
5. Karl Marx had also accepted
the national character of the
rebellion.

15. 6. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his book
‘Indian war of Independence’ has declared
that the revolt of 1857 A.D. was the First
Indian war of Independence. He was
supported by the only historian Ashok
Mehra. Dr. Surendranath Sen said in his
book ‘Eighteen Fifty Seven’ that the revolt
of 1857 A.D. cannot be mentioned as war
of independence