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.

1. REVOLT OF 1857
Dr.Pricila
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Dr.R.Pricila

2. A mighty popular revolt broke out in northern and central
India in 1857 and nearly swept away British rule.
Millions of peasants, artisans and soldiers fought
heroically for over a year and by their exemplary courage
and sacrifice.
Dr.R.Pricila

3. GENERAL CAUSES
• The Revolt of 1857 was much more than a mere product of sepoy discontent.
• It was in reality a product of the character and policies of colonial rule, of the
accumulated grievances of the people against the Company’s administration
and of their dislike for the foreign regime.
• For over a century, as the British had been conquering the country bit by
bit,popular discontent and hatred against foreign rule was gaining discontent
that burst forth into a mighty people revolt.
• Perhaps the most important cause of the populat discontent was complete
destruction of its traditional economic fabric; this both as also a large number
of traditional zamindars and chiefs.
Dr.R.Pricila

4. • Other general cause were the British land and land revenue policies
and the system of law and administration.
• In particular, a large number of peasant proprietors, subjected to
exorbitant land revenue demand, lost their lands to traders and
moneylenders and found themselves hoplessly involved in debt.
• The economic decline of the peasentry found expression in twelve
major and numerous minor famines from 1770 to 1857.
• The police, petty officials and lower law courts were notoriously
corrupt.
• William Edwards, a British official, wrote in 1859 while discussing the
causes of the Revolt that the police were “ a scourge to the people”
and that “their oppressions and exactions form one of the chief
grounds of dissatisfaction with our government.”
Dr.R.Pricila

5. • The complex judicial system enabled the rich to oppress the poor.
• Flogging, torture and jailing of were quit common.
• Thus the growing poverty of the people made them desperate and led them to
join a general revolt in the hope of improving their lot.
• The middle and upper classes of Indian society, particularly in the north, were
hard hit by their exclusion from well-paid higher posts in the administration.
• The British army suffered major reverses in the First Afghan War (1838-56)
• In 1855-56 the Santhal tribesmen of Bihar and Bengal rose up armed with
axes and bows and arrows and revealed the potentialities of a popular
uprising, by temorarily sweeping away British rule from their area.
• Though the British army could be defeated by determined fighting even by an
Asian army.
• The annexation of Awadh by Lord Dalhousie in 1856 was widely resented in
India in general and in Awadh in particular.
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6. • More specifically, it created an atmosphere of rebellion in Awadh and in the Company’s
army.
• Dalhousie’s action angered the Company’s sepoy, 75,000 of whom came from Awadh.
• The annexation of Awadh, along with the other annexations of Dalhousie, created panic
among rulers of the native states.
• An important factor in turning the people against British rule was their that it endangerd
their relgion.
• This fear largely due to the activities of the Christian missionaries who were “to be seen
everywhere- in the schools, in the hospitals, in the prisons and at the market places”.
• The conservative religious and social sentiments of many people were also hurt by
some of the humanitarian measures which the government had undertaken on the advice
of Indian reformers.
• They believed that an alien Christian government had no right to interfere in their
relgion and customs.
• The abolition of sati, the legalisation of widow remarriage, and the opening of Western
education to girls appeared to them as examples of such undue interference.
Dr.R.Pricila

7. • The sepoys also had religious or caste grievances of their own.
• The Indians of those days were strict in observing caste rules, etc.
• The military authorities forbade the sepoys to wear caste and sectarian
marks, beard or turbans.
• In 1856, an Act was passed under which every new recruit undertook
to serve even overseas, if required.
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8. • The sepoys also had numerous other grievances.
• A contemporary English observer noted that “ the officers and men
have not been friends but strangers to one another. The sepoys is
esteemed an inferior creature.
• He is sworn at.
• He is treated roughly.
• He is spoken of as a ‘nigger’.
• He is addressed as a ‘suar’ or pig...
Dr.R.Pricila

9. Immediate Cause
• The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges.
A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with
the fat of cows and pigs.
• Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the
cartridges. Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use them.
• Canning tried to make amends for the error and the offending cartridges were
withdrawn, but by then the damage had been done. There was unrest in several
places.
• In March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy in Barrackpore, had refused to use the
cartridge and attacked his senior officers.
• He was hanged to death on 8th April. On 9th May, 85 soldiers in Meerut
refused to use the new rifle and were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.
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10. Main events of the revolt
• The Meerut Mutiny (May 9, 1857) marked the beginning of the Revolt of
1857.
• The Revolt at Meerut by the sepoys and rebellion almost all over North India,
as well as Central and Western India.
• South India remained quiet Punjab and Bengal were only marginally affected.
• The Indian sepoys in Meerut murdered their British officers and broke open
the jail. On May 10, they marched to Delhi.
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11. Capture of Delhi
• In Delhi the mutineers were joined by the Delhi sepoys and the city came under
their control.
• Next day, on 11th May, the sepoys proclaimed the ageing Bahadur Shah Zafar
the Emperor of Hindustan.
• But Bahadur Shah was old and he could not give able leadership to the sepoys.
• The occupation of Delhi was short-lived.
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12. Fall of Delhi
• The British finally attacked Delhi in September.
• For six days there was desperate fighting.
• But by September 1857, the British reoccupied Delhi.
• Thousands of innocent people were massacred and hundreds were hanged.
• The old king was captured and later deported to Rangoon where he died in
1862.
• His sons were shot dead.
• Thus ended the imperial dynasty of the Mughals.
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13. Centres of the revolt
• The revolt spread over the entire area from the neighbourhood of Patna to the
borders of Rajasthan.
• There were six main centres of revolt in these regions namely Kanpur,
Lucknow, Bareilly, Jhansi, Gwalior and Arrah in Bihar.
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14. Lucknow
• Lucknow was the capital of Awadh.
• There the mutinous sepoys were joined by the disbanded soldiers from
the old Awadh army.
• Begum Hazrat Mahal, one of the begums of the ex-king of Awadh, took
up the leadership of the revolt.
• Finally the British forces captured Lucknow.
• The queen escaped to Nepal.
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15. Kanpur
• In Kanpur the revolt was led by Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Peshwa Baji
Rao II.
• He joined the revolt primarily because he was deprived of his pension by the
British.
• He captured Kanpur and proclaimed himself the Peshwa.
• The victory was short- lived.
• Kanpur was recaptured by the British after fresh reinforcements arrived.
• The revolt was suppressed with terrible vengeance.
• The rebels were either hanged or blown to pieces by canons.
• Nana Saheb escaped.
• But his brilliant commander Tantia Tope continued the struggle.
• Tantia Tope was finally defeated, arrested and hanged.
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16. Jhansi
• In Jhansi, the twenty-two-year-old Rani Lakshmi Bai led the rebels when the
British refused to accept the claim of her adopted son to the throne of Jhansi.
• She fought gallantly against the British forces.
• But she was ultimately defeated by the English.
• Rani Lakshmi Bai escaped.
• Later on, the Rani was joined by Tantia Tope and together they marched to
Gwalior and captured it.
• Sindhia, a loyal ally of the British, was driven out.
• Fierce fighting followed.
• The Rani of Jhansi fought like a tigress.
• She died, fighting to the very end.
• Gwalior was recaptured by the British.
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17. Bihar
• In Bihar the revolt was led by Kunwar Singh.
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18. Suppression of the Revolt
• The Revolt of 1857 lasted for more than a year.
• It was suppressed by the middle of 1858.
• On July 8, 1858, fourteen months after the outbreak at Meerut,
peace was finally proclaimed by Canning.
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19. Queen Victoria’s Proclamation
• On November 1, 1858, a grand Darbar was held at Allahabad.
• Here Lord Canning sent forth the royal proclamation which
announced that the queen had assumed the government of India.
• This proclamation declared the future policy of the British Rule in
India.
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20. Impact on East India Company
• The document was called “Magnacarta of the People of India” and was declared in
eloquent words the principles of justice and religious toleration as the guiding
policy of the queen’s rule.
• As per Queen Victoria’s proclamation of November, 1 1858, all treaties and
agreements made with the Indian native princes under the authority of the East
India company did not cease to exist but were there to stay and accepted by the
crown.
• The declaration expressed faith and the rights, dignity and status of the native
princes.
• The Indian public was given an assurance that there would be no extension of the
current territorial possessions.
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21. Causes of the failure of the revolt
• Limited Uprising:
• Although the revolt was fairly widespread, a large part of the country
remained unaffected by it.
• The revolt was mainly confined to the Doab region, Sind, Rajputana,
Kashmir, most parts of Punjab.
• The southern provinces did not take part in it.
• It failed to have the character of an all-India struggle.
• Important rulers like Sindhia, Holkar, Rana of Jodhpur and others did not
support the rebels.
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22. No Effective Leaders:
• The rebels lacked an effective leader.
• Nana Saheb, Tantia Tope and Rani Lakshmi Bai were brave
leaders, no doubt, but they could not offer effective leadership to
the movement as a whole.
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23. Limited Resources
• The rebels lacked resources in terms of men and money.
• The English, on the other hand, received a steady supply of men,
money and arms in India.
Dr.R.Pricila