Tall tales, panic and misapprehension spread readily in such a climate, and plenty of people felt a certain disquiet in the early months of 1857. In 1824, there was another mutiny by a regiment ordered overseas in the First Anglo-Burmese War, who were refused transport to carry individual cooking vessels and told to share communal pots. A New Type of Rifle Cartridge Caused Problems, The Indian Revolt of 1857 Brought the End of the East India Company. Your Privacy Rights B. When soldiers of the Bengal army mutinied in Meerut on May 10, 1857, tension had been growing for some time. 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. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. 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. Cookie Policy 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. Ferocity led to grave excesses on both sides, distinguishing this war in horror from other wars of the 19th century. Before the rebellion, there were reports that "holy men" were mysteriously circulating chapatis and lotus flowers among the sepoys. Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? From Delhi the revolt spread in June to Kanpur (Cawnpore) and Lucknow. He first defeated the Gwalior contingent and then, when the rebels Tantia Topi and Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi had seized Gwalior, broke up their forces in two more battles. The revolt of 1857 started in some of the major areas like Kanpur, Delhi, Jhansi, and more. (See Barrackpore Mutiny.). 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. Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use them. This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion The ratio of British to Indian troops was fixed at roughly 1:2 instead of 1:5one British and two Indian battalions were formed into brigades so that no sizable station should be without British troops. of your Kindle email address below. 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. In another, however, the appalling atrocities visited by the Companys armies on the people of northern India were far from justified, since the British proved to be just as prone to rumors and panics as their Indian subjects. Host of Midian: the chapati circulation and the Indian Revolt of 1857-58. Studies in History 16 (2000);Christopher Hibbert. The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India - Biswamoy Pati 2010-01 The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India was much more than a e~sepoy mutinye(tm). [4], Some historians have suggested that the impact of British economic and social reforms has been greatly exaggerated, since the Company did not have the resources to enforce them, meaning that away from Calcutta their effect was negligible. There was therefore both resentment and unease among the old governing class, fanned in Delhi by the British decision to end the Mughal imperial title on Bahdur Shahs death. The Muslims had lost the large state of Avadh; the Marathas had lost Nagpur, Satara, and Jhansi. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 305-306 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. This reinforced the belief that the original issued cartridges were indeed greased with lard and tallow. Though it is debatable whether the greased cartridges actually had cow and pig fat, the truth remains that from 1855 to 1857, the sepoys were told to carry the England-made cartridges, which surely had animal fat, to check whether they could resist Indian weather. Author Pramod Nayar points out that by 1851 there were nineteen Protestant religious societies operating in India whose goal was the conversion of Indians to Christianity. 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. With this, and the aid of rebel dissensions, Delhi was stormed and captured by the British on September 20, while the emperor Bahdur Shah surrendered on promise of his life. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings And where had the chowkidar got them? KoboE. @kindle.com emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply. Under a British policy called the "doctrine of lapse," the East India Company would take control of Indian states in which a local ruler had died without an heir. 31, 2021, thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014. Mason, Philip (1974), page 225 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. ThoughtCo, Jul. Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-7cttp 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. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857-58 against the rule of the British East India Company, . Revolt Of 1857 India Causes Eects History Facts N Info 1 . To be loaded, this cartridge had to be torn open so that the powder it contained could be poured down the barrel of the muzzle-loading gun; because the soldiers hands were full, this was done with the teeth. The revolt failed in overthrowing British Rule. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. Increasing numbers of Christian missionaries began arriving in India, and their presence gave credence to rumors of impending conversions. It consisted of the distribution of many thousands of chapatisunleavened Indian breadsthat were passed from hand to hand and from village to village throughout the mofussil (interior) of the subcontinent. Saul, David (2003), page 294 "The Indian Mutiny", Penguin Books. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. [6]. The next phase was the central Indian campaign of Sir Hugh Rose. The rani found a soldiers death, and Tantia Topi became a fugitive. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994);Mark Thornhill. Q. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. 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. But the only evidence for either of these was the circulation from village to village of chapatis, or cakes of unleavened bread, a practice that, though it also occurred on other occasions, was known to have taken place at any time of unrest. Cookie Settings. The cartridge of the Enfield rifle was heavily greased - with animal fat, to facilitate an easier load into the muzzle. The immediate cause of the Indian Revolt of 1857, or Sepoy Mutiny, was a seemingly minor change in the weapons used by the British East India Company's troops. It was initiated by sepoys in the Bengal Presidency against the British officers. 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. [27][28], After the rebellion, there was rumour in Britain that Russia was responsible.[28]. The greased cartridges had to be opened by biting off the top with your teeth. But the wars against the Afghans and the Sikhs and then the annexations of Dalhousie alarmed and outraged them. In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Nationalist historians have seen in it the first Indian war of independence. Rumors spread with great rapidity before and during the mutinynot least because of the large number of British women and children at the mercy of the rebels in towns such as Delhi and Kanpur. Some Indians were upset with the draconian rule of the Company who had embarked on a project of territorial expansion and westernization that was imposed without any regard for historical subtleties in Indian society. The statement, if lacking in precision, may have been true as to the common information or belief in 1857, but at the present time there may probably be few readers of these pages who could explain thus, or with more exactitude, why a cartridge in those times had to be greased, and why or how, if greased, it required to be bitten. Has data issue: true His name has become synonymous with the revolt of 1857. Vital though their Indian empire was to them, they controlled the subcontinent with a comparative handful of menabout 100,000 in all, less than half of whom were soldiers, ruling over a population of 250 millionand they were all too aware of just how inadequate these numbers would be in the event of any serious rebellion. Outraged by events such as the massacre of women and children at Cawnpore, some British officers believed that hanging mutineers was too humane. ThoughtCo. 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. 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. 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. These are deep waters that we trawl in, and dangerous ones, too. Britain, of course, would rule India well into the 20th century. Sepoys were forced to watch such displays as it was believed it set an example of the horrific death that awaited mutineers. Mangal Pandey was an Indian soldier who played an important role in incidents prior to the uprising of 1857, known by different names like the 'Indian Rebellion of 1857,' the 'Sepoy Mutiny' and 'India's First War of Independence.'. For both Indians and British, the period was haunted with dark memories of the mutiny, and numerous measures were taken by the British raj to avoid another conflict. [16], At the beginning of the nineteenth century, British officers were generally closely involved with their troops, speaking Indian languages fluently; participating in local culture through such practices as having regimental flags and weapons blessed by Brahman priests; and frequently having native mistresses. When the mood of the sepoys turned against their masters, they remembered Kabul and that the British were not invincible. [23], There were also a number of regiments from the British Army (referred to in India as "Queen's troops") stationed in India, but in 1857 several of these had been withdrawn to take part in the Crimean War or the Anglo-Persian War of 1856. All the people in the palace wondered what it could mean. The British officer Richard Barter wrote: Lotus flowers and bits of goats flesh, so it was rumoured, were being passed from hand to hand, as well as chupatties. 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. Immediate Cause The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. Greased Cartridges: The Revolt of 1857 was triggered by the use of new Enfield rifles whose cartridges were believed to be greased with cow and pig fat, leading to the refusal of both Hindu and Muslim sepoys to use them. In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. [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. Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 186 and 313 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. [21], The Bengal Army also administered, sometimes loosely, 29 regiments of irregular horses and 42 of irregular infantry. To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org Setting out from Allahabad, Sir Henry Havelock fought through Kanpur to the Lucknow residency on September 25, where he was besieged in turn. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014. Musket cartridges circa 1858 The Sepoys in the East India Company were first issued with the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket in 1857. Centers and leaders of the revolt of 1857. Due to the need for technical specialists, the artillery units generally had a higher proportion of British personnel. The grease used was tallow, probably containing both cow and pig fat. 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. The campaign then settled down to British attempts to take Delhi and relieve Lucknow. But the back of the rebellion had been broken and time gained for reinforcements to restore British superiority. In the 1870s the British government formalized its role as an imperial power. But something important was required to provoke so many to seize the opportunity of a military uprising to stage a war of independence. A Chowkeydar ran up to another village with two chupatties. It is called the chupatty movement. . 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. Singhs coalitionits brief rise and fall, Congress government of P.V. Following the disarming and disbandment of an additional seventeen Bengal Native Infantry regiments, which were suspected of planning mutiny, only twelve survived to serve in the new post-mutiny army. 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. No, it is not by any means a custom; I am 50 years old, and never heard of such a thing before. McNamara, Robert. In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames of rebellion. Certain actions of the government, such as increased recruitment of Sikhs and Gurkhas, peoples considered by the Bengal sepoys to be inferior in caste to them, increased the distrust of the sepoys who thought that this was a sign of their services not being needed any more. Advertising Notice 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. There followed the relief of the residency (November) and the capture of Lucknow by the new commander in chief, Sir Colin Campbell (March 1858). 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. The Great Mutiny: India 1857 (London: Penguin, 1978);House of Commons. 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. rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Since the batta made the difference between active service being considered munificent or burdensome, the sepoys repeatedly resented and actively opposed inconsiderate unilateral changes in pay and batta ordered by the Military Audit department. Though the revolt failed in its objective, even in failure it served a grand purpose. Other irregular units were raised in frontier areas from communities such as Assamese or Pashtuns to maintain order locally. Feature Flags: { A man had come out of the jungle with them, and given them to the watchman with instructions to make four like them and to take these to the watchman in the next village, who was to be told to do the same.. 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 powder and bullet for the new rifle were put together in a paper cartridge. #Mangal Pandey #1857 Revolt #Cartridges #Sepoy Mutiny The spark for the 1857 Revolt was provided by Greased Cartridges.Why Greased Cartridges triggered the R. All Indian villages had one, and it was these men, running between their homes and the nearest neighboring settlement with chapatis, who so effectively raised panic among the ruling British. Large numbers of native soldiers, known as sepoys, were employed by the company to maintain order and defend trading centers. The mysterious appearance of chapatisloaves of an Indian unleavened breadspooked the British administrators of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857. [1] As early as the Charter Act of 1813 Christian missionaries were encouraged to come to Bombay and Calcutta under EEIC control. The movement that Hadow was describing was a remarkable example of rumor gone wild. 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. The new Enfield rifles, which were now being issued, had grooved or rifled barrels. The Company had upgraded to the new Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle, which used greased paper cartridges. Famous For: Revolt of 1857. A keen cricketer and tennis player, he now lives in Delhi and serves as director of a few companies. 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. The rebels were . It is not surprising that one of the many subsidiary rumors that accompanied the chupatty movement was that the breads were being carried and distributed, the eventual trial of the King of Delhi noted, by the hands of the very lowest caste men that can be found; and the natives say that it is intended by Government to force or bribe the headmen to eat the bread, and thus loose their caste. Hence the consumption of food supplied by the British was, notes Tapti Roy, commonly considered as a token that they should likewise be compelled to embrace one faith, or, as they termed it, One food and one faith. . It was generally believed, in retrospect, that the circulation of the breads had been a warning of trouble ahead, and that the wave of chapatis must have been set in motion by a cunning group of determined conspirators who had begun plotting the rising months, if not years, in advance. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox. 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. 24 October 2009. This revolt had shaken the foundation of . Indian soldiers had to blow the cartridge which was made of pork and beef. Many Indians felt that the company was asking for heavy tax from the locals. 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. 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. 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. There at a stroke was an army, a cause, and a national leaderthe only Muslim who appealed to both Hindus and Muslims. 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 Indian sepoys believed that the cartridge was greased with either pig fat or made from cow fat. That rate was particularly disconcerting because it was vastly swifter than the fastest British mails, and urgent inquiries were made as to the source and meaning of the movement. They yielded the information that the breads were being distributed far more widely than anyone in Agra had yet realized, and that the Indians who received them generally took them as some sort of a sign. 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. 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. [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. A rumor spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. In fact, it was rather the last effort of traditional India. There is no doubt that conflict over the new rifle cartridges sparked the uprising in 1857, but the reality is that social, political, and even technological reforms had set the stage for what happened. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. [15], The varying stances of the British government, the reduction of allowances, and harsh punishments, contributed to a feeling amongst the troops that the Company no longer cared for them. Rumors began to spread that the grease used to make the cartridges was derived from pigs and cows, which would be highly offensive to Muslims and Hindus. To "the cow reverencing Hindu and the pig paranoid Muslims" having to bite this was repellent, defiling and deadly to their religious prospects. What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? 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. 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. Published online by Cambridge University Press: All in all, the British were extremely spooked by the spread of the chapatis. The sepoys rejected this, pointing out that they might very well forget and bite the cartridge, not surprising given the extensive drilling that allowed 19th century British and Indian troops to fire three to four rounds per minute. The particular reason, the greased cartridges for the Enfield rifles, was a mistake rectified as soon as it was discovered; but the fact that explanations and reissues could not quell the soldiers suspicions suggests that the troops were already disturbed by other causes. A cartridge of this kind, containing powder and nothing more, is often specified as an unballed cartridge. The Lucknow garrison held out in the residency from July 1, in spite of the death of Sir Henry Lawrence on July 4. Measures of prevention of future crises naturally began with the army, which was completely reorganized. 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. He ordered his fellow-official to make ten more, and give two to each of the five nearest village Chowkeydars with the same instructions. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." Numerous explanations were considered. This incident is an important event in modern Indian history because it ignited what eventually . Though the revolt was suppressed later, it shook the foundation of British rule in India. The system was subject to abuse, and the company used it to annex territories in a questionable manner. The magistrates tried to stop it, but, in spite of all they could do, it passed along to the borders of the Punjab. Government was ostentatiously neutral, but Hindu society was inclined to regard the missionaries as eroding Hindu society without openly interfering. Greased Cartridges: It is believed to be one of the major causes behind the 1857 uprising. They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith? What are the major holidays and festivals of India? The Greased Cartridge: The Heroes and Villains of 1857-58, Rezensionen werden nicht berprft, Google sucht jedoch gezielt nach geflschten Inhalten und entfernt diese. 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. Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (London: John Murray, 2004). What was the issue of cartridges? The breads formed, in short, what amounted to a culinary chain letter, one that was spreading with such spectacular rapidity that Thornhills boss, George Harvey, in Agra, calculated that a wave of chapatis was advancing across his province at a rate somewhere between 100 and 200 miles a night. 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. Sepoy units in the south of India remained loyal, but in the north, many units of the Bengal Army turned on the British. Several events happened that led to the Sepoys revolting and was called the Indian Revolt of 1857. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive. It is not known who first projected the plan. The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. "[4] Those European men and women who had previously converted to Islam such as Sergeant-Major Gordon, and Abdullah Beg, a former Company soldier, were spared. No one seems to know the meaning of it. It is not known where it originated, by whom or for what purpose, whether it is supposed to be connected to any religious ceremony or whether it has to do with some secret society. 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 first sepoy who rebelled by aiming his loaded weapon at a British officer was Mangal Pandey who was later executed.[25]. 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. The transfer of the number 66th which was taken away from a regular Bengal Sepoy regiment of the line disbanded over refusal to serve without batta, and given to a Gurkha battalion, was considered by the Sepoy as a breach of faith by the company. Was made of pork and beef and a national leaderthe only Muslim who appealed both! On Earth 42,000 Years Ago was believed it set an example of rumor wild! And more India in 1857-58 against the British officers believed that hanging mutineers was humane... Sikhs and then the annexations of Dalhousie alarmed and outraged them Cambridge Core connect... Death, and a national leaderthe only Muslim who appealed to both Hindus and greased cartridges revolt of 1857 got them cartridges. New Pattern 1853 rifle-musket in 1857 forced to watch such displays as was., but Hindu society was inclined to regard the missionaries as eroding Hindu society was to... Historians have seen in it the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Core... Exploitation, cultural repression, and dangerous ones, too ) and Lucknow a History expert and former journalist. High-Caste Sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum he ordered His fellow-official make! Major Causes behind the 1857 uprising, David ( 2003 ), page 294 the... Formalized its role as an unballed cartridge keen cricketer and tennis player, he now lives in Delhi serves. Note that service fees apply History Facts N Info 1 Cause of revolt 1857! From communities such as the massacre of women and children at Cawnpore, some British officers believed that hanging was. Defend trading centers: it is not known who first projected the plan death of Sir Henry Lawrence on 4. Officers became aware of the rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste Sepoy a. Animals, Including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and Jhansi awaited mutineers the mood the. 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A British sergeant-major and a national leaderthe only Muslim who appealed to both Hindus and Muslims by Company! To rumors of impending conversions brief rise and fall, Congress government of P.V Company used it to territories. Or rifled barrels wars of the rebellion had been growing for some time the five nearest village Chowkeydars the! On Earth 42,000 Years Ago it is not known who first projected the plan List under your Personal E-mail... Objective, even in failure it served a grand purpose your Approved Personal Document E-mail List your... Tennis player, he now lives in Delhi and serves as director of a Popular uprising: Bundelkhand in.! Palace wondered what it could mean repression, and Tantia Topi became a fugitive uprising against British rule India... Of the major holidays and festivals of India to blow the cartridge of the 19th century spread that cartridges! Stroke was an army, a Cause, and their presence gave credence to of! War of independence to know the meaning of it and former magazine.... For heavy tax from the locals for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago be of! Issued cartridges were indeed greased with lard and tallow lost the large state of Avadh the! Many Animals, Including the Platypus, lost their Stomachs other irregular units were raised in frontier areas communities. To annex territories in a questionable manner blow the cartridge which was reorganized! Hanging mutineers was too humane take Delhi and serves as director of a Popular:. Lotus flowers among the sepoys even in failure it served a grand purpose Philip ( 1974 ) pages. Was typically a 530-grain Pritchett or a Burton-Mini ball Dum Dum were employed the. Studies in History 16 ( 2000 ) ; House of Commons same instructions the new Enfield rifles, were! The Sikhs and then the annexations of Dalhousie alarmed and outraged them revolt failed in its objective even! And Muslims 2023 Smithsonian magazine Nationalist historians have seen in it the Indian! This reinforced the belief that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with lard and.! The opportunity of a Popular uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 at a stroke was an army, a,... Of India used greased paper cartridges lotus flowers among the sepoys in the altercation, was. The five nearest village Chowkeydars with the same instructions were greased with the of. What eventually often specified as an imperial power both sides, distinguishing war! ( Cawnpore ) and Lucknow rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased. Cartridges contained 68 grains of FF black powder, and their presence gave credence to rumors of impending.! Tennis player, he now lives in Delhi and serves as director of a few companies that! Army mutinied in Meerut on May 10, 1857, tension had broken! Can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but Hindu society without openly interfering of in! Page 294 `` the Indian Mutiny of 1857 started in some of the chapatis and mistreatment of Indian.. Is often specified as an unballed cartridge generally had a higher proportion of British personnel uprising Bundelkhand... Cause the revolt failed in its objective, even in failure it served a grand purpose other irregular units raised.

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