What was the Indian Rebellion of 1857 ?

The seizure of Delhi provided a focus and set the pattern for the whole mutiny, which then spread throughout northern India. With the exception of the Mughal emperor and his sons and Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the deposed Maratha peshwa, none of the important Indian princes joined the mutineers.

From the time of the mutineers’ seizure of Delhi, the British operations to suppress the mutiny were divided into three parts. First came the desperate struggles at Delhi, Kanpur, and Lucknow during the summer; then the operations around Lucknow in the winter of 1857–58, directed by Sir Colin Campbell; and finally the “mopping up” campaigns of Sir Hugh Rose in early 1858.

A grim feature of the mutiny was the ferocity that accompanied it. The mutineers commonly shot their British officers on rising and were responsible for massacres at Delhi, Kanpur, and elsewhere.

Several months of increasing tension preceded the actual rebellion. Fires broke out near Calcutta on January 24, 1857.

The murder of women and children enraged the British, but in fact some British officers began to take severe measures before they knew that any such murders had occurred. In the end the reprisals far outweighed the original excesses

On February 26, 1857 the 19th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment heard a rumor that new cartridges had a casing made of cow and pig fat, which had to be bitten off by mouth.

The cow being sacred to Hindus and pig haram to Muslims, soldiers refused to use them.

Hundreds of sepoys were bayoneted or fired from cannons in a frenzy of British vengeance (though some British officers did protest the bloodshed).

The British had a tense confrontation with the soldiers before standing down.

On March 29, 1857 at the Barrackpore (now Barrackpur) parade ground, near Calcutta (now Kolkata), 29-year-old Mangal Pandey of the 34th BNI rebelled against his commanders.

The immediate result of the mutiny was a general housecleaning of the Indian administration. The East India Company was abolished in favour of the direct rule of India by the British government.

In concrete terms, this did not mean much, but it introduced a more personal note into the government and removed the unimaginative commercialism that had lingered in the Court of Directors.

When his adjutant Lt. Baugh came out to investigate the unrest, Pandey opened fire, hitting his horse.

The next day, Sunday, Indian soldiers warned British officers of plans to release the imprisoned soldiers by force, but they took no action. In Meerut, protests erupted in the bazaar, with some buildings set on fire.

The financial crisis caused by the mutiny led to a reorganization of the Indian administration’s finances on a modern basis. The Indian army was also extensively reorganized.

In the evening, the Indian troops, led by the 3rd Cavalry, broke into revolt.

Another significant result of the mutiny was the beginning of the policy of consultation with Indians. The Legislative Council of 1853 had contained only Europeans and had arrogantly behaved as if it were a full-fledged parliament

They killed British junior officers who attempted to quell the first outbreaks, attacking British officers' and civilians' quarters.

It was widely felt that a lack of communication with Indian opinion had helped to precipitate the crisis.

Four civilian men, eight women and eight children died in the riot. Crowds in the bazaar attacked the off-duty soldiers there.

Accordingly, the new council of 1861 was given an Indian-nominated element. The educational and public works programs (roads, railways, telegraphs, and irrigation) continued with little interruption; in fact, some were stimulated by the thought of their value for the transport of troops in a crisis.

The sepoys freed their 85 imprisoned comrades from the jail, along with 800 other prisoners (debtors and criminals).

Finally, there was the effect of the mutiny on the people of India themselves. Traditional society had made its protest against the incoming alien influences, and it had failed. The princes and other natural leaders had either held aloof from the mutiny or had proved, for the most part, incompetent.

From this time all serious hope of a revival of the past or an exclusion of the West diminished. The traditional structure of Indian society began to break down and was eventually superseded by a Westernized class system, from which emerged a strong middle class with a heightened sense of Indian nationalism.

Some sepoys (especially from the 11th Bengal Native Infantry) escorted British officers and women and children to safety before joining the revolt.