What was the Indian Rebellion of 1857 ?

Eighty-five of them were dismissed and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. On 10th May the revolt started at Meerut and the mutineers after killing some of their officials marched towards Delhi.

On 12th May Delhi was seized and Bahadur Shah II was proclaimed the emperor of India. The real command was in the hands of Bakht Khan who had led the revolt at Bareilly and brought the troops to Delhi.

Here the revolt was led by Nana Saheb who declared himself the Peshwa and governor of Bahadur Shah. Tantya Tope did most of the fighting. Rebels defeated General Windham outside Kanpur.

The revolt was led by Hazrat Mahal, the Begum of Awadh. She had proclaimed her young son Brijis Kadiras the Nawab of Awadh against the wishes of the British. Henry Lawrence, the British resident was killed at Lucknow.

After some initial vacillations, Rani Laxmi Bai assumed the leadership of the mutiny. After being defeated at Jhansi, she captured Gwalior with the help of Tantya Tope and Afghan guards.

Khan Bahadur Khan proclaimed himself as the Nawab and led the revolt there. The other centres of the revolt were Benaras, Allahabad, Gwalior, Nasirabad in Rajputana, Indore, Aligarh and Kota.

At all these places the sepoys killed the senior officers and other Europeans on whom they could lay their hands, in many cases not even sparing women and children. They also released prisoners from jail, plundered the treasury and burnt land records at many pieces.

However the superior British forces soon suppressed the revolt. Bahadur Shah II proved to be a weak leader.

Delhi was recaptured on 20th September 1857 by John Nicholson. Bahadur Shah was arrested and deported to Rangoon where he died in 1862.

The rebels were defeated by General Havelock in Kanpur. Nana Saheb after being defeated refused to surrender and escaped to Nepal.

At Jhansi Hugh Rose suppressed the revolt and Rani Laxmi Bai died on the battle field. Benaras, Bareilly and Gwalior were also recaptured by British officers.

The revolt was highly localized and restricted to North India. Regions beyond the river Narmada in the south remained largely undisturbed.

The revolt failed to embrace all the sections of the society. Many of the native rulers and the big zamindars refused to join the revolt against the British

They extended an active support to the British to suppress the revolt. Modern educated Indians were suspicious of the rebels. They feared the opposition of the rebels in bringing about social reforms

The rebels lacked a common cause and had different goals. At most places the rebels were encouraged to revolt against the local zamindars and money-lenders and did not have a larger goal to pursue. They lacked a spirit of nationalism.

e British had better resources and succeeded in suppressing the revolt. They had vast resources at their disposal and were helped by the modern means of transport and communications.

They also had the services of capable generals as Havelock, Outram, and Lawrence available who could plan the suppression of the revolt well and win back their lost regions.

Historians have described the nature of the rebellion of 1857 variously. Some call it a sepoy mutiny since the initial thrust of the revolt in the form of the cartridge episode was given by the soldiers.

These scholars also contend that the revolt was not related to the general people so much as the sepoys and they formed the bulk of the rebels.

Nationalists as V.D. Savarkar opine that the revolt was the first war of independence.

They feel that the revolt sparked off the discontent of the Indians towards the foreign rule and they fought bitterly to drive away the foreigners from their homeland. According to them, the Hindus and Muslims participated equally in the revolt and displayed a new bond of unity against the British.

The Marxists view the revolt as a soldier-peasant struggle against feudal bondage. They contend that the Indian soldier was a peasant in uniform and wanted to throw away the feudal domination infused by the British.

The Marxists view the revolt as a soldier-peasant struggle against feudal bondage. They contend that the Indian soldier was a peasant in uniform and wanted to throw away the feudal domination infused by the British.

The Queen’s Proclamation of November 1858 announced the policy of the British government to be followed from now on in India.

The Queen’s Proclamation of November 1858 announced the policy of the British government to be followed from now on in India.