Indian Rebellion of 1857 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids

Indian Rebellion of 1857

A 1912 map of 'Northern India: the Revolt of 1857-58' showing the centres of rebellion including the principal ones: Meerut, Delhi, Cawnpore (Kanpur), Lucknow, Jhansi, and Gwalior

Date	10 May 1857 – 20 June 1858
Location	India (cf. 1857)
Result	Rebellion stopped, End of the Mughal Empire; end of Company rule in India Control taken by the British Crown
Territorial changes	British Indian Empire created out of former-East India Company territory, some land returned to native rulers, other land confiscated by the Crown.

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 is also called the Indian Mutiny, the Sepoy Mutiny, or India's First War of Independence. It began on 10 May 1857, as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army. Sepoys in the Presidency of Bengal revolted against their British officers.

Causes
- Underlying discontent
- Flash point
Events
British Reaction
Opinions
Chronology
Images for kids
See also

Causes

The causes of the mutiny are hard to pin down, and have been much argued about. Before the Rebellion, there were 50,000 British troops, and 300,000 sepoys.

Underlying discontent

The forces were divided into three presidency armies: Bombay, Madras, and Bengal. The make-up of these armies varied from region to region.

The Bengal Army recruited higher castes, such as Rajputs and Bhumihar. They cut back the enlistment of lower castes in 1855. In contrast, the Madras Army and Bombay Army were "more localized, caste-neutral armies" that "did not prefer high-caste men". The domination of higher castes in the Bengal Army has been blamed in part for initial mutinies that led to the rebellion.

There were some changes in the terms of their service which may have created resentment. As the East India Company expanded, soldiers were now expected to serve in less familiar regions, such as in Burma, and also to make do without the "foreign service" remuneration they had got previously. Another financial grievance stemmed from the general service act, which denied retired sepoys a pension. This applied only to new recruits, but older sepoys suspected that it might bied apply to those already in service. Also, the Bengal Army was paid less than the Madras and Bombay Armies, which increased their fears over pensions.

Flash point

The immediate event which angered the sepoys was about the ammunition for the new rifles they had to use. The cartridges that were used in the rifles had to be bitten open. The Muslims were angry because they thought that the paper cartridges had pig fat in them. This was because Muslims believe that pigs are unclean. Hindu soldiers were angry because they believed the cartridges had cow fat in them. On January 27, Colonel Richard Birch ordered that no cartridges should have grease on them, and that sepoys could grease them with whatever they wanted. However, this only made the sepoys believe that the stories about the cartridge having pork and beef fat were true.

During the 1850s the British rulers continued to forcibly take some regions ruled by Indians and made these regions (for example: the kingdom of Agra and Oudh, part of the present day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was seized in 1856) part of the British kingdom. Lord Dalhousie was the Governor General who decided to do this which was against Hindu customs. They did not give any respect to old royal houses of India like the Mughals (nominally Emperors of India) and the Peshwas (the most powerful of the Maratha rulers, leaders of the Maratha Confederacy).

Events

"Attack of the Mutineers on the Redan Battery at Lucknow, July 30, 1857"

"Tantia Topee's Soldiery"

Mutiny Memorial in Jhansi, 1900

Rebellion broke out when a soldier called Mangal Pandey attacked a British sergeant and wounded an adjutant while his regiment was in Barrackpore. General Hearsey ordered another Indian soldier to arrest Mangal Pandey but he refused. Later the British arrested Mangal Pandey and the other Indian soldier. The British killed both by hanging them because what they had done was thought to be treachery. All other soldiers of that regiment lost their places in the army. On May 10th 1857, cavalry troops while doing parade at Meerut broke ranks. They freed the soldiers of the 3rd regiment, and they moved towards Delhi. Soon many Indians of north India joined these soldiers. They entered the Delhi Fort where Bahadur Shah II, the Mughal Emperor, lived, and asked him to become leader of the rebellion. He agreed unwillingly. Very soon the revolt spread throughout north India. Important Indian leaders of royal families joined the rebellion, and started fighting the British at several places. They included: Ahmed Ullah, an advisor of the ex-King of Oudh; Nana Saheb, his nephew Rao Saheb, and his retainers, Tantia Tope and Azimullah Khan; the Rani of Jhansi; Kunwar Singh; the Rajput chief of Jagadishpur in Bihar; and Firuz Saha, a relative of the Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah.

At the beginning the British were slow to respond. Then they took very quick action with heavy forces. They brought their regiments from the Crimean War to India. They also redirected many regiments that were going to China to India. The British forces reached Delhi, and they surrounded the city from 1st July 1857 until 31st August 1857. Eventually street-to-street fights broke out between the British troops and the Indians. Ultimately, they took control of Delhi. The massacre at Kanpur (July 1857) and the siege of Lucknow (June to November 1857) were also very important. The last important battle was at Gwalior (now in Madhya Pradesh) in June 1858 in which the Rani of Jhansi was killed; a few days later the British retook the fortress of Gwalior. With this, the British had practically suppressed the rebellion. However, some guerrilla fighting in many places continued until early in 1859 as Tantia Tope was captured and executed on April 1859.

British Reaction

The rebellion was an event of great importance in the front of history of modern India. The Parliament of the United Kingdom withdrew the right of the British East India Company to rule India in November 1858. The United Kingdom started ruling India directly through its representative called the Governor General. It made India a part of the British Empire. It promised "the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India," equal treatment under the British law. In 1877, Queen Victoria took the title of Empress of India and the Viceroy of India ruled India for her.

The British sent Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal Emperor, out of India, and kept him in Yangon (then called Rangoon), Burma where he died in 1862. The Mughal dynasty, which had ruled India for about four hundred years, ended with his death.

The British also took many steps to employ members of Indian higher castes and rulers in the government. They started employing Indians in the civil services but at lower levels. They stopped taking that lands of the remaining princes and rulers of India. They stopped interference in religious matters. They increased the number of British soldiers, and allowed only British soldiers to handle artillery. The Indian troops were shot from the mouth of cannons and were very mercilessly burst into pieces.

Opinions

In England, newspapers focused on the violence of the mutiny. Some of the reports were not true. Charles Dickens wrote that they (the English) should take revenge. in his 1857 novella The perils of certain English prisoners.

Chronology

1857

11 May - starting date of the revolt which developed into a widents become mutinous
May - following the mutiny at Meerut there are outbreaks in Delhi, Ferozepur, Bombay, Aligarh, Mainpuri, Etawah, Bulundshah, Nasirabad, Bareilly, Moradabad, Shahjahanpur and elsewhere; sepoys are disarmed in Lahore, Agra, Lucknow, Peshawar and Mardan; the Delhi Field Force advances to Karnaul; death of General Anson the British commander-in-chief
June - Mutinies at Sitapur, Hansi, Hissar, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Nimach; mutinies at Gwalior, Bharatpur and Jhansi; mutiny at Kanpur, followed by the siege of the Europeans (4-25 June) and a massacre; mutiny in Banaras forestalled; mutinies at Jewanpur, Allahabad, Jullundur, Phillaur, Nowgong, Rhoni, Fatehgarh, Aurangabad (Deccan), Fatehpur and Jubbulpur; Indian units are forcibly disarmed at Nagpur and Barrackpur; mutinies at Faizabad, Sultanpur and Lucknow; order is restored in Lucknow but the district remains disturbed (Europeans take shelter in the Residency); British defeat at Chinhat (30 June) near Lucknow; siege of Lucknow begins. Other events of June: Battle of Badli-ki-Serai (8 June); Delhi Field Force takes up position on the Ridge and begins operations against Delhi; further spreading of the revolt through the Ganges plain, Rajputana and Central India
July - Mutinies at Indore and Mhow, Auggur, Jhelum, Saugor, Sialkot, Dinapur and Agra; siege of the Lucknow Residency continues through July; operations against Delhi continue through July; death of General Barnard, commanding at Delhi (5 July); General Havelock's force advances from Allahabad to the relief of Kanpur and arrives on the 17th, one day too late to save those massacred there; disarming of Indian units in Rawalpindi; Sialkot mutineers defeated at Trimmu Ghat (16 July)
August - Mutinies at Kolhapur (Bombay Presidency), Poonamali (near Madras), Jubbulpur, Bhopawar (near Indore), and Mian Mir (near Lahore); rebellion spreads through the Saugor and Narbada districts. Also: disarmamament of Indian units at Berhampur (1 August); siege of the Lucknow Residency continues and Havelock's first attempt at relief fails
September - Failure of an outbreak in Karachi (14 Sept.); further outbreaks in the Saugor and Narbada districts; siege of Saugor begins; the City of Delhi is assaulted and captured by the British (14-20 Sept.); the Lucknow residency is relieved by Havelock and Outram (25 Sept.) but a new siege of the reinforced garrison begins
October - Mutiny at Bhogalpur (near Dinapur); unrest in Bihar, north Bengal and Assam; mutiny in Bombay city is forestalled (15 Oct.); revolt in Kotah state (15 Oct.)
November - Sir Colin Campbell relieves Lucknow (17 Nov.); the garrison is evacuated and the city and Residency are temporarily abandoned; defeat of General Windham outside Kanpur (28 Nov.)
December - Decisive battle of Kanpur (6 Dec.); the armies of Rao Sahib and of Tatya Tope are routed by Sir Colin Campbell; campaign in the Doab; capture of Fatehgarh

1858

January - General Sir Hugh Rose begins the Central India campaign; Sir Colin Campbell begins the campaign to recapture Lucknow
February - General Rose relieves Saugor; Campbell's Army of Oudh assembles on the Kanpur-Lucknow road to await Jang Bahadur's Gurkha army from Nepal
March - Lucknow is recaptured on 21 March; Central India campaign continues
April - Battle of the Betwa; the nearby city of Jhansi is stormed and captured (3-6 April); Azamgarh recaptured; advance on Kalpi (25 April); Campbell begins reconquest of Rohilkhand; Koer Singh leads a rising in Bihar; after his defeat he dies of his wounds
May - Battle of Bareilly followed by its recapture; Battle of Kunch; recapture of Jagdispur; reoccupation of Kalpi; Battle of Mohamdi (24 May) and end of resistance in Rohilkhand; rebels begin guerrilla war in the jungle; Tatya Tope and the Rani of Jhansi outside Gwalior
June - Gwalior army deserts to the rebels and Tatya Tope and the Rani of Jhansi seize Gwalior; General Rose marches from Kalpi to Gwalior arriving on the 16th; next day the battle of Kotah-i-Serai and on the 19th the Battle of Gwalior; Gwalior fortress recaptured; during June guerrilla forces in Oudh, Bihar and along the Nepalese frontier are suppressed
July to December - suppression of guerrilla forces except in Rajputana and Central India

1859

April - Trial (15th) and execution (18th) of Tatya Tope (Ramachandra Pandurang Tope), the last captured rebel leader; end of the Indian rebellion of 1857.

Images for kids

India in 1765 and 1805, showing East India Company-governed territories in pink
India in 1837 and 1857, showing East India Company-governed territories in pink
Two sepoy officers; a private sepoy, 1820s
A scene from the 1857 Indian Rebellion (Bengal Army).
Indian mutiny map showing position of troops on 1 May 1857
"The Sepoy revolt at Meerut," wood-engraving from the Illustrated London News, 1857
An 1858 photograph by Felice Beato of a mosque in Meerut where some of the rebel soldiers may have prayed
The Flagstaff Tower, Delhi, where the British survivors of the rebellion gathered on 11 May 1857; photographed by Felice Beato
Troops of the Native Allies by George Francklin Atkinson, 1859.
Sikh Troops Dividing the Spoil Taken from Mutineers, circa 1860
Fugitive British officers and their families attacked by mutineers.
A wood-engraving of Nynee Tal (today Nainital) and accompanying story in the Illustrated London News, 15 August 1857, describing how the resort town in the Himalayas served as a refuge for British families escaping from the rebellion of 1857 in Delhi and Meerut.
Assault on Delhi and capture of the Cashmere Gate, 14 September 1857
Capture of Delhi 1857.
Capture of Bahadur Shah Zafar and his sons by William Hodson at Humayun's tomb on 20 September 1857
Wood-engraving depicting Tatya Tope's Soldiery
A memorial erected (circa 1860) by the British after the Mutiny at the Bibighar Well. After India's Independence the statue was moved to the All Souls Memorial Church, Cawnpore. Albumen silver print by Samuel Bourne, 1860
The interior of the Secundra Bagh, several months after its storming during the second relief of Lucknow. Albumen silver print by Felice Beato, 1858
Jhansi Fort, which was taken over by rebel forces, and subsequently defended against British recapture by the Rani of Jhansi
Wood-engraving of the execution of mutineers at Peshawar
Marble Lectern in memory of 35 British soldiers in Jhelum
Lieutenant William Alexander Kerr, 24th Bombay Native Infantry, near Kolapore, July 1857
The Relief of Lucknow by Thomas Jones Barker
British soldiers looting Qaisar Bagh, Lucknow, after its recapture (steel engraving, late 1850s)
Execution of mutineers by blowing from a gun by the British, 8 September 1857.
Bahadur Shah Zafar (the last Mughal emperor) in Delhi, awaiting trial by the British for his role in the Uprising. Photograph by Robert Tytler and Charles Shepherd, May 1858
The proclamation to the "Princes, Chiefs, and People of India," issued by Queen Victoria on 1 November 1858. "We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by the same obligation of duty which bind us to all our other subjects." (p. 2)
Captain C Scott of the Gen. Sir. Hope Grant's Column, Madras Regiment, who fell on the attack of Fort of Kohlee, 1858. Memorial at the St. Mary's Church, Madras
Memorial inside the York Minster
Suppression of the Indian Revolt by the English, which depicts the execution of mutineers by blowing from a gun by the British, a painting by Vasily Vereshchagin c. 1884. Note: This painting was allegedly bought by the British crown and possibly destroyed (current whereabouts unknown). It anachronistically depicts the events of 1857 with soldiers wearing (then current) uniforms of the late 19th century.
The National Youth rally at the National Celebration to Commemorate 150th Anniversary of the First War of Independence, 1857 at Red Fort, in Delhi on 11 May 2007
Henry Nelson O'Neil's 1857 painting Eastward Ho! depicting British soldiers saying farewell to their loved ones as they embark on a deployment to India.
Charles Canning, the Governor-General of India during the rebellion.
Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856, who devised the Doctrine of Lapse.
Lakshmibai, the Rani of Maratha-ruled Jhansi, one of the principal leaders of the rebellion who earlier had lost her kingdom as a result of the Doctrine of Lapse.
Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor, crowned Emperor of India, by the Indian troops, he was deposed by the British, and died in exile in Burma
The Jantar Mantar observatory in Delhi in 1858, damaged in the fighting
Mortar damage to Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, 1858
Hindu Rao's house in Delhi, now a hospital, was extensively damaged in the fighting
Bank of Delhi was attacked by mortar and gunfire
Photograph entitled, "The Hospital in General Wheeler's entrenchment, Cawnpore". (1858) The hospital was the site of the first major loss of British lives in Cawnpore
1858 picture of Sati Chaura Ghat on the banks of the Ganges River, where on 27 June 1857 many British men lost their lives and the surviving women and children were taken prisoner by the rebels.
The Bibighar Well site where a memorial had been built. Samuel Bourne, 1860.