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First War of Independence
(1857)
India’s First War of Independence 1857
Many historians called this First War of
Independence as a ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ of 1857. For them it was just a bunch of
Indian sepoys (soldiers) who had mutinied. They largely failed to recognize
the involvement of a vast section of Indian society that took part in this
struggle. Peasants and nobles all were involved. Lack of planning and
co-ordination amongst people who took part in this struggle resulted in
defeat of Indians. Many innocent people were killed on both sides. Karl
Marx wrote about the attitude of British media in 1857 - ‘And then it
should not be forgotten that while the cruelties of the English are related
as acts of martial vigor, told simply, rapidly, without dwelling on
disgusting details, the outrages of the natives, shocking as they are, are
still deliberately exaggerated.’
Period just before the beginning of India’s First War of Independence
British had little respite from fighting
against Indians as they tried to strengthen their grip on India. Sometimes
by design, sometimes almost by accident the area controlled by the British
increased, until by 1857 everything from the borders of Afghanistan in the
west to the jungles of Burma in the east, from the Himalayas in north, to
the beaches of Sri Lanka in south were under British East India companies
control. In 1857 the total number of soldiers in India was 260,000 amongst
them there were just around fourteen percent (34,000) European soldiers.
Less then ten years after the last Anglo-Sikh
war there was great unrest in India, specially the northern part. Somewhere
along the way the British seemed to lose touch with their Indian subject. By
1857 there was a big gulf between Indians and British.
Factors
responsible for unrest amongst Indian masses
-
The arrival of missionaries had also caused
great unease among the Indians. Evangelical Christians had little
understanding of, or respect for, India's ancient faiths.The attitude of
scrupulous non-interference in religious affairs that had characterized
British rule in the 18th century was forgotten. Native populace started to
believe that the British wished to convert them. The passing of Act XXI of
1850, which enabled converts to inherit ancestral property, confirmed this
belief; the new law was naturally interpreted as a concession to Christian
converts. Hindus and Muslims were forced into Christianity. The British
were rude and arrogant towards the Indians who they described as
barbarians without any culture. The European judges hardly ever convicted
British for their crimes.
-
Thousands of soldiers and
nobles got unemployed when Lord Dalhousie annexed Avadh. Under his
'Doctrine of Lapse' the princes were denied the long-cherished right
of adoption; in this way Dalhousie annexed the Maratha States of Satara,
Nagpur and Jhansi and several minor principalities. On the death of the
ex-Peshwa, Baji Rao II, the pension granted to him was abolished and the
claims of his adopted son, Nana Sahib, were disregarded.
-
British administrative laws ruined both the
peasants and landlords. Indian handicrafts completely collapsed and the
craftsmen were impoverished. India became a market place for finished
goods from England. Poverty increased and the discontent among the masses
motivated the Indians to join the revolt in large numbers. Thus, the
British drained India of her wealth and all her natural resources.
Beginning of First War of
Independence (1857)
People whispered of the old prophecy, which
stated that 100 years after the battle of Plassey, the rule of 'John
Company' would end. Plassey had been in 1757 and in the hundredth year after
the battle it seemed everyone was awaiting a spark. The cartridge of Enfield
rifle used by British-Indian Army was heavily greased with animal fat.
Indian soldiers heard and quickly passed on the news that the grease was a
mixture of cow (sacred to Hindus) and pig (abhorrent to Muslims) fat.
It began at Barrackpore on 29th March
1857. Mangel Pande, a young soldier of the 34th Native Infantry,
shot at his sergeant major on the parade ground. When the British adjutant
rode over, Pande shot the horse and severely wounded the officer with a
sword. He was later arrested and hanged. As a collective punishment the 34th
Native Infantry was disbanded. Mangal Pande became a martyr and an icon
representing the beginning of Indian War of Independence.
A few weeks later on 24th of April 1857,
eighty-five soldiers of the 3rd Light Cavalry in Meerut refused
orders to handle the new cartridges. They were arrested, court-martialled
and sentenced to ten years hard labor each. On 9th May 1857, at an
appalling ceremony in the parade ground of Meerut, they were publicly
humiliated: stripped of their uniform, shackled and sent to prison. The
following day (10th May 1857) was a Sunday and as Britons
prepared for church, Meerut exploded. Enraged soldiers broke open the town
jail and released their comrades. A mob from the bazaar and Indian soldiers
poured into the cantonment where the Britishers lived and killed many of
them. Then these soldiers marched towards Delhi. There were three regiments
of native infantry in Delhi.
On the morning of 11th May the soldiers
from Meerut reached Delhi. Gathering below the walls of the Red Fort, the
mutineers called for last Mughal King Bahadur Shah. A British
officer, Captain Douglas, commanded Bahadur Shah’s personal guard. From the
walls high above Captain Douglas ordered them to disperse. Soldiers
accompanied by a mob burst into the palace, killed Douglas and asked Bahadur
Shah to reclaim his throne. The 38th, 54th, and 74th regiments of infantry
and native artillery under Bahkt Khan (1797- 1859) joined the rebel
army at Delhi in May. The loss of Delhi was a crushing blow to British
prestige and the symbolic associations of the capital of the Moghuls
becomming the center of the mutiny was something the British could not
ignore. It took British nearly two months to regroup and then they set out
to reclaim Delhi. From Meerut and Simla two British columns set out for the
capital. Hampered by lack of transport, it was weeks before they joined
forces at Ambala. Punishing disloyal villages as they advanced, one could
have charted their course by the scores of corpses they left hanging from
trees as the British army moved towards Delhi. At Badli-ke-Serai, five miles
from Delhi, they met the main army of the Indian soldiers. British won there
but most of the Indian soldiers fled back to the protection of the walls of
Delhi. The British established themselves on Delhi ridge, a thin spur of
high ground to the north of the city. In September 1857, under the
command of Major Nicholson and with support of Sikh and Gurkha army
were able to reclaim Delhi, breaching the walls with heavy guns and after a
bitter street-to-street fight. In the attack on the Kashmiri gate Nicholson
had been hit by a bullet and died soon after. One last atrocity was yet to
happen. British officer Hodson arrested the old King Bahadur Shah and killed
his three sons in cold blood. Bahadur Shah was tried for complicity to
murder and other offences, found guilty and sent into exile in Rangoon. The
last of the Moghuls, Bahadur Shah died there in 1862. Hodson was never
punished for his summary executions of the princes. He died in the retaking
of Lucknow in 1858.
Battle of
Kanpur
Kanpur was an important junction where the
Grand Trunk Road and the road from Jhansi to Lucknow crossed. One of the
leaders of the First War of Independence, Nana Saheb of Bithur was
born in 1824. Nana Saheb was well educated. He studied Sanskrit and
was known for his deep religious nature. On the death of the last Peshwa,
Baji Rao-II, in 1851 the Company's Government stopped the annual pension and
the title. Nana Saheb's appeal to the Court of Directors was not accepted.
This made him hostile towards the British rulers. In 1857 Kanpur was
garrisoned by four regiments of native infantry and a European battery of
artillery and was commanded by General Sir Hugh Wheeler. After a fierce
battle at Kanpur, General Sir Hugh Wheeler surrendered on June 27, 1857.
The English men, women and children who fell
into the hands of Nana Sahib were assured of safe conduct to Allahabad.
However the inhuman treatment meted out to the Indians by General James
O'Neil at Allahabad and Banaras made the crowd angry who retaliated by
murdering British men, women and children. Many innocent lives were lost at
‘Massacre Ghat’ and ‘Bibi ka Ghar’ in Kanpur.
After seizing Kanpur, Nana Saheb proclaimed
himself the Peshwa. Tantia Tope, Jwala Prasad and Azimullah Khan were
the loyal followers of Nana Sahib, and are remembered for their valiant
fight against the British. In June 1857 the British defeated Nana Sahib.
Though Nana Sahib and Tantia Tope recaptured Kanpur in November 1857, they
could not hold it for long as General Campbell reoccupied it on 6th December
1857. Nana Sahib escaped to Nepal and his whereabouts afterwards were
unknown. Tantia Tope escaped and joined the Rani of Jhansi.
Jhansi and
Gwalior
Rani Laxmibai was born in 1830 at
Banaras in a wealthy family and was named Manukarnika at birth. She got
married to King Gangadhar Rao of Jhansi. Gangadhar Rao did not have any
children and he adopted one of his relatives Damodar Rao as his heir. After
Gangadhar Rao's death in 1853 the British refused to accept Damodar Rao as
the legal heir of Jhansi and wanted to annex the kingdom into their rule. In
1857 at Jhansi, the army rebelled and killed the British Army officers.
Rani Laxmibai, the widow of the late Raja Gangadhar Rao, was proclaimed
the ruler of the state. In 1858 the British army once again marched towards
Jhansi. Not willing to let the British takeover her kingdom the Rani built
an army of 14,000 volunteers to fight the British. The soldiers of Jhansi
fought very bravely for 2 weeks and the Rani led the forces in this battle.
Sir Hugh Rose recaptured Jhansi on 3rd April 1858. The English could not
capture Rani of Jhansi as she escaped to Kalpi (near Gwalior) where Tantia
Tope joined her. Both marched to Gwalior. Sir Hugh Rose also advanced
towards Gwalior and captured it in June 1858. Rani Laxmi Bai died
fighting bravely. Rani Laxmibai (Rani Jhansi) became immortal in
Indian history for her bravery and struggle against British rule. Tantia
Tope escaped southward, but was betrayed by one of his friends Man Singh
and was finally hanged in 1859.
Arrah Bihar
Kunwar Singh, zamindar of Jagdishpur
near Arrah in the state of Bihar, was the chief organizer of the fight
against British. He assumed command of the soldiers who had revolted at
Danapur on 5th July. Two days later he occupied Arrah, the district
headquarter. Major Vincent Eyre relieved the town on 3rd August, defeated
Kunwar Singh's force and destroyed Jagdishpur. Kunwar Singh left his
ancestral village and reached Lucknow in December 1857. In March 1858 he
occupied Azamgarh. However, he had to leave the place soon. Pursued by
Brigadier Douglas, he retreated towards his home in Bihar. On 23 April,
Kunwar Singh had a victory near Jagdishpur over the force led by Captain Le
Grand, but the following day he died in his village. The mantle of the old
chief now fell on his brother Amar Singh who, despite heavy odds, continued
the struggle and for a considerable time ran a parallel government in the
district of Shahabad. In October 1859 Amar Singh joined the rebel leaders in
the Nepal Terai.
Lucknow
At Lucknow War against British was led
by the Begum of Awadh Hazrat Mehal who proclaimed her young son Nawab.
Hazrat Begum felicitated her troops in person in Alambagh and when Dilkusha
was taken and the soldiers of freedom fought with desperate courage for the
defense of Luknow. Musabagh, which was defended, by a valiant band of
revolutionaries under the leadership of the heroic Begum herself till March
1858, when she left Lucknow for the north with her troops followed by Ahmad
Shah. Both of them fell upon Shahjehanpur and tried to drive out the British
from Rohilkhand. She failed to capture Rohilkhand and she marched on along
with other revolutionary leaders towards Nepal where she found asylum till
her death.
India’s First War of Independence carried on
as late as 1859 in some instances before it was finally over. A number
of heroes and heroines of the India’s First war of Independence have been
immortalized for their fight in against British rule.
Aftermath of First war of
Independence
In the early months of the British recovery,
few Indian soldiers were left alive after their positions were overrun. The
British soldiers seemed to have made a collective decision not to take
prisoners and most actions ended with a frenzied use of the bayonet. Whole
villages were sometimes hanged for some real or imagined sympathy for the
mutineers. Looting was endemic and neither the sanctity of holy places nor
the rank of Indian aristocrats could prevent the wholesale theft of their
possessions. Many a British family saw its fortune made during the
pacification of northern India. Later, when prisoners started to be taken
and trials held, those convicted of mutiny were lashed to the muzzles of
cannon and fired through their body. For more than a year the people of
northern India trembled with fear as the British sated their thirst for
revenge. The Indians called it 'the Devil's Wind'.
A hundred years
after battle of Plassey the rule of the East India Company finally did come
to an end. In 1858, British parliament passed a law through which the power
for governance of India was transferred from the East India Company to the
British crown. In 1858, the Queen issued a proclamation saying that all were
her subjects and that there would be no discrimination, appointments would
be made on the basis of merit, and that there would be no interference in
religious matters. It became evident in the succeeding years that the
British government did not honor the Queen's promises. After 1857, the
nationalist movement started to expand in the hearts of more and more
Indians.
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