TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction. 4
2. Causes of the revolt..5

Political Causes...5

Economic Causes....5

Social Causes..6

Military causes6

Religious influence and social reform.7

Displaced People.7

Western Education......8

Immediate cause..8

3. The beginning of the revolt...9

Delhi9

Kanpur.9

Lucknow..9

Jhansi..10

Bihar...10

4. Why it failed??.................................................................................................................11
5. Events of the revolt..13

Violence..13

Siege of Delhi.14

British take control.15

6. Epilogue16

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INTRODUCTION

British rule in India, which can be said to have come into being after the Battle of Plassey
in 1757, was initially established in Bengal and then gradually spread to other regions. Being
economically exploitative and destructive in the social fabric, it encountered resistance right
from the beginning. There were innumerable peasant revolts which broke out in different parts of
the country. Also, dissatisfaction among the Indian soldiers was prominent based on the
grievances they had one economic, social and religious grounds. The Revolt of 1857 was the
most severe outburst of anger and discontentment accumulated in the hearts of the various
sections of the Indian society ever since the inception of the British rule. British historians called
it a Sepoy Mutiny and the Indian historians called it The First war of Independence.
Jawaharlal Nehru, in his book Discovery of India described it as the Great revolt of 1857
and added that it was much more than a military mutiny and it rapidly spread and assumed the
character of a popular rebellion and a war of Indian Independence1.

In this project, I will be examining the various causes (economic, social and religious, political as
well as military) of the Revolt of 1857. Then I will proceed to examine the various reasons for
the failure of the Revolt (lack of planning, organization and leadership as well as Indian help to
the British). And finally, I will conclude the project by providing an insight on the consequences
of this Revolt (end of Companys rule, changes in the British policy towards Indian states, end of
Peshwanship and Mughal rule, reorganization of the Army, economic exploitation of India, rise
of Nationalism as well as the Divide and Rule Policy)2.
The 1857 Revolt sowed the seeds of Indian nationalism, which lay dormant in the subconscious
of the Indian people. It started the movement which was a continuous struggle against the British
rule till 1947.

CAUSES OF THE REVOLT

Political Causes

1 B.F. WILLCOX. Kasauli Seminar. 4 Jaipur LJ 204 (1964), para 4

2 Law and Legal Education in India: Some Observations. [1965]78 Harv L.R.1181
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The discontent and disaffection manifested in the form of revolts against the British Government
were not confined to the ruling chiefs and royal families alone. On the contrary, the British rule
was disliked by the people at large in any region when it was newly introduced.
Anti-British feelings were particularly strong in those regions like Burma, Assam, Coorg, Sind,
and the Punjab which were unjustly annexed to the British Empire. The Doctrine of Lapse,
particularly its practical application by Lord Dalhousie, produced grave discontent and alarm
among the native princes, who were directly affected.
Economic Causes
The huge drain of wealth, the destruction of its industry and increasing land revenue had become
the common features of the latter half of the eighteenth century. The East India Company, after
attaining political power, used it to fund the growth of British trade and commerce at the cost of
Indians3.
The British damaged the Indian trade and manufacture by imposing a high tariff in Britain
against Indian goods, and by encouraging all means the import of British goods to India. In
England the ruin of the old handloom weavers was accompanied by the growth of the machine
industry.
But in India the ruin of the millions of artisans and craftsmen was not accompanied by any
alternative growth of new industrial forms. A new plantation system introduced in the year 1833
resulted in incalculable misery for the Indian peasants4. This was the result of permitting
Englishmen to acquire land plantations in India. The hard hit were the peasants on the indigo
plantations in Bengal and Bihar.
Social Causes
The Englishmen showed an arrogant attitude towards the Indians. Indiscriminate assaults on
Indians by Englishmen became quite common. Also, a general alarm was raised among the
Hindus and Muslims by the activities of the Christian missionaries.
The educational institutions established by the missionaries inculcated western education and
culture in the place of oriental learning. The native population felt that were losing their social
identity.
Military causes
Discontent against the British Raj was widely prevalent among the Indian soldiers in the British
army. The Indian sepoys in the British Indian army nursed a sense of strong resentment at their
low salary and poor prospects of promotion. The British military officers at times showed least
respect to the social values and religious sentiments of Indian sepoys in the army.
3 EDWIN ARNOLD. The Administration of British India under Dalhousie, 202, Oxford
Publisher, p. 198
4 LEE-WARNER, Life of Marquis of Dalhousie. I, 252
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Thus, although generally faithful to their masters, the sepoys were provoked to revolt. The
Vellore mutiny of 1806, a precursor to the 1857 Great Revolt, was the outcome of such
tendencies on the part of the military authorities. Another important cause of the sepoys
dissatisfaction was the order that abolished the foreign allowance when they served in foreign
territories. Thus the discontent was widespread and there was an undercurrent before the
volcanic situation of 1857. All that needed was only a spark to set it a fire5.
Religious influence and social reform
A major cause of the outbreak of the revolt was the fear among the people that the British
government was determined to destroy their religion and convert Indians to Christianity. The
increasing activities of the Christian missionaries and the actual conversions made by them were
taken as a proof of this fear. The policy of taxing lands belonging to temples and mosques lent
further support to this idea. The belief that their religion was under threat, united all sections of
society against a common enemy.
Displaced People
British rule brought drastic changes to the lives of many Indians. Land lords who had for long
enjoyed land and social privileges found themselves stripped of their land and left impoverished.
Artisans who were patronized by the Indian rulers now had no patrons amongst the new British
rulers, and were out of work. The subsidiary alliance had forced many kings to disband their
armies in order to meet the costs of maintaining the mandatory British troops and this resulted in
large scale unemployment. These displaced people became major enemies of the British rule in
India.
The British besides conquering India were also keen to spread their religion, Christianity.
Missionaries were actively encouraged and laws allowing only Christians to inherit property
were passed. The army maintained a chaplain at state cost. Indians serving in the army did not
have their religious views respected and were often made to violate them. The British egged on
by social reformers banned sati and legalized widow marriage. While these were progressive
steps viewed for the betterment of Indian society, they were received by the conservative
sections of society as a direct attack on their culture6.
Since the British had remained a foreign alien ruler for over a hundred years, and made no effort
whatsoever to integrate into Indian society, the people opposed it strongly. Earlier foreign
invaders had always integrated into Indian society and there had been a synthesis of ideas. In the
case of the British, the British were simply trying to impose their ideas and beliefs on the
Indians. This did not go down well with the Indian people.
Western Education
5 MALCOLM, Govt. of India. 53-58 (1833).

6 ARBUTHNOT. Sir Thomas Munro. II. 56. 60. Para 4.

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The British had been promoting western education and laying emphasis on the education of girls.
This was also mis-interpreted by the conservative sections of the society as an attack on Indian
culture. More importantly western education exposed Indians to the new thoughts of liberty and
equality and they realized that the British were treating them like second rate citizens in their
own country7.

Immediate Cause:
Discontent and resentment against British rule had been growing among the Indians for a long
time. By AD 1857, the stage was set for a massive revolt. Only a spark was needed to set the
country ablaze. That spark was provided by as small a thing as a rifle cartridge.
At this time, the Enfield rifle was introduced in the army. Its cartridges were covered with a
greased paper cover. This greased cover had to be bitten off before the cartridge could be loaded
into the rifle. The news spread that the grease was made of cow and pig fat. As the Hindus
consider the cow sacred and the Muslims do not eat pits meat, both these communities were
enraged at such a blatant attempt to harm their religion. This incident, popularly known as the
Greased Cartridges Incident, became the immediate cause of the revolt.
The first soldier to protest against using the greased cartridges was Mangal Pandey. He belonged
to the 34th Infantry stationed at Barrackpore. He refused to use the cartridges and was
subsequently hanged. On 24 April 1857, some soldiers stationed at Meerut also refused to use the
cartridges. On 9 May 1857, they were severely punished for this. This incident sparked off a
general mutiny among the sepoys of Meerut. On 10 May 1857, these rebel soldiers killed their
British officers, released their imprisoned comrades and hoisted the flag of revolt. This was the
official beginning of the Great Revolt. The soldiers then set off for Delhi. On 11 May 1857,
they reached Delhi. Here, they were joined by the local infantry. The rebels seized Delhi and
declared the Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar as the emperor of India.

7 MORLEY, Analytical Digest, I, xxxiii.

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THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLT

The 1857 Revolt was sparked off by the episode of the greased cartridges. The new Enfield rifle
had been introduced for the first time in the Indian army. Its cartridges had a greased paper cover
whose end had to be bitten off before the cartridge was loaded into the rifle.
The grease was composed of fat taken from beef and pig. The religious feelings of the Hindu and
Muslim sepoys were terribly wounded. The sepoys believed that the government was
deliberately trying to destroy their religious and cultural identity. Hence they raised the banner of
revolt.
The events that led to the Revolt began on 29 March 1857 at Barrackpore. Mangal Pandey (a
sepoy) refused to use the greased cartridges and single-handedly attacked and killed his officer.
Mangal Pandey was hanged. The regiment to which he belonged was disbanded and sepoys
guilty of rebellion punished.
The British instead of diffusing the explosive situation, paved the way for a mighty crisis by the
above act. A chain reaction was set in motion. At Meerut in May 1857, 85 sepoys of the 3rd
Cavalry regiment were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for refusing to use the greased
catridges.
Therefore, on 10 May the sepoys broke out in open rebellion, shot their officers, released their
fellow sepoys and headed towards Delhi8. General Hewitt, the officer commanding at Meerut
was helpless to prevent the armys march. Next morning the rebellious army reached Delhi.
The city of Delhi fell into the hands of the rebellious soldiers on 12 May 1857. Lieutenant
Willtashby, the officer in charge of Delhi could not prevent the mutineers. Soon, the mutineers
proclaimed the aged nominal king, Bahadur Shah II of the Mughal dynasty as the Emperor of
India.
Very soon the rebellion spread throughout northern and central India at Lucknow, Allahabad,
Kanpur, Banares, in parts of Bihar, Jhansi and other places.
Delhi
8 Ibid., 439
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The leadership at Delhi was nominally in the hands of Bahadur Shah, but the real control was
exercised by General Bakht Khan. On the side of the British the combined effort of Nicholson,
Wilson, Baird Smith and Neville Chamberlain enabled the recapture Delhi by September 1857.
In Delhi, Emperor Bahadur Shah II was arrested and deported to Rangoon, where he remained in
exile till he died in 1862.
Kanpur
At Kanpur the revolt was led by Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Baji Rao II, the last Peshwa.
Nana Saheb expelled the English from Kanpur with the help of the sepoys and proclaimed
himself the Peshwa. Nana Saheb in his efforts against the British was ably supported by two of
his lieutenants.
One was Tantia Tope, the other was Azimullah. Sir Hugh Wheeler the commander of the British
garrison at Kanpur surrendered on the 27 June 1857. But, soon Kanpur was recaptured by the
British commander Sir Colin Campbell9.
Lucknow
The principal person responsible for the revolt in Lucknow was the Begum of Oudh. With the
assistance of the sepoys, the zamindars and peasants, the Begum organised an all out attack on
the British. Henry Lawrence, the chief commissioner tried to defend the British.
Lawrence was killed in a bomb blast during the fight. The final relief for the British forces in
Lucknow came in the form of Sir Colin Campbell, who suppressed the revolt.
Jhansi
Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, the widowed queen of Gangadhar Rao played a heroic role in this
revolt. Rani Lakshmi Bai was affected by Dalhousies Doctrine of Lapse, was joined by Tantia
Tope. The combined efforts of Rani and Tantia Tope saw the capture of Gwalior.
Meanwhile, Sir Hugh Rose defeated Tantia Tope and stormed Jhansi on 3 April 1858. He then
captured Gwalior. The Rani of Jhansi died a soldiers death on 17 June 1858. Tantia Tope was
captured and hanged on charges of rebellion and murder in the massacre of Kanpur.
Bihar
Kunwar Singh, a ruined and discontented zamindar of Jagdishpur near Oudh, was the chief
organiser of the revolt in Bihar. He fought the British in Bihar. Kunwar Singh sustained a fatal
wound in the battle and died on 27 April 1858 at Jagdishpur.
Ultimately the 1857 Revolt came to an end with the victory of the British. Viceroy Canning
proclaimed peace throughout India.

9 Ibid., at 446
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WHY IT FAILED??

The first and foremost cause was that the Revolt failed to embrace the whole of India. Different
sections of society such as moneylenders, merchants and modern educated Indians were actually
against the Revolt. The lack of interest shown by the intellectuals in the movement was a serious
setback.
The resources of the British Empire were far superior to those of the rebels. Similarly, the
insurgents lacked a carefully concerted general plan or a strong central organisation to plan the
movements of the army and oversee their strategy. On the other hand, the British possessed
better equipment.
Native Indian states, influenced by the example of powerful Hyderabad, did not join the rebels
Sikh soldiers of the Punjab area remained loyal to the British throughout. The Sikhs were a
strong, well trained army, who the British had conquered using Indian soldiers.
The aging Bahadur Shah was neither a brave general, nor an astute leader of the people
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In addition, the British were aided by new scientific inventions such as the telegraph system and
postal communications. This enabled the British to keep in touch with all parts of the country and
to manoeuvre their troops according to their needs. All the said factors combined to cause the
defeat of the rebels of the 1857 Revolt and ended in the victory for the British10.

EVENTS OF THE REVOLT

Violence

10 History, Class-X, N.C.E.R.T, p. 136.

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The violence started on May 10, 1857 in Meerut, when Pandey, a soldier in the Army shot his
commander for forcing the Indian troops to use the controversial rifles. Indians constituted 96%
of the 300,000 British Army and the violence against British quickly spread (Hence the name
Sepoy Mutiny). The local chiefs encouraged scattered revolts in hopes of regaining their lost
privileges.
Siege of Delhi
Bahadur Shah II, pensioned descendant of the Mogul dynasty, was popularly acclaimed emperor.
On June 8 a British relief force defeated an army of mutineers at Badli Sari and took up a
position on the famous ridge, overlooking the city of Delhi. Nominally the besieging force, they
were themselves besieged by the mutineers, who made a daring attempt to intercept their train.
The arrival of more British reinforcements finally led to the defeat of the mutineers by John
Nicholson, commander of the relief force. After six days of street fighting, Delhi was recaptured.
This action was the turning point in the campaign and is known as Siege of Delhi. Bahadur Shah
was captured and was exiled to Burma.
British Take Control
In spite of the loyalty of the Sikh troops, conquered only eight years before, and of the Gurkhas,
the British commander, Sir Colin Campbell, had a difficult task. In addition to quelling the
disturbance, he also had to protect the Ganges Valley and all of Hindustan against possible
attacks from central India, to the south. Forces were dispatched from Madras and Bombay.
However, the revolt had quickly spread to Kanpur and Lucknow. Kanpur, on the Ganges 250
miles southeast of Delhi, surrendered to the mutineers on June 28, 1857, and was the scene of a
massacre before it was recaptured by the British on July 16. Lucknow, 45 miles to the northeast,
had been immediately besieged by the mutineers and was relieved by Henry Havelock's troops
on September 25, five days after the final reoccupation of Delhi, the other chief center of the
mutiny. However, Havelock's forces, even when joined by those of James Outram, were not
strong enough to disarm and remove the enemy garrison, and they had to be relieved on
November 16 by troops under Colin Campbell. The civilians of Lucknow were evacuated, but
not until the siege of Mar. 9-16, 1858, had enough British troops massed to defeat the rebel army.
The final stage of the mutiny took place in central India, which was aroused by a roving band of
rebels under the Maratha General Tatya Tope. After his capture and execution in April 1859, the
leaderless mutineers were soon pacified11.

11 History, Class-VIII, N.C.E.R.T, p. 201

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EPILOGUE

In England, the mutiny proved the last straw on the heavy load of criticism and opposition which
the East India Company had carried for some time. In August 1858, by the Act for the Better
Government of India, its political authority was entrusted to a secretary of state. In August 1858
the British crown assumed control of India from the East India Company and in 1877 Queen
Victoria was crowned empress of India. The mutiny played a pivotal role in Anglo-Indian
history. The British afterward became cautious and defensive about their empire, while many
Indians remained bitter and would never trust their rulers again. It was not until the emergence of
Indian National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi that Indians re-gathered their momentum for
home rule

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books
1. Outlines of Indian Legal History, M.P. Jain
2. Indian History, S.R.Mayerini
3. History, Class-10, N.C.E.R.T
Online
1. http://sikhspectrum.com/2004/08/the-truth-about-the-indian-mutiny-of-1857/
2. http://www.preservearticles.com/201012271730/causes-of-revolt-of-1857-in-india.html
3. http://www.preservearticles.com/201012271729/revolt-of-1857.html
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4. http://library.thinkquest.org/C006203/cgi-bin/stories.cgi?
article=1857revolt&section=history/british/freedomstruggle&frame=parent
5. http://www.upscguide.com/content/major-events-revolt-1857
6. http://www.beta-theta.com/History/Revolt.html

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