greased cartridges revolt of 1857

Eleven of the sepoys were executed and hundreds more sentenced to hard labor. But the spark was interestingly not so much of religious clashes, but the grease used in the new Enfield rifle. All of the Bengal Native Cavalry regiments and 45 of the infantry units rebelled at some point. The cartridge of the Enfield rifle was heavily greased - with animal fat, to facilitate an easier load into the muzzle. https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014 (accessed March 1, 2023). Sepoys were forced to watch such displays as it was believed it set an example of the horrific death that awaited mutineers. And when the Indian independence movement gained momentum in the 20th century, events of the Revolt of 1857 were viewed as having been an early battle for independence, while individuals such as Mangal Pandey were hailed as early national heroes. Company officers became aware of the rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum. Map: Wikicommons. Saul, David (2003), page 294 "The Indian Mutiny", Penguin Books. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine It is also known by other names: the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. Partly owing to this, Bengal sepoys were not subject to the penalty of flogging as were the European soldiers. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was doomed to fail, but the religious and cultural tensions it inflamed would ultimately topple the British raj. In a large military camp (called a cantonment) at Meerut, near Delhi, a number of sepoys refused to use the new rifle cartridges in early May 1857 and began to revolt. From the interrogation of an official at the King of Delhis court: I did hear of the circumstance. The revolt is known by several names. Cookie Policy But the wars against the Afghans and the Sikhs and then the annexations of Dalhousie alarmed and outraged them. As the East India Company annexed Indian states in the 1840s and 1850s, the Indian soldiers in the company's employ began to feel offended. McNamara, Robert. Thornhill examined the chapatis in his office. It was initiated by sepoys in the Bengal Presidency against the British officers. The revolt began on May 10, 1857, at Meerut as a sepoy mutiny. The revolt failed in overthrowing British Rule. [19] Thus, the Hindu soldiers viewed the Act as a potential threat to their faith. Privacy Statement Ans: In Jan 1857 British introduced a new cartridge of En-field rifle greased with pig and cow fats, soldiers had to chew it before use. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 291-292 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. [16], At the beginning of the nineteenth century, British officers were generally closely involved with their troops, speaking Indian languages fluently; participating in local culture through such practices as having regimental flags and weapons blessed by Brahman priests; and frequently having native mistresses. The general factors that turned a military mutiny into a popular revolt can be comprehensively described under the heading of political, economic, social, and cultural Westernization. With this information, the sepoys believed that the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridges for defiling their religions. On the fourth side of the . It was against this backdrop of uneasiness in which the mutiny erupted in 1857. Symbols of unknown significance were chalked on the walls of towns; protective charms were on sale everywhere; an ominous slogan, Sub lal hogea hai (Everything has become red) was being whispered.. Loading the Enfield often required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth, and many sepoys believed that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. It came as a greater shock than the loss of the American colonies, and prompted reprisals far more hysterical and vicious than those visited on rebellious subjects elsewhere in the Empire. During the late eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, the armies of the East India Company, in particular those of the Bengal Presidency, were victorious and indomitable the term "high noon of the sepoy army" has been used by a military historian. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. Sympathetic rulers, such as Lord William Bentinck were replaced by arrogant aristocrats, such as Lord Dalhousie, who despised the troops and the populace. The sepoys rejected this, pointing out that they might very well forget and bite the cartridge, not surprising given the extensive drilling that allowed 19th century British and Indian troops to fire three to four rounds per minute. Under a British policy called the "doctrine of lapse," the East India Company would take control of Indian states in which a local ruler had died without an heir. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. In the illustration, a mutineer was depicted chained to the front of a British cannon, awaiting his imminent execution, as others were gathered to watch the grisly spectacle. For instance, once the rebellion was underway, Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar met the sepoys on 11 May 1857, he was told: "We have joined hands to protect our religion and our faith." These recalcitrant troops were placed in irons, but their comrades soon came to their rescue. The officers continued to be British, but they were more closely linked with their men. The cartridge was then rammed down the muzzle of the rifle.. E. Jaiwant Paul is a man of varied interests, having authored eight other books, including Rani of Jhansi, The Story of Tea, Baji Rao, The Unforgettable Maharajas, Har Dayal: The Great Revolutionary (co-author Mrs Shubh Paul), Arms and Armour: Traditional Weapons of India, and Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. Is the sending of such articles about the country a custom among the Hindoos or Mussulmans; and would the meaning be at once understood without any accompanying explanation? Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. But those who did would not have been surprised by what happened next, for some very similar beliefs were spreading in the early months of 1857. As further evidence, he observes that the Urdu sources of the pre- rebellion and post- rebellion periods usually refer to the British not as angrez (the English), goras (whites) or firangis (foreigners), but as kafir (disbeliever) and nasrani (Christians). And yet its just as possible to see the bloody results of the mutual incomprehension between the British and native communities in India as a potent reminder that mistrust and panic can have serious consequences. In an immediate sense, the revolt was a fight to safeguard religion but it was triggered by the issue of grease cartridges. 24 October 2009. A cartridge for the new Enfield rifle. It is not surprising that one of the many subsidiary rumors that accompanied the chupatty movement was that the breads were being carried and distributed, the eventual trial of the King of Delhi noted, by the hands of the very lowest caste men that can be found; and the natives say that it is intended by Government to force or bribe the headmen to eat the bread, and thus loose their caste. Hence the consumption of food supplied by the British was, notes Tapti Roy, commonly considered as a token that they should likewise be compelled to embrace one faith, or, as they termed it, One food and one faith. . Other irregular units were raised in frontier areas from communities such as Assamese or Pashtuns to maintain order locally. Author Pramod Nayar points out that by 1851 there were nineteen Protestant religious societies operating in India whose goal was the conversion of Indians to Christianity. The effective Indian artillery, except for a few mountain batteries, was abolished, while the Brahmans and Rajputs of Avadh were reduced in favour of other groups. | READ MORE. This event and Pandey's subsequent punishment led to more resentment among the sepoys of the Bengal Army ultimately aiding in the Revolt of 1857.. The system was subject to abuse, and the company used it to annex territories in a questionable manner. Total loading time: 0 The Greased Cartridge: The Heroes and Villains of 1857-58, Rezensionen werden nicht berprft, Google sucht jedoch gezielt nach geflschten Inhalten und entfernt diese. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. This movement became much more than a military mutiny. (2021, July 31). One common punishment was to tie mutineers to the mouth of a cannon and then fire the cannon, completely obliterating the victim. In the Punjab were some 10,000 British troops, which made it possible to disarm the Indian regiments; and the recently defeated Sikhs were so hostile to the Muslims that they supported the British against the Mughal restoration in Delhi. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, sepoys tended to take great pride in their military prowess, and they exhibited enormous loyalty to their British officers. Dalhousie had also appointed Inam Commission with powers to confiscate land. From Delhi the revolt spread in June to Kanpur (Cawnpore) and Lucknow. "useRatesEcommerce": false In the event, the chapattis were not harbingers of a coming storm. They were what people made them into, and the significance attributed to them was a symptom of the pervasive distrust and general consternation amongst the Indian population during the early months of 1857. (See Barrackpore Mutiny.). 31, 2021, thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014. [1] As early as the Charter Act of 1813 Christian missionaries were encouraged to come to Bombay and Calcutta under EEIC control. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. The military cause was both particular and general. [17], Officers of an evangelical persuasion in the company's Army (such as Herbert Edwardes and Colonel S.G. Wheler of the 34th Bengal Infantry) had taken to preaching to their Sepoys in the hope of converting them to Christianity. In contrast to their Indian predecessors, the British considered such refusals at times to be outright "mutinies" and therefore to be suppressed brutally. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. His unit in the Bengal Army, which had refused to use the new rifle cartridges, was about to be disarmed and punished. What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? He also passed decrees allowing Hindus who had converted to Christianity to be able to inherit property, which had previously been denied by local practice. The campaign then settled down to British attempts to take Delhi and relieve Lucknow. The Revolt ended the rule of the English East India Company. Some currents simply ran cold, while others moved in parallel, or paused before continuing. The first sepoy who rebelled by aiming his loaded weapon at a British officer was Mangal Pandey who was later executed.[25]. On 29 March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy of the 34 th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) mutinied against his commanding officers of the East India Company. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. Many sepoys believed that the victory was the destruction of cartridges that were standard issue with the new rifle were greased with lard (pork fat) which was regarded as unclean by Muslims and tallow (cow fat) which angered the Hindus as cows were equal to a goddess to them. Host of Midian: the chapati circulation and the Indian Revolt of 1857-58. Studies in History 16 (2000);Christopher Hibbert. [7] Several years before the sepoys' mutiny, Lord William Bentinck had attacked several jagirs in western Bengal. The next phase was the central Indian campaign of Sir Hugh Rose. Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (London: John Murray, 2004). Rich people like the merchants and moneylenders were, therefore, able to speculate in British land sales and drive out the most vulnerable peasant farmers. The rifling inside the musket barrel ensured accuracy at much greater distances than was possible with old muskets. Leader of the British Conservative Party and future prime minister Benjamin Disraeli argued these objects were signs to rebel and evidence of a conspiracy, and the press echoed this belief. It is however also possible to enclose within the paper container the bullet as well as the powder and the cartridge then becomes a balled cartridge. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British. This took the form of Muslim millenarianism, with preachers in Lucknow foretelling the end of the raj. Victoria added the title "Empress of India" to her royal title. As time passed, the powers of the commanding officers reduced and the government became more unfeeling or distant from the concerns of the sepoys. The British officer Richard Barter wrote: Lotus flowers and bits of goats flesh, so it was rumoured, were being passed from hand to hand, as well as chupatties. Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs. The British had accentuated caste consciousness by careful regulations, had allowed discipline to grow lax, and had failed to maintain understanding between British officers and their men. Cookie Settings. The British Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856 was Lord Dalhousie who passed the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 which allowed widows to remarry, like Christian women. Though the revolt failed in its objective, even in failure it served a grand purpose. They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith? Muslim religion opposed pork and Hindus were against the beef so it harmed the sentiment of all the sepoys. The Revolt of 1857 started as a Mutiny of the sepoys. It is not known who first projected the plan. In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. Pandey, it should be noted, is considered a hero in India, and has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in films and even on an Indian postage stamp. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. the Sepoy Mutiny (by British Historians) At other times however, the Company directly or indirectly conceded the legitimacy of the sepoy's demands, such as when troops of the Bengal and Madras armies refused to serve in Sindh without batta after its conquest. Down-country operations centred on the relief of Lucknow. Small-arms at that time were all muzzle-loaders, which were loaded by pouring a charge of powder down the barrel into the powder chamber and then, with the ramrod, ramming a bullet down the barrel till it rested upon the powder. Rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a lieutenant with preachers in Lucknow foretelling end! 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