Weakness & Suppression of Revolt of 1857

Weakness of Revolt of 1857:

1. Limited spread
• did not spread to South India & most of Western India because these regions had repeatedly rebelled earlier
• Madras, Bombay, Bengal & Western Punjab remained undisturbed
2. Most rulers & zamindars refused to join due to selfish & fearful reasons and helped in suppressing the revolt
• Sindhia of Gwalior
• Holkar of Indore
• Nizam of Hydrabad
• Raja of Jodhpur & other Rajput rulers
• Nawab of Bengal
• Rulers of Patiala, Nabha, Jind & other Sikh chieftains of Punjab
• Maharaja of Kashmir
• Ranas of Nepal
• many other ruling chiefs, big zamindars
3. Other people were hostile to Revolt:
• Middle & upper classes
• money-lenders who were attacked by rebels
• merchants who were subjected to heavy taxation by rebels to finance the revolt
• zamindars of Bengal remained loyal to British
• merchants of Bombay,  Calcutta & Madras supported British because their profits came from foreign trade & economic connections with British merchants
• modern educated Indians were repelled by rebel's appeals to superstitions & their opposition to progressive social measures
4. Lack of weapons, sound leadership, coordination & poor strategy
• short of modern weapons & other materials for war
• used ancient weapons as pikes & swords
• troops were poorly organized, brave & selfless but indisciplined
• rebel units did not have common plans of military action or authoritative heads or centralized leadership
• uprising in different parts of country were uncoordinated
• leaders were joined together by common feeling of hatred against British 
• they were suspicious & jealous of one another & often indulged in suicidal quarrels
5. Lack of understanding of current state & future scenarios
• leaders did not know what sort of political power or institution to create in its place
• peasantry having destroyed books & overthrown money-lenders & new zamindars became passive and did not know what to do
• movement had little understanding of colonialism & modern world
• lacked a forward-looking program, coherent ideology, a political perspective or a vision of the future society & economy

Positive outcomes of Revolt of 1857:

1. created new type of organization: court of administrators at Delhi, consisting of 10 members - 6 armymen & 4 civilians - which took all military & administrative decisions in the name of Emperor
2. brought the Indian people together & imparted to them the consciousness of belonging to one country

Suppression of Revolt of 1857

1. British imperialism to strong for Revolt
• with a developing capitalist economy & at he height of its power the world over
• supported by most of the Indian princes & chiefs
• poured immense supplies of men, money & arms
2. Captured Delhi on 20th Sept 1857
• captured Delhi after prolonged & bitter fighting
• Bahadur Shah taken prisoner, tried & exiled to Rangoon where he died in 1862
• Royal Princes were captured & butchered on the spot
3. British defeated rebel leaders:
• Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansidied on field of battle on 17 June 1858
• Nana Sahib defeated at Kanpur, escaped to Nepal in 1859
• Tantia Tope escaped into jungles of Central India from where he carried on guerrilla warfare until April, 1859 when he was betrayed by a zamindar friend & captured & put to death after hurried trail on 15th April 1859
• By 1859 - Kunwar Singh, Bakht Khan, Khan Bahadur Khan of Bareilly, Rao Sahib & Maulavi Ahmadullah were all dead
• Begum of Awadh was compelled to hide in Nepal
4. 
   

Revolt of 1857

Course of Revolt of 1857:

1. Mangal Pande episode before Meerut rebellion
• Mangal Pande revolted single-handedly and attacked his superior officers - became a martyr at Barrackpore and was hanged on 29th March 1857
2. whether planned or not - difference in opinion of historians
• some believe it was a result of a widespread and well-organized conspiracy - circulation of chappattis and red lotuses, propaganda by wandering sanyasis, faqirs & madaris; while others believe otherwise
3. Beginngin of revolt at Meerut
• began at Meerut on 10 May 1857 
• on 24th April, 90 men of 3rd Native Cavalry refused to accept the greased cartridges - on 9th May, 85 of them were dismissed and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment & out into fetters
• this sparked a general mutiny among Indian soldiers at Meerut and they released the imprisoned comrades, killed officers and set off to Delhi
4. Spread to Delhi
• at Delhi, the local infantry joined the Meerut troops and killed their own European officers and seized the city
• rebellious soldiers now proclaimed the aged and powerless Bahardur Shah II the emperor of India with Delhi its centre of Revolt
• Bahadur Shah under the instigation and pressure of the sepoys wrote letters to other chiefs and rulers of India urging them to organize a confederacy of Indian states to fight and replace British regime
5. Spread to East India
• entire Bengal army rose in revolt which spread to Awadh, Doab, Bundelkhand,Bihar - all shook British authority
6. many princely state rulers remained loyal to their British overlord but the soldiers revolted or remained the brink of revolt
7. Spread to Central India
• many of the Indore troops rebelled and joined the sepoys
• Gwalior troops joined Tantia Tope and Rani of Jhansi in revolt
8. Spread to West India
9. many small chiefs of Rajasthan and Maharashtra revolted with support of people
10. Contribution of civilians:
• after the sepoys destroyed British authority at a place, common people rose up in arms often fighting with spears, axes, bows & arrows, lathis & sickles and crude muskets
• wide participation of peasantry, artisans, shopkeepers, day laborers and zamindars gave real strength and character to the revolt
• peasants and zamindars attacked money-lenders and new zamindars - destroyed account books and records of debt, attacked British established law courts, revenue offices(tehsils) & revenue records and thanas
11. people showed sympathy for rebels
• rejoiced in success of rebels
• organized social boycott of British loyal sepoys
• showed active hostility to British forces, refused to help and even misled them
12. Hindu-Muslim unity was strength of revolt
• all rebels recognized Bahardur Shah, a Muslim, as their Emperor
• Hindu & Muslim rebels & sepoys respected each other's sentiments
13. Storm centres and revolt leaders:
• at Delhi - Bahadur Shah was nominal and symbolic head, real leadership was with Court of Soldiers headed by General Bakht Khan who had led the revolted troops of Bareilly & brought them to Delhi
• at Kanpur - revolt led by Nana Sahib, with help of Tantia Tope, Azimullah(expert in political propaganda) and sepoys, expelled English from Kanpur and declared himself the Peshwa and Governor of Bahadur Shah
• at Lucknow - Hazrat Mahal, Begum of Awadh, with the help of sepoys, peasants & zamindars organized an all-out attack on British
• at Gwalior - Rani Lakshmibai with the help of Tantia Tope & her trusted Afghan guards captured Gwalior; Maharaja Sindhia of Gwalior fled to Agra in English refuge
• in Bihar - Kunwar Singh, a ruined zamindar of Jagsishpur near Arrah, organized revolt
• in Faizabad - Maulavi Ahmadullah fought a large-scale battle against British troops and emerged as acknowledged leaders in Awadh

Causes for Revolt for 1857

Causes for Revolt of 1857:

1. Oppression of peasants by high land revenue and eviction on non-payment
2. Oppression of zamindars by high revenue demands and lose of zamindari on failure
3. Middle and upper class were not given high salaried jobs in administration
4. Nobles, artisans, people pursuing culture and religious preachers lost their livelihood
5. Foreignness of British rule - who had come enrich themselves and not settle in India
6. British army suffered setbacks in Afghan Wars, Punjab Wars and Santhal tribe uprising
7. Policies of annexation and subordination of Indian states, egs - 
• Annexation of Awadh on grounds of preventing people from mismanagement of Nawab
• Annexation of Jhansi and not allowing adopted son of Rani Lakshmibai to rule
• refusing Baji Rao II 's pension to his adopted son Nana Sahib and forcing him to live in Kanpur
• Successors of Bahadur Shah II abandoned from Red Fort and sent to Qutab
• Successores of Bahadur Shah II not be called Kings but mere Princes
8. Christian Missionaries 
• tried to convert Indians to Christianity
• ridiculed and attacked Hinduism and Islam
• were provided police protection
9. Govt. propagated Christianity by:
• passing act that allows Christian Indians to inherit ancestral property
• maintains chaplains in army
• British officials encouraged christian propaganda
10. Govt.'s interference in religious affairs:
• abolition of custom of SATI
• legalization of widow remarriage
• taxing holy places and land belonging to priests and religious charitable institutions
11. Sepoy grievances:
• forbidding of  wearing religious, caste & sectarian marks, beards and turbans
• act passed by govt. to make compulsory for newly recruited sepoys to even serve overseas which was forbidden at that time by Hindu religion
• sepoys were treated with contempt by British officers
• dissolution of Nawab's administration and army created unemployed
• little prospect for rise - Indians could only rise to Subedar post
• foreign service allowance (BATTA) denied to sepoys serving in Sindh and Punjab
12. Sepoy mutiny:
• in 1764, sepoy mutiny broke out in Bengal
• in 1806, sepoys of Vellore mutinied
• in 1824, 47th Regiment at Barrackpore refused to go to Burma
• in 1844, sepoys in Afghanistan almost revolt during Afghan War
13. MOST IMPORTANT CAUSE: greased(composed of beef and pig fat) cartridges for new Enfield rifle which had to be bitten off before loading into the rifle enraged both Hindu and Muslim sepoys