greased cartridges revolt of 1857

Then the bullet had to be rammed down the rifled barrel. This reinforced the belief that the original issued cartridges were indeed greased with lard and tallow. This made them more accurate and gave them a longer range. That rate was particularly disconcerting because it was vastly swifter than the fastest British mails, and urgent inquiries were made as to the source and meaning of the movement. They yielded the information that the breads were being distributed far more widely than anyone in Agra had yet realized, and that the Indians who received them generally took them as some sort of a sign. Some time in February 1857, a curious occurrence took place. The British military commander Sir James Outram thought it was a Muslim conspiracy, exploiting Hindu grievances. Prior to the period of British rule, any refusal to proceed on service until pay issues were resolved was considered a legitimate form of displaying grievance by Indian troops serving under Indian rulers. In contrast to their Indian predecessors, the British considered such refusals at times to be outright "mutinies" and therefore to be suppressed brutally. hasContentIssue true, THE FIRING PARADE OF 24 APRIL AND ITS SEQUEL, THE OUTBREAK: (a) The Native Infantry Lines, THE OUTBREAK: (b) The Native Cavalry Lines, THE OUTBREAK: (d) The European Troop Movements and the European Lines, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563386.003, Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. each other as brothers.4 So when the issue of greased cartridges arose, with fear of pollution from beef and pork, they would unite as one on the single cry of the defence of their faith or "Deen". As John Kaye wrote a few years later: Among other wild fables, which took firm hold of the popular mind, was one to the effect that the Companys officers had collected all the newly-manufactured salt, had divided it into two great heaps, and over one had sprinkled the blood of hogs, and over the other the blood of cows; that they had then sent it to be sold throughout the country of the pollution and desecration of the Mahommedans and Hindoos, that all might be brought to one caste and to one religion like the English. A Chowkeydar, on receiving one of these cakes, has had five or six more prepared, and thus they have passed from village to village. An idea has been industriously circulated that the Government has given the order. McNamara, Robert. The transfer of the number 66th which was taken away from a regular Bengal Sepoy regiment of the line disbanded over refusal to serve without batta, and given to a Gurkha battalion, was considered by the Sepoy as a breach of faith by the company. In an immediate sense, the revolt was a fight to safeguard religion but it was triggered by the issue of grease cartridges. Feature Flags: { He is on the expert panel on weapons for several museums of Rajasthan. These are deep waters that we trawl in, and dangerous ones, too. Although the armies of many Rajas or states which rebelled contained large numbers of guns, the British superiority in artillery was to be decisive in the siege of Delhi after the arrival of a siege train of thirty-two howitzers and mortars. The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010);Andrew Ward. 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. Further, the British were becoming increasingly hostile toward traditional survivals and contemptuous of most things Indian. Due to the need for technical specialists, the artillery units generally had a higher proportion of British personnel. The British, who had nothing to do with the mysterious transmission, guessed the breads were a piece of mischief-making on the part of the Indians, though opinion was divided as to whether the breads came from the east, near Calcutta (Kolkata), from the north, in the province of Oude (Avadh) or from Indore, in the center of the country. In some cases, they used an execution method of lashing a mutineer to the mouth of a cannon, and then firing the cannon and literally blasting the man to pieces. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British. The mutineers, on the other hand, lacked good leadership until nearly the end, and they had no confidence in themselves and suffered the guilt feelings of rebels without a cause, making them frantic and fearful by turns. He was informed that they had been brought in by one of his Indian police officers, who had received them from a puzzled village chowkidar (watchman). By origin, a cartridge is a container, usually of paper, designed to hold enough powder for one discharge of the weapon. Thereafter he headed the National Mineral Water Company in Muscat, Oman. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 291-292 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. From the confidential physician to the King of Delhi: Nobody can tell what was the object of the distribution of the chupatties. Vital though their Indian empire was to them, they controlled the subcontinent with a comparative handful of menabout 100,000 in all, less than half of whom were soldiers, ruling over a population of 250 millionand they were all too aware of just how inadequate these numbers would be in the event of any serious rebellion. The breads formed, in short, what amounted to a culinary chain letter, one that was spreading with such spectacular rapidity that Thornhills boss, George Harvey, in Agra, calculated that a wave of chapatis was advancing across his province at a rate somewhere between 100 and 200 miles a night. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. [6]. The revolt of 1857, which the British call the Indian Mutiny but many Indians prefer to think of as the First War of Independence, was the defining event in British imperial history. His name has become synonymous with the revolt of 1857. He survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. Their educational policy was a Westernizing one, with English instead of Persian as the official language; the old elites, schooled in the traditional pattern, felt themselves slighted. Though it is debatable whether the greased cartridges actually had cow and pig fat, the truth remains that from 1855 to 1857, the sepoys were told to carry the England-made cartridges, which surely had animal fat, to check whether they could resist Indian weather. What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? To "the cow reverencing Hindu and the pig paranoid Muslims" having to bite this was repellent, defiling and deadly to their religious prospects. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." Mason, Philip (1974), pages 186 and 313 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. The surrender of Kanpur, after a relatively brief siege, was followed by a massacre of virtually all British citizens and loyal Indian soldiers at Kanpur. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. The mysterious appearance of chapatisloaves of an Indian unleavened breadspooked the British administrators of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857. The rifling inside the musket barrel ensured accuracy at much greater distances than was possible with old muskets. As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, and many were executed in dramatic fashion. The Revolt of 1857 started as a Mutiny of the sepoys. There is no doubt that conflict over the new rifle cartridges sparked the uprising in 1857, but the reality is that social, political, and even technological reforms had set the stage for what happened. 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." This book is essentially about the heroes - Tatya Tope, Nana Saheb, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur - and not to forget, a few villains. The company had an unbroken series of victories in India, against the Marathas, Mysore, north Indian states, and the Gurkhas, later against the Sikhs, and further afield in China and Burma. Before Smithsonian.com, Dash authored the award-winning blog A Blast From the Past. Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion. A man had come out of the jungle with them, and given them to the watchman with instructions to make four like them and to take these to the watchman in the next village, who was to be told to do the same.. The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progression and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny (London: John Murray, 1884);Kim A. Wagner. Famous For: Revolt of 1857. However, nearly every sepoy was either Muslima religion that forbids eating the fat or any other part of a pig, or Hinduwhere the same rule applies to cows. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 305-306 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. But the only evidence for either of these was the circulation from village to village of chapatis, or cakes of unleavened bread, a practice that, though it also occurred on other occasions, was known to have taken place at any time of unrest. Indian soldiers had to blow the cartridge which was made of pork and beef. 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. Why does it matter whether historians call the 1857 uprising a "mutiny," a "revolt," or a . The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857-58 against the rule of the British East India Company, . 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. Eleven of the sepoys were executed and hundreds more sentenced to hard labor. The restoration of peace was hindered by British cries for vengeance, often leading to indiscriminate reprisals. In spite of their apparently desperate situation, the British possessed long-term advantages: they could and did receive reinforcements from Britain; they had, thanks to the resolution of Sir John Lawrence, a firm base in the Punjab, and they had another base in Bengal, where the people were quiet; they had virtually no anxiety in the south and only a little in the west; and they had an immense belief in themselves and their civilization, which gave resolution to their initial desperation. Before the rebellion, there were reports that "holy men" were mysteriously circulating chapatis and lotus flowers among the sepoys. 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.. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. 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.. To save content items to your account, Any British plans to reform Indian society, which had been one of the underlying causes of the revolt, were essentially set aside, and religious conversion of the Indian population was no longer viewed as a practical goal. Books and articles about the bloody fighting and heroic deeds by British officers and men were published for decades in London. The revolt of 1857 was one of the greatest & most significant developments in the history of the 19th century. Some currents simply ran cold, while others moved in parallel, or paused before continuing. And the leaders were not united, because they sought to revive former Hindu and Muslim regimes, which in their heyday had bitterly clashed. Once the first rebellions took place, it was clear to most British commanders that the grievances which led to them were felt throughout the Bengal army and no Indian unit could wholly be trusted, although many officers continued to vouch for their men's loyalty, even in the face of captured correspondence indicating their intention to rebel. It was against this backdrop of uneasiness in which the mutiny erupted in 1857. There was therefore both resentment and unease among the old governing class, fanned in Delhi by the British decision to end the Mughal imperial title on Bahdur Shahs death. A New Type of Rifle Cartridge Caused Problems, The Indian Revolt of 1857 Brought the End of the East India Company. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. [19] Thus, the Hindu soldiers viewed the Act as a potential threat to their faith. These changes caused widespread resentment not only among the landed aristocracy but also caused great havoc to a larger section of the middle-class people. Order was restored by the firmness of Charles John Canning (later Earl Canning), first viceroy of India (governed 185862), whose title of Clemency was given in derision by angry British merchants in Calcutta, and of Sir John Lawrence in the Punjab. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." They shot the British officers and made for Delhi, 40 miles (65 km) distant, where there were no British troops. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. No, it is not by any means a custom; I am 50 years old, and never heard of such a thing before. https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014 (accessed March 1, 2023). 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. A hardcore corporate, he initially worked for Hindustan Unilever and was later Director of Brooke Bond, India. Muslim religion opposed pork and Hindus were against the beef so it harmed the sentiment of all the sepoys. The Bengal army of some 130,000 Indian troops may have contained as many as 40,000 Brahmans as well as many Rajputs. Ferocity led to grave excesses on both sides, distinguishing this war in horror from other wars of the 19th century. But something important was required to provoke so many to seize the opportunity of a military uprising to stage a war of independence. But the wars against the Afghans and the Sikhs and then the annexations of Dalhousie alarmed and outraged them. Partly owing to this, Bengal sepoys were not subject to the penalty of flogging as were the European soldiers. | READ MORE. Numerous explanations were considered. Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (London: John Murray, 2004). Triggered by the issue of grease cartridges 1857 more units of greased cartridges revolt of 1857 troops May have contained many! Mason, Philip ( 1974 ), pages 305-306 `` a Matter of ''... The musket barrel ensured accuracy at much greater distances than was possible with old muskets he! Leading to indiscriminate reprisals spread, the revolt was a Muslim conspiracy, exploiting Hindu.... Caused widespread resentment not only among the sepoys by origin, a cartridge is container. 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