Officers attacked

causes

The causes of the Indian Mutiny which erupted in Meerut on May 10, 1857, and raged across north and central India for more than a year, have long been the subject of Indo-British historical debate.

The immediate trigger was the introduction of the Enfield rifled musket which had cartridges greased with pig and cow fat, causing offence to Muslim and Hindu soldiers respectively.

More sophisticated historical readings find a range of causes for the bubbling discontent that led to open rebellion - the punitive tax collection system, a succession of British territorial seizures and the rise of aggressive Christian evangelism among them.

However it was the refusal to bite into those Enfield musket cartridges that led, on April 24, to the imprisonment of 90 soldiers of the Third Indian Cavalry in Meerut. They were sprung from jail on May 10 by the mutinous sepoys, who then marched on Delhi.

After Delhi was occupied, the revolt spread to other cities such as Lucknow, Cawnpore (now Kanpur) and Jhansi, where the rebels committed a series of massacres of women and children which transfixed the Victorian popular imagination.

However by the end of 1858, when the rebellion was finally suppressed, those same massacres had been used to justify a wave of even more savage British reprisals, including the razing and execution of entire villages. Indians called it the "Devil's Wind". Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, William Dalrymple, the historian whose latest book The Last Mughal tells the story of the siege of Delhi, described the British action as "the most brutal moment in British imperial history".

The rebellion had two immediate consequences - the exiling of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah, to Burma and the founding of the British Raj as the East India Company was dissolved and India placed under the direct rule of the British government.

Mutineer Miniatures

wargaming

queens regiment indian mutiny

after lucknow

painting

By the 1850s the British East India Company's rule of India seemed secure. But relations were deteriorating as resentment against the British grew.
Jessie's Dream (The Relief of Lucknow), 1858 By Frederick Goodall (1822-1904) Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, UK.The Indian Mutiny (or the First Indian War of Independence as it is now known in India) was an armed uprising in northern and central India from 1857-58. It was the first united movement against British rule in India.
Left: The horrors of the Mutiny inspired many artists. This dramatic scene shows the heroic end of the famous 90-day siege at Lucknow. Jessie was the wife of a soldier. At the height of the siege, she dreamt of hearing the bagpipes of Scottish troops coming to the rescue.Many of the East India Company's practices were considered a threat to Indian religious and cultural customs. Tax changes had brought grievances and military reforms challenged the status of the sepoys (Indian soldiers). Resentment grew and unrest sparked into armed rebellion. News of bloody sieges at Cawnpore and Lucknow and the violent deaths of British women and children created uproar in Britain.
Right: Many Indian soldiers remained loyal to the British during the uprising. O'Neil illustrates this by including an Indian soldier (a sepoy) in Home Again.40,000 British troops were sent to India to suppress the uprising. Many left from Tilbury and Gravesend like the soldiers in Eastward Ho! When O'Neil painted their poignant departure, he created a stark contrast to the well-reported terrors awaiting them, of which the public would have been well aware.
After the rebellion's brutal suppression, the East India Company was dissolved. For the first time India was subject to direct British rule. Indian independence was finally achieved in 1947.India became an independent country where people die on the streets of hunger in this day and age.