Ch 1 -The First War of Independence, 1857 (Notes)

Causes of revolt

1. Political causes
a. Policy of expansion:

➢ The British tried to expand their political power in India by adopting four ways i.e. by outright
wars, by the system of Subsidiary Alliance, by adopting Doctrine of Lapse and on the pretext
of alleged misrules.

➢ The states conquered by outright wars were Bengal, Orissa, Bihar( Battle of Buxar), Mysore
(Anglo-Mysore wars), all Maratha territories( Anglo-maratha war) , Punjab(Anglo-Sikh war),
Sindh, Assam

➢ The policy of Subsidiary Alliance was introduced by Lord Wellesley. Under this system,

• the Indian rulers accepted the British as supreme power,

• surrendered their foreign relations to the East India Company and agreed that they
would not enter into any alliance with any other power & would not wage war

• agreed to maintain British troops,

• accepted a British resident at their headquarter.

E.g. Hyderabad and Awadh

b. Doctrine of lapse:

➢ Lord Dalhousie annexed many states using doctrine of lapse. According to this, heirs adopted
without the consent of the company could inherit only the private property of the deceased
ruler and not his territory.

➢ The states which became victims of these were Nagpur,1853 Jhansi, Satara, Jaitpur,
Sambalpur.

➢ Regal titles of the Nawabs of Carnatic and Tanjore were taken away. This caused discontentment
in rulers. They believed that the British followed 'Lapse of all morals'

c. Disrespect shown to Bahadur Shah:

➢ He was the last Mughal emperor. In 1849 Lord Dalhousie announced that the successors of
the emperor would not be permitted to use the Red Fort as their palace.

➢ In 1856 Lord Canning announced that after the death of emperor his successors would not be
allowed to use the imperial titles and dignities. This hurt the feelings of Muslims.
d. Treatment given to Nanasaheb and Rani Laxmibai-

➢ Dalhousie refused to pay pension to Nanasaheb who was adopted son of Baji Rao II.
Nanasaheb was the last Peshwa. Nana Saheb was forced to live at Kanpur, away from his
family seat at Poona. This was widely resented in the Maratha region. He used his wealth to
generate awareness among the Indians about the British policies by sending emissaries to
different parts of the country.

➢ Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi who became victim of Doctrine of Lapse became bitter enemy of the
British. When the ruler of Jhansi died in 1853, the widowed Rani was pensioned and their

e. Annexation of Awadh -

➢ On February 13, 1856 annexation of Awadh was done by Lord Dalhousie on the pretext of
alleged misrule. This step was arbitrary as the British seemed to have broken their promises
to the ruling chiefs.

➢ Impact: This caused thousands of nobles, officials, soldiers of Nawab of Awadh out of jobs.
The disposed taluqdars and zamindars became the opponents of the British rule.

➢ It caused resentment in Indian soldiers in the British army, of whom 75000 were from Awadh.
Awadh played a major role in the uprising of. 1857.

f. Absentee Sovereignty of the British - The Indian's felt that they were being ruled from England
and India's wealth was being drained to England and not utilised for their welfare.

2. Social causes:
a. Interference with social customs - While introducing reforms of Abolition of Sati 1829,
introduction of the Widow remarriage act 1856, western education to the girls, consensus of the
masses were not taken into consideration. Masses did not welcome these reforms.

b. Apprehensions about modern inventions-

➢ The orthodox Indians noted that in railways the higher and lower castes were made to sit
side by side. The people believed that such practices are introduced to defy their caste and
religion.

➢ There were rumours that the telegraph pole were erected to hang people who were against
British
c. Racial discrimination - The British officers believed that they were superior to the Indians. They
were rude and arrogant towards Indians. Indians were described as barbarians by them. Muslims were
dubbed as cruel and unfaithful. Such acts alienated the British from the Indian masses.

d. Corruption in the administration- the rich got away with the crime but the common man was
looted, oppressed and tortured.

e. Oppression of the poor- Flogging, torture, and imprisonment of the poor to pay arrears of rent,
land revenue and interest on debt were quite common. The growing poverty made them desperate
to join uprising.
3. Religious causes :
a. Activities of Missionaries -

➢ In 19th century the British began to interfere with the local religions and social customs. They
denounced idol worship and dubbed local beliefs as ignorance

➢ There was an increase both in the numbers and activities of the Christian Missionaries. The
Indian thought that the Government was supporting missionaries who would convert them to
Christianity.

b. Fears regarding western education -

➢ The western education was introduced in many schools.

➢ People saw in it the attempt to discourage traditional islamic ard Hindu studies. People
started suspecting that the aim of the western education was not to promote literature and
science but to encourage their children to become Christians.

c. Taxation of religious places: temples and mosques land was taxed. The families dependent on
these lands propagated that the British were trying to undermine religions of India.

d. Law of property:

➢ The Religious Disabilities Act of 1850 Changed the Hindu Law of Property.

➢ It enabled a convert from the Hinduism to other religion to inherit the property of his father.
Hindus regarded this as an incentive to change religion.

4. Economic causes : The most important reason for the popular discontent.

a. Exploitation of economic resources :

➢ India was forced to export at cheaper rates raw materials like raw cotton and raw silk, indigo,
tea and food grains which were in short supply in Britain.

➢ India was forced to import finished products from Britain with negligible import duty.

➢ Indian products were subjected to high import duties in Britain.

➢ This ruined the Indian industry, deprived artisans of their income and reduced the avenues of
employment for labour.

➢ The export of raw materials and food grains raised the prices of raw materials in India.

b. Drain of wealth :

➢ The transfer of wealth from India to England for which India got no proportionate economic
return is known as drain of wealth.

➢ The drain of wealth included the salaries, incomes and saving of Englishmen, the British
expenditure in India on the purchase of military goods offices, expenses on army.
c. Decay of cottage industries and handicrafts :

➢ Heavy duties on Indian goods in Britain destroyed Indian industries.

➢ The export of cotton and silk goods from India practically ceased.

➢ The traditional patrons of the artisans like princes and kings also were disappearing.

➢ British goods were imported into India at a nominal duty.

➢ The art of spinning and weaving which gave employment to thousands of artisans become
extinct.

d. Economic decline of peasantry:

➢ The company increased the land revenue-which resulted into the indebtedness or selling
land by peasants.

➢ The traditional zamindars were replaced by merchants and money lenders. These new
owners had no concern for the peasants. They pushed rents to exorbitant levels and evicted
their tenants in case of non-payment.

➢ The economic decline of the peasants affected cultivation and led to famines.

e. Growing unemployment -

➢ all the people who depended on the patronage of the rulers were impoverished because of
decline of ruler.

➢ Thousands of soldiers, official in administration, judicial posts became unemployed because

of the British policies excluded Indians from high posts.

f. Poverty and famines - British exploitation, taxation, decay of Indian industries, poor peasants
resulted into extreme poverty.

g. Decline of Landed Aristocracy:

➢ According the provisions of the Inam Commission, 1852, 20000 estates were confiscated
when the landlords failed to produce evidence like title deeds by which they held the land.

➢ This was then bought by money lenders through bidding, who did not understand the tenants
and fully exploited them.

h. Inhuman treatment to Indigo cultivators: Indigo trade was highly profitable to the British.

➢ The peasants were forced to cultivate only indigo in the fields chosen by the British planters

➢ If they planted anything else, their crops were destroyed and their cattle were carried off as
a punishment.
5. Military causes:
a. Ill-treatment to Indian soldiers- They were poorly paid, ill fed and badly housed. The authorities
forbade them from wearing caste marks, beards, turbans as they showed disregard for the sentiments of the
sepoys.

b. General Service Enlistment Act1856 - According to this act Indian soldiers could be sent overseas
on duty. The act did not take in to account the sentiment of the Indian soldiers as it was taboo for
many to cross the seas.

c. Bleak prospects of promotions - all higher positions were kept reserved for the British, irrespective of
their performance. Indian soldiers were not able to rise above the post of the subedar.

d. Deprivation of allowances and lower salaries - the soldiers were required to serve in areas away
from home without allowance. The Indian soldier's salaries were not enough to support their families.
Their British counterpart received eight times their salaries. The Post Office Act of 1854 withdrew
privilege of free postage to sepoys.

Following are the reasons because of which indian soldiers believed that they could revolt against
the British and win:

e. Larger proportion of Indians in the British army - made it easier to take up arms against the
British.

f. Faulty Distribution of the troops - places of the strategic importance like Delhi and Allahabad had
no British armies and were wholly held by the Indian soldiers.

g. Poor performance of the British troops - they suffered major reverses in the First Afghan War
and in the Crimean war. The Santhal tribesmen of Bihar and Bengal rose up against British
temporarily sweeping away the British rule from their area. This suffered the myth that the British
were invincible.

Immediate cause - Introduction of the Enfield rifle 1856 by replacing Musket/Brown Bess

➢ The loading process of the Enfield rifle involved bringing the cartridge to the mouth and biting
off top greased paper with the mouth.

➢ There was a rumour that the greased cartridge had the fat of cow or pig.

➢ The sepoys were convinced that this is the deliberate move to defile Hindus and Muslims as
cow was sacred to the Hindus and pig was taboo to the Muslims.
Beginning of the uprising :

➢ On feb 26, 1857 the 19th native infantry at Berhampur in Bengal, refused to accept the
cartridges given to them. The regiment was disbanded as a warning to other regiments.

➢ Mangal Pandey a sepoy led an attack on the Adjutant of the 34th Native Infantry at
Barrackpur on Mar 29, 1857.
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE FIRST WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

a. End of the company's rule/Administrative changes/Government of India Act of 1858:

It had following provisions -

➢ it transferred the power to govern India from East India Company to the British crown

➢ the power has to be exercised by the Secretary of State for India, aided by a council, he
was a member of the British cabinet and was responsible to the British parliament.

➢ the Secretary of the State was to be assisted by a 15 member council, atleast 9 to be resided
or served in India for at least 10 yrs:

➢ his salary and allowances to be paid out of the revenues of India

➢ Actual governance was to be carried by the Governor-General who was also given the
title of Viceroy or Crown's personal representative. Lord Canning was the first
viceroy.

➢ Appointments to the Civil service were to be made by open competition under rules made
by the Secretary of State.

b. Queen Victoria's proclamation: It was made public on Nov 1, 1858 at Allahabad by Lord
Canning. It incorporated the transfer of power to British crown.

➢ It promised that the government would not intervene in social and religious matters
of Indian,

➢ treat all subjects as equal, except those found guilty of murder of the British.

➢ grant a general pardon to all those who had taken part in the war,

➢ do its best to advance the industries in India and promote work of public utility.

c. Changes in the army/ Military reforms: The reorganisation of the Indian army was done to
prevent another uprising.

➢ the strength of the European troop was increased and that of Indian troop decreased.

➢ European troops were kept in key geographical and military positions

➢ the sophisticated weapons and ammunition were never placed under the charge on the
Indians.
➢ Newspapers, journals and nationalist publications were prevented from reaching the
soldiers.
➢ in order to discourage nationalism, measures as introduction of caste and community in
most regiments were taken. They also followed the policy of divide and rule.
d. Economic exploitation:

➢ India has turned into a typical economy of exporting raw material and importing finished
goods.
➢ The salaries of the British were a drain on the country's resources.

➢ The peasants were impoverished.

➢ Rural industries collapsed.

➢ The Indians had to pay heavy dividends and interests on the British capital invested in
India.

e. Rise of nationalism:

➢ It was the first struggle of the Indian people for freedom against the British.

➢ The uprising of 1857 pave the way for the rise of the modern national movement.

➢ The sacrifices of revolutionaries like Mangal Pandey, Laxmibai served as a source of

inspiration for the future freedom fighters.

➢ The heroic struggle established valuable tradition of resistance to the British rule.

f. Relations with Princely states :

➢ The Policy of Annexation and the Doctrine of Lapse were abandoned.

➢ The princes who were loyal to British, had helped them in suppressing the uprising were
rewarded by giving them right to adopt and integrity of their territories guaranteed against
future annexation. The Indian princes willingly became agents of the British crown.

➢ In 1876 Queen Victoria assumed the title of 'Empress of India'.

g. Foreign Policy: was dictated by interests of the British. It fulfilled two aims

➢ Protection of the Indian empire

➢ Expansion of the British economic and commercial interests in Asia and Africa.

h. End of Mughals and Peshwas :

➢ With the death of Bahadur Shah Zafar II who was deported to Yangoon, the Mughal
dynastry came to an end.

➢ Nanasaheb, the last peshwa, had taken active part in the uprising and later fled to Nepal.

➢ Thus ended two of the most formidable foes of the British.

i. Religious changes :

The British declared that the government would not intervene in social, customs, traditions
and religious matters of Indian

j. Policy of divide and rule :

The British continued their policy of divide and rule by turning the
princes against the people, province against province caste against caste and Hindus against
Muslims.

k. Increased racial bitterness, racial antagonism:

The British dubbed all Indians as unworthy of trust and subjects them to insults and humiliation.
They believed in their racial supremacy.
Railway compartments, parks, hotels, clubs had reserved for 'Europeans Only' signs.

l. Widening of the Gulf between Hindus and Muslims:

During the first war of independence Hindus and Muslims fought against the British with
great zeal. But after it, the gulf between two communities widened because of the British
policy of 'Divide and Rule' by which they sowed the seeds of dissension between the two
communities.

Why the revolt of 1857 known as First war of Independence?

The first hundred years of British rule in India from 1757-1857 was marked by conquests, economic
exploitation, administrative changes that affected all sections of the society. By 1857 the conditions
were ripe for first mass uprising. All sections of the society fought against the foreign rule. Hence it is
known as First War of Independence