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Indian Mutiny
Indian history

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Also known as: First War of Independence, Sepoy Mutiny

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Article History

Indian Mutiny, also called Sepoy Mutiny

or First War of Independence,
widespread but unsuccessful rebellion
against British rule in India in 1857–59.

Begun in Meerut by Indian troops
(sepoys) in the service of the British East
India Company, it spread to Delhi, Agra,
Kanpur, and Lucknow. In India it is often troops during the Indian Mutiny

called the First War of Independence and

other similar names.

Background Sepoy Mutiny or First War

of Independence
To regard the rebellion merely as a sepoy May 10, 1857 - July 8, 1859
mutiny is to underestimate the root Agra • Delhi • India •
causes leading to it. British paramountcy Kanpur • Lucknow

—i.e., the belief in British dominance in Mughal dynasty • United

Kingdom
Indian political, economic, and cultural
British Empire • Western
life—had been introduced in India about
colonialism • East India Company •
1820. The British increasingly used a British raj

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variety of tactics to usurp control of the Siege of Lucknow •

Siege of Delhi
Hindu princely states that were under
what were called subsidiary alliances
→
with the British. Everywhere the old
Indian aristocracy was being replaced by
British officials. One notable British
technique was called the doctrine of lapse, first perpetrated by Lord
Dalhousie in the late 1840s. It involved the British prohibiting a Hindu ruler
without a natural heir from adopting a successor and, after the ruler died or
abdicated, annexing his land. To those problems may be added the growing
discontent of the Brahmans, many of whom had been dispossessed of their
revenues or had lost lucrative positions.

Another serious concern was the increasing pace of Westernization, by

which Hindu society was being affected by the introduction of Western
ideas. Missionaries were challenging the religious beliefs of the Hindus. The
humanitarian movement led to reforms that went deeper than the political
superstructure. During his tenure as governor-general of India (1848–56),
Lord Dalhousie made efforts toward emancipating women and had
introduced a bill to remove all legal obstacles to the remarriage of Hindu
widows. Converts to Christianity were to share with their Hindu relatives in
the property of the family estate. There was a widespread belief that the
British aimed at breaking down the caste system. The introduction of
Western methods of education was a direct challenge to orthodoxy, both
Hindu and Muslim.

The mutiny broke out in the Bengal army because it was only in the military
sphere that Indians were organized. The pretext for revolt was the
introduction of the new Enfield rifle. To load it, the sepoys had to bite off the
ends of lubricated cartridges. A rumour spread among the sepoys that the
grease used to lubricate the cartridges was a mixture of pigs’ and cows’ lard;
thus, to have oral contact with it was an insult to both Muslims and Hindus.
There is no conclusive evidence that either of these materials was actually
used on any of the cartridges in question. However, the perception that the

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cartridges were tainted added to the larger suspicion that the British were
trying to undermine Indian traditional society. For their part, the British did
not pay enough attention to the growing level of sepoy discontent.

The rebellion
In late March 1857 a sepoy named
Mangal Pandey attacked British
officers at the military garrison in
Barrackpore. He was arrested and then
executed by the British in early April.
Later in April sepoy troopers at Meerut
refused the Enfield cartridges, and, as
punishment, they were given long

prison terms, fettered, and put in jail.
This punishment incensed their
comrades, who rose on May 10, shot
their British officers, and marched to
Delhi, where there were no European
troops. There the local sepoy garrison
joined the Meerut men, and by
nightfall the aged pensionary Mughal
emperor Bahādur Shah II had been
nominally restored to power by a
tumultuous soldiery. The seizure of
Delhi provided a focus and set the pattern for the whole mutiny, which then
spread throughout northern India. With the exception of the Mughal
emperor and his sons and Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the deposed
Maratha peshwa, none of the important Indian princes joined the mutineers.

From the time of the mutineers’ seizure of Delhi, the British operations to
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From the time of the mutineers’ seizure of Delhi, the British operations to
suppress the mutiny were divided into three parts. First came the desperate
struggles at Delhi, Kanpur, and Lucknow during the summer; then the
operations around Lucknow in the winter of 1857–58, directed by Sir Colin
Campbell; and finally the “mopping up” campaigns of Sir Hugh Rose in early
1858. Peace was officially declared on July 8, 1859.

A grim feature of the mutiny was the ferocity that accompanied it. The
mutineers commonly shot their British officers on rising and were
responsible for massacres at Delhi, Kanpur, and elsewhere. The murder of
women and children enraged the British, but in fact some British officers
began to take severe measures before they knew that any such murders had
occurred. In the end the reprisals far outweighed the original excesses.
Hundreds of sepoys were bayoneted or fired from cannons in a frenzy of
British vengeance (though some British officers did protest the bloodshed).

Aftermath
The immediate result of the mutiny was a general housecleaning of the
Indian administration. The East India Company was abolished in favour of
the direct rule of India by the British government. In concrete terms, this did
not mean much, but it introduced a more personal note into the government
and removed the unimaginative commercialism that had lingered in the
Court of Directors. The financial crisis caused by the mutiny led to a
reorganization of the Indian administration’s finances on a modern basis.
The Indian army was also extensively reorganized.

Another significant result of the mutiny was the beginning of the policy of
consultation with Indians. The Legislative Council of 1853 had contained
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consultation with Indians. The Legislative Council of 1853 had contained

only Europeans and had arrogantly behaved as if it were a full-fledged
parliament. It was widely felt that a lack of communication with Indian
opinion had helped to precipitate the crisis. Accordingly, the new council of
1861 was given an Indian-nominated element. The educational and public
works programs (roads, railways, telegraphs, and irrigation) continued with
little interruption; in fact, some were stimulated by the thought of their
value for the transport of troops in a crisis. But insensitive British-imposed
social measures that affected Hindu society came to an abrupt end.

Finally, there was the effect of the mutiny on the people of India themselves.
Traditional society had made its protest against the incoming alien
influences, and it had failed. The princes and other natural leaders had
either held aloof from the mutiny or had proved, for the most part,
incompetent. From this time all serious hope of a revival of the past or an
exclusion of the West diminished. The traditional structure of Indian society
began to break down and was eventually superseded by a Westernized class
system, from which emerged a strong middle class with a heightened sense
of Indian nationalism.

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