This Rebellion Occurred Because Indians Believed Their Rifles Were Greased With Beef and Pork Fat
Indian Wildcat
Why did the Indian Mutiny happen?
Due east Bharat Visitor
In the mid-19th century, India was very different from the nation state nosotros know today. It didn't exist as a country, but instead consisted of different territories controlled past a variety of rulers. The greatest of these was the British East India Company which governed two thirds of the subcontinent.
Originally formed in 1600 purely to trade with the Mughal Empire, the Company needed to secure its commercial posts at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. It purchased land from Indian rulers to build its settlements on, and recruited native military to protect them. Eventually, these evolved into the Bengal, Bombay and Madras Armies.
Ascension to power
By the mid-18th century, the previously dominant Mughal Empire was collapsing as native and European states attempted to cleave out their own ability bases.
After successfully contesting the French for trading supremacy, and simultaneously involving itself in local politics, the Company became India's leading power post-obit Robert Clive'south victory at Plassey in 1757. In the years that followed, it expanded its Indian domains.
Culture clash
From the early on 1800s the Company attempted to develop the Indian economy and legal system.
Some changes, such equally outlawing sati (a widow'due south suicide by fire) and child marriage, may have been well-significant. But the British imposed them without any regard for Indian civilization.
Fears that the British were also trying to strength conversion to Christianity upon the Indian people led to a widespread feeling that the traditional mode of life was threatened.
A sepoy and his wife, 1810
Troop numbers
Afterwards taking over the Punjab in 1849, the Company reduced the number of British Army regiments in India. This was for reasons of economy, and to send men to the Crimean State of war (1854-56).
Of the 159,000 men on the Bengal Army establishment in 1857, 24,000 were European and 135,000 were Indian sepoys (infantry) and sowars (cavalry). This ratio was especially problematic given that discipline in the Bengal Army had for some time been junior to that in the Company's other armies.
Sepoys at burglarize practice, 1857
Discontent
Poor terms of service and pensions, bad pay, lack of promotion, and increased cultural and racial insensitivity from British officers all contributed to the feelings of discontent amid the Indian soldiers of the Bengal Army. Many loftier caste Hindu sepoys also viewed attempts during the 1840s to extend recruitment to lower caste Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims as a threat to their traditional social status.
No single factor was in itself enough to start a rebellion. But the cumulative result meant all that was needed was a catalyst to plow quiet discontent into a much more serious affair.
New cartridges
Matters came to a head following the introduction of the Pattern 1853 Enfield Burglarize.
Rumours spread that the cartridges for the new rifle were greased with grunter and cow fat. This made them offensive to both Muslims and Hindus, and added weight to existing concerns near forced conversion to Christianity.
Enfield Pattern 1853 Percussion Burglarize cartridges, 1857
Disarming of the 11th Cavalry at Berhampore, 1857
Outbreak
On 29 March 1857 at Barrackpore, Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry attacked his officers. When his comrades were ordered to restrain him they refused, but they stopped short of joining him in open revolt.
Although but a handful of sepoys had been involved, the unabridged regiment was disbanded in disgrace. Sepoys elsewhere thought this too harsh a penalty.
The Wildcat proper began at Meerut on 10 May 1857. Eighty-5 members of the third Bengal Low-cal Cavalry, who had been jailed for refusing to use cartridges they believed to exist at odds with their religion, were broken out of prison past their comrades. They ransacked the nearby armed services station and killed whatsoever Europeans they could find.
Trouble spreads
The situation apace escalated, and the British reacted slowly. The post-obit 24-hour interval Delhi fell to the mutineers. News of these events spread, encouraging further mutinies elsewhere. Somewhen all 10 Bengal Light Cavalry Regiments and near of the 74 Bengal Native Infantry Regiments were affected.
Some units were disarmed before they had the chance to mutiny. In other cases, British officers refused to believe their men would insubordinate until it was too belatedly. Not everyone who mutinied took upwardly arms confronting the British. Many only went dwelling house and refused to assist either side.
Captain Charles Gough winning the Victoria Cross at Khurkowhah, 1857
Confined to Bengal
There were only 35,000 British soldiers in the whole subcontinent and these were widely scattered. Reinforcements took months to arrive. Fortunately for the British, it was about exclusively soldiers of the Bengal Army who mutinied.
The Company's Madras and Bombay Armies were relatively unaffected and other Indian units - including Sikhs, Punjabi Muslims and Gurkhas - supported the British. This was partly due to their fear of a return to Mughal rule. They also had little in mutual with the high caste Hindu sepoys of the Bengal Regular army.
Sikh and British officers of Hodson's Horse, 1858
Rulers join the rising
Local rulers were angered by the Company's looting of native states. Nearly notorious was the 1856 deposition of the Nawab of Oudh on the grounds that he was unfit to rule.
As unpopular was the policy of lapse, which said that the lands of any ruler who died without a male heir would be forfeit to the Visitor. Princes and maharajahs, along with their courtiers and soldiers, found themselves unemployed and humiliated.
These marginalised people, seen as having the potency to lead a entrada against the British, were in many cases a natural focal point for mutineers. And although they may take preferred to deal differently with the British, the arrival of insubordinate sepoys at their gates frequently forced them to take up the cause.
Other rulers remained neutral or felt that more could exist gained past supporting the British.
Religious and social revolt
Thousands of common people joined the revolt. Some for religious reasons, others out of loyalty to their old rulers or simply to engage in looting.
Many wanted to destroy the system by which the Company collected taxes. Peasants, who had been forced to switch from subsistence farming to export crops in order to come across increasing revenue enhancement demands, needed little encouragement to rebel.
Rebel divisions
It was not a unified revolt. While all wanted the British gone, notions of 'Indianness' were rare. Virtually of the sepoys hoped to restore Mughal rule nether Bahadur Shah. Just the inhabitants of Oudh wanted their Nawab back, and the people of Jhansi wanted their old state restored.
The revolt was also divided on religious lines. Near sepoys were Hindus, but other rebels were Muslims fighting a holy war.
Indian troops centrolineal to the British, 1857
Decisive events
Following the outbreak at Meerut, uprisings by soldiers and civilians alike occurred across northern and key Republic of india. But the main centres of rebellion were Delhi, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Jhansi and Gwalior. The futurity of India would be decided on these battlefields.
Discover the decisive events of the Indian Wildcat
Source: https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/why-did-indian-mutiny-happen
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