The East India Company
LO: To understand the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Tuesday 8th December 2020
Look at your meline from 1600 to 1900.
500 years ago, England was a li le country on the edge of the world. Asia was dominated by great empires. But European inven ons (guns, be er ships, the prin ng press) meant European countries became suddenly powerful. The rise of the Islamic O oman Empire blocked European countries from trading with India and China. So European explorers set sail to find new routes to Asia. The Italian explorer Columbus discovered America. The Portuguese explorer Magellan was the first to sail right around the world. English sailors and traders reached India and China
In 1600, when the East India Company was founded, European countries were s ll weak and poor compared to the great empires of India and China. In the 17th Century, India was ruled by the Mughals, Muslim conquerors who had invaded India from the north. The Mughal Emperor of India was the richest man in the world.
But the Emperor’s descendants quarreled, and the Mughal Empire was divided. As the Europeans grew stronger, India and China were in decline. The Europeans were figh ng each other to trade with India. The Bri sh fought their old enemies, the French. Indian rulers fought amongst themselves.
India is a long way from Europe. The numbers of Europeans were ny compared to the popula on of India, but it was easy for foreign powers like the Bri sh and French to sow division and to enlist Indian soldiers on their own side.
The Bri sh and French fought for possession of Bengal, the richest part of India.
At the Ba le of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company led by Robert Clive, fought against the Nawab of Bengal, and the French. The East India Company had only 3000 troops (2000 were Indian soldiers), the Nawab of Bengal had 60,000 troops, but Clive’s army won. (A ‘nawab’ was a Mughal governor of an Indian province.)
The East India Company took possession of Bengal, the richest province of India and began to raise taxes.
By 1818, the East India Company had control over almost all of India. Ordinary Indian people became poorer under the Company’s rule, and many died of hunger. In 1857 the Bengal army a acked their Bri sh commanding officers. The Bri sh call this the Indian Mu ny, Indians call it the First War of Independence.
The rebellion was sparked when the commanders of the Bri sh army issued more modern rifles, with a new kind of gun cartridge. The soldier had to load the rifle by bi ng open a paper cartridge full of gunpowder, before pping the powder into the gun barrel. The cartridges were made in Britain and were covered in grease to protect the gunpowder from damp. Unfortunately the grease was made from beef and pork fat. Pigs are unclean animals to Muslims, and cows are sacred to Hindus. Both Hindus and Muslims refused to touch the new cartridges. The East India Company quickly replaced the animal fat with vegetable fat, but the damage had been done. Hindus and Muslims alike felt as if they’d been deliberately humiliated. They assumed that it was part of a plot to impose Chris anity on India. Indian soldiers mu nied, refusing to obey orders, and a acking the Bri sh officers. The Bri sh were lucky that only the Bengal Army that turned against them.
The armies in the east and south of India s ll followed their Bri sh commanders.
The Indian rebels were treated very harshly. Some were executed by being ed to cannons.
“It was literally murder… I have seen many bloody and awful sights lately but such a one as I witnessed yesterday I pray I never see again. The women were all spared but their screams on seeing their husbands and sons butchered, were most painful…” Edward Vibart, 19 year old Bri sh officer
The Indian soldiers of the Bengal Army asked the old Mughal Emperor to join their fight, and to re-establish the Mughal Empire. But the Emperor was too frail and weak to fight. The Indian people were unable to unite. The rebellion failed. The Bri sh government effec vely abolished the East India Company in 1858. All of its tax-raising powers, possessions and armed forces, were taken over by the Bri sh Crown. This was the start of the Bri sh Raj, a period of direct Bri sh rule over India which con nued un l independence in 1947. India is a country of many religions and many languages. Was that one reason why they didn’t unite against the Bri sh?
Imagine you are an Indian soldier, your commanding officers are Bri sh, your family pays taxes to the Bri sh.
The Bri sh officers expect you to use cartridges covered in animal fat – animals that are sacred to you, if you are Hindu, or unclean if you are Muslim. You’ve seen your fellow soldiers treated very cruelly.
Write a le er to your friends, telling them to fight. How would you persuade them to risk their lives? Would you tell them that Hindu and Muslim need to work together?