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Home , Indian Rebellion of 1857, Mangal Pandey

THE WAS DOOMED TO FAIL, BUT THE RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL TENSIONS IT INFLAMED WOULD ULTIMATELY TOPPLE THE BY RON SOODALTER

On May 9,1857, some 4,000 British soldiers and sepoys—native Indian troops—formed a three-sided hollow square on the parade ground at the mihtary , 40 miles northeast of , to witness punishment. On the fourth side of the square 85 sepoys of the 3rd Light Cavalry— and , many of them veterans with long years of service—stood at attention as their uniform jackets were stripped from them. The disgraced soldiers, weeping and begging for mercy, were then marched away to imprisonment at hard lahor. The offense for which they had been court-martialed was disobedience—they had refused to load their rifles.

or more than 150 years historians percussion cap, bring the hammer to removed from the cartridge, the sides of have maintained that 's First full cock and fire. the bullet should be wetted in the mouth revolt against British rule broke During manufacture the cartridges bejoi e putting it into the barrel; the out at least in part over a gun-—to were coated with beeswax and tallow to saliva will serve the purpose of grease beF precise, the muzzle-loading Pattern protect the powder from the elements, for the time being. 1853 Enfield rifle-musket. Each of the and the bullets were greased to ensure a weapon's paper cartridges contained a proper seal in the barrel. The - When rumors spread among the precise amount of powder and a .577- general's official 1856 Instruction of caliber Minié ball. The rifleman was re- Muskctiy specified: tridges and bullets were greased with quired to bite off the cartridge's paper pork and beef fat, they were outraged. end, pour the powder down the barrel, Whenever the grease round the bullet It is considered haram ("sinful") for seat and ram home the bullet, add a appears to be melted away or otherwise Muslims to put anything derived from

MILITARY HISTORY Led by Maj. Gen. Sir , British soldiers fight insurgents besieging the city of . Sparking the revolt of native Indian troops were rumors that new British- issued cartridges, opposite, were greased with animal fat. a pig in their mouths, just as it is un- yelling to each other and blazing away acceptable for Hindus to ingest cow fat. with their muskets in all directions." When ordered to load their weapons The sepoys freed their 85 jailed com- for firing drills, the sepoys refused. panions and set off for Delhi in no par- The troops' British officers, either ticular hurry, the British too stunned ignorant of the religious and cultural to attempt to stop them. The bloody dilemma or simply not interested, re- Indian Rebellion of 1857 had begun. sponded by the book. When informed of In retrospect there was scant reason the sepoys' concems, Maj. Gen. George for the British at Meerut to have been Anson, the commander in chief in India, caught off-guard. A number of Bengal reportedly responded, "I'll never give in battalions had already refused to accept to their beastly prejudices." By refusing the new ammunition, and the previous a direct order, the sepoys opened them- four months had witnessed a series of selves up to charges of , and a unconnected but ominous incidents at court-martial ensured they were con- various military posts involving myste- victed and punished accordingly. rious fires, fiaming arrows loosed into The troops assembled to witness the thatched roofs of British officers' the punishment were openly troubled homes and secret nocturnal meetings. by the events of the day. That nightl a Between January and April fires were set near Calcutta and at , Maj. Gen. George and . The telegraph station at Anson, commander the post was burned to in chief in india: the ground, and on March 23 the 19th 'I'li never give in Native Infantry stationed there was dis- to [the Sepoys'] armed and disbanded for disobeying beastiy prejudices' orders regarding the paper cartridges. Six days later a sepoy named Mangal native officer stealthily approached attacked and wounded two Brit- young Lieutenant Hugh Gough and ish officers in protest. Choosing death warned him the sepoys were planning over capture, Pandey then turned his to mutiny the next day, and they in- weapon on himself but survived to stand tended to slaughter British officers and trial and face the gallows. By their families. Gough immediately Pandey, the British created a martyr and brought word to his commander Colo- coined a new word in the English colo- nel George Carmichael-Smyth—who nial vocabulary. As the rebellion raged laughed and informed the young lieu- over the next two years, they would re- tenant that longer exposure to India fer colloquially to all mutineers as would quell his groundless fears. Gough "pandies." Eor the rebels, "Remember then took his intelligence to station !" became a rallying cry. commander Brigadier Archdale Wilson Although each incident was duly re- and was again met with condescensicfn ported, the impossibly ponderous and and disbelief. ineffectual chain of communication By 5 o'clock the next afternoon a leading to the governor general's desk horde of angry villagers and sepoys had precluded immediate action, and the in this period watercoior reheliing sepoys, some carrying come together in an uncontrollable situation continued to fester—until the mob. They set fire to the British bunga- Meerut station went up in flames. Eounded in 1599 by a handful of Lon- lows and turned their weapons on tl^e don merchants seeking to enter the hated British officers. Two of the offi- hile the introduction of lucrative spice trade with the Indian cers' wives were brutally slain—one greased paper cartridges subcontinent, it quickly amassed both torched in her sickbed, while a butcher W sparked the sepoy revolt, the wealth and power, and in 1661 its re- cut the unborn child of the second from underlying causes of the broader up- vised government charter gave it the her womb. Gough peered cautiously rising were far more complex. If there power to "make war and peace with any from his veranda at what he later de- were a single culprit at whom one might prince or people that are not Christians." scribed as, "a thousand sepoys dancing point a finger, it would be the mega- The EIC soon grew into a massive and leaping frantically about, calling and conglomerate East India Co. (EIC). monopoly that largely controlled and

MILITARY HISTORY ''if'

their British-issued weapons and wearing elements of their uniforms, dispute the division of spoils they have looted from British barracks and homes.

expanded Britain's Eastern colonies and, 1788, noted British statesman Edmund inserted itself into all aspects of Indian with the support of the British govern- Burke accurately described the EIC culture, politics and religion. The Brit- ment, fielded its own army. So rich did as, "a state in the disguise of a mer- ish government finally stripped the the company grow through trading in chant." And the firm added to its con- company of its Indian trade monopoly silk, cotton, spices, gold, precious jewels siderable holdings as much by war as in 1813, and 20 years later London as- and, eventually, that in 1667 the by commerce. sumed nominal control of its Indian government in London mandated it An imperial power in its own right, territories. Nonetheless, company poli- make an annual payment of £400,000 with control over territories that far out- cies and procedures remained much as —a tremendous sum—to the national stripped those of Britain itself, the EIC before, and the EICs practices contin- Exchequer. Speaking in Parliament in created a governing body that boldly ued to gall the native peoples. REBELLION OF 1857 THE BRITISH IN INDIA 1600s-1947 n much the same way the Boston Tea Party vented EAST INDIA CO. (EIC) Patriot frustration with British rule and sparked Granted a royai charter in 1599, the Irebellion in the American colonies, the sepoy mutiny EiC quickiy set about cornering the at Meerut vented Indian frustration with British rule and trade routes to india and then, with sparked the 1857 Rebellion. Neither was the causative its own sanctioned army, subjugating agent but more the starting gun. But the the subcontinent itseif. IVIix in the free were not unified in dissension, and the hostilities spread hand it ailowed Christian missionaries, little beyond the north-central princely states. Other and the seeds for mutiny were sown. regions allied with the British or remained neutral. EAST INDIA COMPflMY From Meerut the rebels struck quickly at Delhi, killing British soldiers and civilians and seizing the primary powder magazine. The British response was slow but inexorably steady. The garrison at Lucknow endured a BRITISH liVIPERIALISiVI IN INDIA As the EIC soiidified its grip, so months-long before relief arrived. The massacre came reforms designed to civiiize of Cawnpore's British population hardened popular and modernize the British coiony. opinion against the rebels, and by year's end the British Resentment grew. Lord Daihousie had the upper hand. Crown troops crushed the last rebel fanned the flames with his Doctrine holdouts at in June 1858, and a treaty followed. of Lapse, which aiiowed the EIC to annex any principaiity at its whim.

INDIAN REBELLION OF 1857 The rebeliion had been brewing for decades before the issue of Enfieid cartridges provided the flashpoint. iVIeerut station was the first to go up in fiâmes, and the vioience flared. Britain prevaiied and wisely took controi of India away from the EIC.

Greased cartridges

INDIGO REVOLT OF 1859 From the 1770s indigo pianters in Bengal had profited from the cuitivation of this dye-producing plant on the backs of peasant farmers. In 1859, on the heels of the wider rebeiiion, the farmers refused • to plant, and the industry coiiapsed. NATIONALISiVI AND REFORM The British Raj continued reforms LOADING A CARTRIDGE but interfered less with India's sociai 1. The soldier tears open the end of the cartridge with his and culturai traditions. As prosperity teeth. 2. iHe pours the powder down the muzzie of his rifle. spread, so too did talk of independence Then he thrusts the buiiet—stiil wrapped in the cartridge by such strong figures as Mohandas paper, which makes it a tight fit—into the muzzie. 3. He Gandhi and . A split takes the ramrod from its siot beneath the rifie barrel and aiong reiigious iines was brewing. rams paper, buiiet and powder down the barrel to the breech.

THE SMOKING GUN Providing more an excuse tiian a reason for rebeliion, tiie 1947 was tiie On Aug. 14,1947, came standard rifie-musket of sepoys into being as a iVIuslim state, whiie in tiie British East india Co. When predominantiy Hindu India declared rumors spread that newiy issued its independence the following day. cartridges had been greased The split was rife with vioience, but with pork or beef fat, objection- the system the British Raj had put abie to both iViuslim and Hindu in piace was now in native hands. troops, discontent coupied with indifference on the part of some British officers sparked mutiny. MUTINY AT MEERUT On ,1857, sepoys at Meerut station escalated the decades-long discontent with EIC abuses into open Presenl-day revolt. Given the piodding British response, the rebeis soon took Deihi and laid siege to other northern cities.

SIEGE OF CAWNPORE The sepoy siaughter of more than 600 men, women and children at this EIC PVmAÉ garrison was an especially brutal act that solidified British resolve and brought AIVIBAUI O retribution under the cry, "Remember Cawnpore!" Mutiny at Meerut^'' May 10,1857 '~^ Siege of De;h/|*'|O DELHI June 8-Sept. 21, is'^y^''

AGRAO

GWALIOR O Battle of Gwalior ¿V Sieee of June 20,1858 ^^ Cawnpore OALLAHABAD /, June 5-25 1857

re si QBARRACKPORE OCALCUTTA ^ Arabian INDIA Sea Bay of Bengal o BOMBAY (MUMBAI) States in Rebellion

THE PRINCELY STATES AND ^s*'- British Areas COMPANY CONTROLLED INDIA in Rebellion The EIC pursued control of the Indian subcontinent first through States Loyal trade agreements with the princely to the British states of India and then through outright war, defeating the iast Neutral States cohesive native armies by 1820. For the next several decades the company solidified its hold either by annexing principaiities through OAVADI Lord Daihousie's or by entering miiitary- economic alliances with them. During the Rebellion of 1857 these subordinate allies enabied Europe the British to maintain controi. Asia

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(SRIij\NKA) I Miles 1100 1200 Africa km 1200 1400

DISTANCES: Bombay to Delhi 716 miles/1152 km Indian Maps by Steve Walkowiak/SWmaps.com Ocean Although the company initially ri ;- In 1848 James Broun-Ramsay, Earl frained from interfering with religious Dalhousie, became governor-general aspects of Indian life, by the 19th cen- of India. He brought with him an ambi- tury it was sending out a grovnng num- tious plan to modernize the sprawling ber of Christian missionaries. To na- colony through the introduction of rail- tives of other faiths and , this was roads, the telegraph, a modern postal an indication their most personal con- system, a program of road and port victions were no longer sacrosanct, building, a massive irrigation plan, the making the intrusion of Western cul- construction of colleges and the deploy- ture complete. Nowhere was this more ment of an army of Christian mission- strongly felt than in the ranks of the aries to minister to the poor. EIC's own forces, which largely con- His program created as many prob- sisted of Muslims and Hindus. lems as it resolved. In order to finance At the same time the company was his vision, he needed to raise the al- seeking religious converts, its British ready usurious tax rates. And many of the reforms he implemented chal- Critics charged lenged the existing system and Lord Dalhousie with business structure, inspiring resent- having 'stirred up ment rather than gratitude. When Dal- the socioeconomic housie retired to England eight years structure...beyond later, apparently oblivious to the unrest the hreaking point' he had created, he found himself facing charges of having thoroughly "stirred up the socioeconomic structure of Maj. Gen. Sir Hugh India to beyond the breaking point," Wheeler surrendered as one historian put it. the population One of the more ill-advised changes of Cawnpore Dalhousie implemented was the intro- under a promise duction of the Doctrine of Lapse, a prac- of safe conduct tice whereby the EIC could legally annex the principality of any ruler who died without an heir or who was found— Nana Sahib and by company standards, of course—to be his fellow rebel inept. Under this policy the company leaders ordered acquired state after state, radically in- their sepoys creasing its tax base while ignoring the to kill all the rights of the ruling families, as well as British prisoners those who served. By 1856, the year Promised safe passage by besieging sepoy rebels, the before the rebellion, Dalhousie had ac- officers were growing increasingly quired the territories of more than a peasant army facing off against the Brit- distant from their native soldiers. dozen independent for the com- ish lion didn't seem so farfetched. Throughout the 1700s they were, as pany, comprising nearly 250,000 square By the time the British had issued one historian described them, "real miles of territory—an area more than the Enfield rifles and their tallow-coated swashbucklers... [who] frequently three times the size of England and Ire- paper cartridges to the Indian troops, underwent the same privations and land combined. at least some factions in the army were dangers as their charges did." During The year 1856 also saw the end of primed and ready to resist. III the first decades of the , the costly . England's less- however, British officers took to keep- than-stellar performance had demon- eaving Meerut in chaos, the se- ing their ovwi company and that of their strated this was not the same army that poys carried their rebellion to families. The burden of directly over- had defeated Napoleon at Waterloo four L Delhi, where they slaughtered seeing the EIC's army increasingly fell decades earlier. And given the increased dozens of British civilians. When or- to native noncommissioned officers, corruption riddling the EIC, Britain's dered to fire on the rebels, sepoys of the who often shared their soldiers' resent- timeworn claim to military, moral and native infantry regiments defending the ISSE ment of British arrogance, condescen- cultural superiority had developed city instead fired over their heads and sion and cruelty. a hollow ring. Suddenly, the idea ofa then joined the rioting throng. The reb-

MILITARY HISTORY British population of Cawnpore-more than 600 men, women and children-were treacherousiy slaughtered. Tbe massacre spawned British atrocities.

els killed their British officers and seized gates numbered some 5,000 poorly constant sniper and artillery fire. Ei- the city. Delhi and its 3,000 barrels of armed and suffering men. Not until late nally, in September, a contingent of powder would remain in rebel hands September did a reinforced British pres- British forces relieved the city. for months to come. ence succeed in retaking Delhi. Cawnpore was not so fortunate. The initial British response to the By June the rebellion had spread as Near the city stood the estate of the occupation of Delhi was slow and in- native soldiers throughout northern and Nana Sahib, a nobleman whose late effectual due to a dearth of ammunition turned out, joined by out- father—the last prince—had and deteriorating troop strength. British raged citizens. The British population in willed him his title and his £80,000 pen- leadership was in constant flux; early in two other crucial cities, Lucknow and sion. Dalhousie, however, had invoked the rebellion General Anson succumbed Cawnpore, soon drew the mutineers' his hated Doctrine of Lapse to deny to cholera, as did his successor, Maj. attention. The Lucknow garrison, com- Nana Sahib his birthright. Conse- Gen. Sir Henry Barnard. Meanwhile, prising a few thousand British soldiers quently, Cawnpore would bear the throughout June and into July the rebel and civilians, came under attack by well brunt of the dispossessed prince's force within the city—joined by regi- over 20,000 mutineers and endured a hatred for the British. ment after native regiment—grew to grueling three-month siege. Casualties Onjune 25, after besieging the city 30,000, while the at the were high due to illness, exposure and for nearly three weeks. Nana Sahib In addition to hanging captured rebels, the British resorted to strapping captives to cannon muzzies and then blowing them apart-a method of execution

tricked Maj. Gen. Sir Hugh Wheeler in a small house. On July 15 Nana Sa- aftermath of the slaughter, the outraged into surrendering the British popula- hib learned that a small British relief soldiers unleashed a reign of terror all tion of Cawnpore—240 men and 375 force was en route to Cawnpore. When their own, indiscriminately lynching the women and children—under a prom- the rebels were unable to repel the on- city's remaining residents. The British ise of safe conduct. Two days later coming British, Nana Sahib and his commander. Brig. Gen. James Neill, pro- Nana Sahib and his forces led the evac- fellow rebel leaders ordered their se- claimed that every condemned rebel uees to a number of small boats moored poys to kill all the prisoners. After a "will be taken down to the house in on the . As they boarded, a first volley the sepoys refused to con- question, under a guard, and will be shot rang out, followed by a barrage tinue, so Nana Sahib brought in the forced into cleaning up a small portion of grapeshot and musket fire directed city's butchers, who slaughtered the of the bloodstains. The task will be made into the boats. Cook fires aboard up- women and children with knives and as revolting to his feelings as possible.... ended in the mayhem, setting a few cleavers. Those few found alive the After properly cleaning up his portion, boats ablaze. Only one vessel escaped, next morning were thrown down a the culprit is to be immediately hanged." carrying four men to safety. nearby dry well, followed by the crush When one Muslim public official ob- The 60 Englishmen who had lived of butchered corpses. The rebels then jected, Neill had him flogged and "made through the initial fusillade were imme- withdrew from the city. to lick part of the blood with his tongue. " diately executed, while the 210 surviv- When the British relief force entered Both sides engaged in further atroci- ing women and children were confined Cawnpore and discovered the bloody ties, sinking to new levels of brutality.

MILITARY HISTORY tured or killed. Finally, on July 8 peace of Indian to British troops was radi- was declared. cally reduced to a 2-to-l ratio, and all artillery, forts and arsenals were as- he rebellion had been doomed signed strictly to the European troops. to failure. It was, in the end, a In addition, the number and troop T local event; far from gleaning strength of native infantry regiments unilateral support, it was centered in Bengal, Bombay and Madras was mainly in the northern and central re- radically cut back. gions of India. In some areas, such as Adding Empress of India to her the , tbe princes supported the royal title. set upon a EIC with arms and men, while other re- program of reconciliation. She lifted gions sided with the rebels or strove to the threat of annexation from those remain neutral. As Cambridge historian princes who had either supported the Sir John Robert Seeley wrote shortly Crown or remained neutral during the after the rebels surrendered;

We could subdue the mutiny of 1857, Adding Empress of India to her formidable as it was, because it spread royal title, Queen through only a part ofthe army, because Victoria set upon the people did not acüvely sympathize with a program of it, and because it was possible to find native reconciliation Indian races who would fight on our side.

While some Indian historians have rebellion. And, aware of the part reli- defined the events of 1857-59 as India's gious tensions had played in the recent "first national uprising," scholars of Brit- conflict, she issued a proclamation ish colonial history generally dismiss phrased to mollify those Indians con- what they call the Sepoy Mutiny as a cerned with the encroachment of Chris- disorganized and ineffectual rebellion tianity. After affirming "the truth of conducted by a small, disaffected seg- Christianity," Victoria went on to state, ment of tbe population. Nonetheless, "We disclaim alike the right and the despite glaring disadvantages in num- desire to impose our convictions on bers and technology, as well as their any of our subjects." lack of universal support, the rebels suc- Try as it might to recover what had ceeded in defying tbe greatest empire on been lost, Britain could not escape the that had heen practiced in India for two centuries. earth for two years. And they effected fact that the 1857 uprising opened the permanent change in the nature of Brit- gates to another 90 years of indigenous Neither the rebels nor the British had ish policy toward India. rebellions, and ultimately to India's suc- any qualms about butchering women For Britain the cost of victory was cessful bid for independence. Sir Jobn and children along with the men. When high—some 11,000 lives lost, mostly Robert Seeley accurately predicted wbat the British nabbed a rebel in any prox- due to disease or exposure, and £36 the future held for the in imity to their artillery, instead of hang- million of debt, as well as a swath of India and elsewhere when he wrote: ing him, his captors might strap him the subcontinent to rebuild. The rebel- over the muzzle of a cannon and blow lion effectively ended the corrupt hold The moment a mutiny is but threatened, bim to pieces, showering onlookers of the hated EIC. The British govern- which shall be no mere mutiny but the with blood, bone and viscera. ment assumed control of the compa- expression of a universal feeling of na- By early 1858 the British had se- ny's holdings and instituted the Raj, tionality, at that moment all hope is at cured Delhi and Cawnpore, and vic- placing much of India's cultural, po- an end, as all desire ought to be at an end, tory was simply a matter of time. The litical and military infrastructure of preserving our empire. (^ bulk of the organized fighting ended under Crown control. on June 19, following a British victory Not surprising, the army was com- For further reading Ron Soodalter rec- at the Batfle of Gwalior. Guerrilla fight- pletely restructured. The EIC's regi- ommends The Great Mutiny: India ing would continue over the next sev- ments of white soldiers were disbanded 1857, by Ghristopher Hibbert, and The eral months, but by mid-1859 most of and replaced with a permanent garrison Indian Mutiny, 1857-58, by Gregory the rebel leaders had been either cap- of British army regulars. The proportion Fremont-Barnes. Copyright of Military History is the property of Weider History Group and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.