Who Was Named the Ruler of India in 1857

Revolt of 1857

• 02 November 2020
• fourteen min read

The Indian Mutiny of 1857-59 was a widespread but unsuccessful rebellion confronting the rule of British East India Company in India which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British crown.

The Defection

• It was the first expression of organised resistance confronting the British Eastward India Company
• Information technology began as a revolt of the sepoys of the British East India Company’s ground forces but eventually secured the participation of the masses.
• The defection is known by several names:
  the Sepoy Mutiny
  (by the British Historians),
  the Indian Wildcat, the Great Rebellion
  (by the Indian Historians),
  the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Coup,
  and
  the Outset State of war of Independence
  (past Vinayak Damodar Savarkar).

Causes of The Revolt

Political Cause

• British policy of expansion:
  The political causes of the revolt were the British policy of expansion through the
  Doctrine of Lapse
  and direct annexation.
• A large number of Indian rulers and chiefs were dislodged, thus arousing fear in the minds of other ruling families who apprehended a similar fate.
  • Rani Lakshmi Bai’due south
    adopted son was not permitted to sit down on the throne of Jhansi.
  • Satara, Nagpur and Jhansi were annexed under the
    Doctrine of Lapse.
  • Jaitpur, Sambalpur and Udaipur were besides annexed.
  • The annexation of Awadh by Lord Dalhousie on the pretext of maladministration left thousands of nobles, officials, retainers and soldiers jobless. This measure converted Awadh, a loyal country, into a hotbed of discontent and intrigue.

Social and Religious Cause

• The rapidly
  spreading Western Culture
  in Republic of india was alarming concerns all over the state.
  • An act in 1850 changed the Hindu law of inheritance enabling a Hindu who had converted into Christianity to inherit his ancestral properties.
  • The people were convinced that the Government was planning to
    convert Indians to Christianity.
• The
  abolition of practices similar sati and female infanticide,
  and the legislation legalizing widow remarriage, were believed as threats to the established social structure.
• Introducing
  western methods of education
  was direct challenging the orthodoxy for Hindus likewise as Muslims
• Fifty-fifty the introduction of the railways and telegraph was viewed with suspicion.

Economical Cause

• In rural areas, peasants and zamindars were infuriated by the
  heavy taxes on country
  and the
  stringent methods of revenue collection
  followed by the Visitor.
  • Many among these groups were unable to meet the heavy revenue demands and repay their loans to coin lenders, eventually losing the lands that they had held for generations.
• Big numbers of
  sepoys belonged to the peasantry grade
  and had family ties in villages, and so the grievances of the peasants as well afflicted them.
• After the Industrial Revolution in England, there was an
  influx of British manufactured goods
  into India, which ruined industries, particularly the cloth industry of Bharat.
  • Indian handicraft industries had to compete with cheap automobile- made goods from Britain.

Armed services Causes

• The Revolt of 1857 began as a
  sepoy mutiny:
  
  • Indian sepoys formed more than 87% of the British troops in India but were considered inferior to British soldiers.
  • An Indian sepoy was paid less than a European sepoy of the aforementioned rank.
• They were required to serve in areas far abroad from their homes.
  
  • In 1856 Lord Canning issued the Full general Services Enlistment Act which required that the sepoys must be ready to serve fifty-fifty in British state across the ocean.

Immediate Cause

• The Revolt of 1857 somewhen broke out over the
  incident of greased cartridges.
  
  • A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs.
  • Earlier loading these rifles the sepoys had to seize with teeth off the newspaper on the cartridges.
  • Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to utilise them.
• Lord Canning tried to make amends for the error and the offending cartridges were withdrawn but the damage had already been done. There was unrest in several places.
• In March 1857,
  Mangal Pandey,
  a sepoy in
  Barrackpore,
  had refused to use the cartridge and attacked his senior officers.
  
  • He was hanged to decease on eight^thursday
    April.
  • On nine^th
    May, 85 soldiers in Meerut refused to employ the new rifle and were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Centres of The Revolt

• The defection spread over the entire area from the neighbourhood of Patna to the borders of Rajasthan. The primary centres of revolt in these regions namely Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Jhansi, Gwalior and Arrah in Bihar.
  • Lucknow:
    it was the capital of Awadh.
    Begum Hazrat Mahal,
    one of the begums of the ex-king of Awadh, took upward the leadership of the revolt.
  • Kanpur:
    the revolt was led by
    Nana Saheb,
    the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao Two.
    
    • He joined the defection primarily because he was deprived of his pension by the British.
    • The victory was short- lived. Kanpur was recaptured by the British afterward fresh reinforcements arrived.
    • The defection was suppressed with terrible vengeance.
    • Nana Saheb escaped but his vivid commander
      Tantia Tope
      continued the struggle.
    • Tantia Tope was finally defeated, arrested and hanged.
  • Jhansi:
    the 20-two-year-old
    Rani Lakshmi Bai
    led the rebels when the British refused to accept the claim of her adopted son to the throne of Jhansi.
    
    • She fought gallantly against the British forces but was ultimately defeated by the English.
  • Gwalior:
    After Rani Lakshmi Bai escaped, she was joined by Tantia Tope and together they marched to Gwalior and captured it.
    
    • Fierce fighting followed where the Rani of Jhansi fought like a tigress just died, fighting to the very stop.
    • Gwalior was recaptured by the British.
  • Bihar: the defection was led by
    Kunwar Singh
    who belonged to a royal house of Jagdispur, Bihar.

Suppression and The Revolt

• The Revolt of 1857 lasted for more than than a year. It was suppressed by the middle of 1858.
• On July 8, 1858, fourteen months afterwards the outbreak at Meerut, peace was finally proclaimed past Lord Canning.

Places of Revolt	Indian Leaders	British Officials who suppressed the revolt
Delhi	Bahadur Shah Ii	John Nicholson
Lucknow	Begum Hazrat Mahal	Henry Lawrence
Kanpur	Nana Saheb	Sir Colin Campbell
Jhansi & Gwalior	Lakshmi Bai & Tantia Tope	General Hugh Rose
Bareilly	Khan Bahadur Khan	Sir Colin Campbell
Allahabad and Banaras	Maulvi Liyakat Ali	Colonel Oncell
Bihar	Kunwar Singh	William Taylor

Why did the Revolt Fail?

• Limited uprising:
  although the defection was fairly widespread, a large part of the country remained unaffected by it.
  • The revolt was mainly confined to the Doab region.
  • The large princely states,
    Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir,
    likewise as the smaller ones of
    Rajputana,
    did not join the rebellion
  • The southern provinces did not take function in it.
• No effective leadership:
  the rebels lacked an constructive leader. Although Nana Saheb, Tantia Tope and Rani Lakshmi Bai were brave leaders, they could non offering effective leadership to the movement every bit a whole.
• Limited resource:
  the rebels lacked resources in terms of men and money. The English, on the other mitt, received a steady supply of men, money and arms in India.
• No participation of the middle class:
  The English educated middle form, the rich merchants, traders and zamindars of Bengal helped the British to suppress the defection.

Results of The Defection

• End of company rule:
  the great uprising of 1857 was an important landmark in the history of modern India.
  
  • The defection marked the end of the East Republic of india Company’s dominion in India.
• Straight rule of the British Crown:
  India at present came nether the direct rule of the British Crown.
  
  • This was announced by Lord Canning at a
    Durbar in Allahabad
    in a proclamation issued on ane November 1858 in the name of the Queen.
  • The Indian administration was taken over by Queen Victoria, which, in consequence, meant the British Parliament.
  • The India office was created to handle the governance and the administration of the land.
• Religious tolerance:
  information technology was promised and due attention was paid to the customs and traditions of India.
• Administrative alter:
  the Governor General’s office was replaced past that of the Viceroy.
  • The rights of Indian rulers were recognised.
  • The Doctrine of Lapse was abolished.
  • The correct to prefer sons as legal heirs was accepted.
• Military reorganisation:
  the ratio of British officers to Indian soldiers increased but the armoury remained in the easily of the English. It was arranged to terminate the authorisation of the Bengal army.

Conclusion

The revolt of 1857 was an unprecedented issue in the history of British dominion in Bharat. Information technology united, though in a limited mode, many sections of Indian club for a common crusade.Though the revolt failed to accomplish the desired goal, information technology sowed the seeds of Indian nationalism.