Mutiny, Indian
. The Mutiny or Sepoy rebellion (1857–1858), or, as it is often referred to in contemporary India or Pakistan, the War for Indpendence, changed the shape of the British empire. Before the Mutiny, British India was ruled through a chartered business corporation, the East India Company, under the fiction that they were the proxies of native princes. After the struggle, that fiction was laid to rest.
The Rebellion
The thirteen-month rebellion traditionally has been blamed on the East India Company army's issue of the Enfield rifle. To load the gun, the Sepoys—Indian soldiers in the British army—had to bite off the ends of a lubricated cartridge. The soldiers felt they were greased with beef and swine fat—anathema to Hindu and Muslim alike. But most contemporary historians now feel this was only one of many causes.
It probably was more important that the state of Oudh, from which many of the native soldiers derived, had recently been annexed by the British. This produced political resentments among the Indian soldiers. Furthermore, in consolidating the British supremacy in India, the company forced a radical and rapid Westernization on traditional society that was a major cause of the troubles.
The Mutiny broke out first in the Bengal army. At Meerut, several Sepoys received severe punishment for refusing to use the Enfield cartridge in April 1857. In reaction, native soldiers began to shoot their European officers, after which the mutineers marched on Delhi, at that time bereft of English defenders. The local Indian troops joined the insurgents in restoring the aged Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II (1775–1862) to the throne of his ancestors.
Europeans and Indian Christians were butchered— some quite horribly. But company troops also committed atrocities. Disturbances also spread to Cawnpore and Lucknow. When the British retook these cities, the punishment also was severe for the perpetrators.
Aftermath
After the Mutiny, British India became a Crown possession, and Victoria was granted the title of Queen Empress of India. Military and civil reorganization was instituted. The British army came to depend heavily on their loyal native troops—especially the Sikhs and the Gurkhas. India was governed by parliamentary law, directly from London. Within India, a more professional civil service developed, which became one of the best in the world. Governmental sponsorship of Westernization slowed down. The Indian middle classes realized a violent revolution was not viable. This influenced the tactics of the later Indian Nationalist struggle.
Further Reading
Chaudhauri, S. B. (1965) Theories of the Indian Mutiny, 1857–1859. Calcutta: World Press.
Forrest, G. W. (1904–1912) A History of the Indian Mutiny. 3 vols. London: W. Blackwood and Sons.
Hibbert, Christopher. (1978) The Great Mutiny in India, 1857. London: Allen Lane.
Kaye, J. W., and G. B. Malleson. (1897–1898) Kaye's and Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny of 1857–1858. 6 vols. London: W. H. Allen.
Metcalf, Thomas. (1964) Aftermath of Revolt: 1857–1870. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Stokes, Eric. (1986) The Peasant Armed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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