Indian Rebellion of 1857: A Visual History

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 (the Mutiny, First War of Independence) began at Meerut on 10 May 1857 when sepoys of the East India Company's Bengal Army, inflamed by rumours that new cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat, shot their officers and marched to Delhi to proclaim the aged Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar emperor. Revolt spread across the Ganges plain, joined by dispossessed rulers like Nana Sahib, the Rani of Jhansi and Kunwar Singh and by peasants; British garrisons and civilians were massacred at Cawnpore and besieged at Lucknow. British and loyal Sikh, Gurkha and Punjabi troops retook Delhi in September 1857 and Lucknow in March 1858 with savage reprisals. The Crown took over India in 1858 and the last Mughal died in exile in Rangoon.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

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Composition of the Bengal Army before and after 1857

High-caste Hindus of Awadh and Bihar were replaced by Punjabis, Sikhs and Gurkhas.

Timeline of the Indian Rebellion of 1857

1. 1856
   Awadh annexed
2. 1857
   Meerut rising; Delhi taken10 to 11 May.
3. 1857
   Cawnpore massacres; siege of LucknowJune to July.
4. 1857
   Delhi retakenSeptember.
5. 1858
   Lucknow retaken; Rani of Jhansi killed
6. 1858
   Government of India ActCrown rule begins.
7. 1859
   Tantia Tope hanged; last rebels suppressed

Causes and outbreak

Annexations under Dalhousie's doctrine of lapse (Jhansi, Satara, Nagpur) and of Awadh in 1856, land revenue disruption, missionary activity and the Enfield rifle's greased cartridges combined with sepoy grievances over pay and overseas service. Mangal Pandey attacked officers at Barrackpore in March 1857; on 10 May the Meerut sepoys, after 85 comrades were jailed for refusing cartridges, rose and reached Delhi next day. Bahadur Shah, 82, reluctantly became their figurehead.

Delhi, Cawnpore and Lucknow

British forces held the Ridge outside Delhi through the summer and stormed the city on 14 September 1857, sacking it and shooting the Mughal princes. At Cawnpore Nana Sahib's men massacred the surrendered garrison at the Satichaura Ghat and 200 women and children in the Bibighar; the British killed prisoners in return, forcing some to lick the blood. Lucknow's Residency held from July until Havelock and Outram broke in during September and Campbell relieved it in November, evacuating; the city was retaken in March 1858. The Rani of Jhansi died in battle near Gwalior in June 1858; Tantia Tope was betrayed and hanged in 1859.

Aftermath

The Government of India Act 1858 abolished the Company; Queen Victoria's proclamation promised religious toleration and respect for princes' rights. The Bengal Army was reorganised with more Punjabis and Gurkhas and fewer high-caste Hindus, and artillery kept in British hands. Bahadur Shah was tried and exiled to Rangoon, where he died in 1862; Delhi's Mughal culture was destroyed. Indian nationalists later named the rising the First War of Independence.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• Mughal Empire (1526 to 1857)
• Maratha Empire (1674 to 1818)
• Sikh Empire (1799 to 1849)
• Danish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)
• Dutch Empire (1602 to 1975)

Wars of the same era and region

• Indian annexation of Hyderabad (Operation Polo) (1948)
• Bangladesh Liberation War (1971)

8 surprising things about the Indian Rebellion of 1857

1. The Enfield cartridge had to be bitten open; whether it was actually greased with animal fat is still debated, but the belief was enough.
2. The Rani of Jhansi, killed at 29 fighting in male dress, is India's Joan of Arc.
3. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal, was a poet whose ghazals of exile are still sung.
4. British reprisals included blowing rebels from cannon, a punishment borrowed from the Mughals.
5. The Lucknow Residency's Union Jack flew day and night until 1947 in memory of the siege.
6. Some 40,000 British troops fought against 130,000 rebels; most of the Company's army stayed loyal.
7. Karl Marx wrote about the revolt for the New York Tribune and called it a national revolt.
8. The word 'loot' entered English from Hindustani, popularised by the sack of Delhi and Lucknow.

Sources

• Indian Mutiny Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Indian Rebellion of 1857 Wikipedia
• Indian Rebellion of 1857 World History Encyclopedia
• William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal (2006) Bloomsbury

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