British officials were alarmed at the rapid distribution of mysterious Indian breads across much of the Raj, There is a most mysterious affair going on throughout the whole of India at present, Dr. Gilbert Hadow wrote in a letter to his sister in Britain in March 1857. In 1885, however, the founding of the Indian National Congress marked the beginnings of effective, organized protest for national self-determination. The powder and bullet for the new rifle were put together in a paper cartridge. Britain, of course, would rule India well into the 20th century. And yet its just as possible to see the bloody results of the mutual incomprehension between the British and native communities in India as a potent reminder that mistrust and panic can have serious consequences. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 291-292 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. All in all, the British were extremely spooked by the spread of the chapatis. Author Pramod Nayar points out that by 1851 there were nineteen Protestant religious societies operating in India whose goal was the conversion of Indians to Christianity. The army became an efficient professional body, drawn largely from the northwest and aloof from the national life. Musket cartridges circa 1858 The Sepoys in the East India Company were first issued with the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket in 1857. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. He was informed that they had been brought in by one of his Indian police officers, who had received them from a puzzled village chowkidar (watchman). It came as a greater shock than the loss of the American colonies, and prompted reprisals far more hysterical and vicious than those visited on rebellious subjects elsewhere in the Empire. of your Kindle email address below. [8], Unlike the Madras and Bombay Armies of the BEIC, which were far more diverse, the Bengal Army recruited its regular soldiers almost exclusively amongst the landowning Bhumihars and Rajputs of the Ganges Valley. That, combined with a declining number of British officers who understood India, spoke Indian languages fluently or had any real sympathy for the people whom they ruled, meant that the colonial hierarchy remained perpetually jittery. A Chowkeydar ran up to another village with two chupatties. Increasing numbers of Christian missionaries began arriving in India, and their presence gave credence to rumors of impending conversions. This revolt had shaken the foundation of . Other irregular units were raised in frontier areas from communities such as Assamese or Pashtuns to maintain order locally. Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service. Though paid marginally less than the Bombay and Madras Presidency troops, there was a tradition of trust between the soldiery and the establishment the soldiers felt needed and that the company would care for their welfare. [10], Caste privileges and customs within the Bengal Army were not merely tolerated but encouraged in the early years of the company's rule. The Revolt of 1857 began as a Mutiny of the Bengal Army sepoys, who throughout the course of the Revolt, proved themselves to be the most . The Muslims had lost the large state of Avadh; the Marathas had lost Nagpur, Satara, and Jhansi. Beyond that, however, opinions remained divided. The dramatic capture of Delhi turned mutiny into full-scale revolt. The Lucknow garrison held out in the residency from July 1, in spite of the death of Sir Henry Lawrence on July 4. Few of these participated in the rebellion, and one contingent in particular (the recently raised Punjab Irregular Force) actively participated on the British side. Q. A rumor that spread like wildfire among the sepoys (Indian soldiers) stationed at cantonments throughout the north of the country was that the British had come up with yet another diabolical contrivance for breaking their caste and defiling their bodies: the greased cartridge. In contrast, foreign Christians such as Revd Midgeley, John Jennings, and Indian converts to Christianity such as one of Zafar's personal physicians, Dr. Chaman Lal, were killed. Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use them. However, in those two years, they were not ordered to use them. [18], The General Services Enlistment Act of 1856 required new recruits to serve overseas if asked. rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat. When Muslim and Hindu troops learned that the tip of the Enfield cartridge had to be bitten off to prepare it for firing, a number of troops refused, for religious reasons, to accept the ammunition. Finally, there was the activity of Christian missionaries, by that time widespread. In Britain and in the West, it was almost always portrayed as a series of unreasonable and bloodthirsty uprisings spurred by falsehoods about religious insensitivity. The British, who had nothing to do with the mysterious transmission, guessed the breads were a piece of mischief-making on the part of the Indians, though opinion was divided as to whether the breads came from the east, near Calcutta (Kolkata), from the north, in the province of Oude (Avadh) or from Indore, in the center of the country. The Revolt of 1857, an anti-colonial movement which fought against the imperialist policies of the British East India Company, is an important event that took place in Indian history. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 305-306 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. He also resumed the practice of tax-free lands in some areas. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U.K., was made of beef and pork fat. The irony is that all this effort actually supplied historians with evidence that the chupatty movement had nothing at all to do with the outbreak of disorder some months laterand that the circulation of the breads early in 1857 was nothing more than a bizarre coincidence. The Indian papers are full of surmises as to what it means. The immediate cause of military disaffection was the deployment of the new breech-loading Enfield rifle, the cartridge of which was purportedly greased with pork and beef fat. Due to the need for technical specialists, the artillery units generally had a higher proportion of British personnel. The East India Company had been active in India for nearly 250 years, but the violence of the 1857 uprising led to the British government dissolving the company and taking direct control of India. Has data issue: true All the people in the palace wondered what it could mean. This book is essentially about the heroes - Tatya Tope, Nana Saheb, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur - and not to forget, a few villains. It is not known who first projected the plan. Such measures were considered a valid negotiating tactic by the sepoys, likely to be repeated every time such issues arose. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 203-204 A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. It is however also possible to enclose within the paper container the bullet as well as the powder and the cartridge then becomes a balled cartridge. But in the 1830s and 1840s, tensions began to emerge. Is the sending of such articles about the country a custom among the Hindoos or Mussulmans; and would the meaning be at once understood without any accompanying explanation? Some people said that it was a propitiatory observance to avert some impending calamity; others, that they were circulated by the Government to signify that the population throughout the country would be compelled to use the same food as the Christians, and thus be deprived of their religion; while others again said that the chupatties were circulated to make it known that Government was determined to force Christianity on the country by interfering with their food, and intimation of it was thus given that they might be prepared to resist the attempt. And the uprising became extremely violent. The revolt failed in overthrowing British Rule. One popular story, widely believed, suggested that the British were attempting the mass conversion of their subjects to Christianity by adulterating their flour with bone meal from cows and pigs, which was forbidden to Hindus and Moslems, respectively. With this information, the sepoys believed that the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridges for defiling their religions. The restoration of peace was hindered by British cries for vengeance, often leading to indiscriminate reprisals. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. Seen from a distance of 150 years, the chupatty movement can appear a quaint anomaly, a strange and colorful rumor of interest mostly to historians and psychologists. It was against this backdrop of uneasiness in which the mutiny erupted in 1857. @kindle.com emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply. It is not surprising that one of the many subsidiary rumors that accompanied the chupatty movement was that the breads were being carried and distributed, the eventual trial of the King of Delhi noted, by the hands of the very lowest caste men that can be found; and the natives say that it is intended by Government to force or bribe the headmen to eat the bread, and thus loose their caste. Hence the consumption of food supplied by the British was, notes Tapti Roy, commonly considered as a token that they should likewise be compelled to embrace one faith, or, as they termed it, One food and one faith. . With the British recovery of Gwalior (June 20, 1858), the revolt was virtually over. Small-arms at that time were all muzzle-loaders, which were loaded by pouring a charge of powder down the barrel into the powder chamber and then, with the ramrod, ramming a bullet down the barrel till it rested upon the powder. The next phase was the central Indian campaign of Sir Hugh Rose. From the interrogation of an official at the King of Delhis court: I did hear of the circumstance. The transfer of the number 66th which was taken away from a regular Bengal Sepoy regiment of the line disbanded over refusal to serve without batta, and given to a Gurkha battalion, was considered by the Sepoy as a breach of faith by the company. Whether the cartridge was unballed or balled, it was necessary, in loading a muzzle-loader, to open the end of the cartridge. His unit in the Bengal Army, which had refused to use the new rifle cartridges, was about to be disarmed and punished. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." Proceedings of the Trial of Badahur Shah. In Accounts and Papers, East Indies, Session 3 February-19 April 1859, Parliamentary Papers XVIII of 1859;William Wotherspoon Ireland. The greased cartridges thus posed precisely the same threat to observant sepoys as would flour adulterated with the blood of pigs and cows, and though the British recognized the problem early on, and never issued a single greased cartridge to any Indian troops, fear that the Company was plotting to defile them took hold among the men of many Indian regiments and resulted in the outbreak of rebellion in the cantonment of Meerut in April 1857. Following the fighting of 185758, India was legally considered a colony of Britain, ruled by a viceroy. British and Indian military drills of the time required soldiers to bite off the end of the Beeswax paper cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, stuff the remaining paper cartridge into the barrel, ram the paper cartridge (which included the ball wrapped and tied in place) down the barrel, remove the ram-rod, return the ram-rod, bring the rifle to the ready, set the sights, add a percussion cap, present the rifle, and fire. All of the Bengal Native Cavalry regiments and 45 of the infantry units rebelled at some point. [9], Until the 1840s there had been a widespread belief amongst the Bengal sepoys in the Iqbal or continued good fortune of the East India Company. on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. The officers continued to be British, but they were more closely linked with their men. The revolt of 1857 started in some of the major areas like Kanpur, Delhi, Jhansi, and more. Following the disarming and disbandment of an additional seventeen Bengal Native Infantry regiments, which were suspected of planning mutiny, only twelve survived to serve in the new post-mutiny army. The rani found a soldiers death, and Tantia Topi became a fugitive. Kanpur is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings Nationalist historians have seen in it the first Indian war of independence. (2021, July 31). History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-58 (London, 3 vols. The revolt of 1857, which the British call the Indian Mutiny but many Indians prefer to think of as the First War of Independence, was the defining event in British imperial history. To load both the old musket and the new rifle, soldiers had to bite the cartridge open and pour the gunpowder it contained into the rifle's muzzle, then stuff the paper cartridge (overlaid with a thin mixture of beeswax and mutton tallow for waterproofing) into the musket as wadding, the ball being secured to the top of the cartridge and guided into place for ramming down the muzzle. Most worryingly of all, some very similar rumors had once been recorded far to the south, in the Madras Presidency in 1806, at the time of a serious outbreak of mutiny among Indian soldiers stationed at Vellore. Government was ostentatiously neutral, but Hindu society was inclined to regard the missionaries as eroding Hindu society without openly interfering. McNamara, Robert. A New Type of Rifle Cartridge Caused Problems, The Indian Revolt of 1857 Brought the End of the East India Company. History of the Siege of Delhi (Edinburgh: A&C Black, 1861);John Kaye. Mason, Philip (1974), page 264 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. each other as brothers.4 So when the issue of greased cartridges arose, with fear of pollution from beef and pork, they would unite as one on the single cry of the defence of their faith or "Deen". Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014. Some time in February 1857, a curious occurrence took place. Loading the Enfield often required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth, and many sepoys believed that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion. Although the armies of many Rajas or states which rebelled contained large numbers of guns, the British superiority in artillery was to be decisive in the siege of Delhi after the arrival of a siege train of thirty-two howitzers and mortars. In some cases, they used an execution method of lashing a mutineer to the mouth of a cannon, and then firing the cannon and literally blasting the man to pieces. As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, and many were executed in dramatic fashion. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. These are deep waters that we trawl in, and dangerous ones, too. The military cause was both particular and general. Match the following: Answer: The Company had upgraded to the new Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle, which used greased paper cartridges. Narasimha Rao, The BJP becomes the largest party in the Lok Sabha, BJP reelection bids and tensions in Kashmir, Addressing COVID-19 and its economic impact. Mopping-up operations followed, lasting until the British capture of rebel leader Tantia Topi in April 1859. A private company which first entered India to trade in the 1600s, the East India Company had eventually transformed into a diplomatic and military operation. Thousands of entirely blameless Indians who found themselves caught up in the hysterical aftermath of the rebellion were flogged, or blown from cannon, or forced to clean bloodied paving stones using only their tongues before being summarily hanged. Many Indians felt that the company was asking for heavy tax from the locals. Lands were confiscated from the landlords and auctioned. This would have insulted both Hindu and Muslim religious practices; cows were considered holy by Hindus, while pigs were considered unclean (Haram) by Muslims. Historians have identified diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes of the Revolt of 1857 (First War of Indian Independence 1857). The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010);Andrew Ward. Down-country operations centred on the relief of Lucknow. A cartridge of this kind, containing powder and nothing more, is often specified as an unballed cartridge. Most Indians thought they were the work of the British, whothrough the East India Companyhad ruled over large portions of the country for almost a century (and were, according to one well-known prophecy, due to be unseated at that centurys end). This movement became much more than a military mutiny. 'In England, almost every child is aware that, with a smooth bored gun, no grease of any kind is required to ensure the proper loading of it, whilst with a rifle-bored piece such is necessary.' So writes Mrs Peile, one of those who escaped from Delhi on 11 May 1857. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. It is no surprise, the historian Kim Wagner notes, that, faced with such a plethora of portents, the British regarded with deep suspicion, bordering on paranoia, any type of communication in India which they could not understand. The colonial administration well understood that rumors, however unfounded, could have serious consequences, and there were plenty of notably more dangerous urban legends about. The revolt began on May 10, 1857, at Meerut as a sepoy mutiny. The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progression and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny (London: John Murray, 1884);Kim A. Wagner. The general factors that turned a military mutiny into a popular revolt can be comprehensively described under the heading of political, economic, social, and cultural Westernization. On March 29, 1857, on the parade ground at Barrackpore, a sepoy named Mangal Pandey fired the first shot of the uprising. No, it is not by any means a custom; I am 50 years old, and never heard of such a thing before. In some districts like Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur, Bose and Jalal argue that "the revolt took on a distinctly millenarian flavor. Thus, long after the chapattis reached their northern-most point of Meerut, there was another northwards distribution from Cawnpore to Fattehgarh, which was widely reported in the newspapers The circulation took place along well-established routes of transmission, which followed the main trade and pilgrimage routes between the bigger cities. The sepoys rejected this, pointing out that they might very well forget and bite the cartridge, not surprising given the extensive drilling that allowed 19th century British and Indian troops to fire three to four rounds per minute. Mason, Philip (1974), page 236 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. A chowkidaran Indian village watchman. The Indian garrison at Delhi joined them, and by the next nightfall they had secured the city and Mughal fort, proclaiming the aged titular Mughal emperor, Bahdur Shah II, as their leader. Furthermore, the superstitious impulse that still encourages the transmission of chain letters clearly applied in 1857: Although the original specific meaning of the chapattis had been lost early in the distribution, the dire consequences of breaking the chain of transmission remained, and thus ensured their successful circulation over an immense area. The sepoys' British officers dismissed these claims as rumors and suggested that the sepoys make a batch of fresh cartridges, using a religiously acceptable greasing agent such as ghee or vegetable oil. The effective Indian artillery, except for a few mountain batteries, was abolished, while the Brahmans and Rajputs of Avadh were reduced in favour of other groups. The moment at which the sepoys' grievances led them openly to defy British authority also happened to be the most favorable opportunity to do so.[24]. There is no doubt that conflict over the new rifle cartridges sparked the uprising in 1857, but the reality is that social, political, and even technological reforms had set the stage for what happened. Terms of Use Click to view in higher resolution. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. The musketry books also recommended that, "Whenever the grease around the bullet appears to be melted away, or otherwise removed from the cartridge, the sides of the bullet should be wetted in the mouth before putting it into the barrel; the saliva will serve the purpose of grease for the time being" This meant that biting a musket cartridge was second nature to the Sepoys, some of whom had decades of service in the company's army, and who had been doing musket drill for every day of their service. Ferocity led to grave excesses on both sides, distinguishing this war in horror from other wars of the 19th century. The cartridge was then rammed down the muzzle of the rifle.. There at a stroke was an army, a cause, and a national leaderthe only Muslim who appealed to both Hindus and Muslims. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. The immediate cause of military disaffection was the deployment of the new breech-loading Enfield rifle, the cartridge of which was purportedly greased with pork and beef fat. This meant that when they came to be threatened by modernizing regimes in Calcutta, from the 1840s onwards, the sepoys had become accustomed to very high ritual status, and were extremely sensitive to suggestions that their caste might be polluted. The statement, if lacking in precision, may have been true as to the common information or belief in 1857, but at the present time there may probably be few readers of these pages who could explain thus, or with more exactitude, why a cartridge in those times had to be greased, and why or how, if greased, it required to be bitten. By the 1850s the East India Company controlled much of India. The British had accentuated caste consciousness by careful regulations, had allowed discipline to grow lax, and had failed to maintain understanding between British officers and their men. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. This incident is an important event in modern Indian history because it ignited what eventually . (See Barrackpore Mutiny.). Feature Flags: { [23], There were also a number of regiments from the British Army (referred to in India as "Queen's troops") stationed in India, but in 1857 several of these had been withdrawn to take part in the Crimean War or the Anglo-Persian War of 1856. In the event, the chapattis were not harbingers of a coming storm. They were what people made them into, and the significance attributed to them was a symptom of the pervasive distrust and general consternation amongst the Indian population during the early months of 1857. McNamara, Robert. Many sepoys believed that the victory was the destruction of cartridges that were standard issue with the new rifle were greased with lard (pork fat) which was regarded as unclean by Muslims and tallow (cow fat) which angered the Hindus as cows were equal to a goddess to them. In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames of rebellion. 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