Chapter Notes

The Revolt of 1857 and Its Representations

The great uprising of 1857 began on the afternoon of 10 May 1857, in the military town of Meerut. What started as a mutiny among the Indian soldiers, or sepoys, quickly spread to the city, where ordinary people and villagers joined them.

The rebels' first actions were swift and destructive:

• They captured the bell of arms, a storeroom for weapons and ammunition.
• They attacked and killed white people, burning their homes and property.
• They destroyed and looted government buildings like the record office, jail, court, and treasury.
• They cut the telegraph line to Delhi.

As night fell, a group of sepoys rode towards Delhi. They arrived at the Red Fort on the morning of 11 May. The old Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah, was approached by the sepoys, who told him they had killed the English in Meerut because of new rifle cartridges greased with the fat of cows and pigs, which defiled the faith of both Hindus and Muslims.

Soon, ordinary people in Delhi also joined the uprising. The city fell out of British control. The sepoys entered the Red Fort and, ignoring royal etiquette, demanded that the emperor lead them. Bahadur Shah, left with little choice, gave his blessing to the rebellion.

After the fall of Delhi, news spread like wildfire. Cantonment after cantonment across the Gangetic valley rose in mutiny, following the pattern set by Meerut and Delhi.

Pattern of the Uprising

The revolts in different places were remarkably similar, suggesting a degree of communication and coordination among the rebels.

How the mutinies began

In one town after another, the mutiny unfolded in a sequence:

1. A signal: The revolt often began with a signal, such as the firing of the evening gun or the sounding of a bugle.
2. Seizing weapons: The sepoys first took control of the bell of arms and plundered the treasury.
3. Attacking government property: They then attacked government buildings—jails, telegraph offices, record rooms, and bungalows—burning all records. Anyone and anything associated with the white man, or firangi (a derogatory term for foreigners), became a target.
4. Public proclamations: Proclamations in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian were put up, calling on both Hindus and Muslims to unite and destroy the firangis.

When ordinary people joined, the targets expanded. In major towns like Lucknow, Kanpur, and Bareilly, rebels also attacked moneylenders and the rich, whom they saw as allies of the British. This turned the sepoy mutiny into a widespread rebellion, challenging all forms of established authority. For a few months in May and June 1857, British rule seemed to have "collapsed like a house made of cards."

Lines of communication

The similarity in the revolts was not a coincidence; it was a result of planning and communication.

• Sepoys and their messengers moved from one military station to another. For example, after refusing the new cartridges, the 7th Awadh Irregular Cavalry wrote to the 48th Native Infantry, stating they had "acted for the faith and awaited the 48th's orders."
• Decisions were often made collectively in panchayats (councils of native officers) that were held at night in the sepoy lines, especially in places like Kanpur. Since sepoys lived together and often came from the same communities, it was easy for them to gather and plan their future.

Leaders and followers

To fight the British, the rebels needed leadership. They often turned to rulers who had been in power before the British conquest.

• Symbolic Leaders: In Delhi, the sepoys proclaimed the elderly Bahadur Shah as their leader. In Kanpur, they forced Nana Sahib, the successor to Peshwa Baji Rao II, to lead the revolt. In Jhansi, the Rani was pressured by the people to take command. In Awadh, the people celebrated the fall of British rule by making Birjis Qadr, the young son of their deposed Nawab, their leader.
• Local and Grassroots Leaders: Leadership was not limited to royalty. In some places, religious figures inspired rebellion. For example, a fakir was seen riding an elephant in Meerut, and sepoys visited him frequently.
• Local leaders also emerged from the general population. Shah Mal organized the villagers in Uttar Pradesh, and Gonoo, a tribal cultivator, became a rebel leader of the Kol tribals in Chotanagpur.

Two rebels of 1857

• Shah Mal: A Jat cultivator from Uttar Pradesh, he mobilized the headmen and farmers of eighty-four villages (chaurasee des). They were angry about the high and inflexible British land revenue system. Shah Mal's men attacked government buildings, destroyed roads and bridges to stop British forces, and plundered the houses of moneylenders. He even set up a "hall of justice" to settle disputes. For a time, it felt like British rule (firangi raj) was over. He was killed in battle in July 1857.
• Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah: An educated maulvi who travelled from village to village preaching jehad (religious war) against the British. He was so popular that he was called Danka Shah (the maulvi with the drum). Jailed by the British in Faizabad, he was released by the rebels and chosen as their leader. He famously defeated British forces at the Battle of Chinhat. Many believed he had magical powers and was invincible.

Rumours and prophecies

Rumours and prophecies played a vital role in motivating people to act. They weren't just stories; they reflected the deep-seated fears and anxieties of the people.

• The Greased Cartridges: The most famous rumour was that the cartridges for the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. Biting them would corrupt the religion of both Hindus and Muslims. This rumour spread rapidly through the sepoy lines.
• Bone Dust in Flour: Another rumour claimed the British had mixed the bone dust of cows and pigs into the flour sold in markets to destroy the caste and religion of Indians.
• Prophecy of Plassey: A prophecy circulated that British rule would end on 23 June 1857, exactly 100 years after the Battle of Plassey.
• The Chapattis: There were strange reports of chapattis being distributed from village to village at night. While its meaning is still unclear, people saw it as a sign of a coming upheaval.

Why did people believe in the rumours?

We can't understand the power of these rumours by simply asking if they were true. We need to see what they tell us about people's minds. Rumours spread only when they resonate with existing fears.

The British policies since the late 1820s had created a climate of suspicion and uncertainty.

• Social Reforms: Under Governor General Lord William Bentinck, the British introduced reforms like Western education, Western ideas, and Western institutions. They passed laws to abolish sati (1829) and to allow the remarriage of Hindu widows.
• Annexations: The British annexed many kingdoms like Awadh, Jhansi, and Satara on various pretexts.
• New Systems: They introduced their own systems of administration, laws, and land revenue collection.
• Missionary Activities: The work of Christian missionaries added to the fear that the British were trying to convert Indians to Christianity.

To many Indians, it seemed that everything they held sacred—their kings, their customs, their land—was being destroyed and replaced by an alien and oppressive system. In this atmosphere, any rumour that confirmed their fears was easily believed.

AWADH in Revolt

The revolt was especially fierce and widespread in Awadh, a major centre of the uprising.

"A cherry that will drop into our mouth one day"

This is how Governor General Lord Dalhousie described Awadh in 1851. The British had been interested in Awadh for a long time.

• In 1801, they imposed the Subsidiary Alliance on Awadh. Under this treaty, the Nawab had to disband his army, allow British troops in his kingdom, and follow the advice of a British Resident at his court. This made the Nawab dependent on the British.
• The British coveted Awadh for its fertile soil, ideal for growing indigo and cotton, and saw it as a major market for Upper India.
• By the 1850s, the British had conquered most of India. The annexation of Awadh in 1856 was seen as the final step in completing their territorial conquest.

"The life was gone out of the body"

The annexation of Awadh in 1856, and the dethroning of its beloved Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, caused immense grief and anger. The British wrongly assumed the Nawab was unpopular. In reality, his exile to Calcutta was widely mourned.

The annexation didn't just affect the Nawab; it disrupted the entire social order.

• Dispossession of Taluqdars: The taluqdars were powerful local landholders with their own forts and armed retainers. After annexation, the British disarmed them and destroyed their forts. The Summary Settlement of 1856 was introduced, which assumed taluqdars had no permanent rights to the land. As a result, the percentage of villages controlled by taluqdars in Awadh fell from 67% to 38%.
• Hardship for Peasants: The British believed that removing the taluqdars would help the peasants. In practice, the state's revenue demand increased (by 30 to 70 per cent in some places), and collection methods were inflexible. The peasants lost the support and patronage they sometimes received from taluqdars during hard times.
• Grievances of Sepoys: A vast majority of the sepoys in the Bengal Army were recruited from Awadh, which was called the "nursery of the Bengal Army." The problems their families faced back home—the loss of the Nawab, the dispossession of taluqdars, and high taxes—were quickly transmitted to the sepoy lines. This was combined with their own grievances about low pay, difficulty in getting leave, and increasing racial abuse from their white officers.

What the Rebels Wanted

Understanding the rebels' perspective is challenging because most available records were written by the British, who saw them as ungrateful and barbaric. However, a few rebel proclamations and notifications, called ishtahars, give us a glimpse into their vision.

The vision of unity

The rebel proclamations repeatedly appealed to all sections of the population, regardless of caste or creed.

• They were often issued in the name of Muslim princes but were careful to address Hindu sentiments.
• The rebellion was framed as a war in which both Hindus and Muslims had everything to lose or gain.
• They looked back to the pre-British era, glorifying the coexistence of communities under the Mughal Empire. The proclamation issued by Bahadur Shah called for people to fight under the standards of both Muhammad and Mahavir.

Against the symbols of oppression

The proclamations rejected everything associated with British rule, or firangi raj.

• They condemned the British for breaking treaties and annexing Indian states.
• They attacked the British land revenue systems that had dispossessed landholders and foreign trade that had ruined artisans like weavers.
• The rebels aimed to restore the world that the British were destroying—a world that was familiar and cherished.
• The rebellion also became an attack on local oppressors. In many places, rebels burnt the account books of moneylenders and attacked the rich who were seen as collaborators with the British. This suggests a desire to overturn traditional hierarchies and create a more equal society.

The search for alternative power

Once British rule collapsed in places like Delhi, Lucknow, and Kanpur, the rebels tried to establish their own administrative structures.

• These new administrations were modeled on the pre-British Mughal world of the eighteenth century.
• They appointed people to various posts, made arrangements to collect land revenue and pay troops, and issued orders to stop looting.
• These structures were primarily aimed at meeting the demands of war and were short-lived, but they show that the rebels had a vision for an alternative political order.

Repression

The British did not have an easy time putting down the rebellion. They responded with overwhelming force and new, harsh laws.

• Special Laws: In May and June 1857, the British passed several Acts that put all of North India under martial law. Military officers and even ordinary Britons were given the power to try and punish Indians suspected of rebellion. The only punishment for rebellion was death.
• Military Force: The British mounted a two-pronged attack to reconquer North India, with one force moving from Calcutta and another from the Punjab.
• Slow Reconquest: The process was slow and difficult. Delhi was only recaptured in late September 1857 after heavy fighting. In the countryside, especially Awadh, British forces had to reconquer the area village by village because the entire population was hostile. A British official estimated that three-fourths of the adult male population in Awadh was in rebellion.
• Divide and Rule: Besides military power, the British tried to break the rebel unity. They promised big landholders that they would get their estates back if they remained loyal. Rebel landholders were dispossessed and their lands given to those who supported the British.

Images of the Revolt

Our understanding of the revolt is heavily shaped by the pictures produced at the time, mostly by the British. These images were not just records; they were tools to shape public opinion.

Celebrating the saviours

British paintings often celebrated their heroes.

• "Relief of Lucknow" by Thomas Jones Barker (1859) is a famous example. It depicts the moment British forces, led by commanders like Colin Campbell, James Outram, and Henry Havelock, rescued the besieged British garrison at Lucknow.
• Such paintings portrayed the British as heroic saviours, reassuring the public back home that British power had been restored and the crisis was over.

English women and the honour of Britain

British newspapers and artists focused heavily on the suffering of English women and children to provoke public anger.

• "In Memoriam" by Joseph Noel Paton shows a group of helpless English women and children huddled together, awaiting their fate. It suggests violence without showing it, aiming to stir fury against the rebels, who are portrayed as brutish and inhuman.
• Other images showed English women as heroic figures. A famous sketch depicts Miss Wheeler in Kanpur, single-handedly fighting off sepoys to defend her honour, with a Bible on the floor, suggesting a battle for Christianity itself.

Vengeance and retribution

As anger grew in Britain, visual art began to demand and justify brutal revenge.

• An image from the magazine Punch shows an allegorical female figure of Justice, sword in hand, trampling sepoys under her feet while Indian women and children cower in fear.
• Another famous cartoon, "The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger," shows a powerful British lion pouncing on a tiger (representing the rebels) that has attacked a woman and child. These images made violent repression seem both necessary and just.

The performance of terror

The British made a public spectacle of their punishments to create fear.

• Rebels were executed in brutal ways, such as being blown from guns or hanged in public.
• Images of these mass executions were widely circulated in British newspapers. The punishments were not meant to be hidden; they were theatrical performances of power, designed to show the chilling consequences of rebellion.

No time for clemency

When Governor General Canning suggested that mercy and leniency might help win back the loyalty of the sepoys, he was widely mocked.

• A cartoon in Punch titled "The Clemency of Canning" depicts him as a gentle father figure protecting a menacing sepoy who still holds a blood-dripping sword. This ridiculed his policy as being soft on "murderers."

Nationalist imageries

In the twentieth century, the Indian national movement reinterpreted the events of 1857.

• The revolt was celebrated as the First War of Independence.
• Rebel leaders were portrayed as heroes fighting for the freedom of their motherland.
• The Rani of Jhansi became a particularly powerful symbol. She was represented as a masculine warrior, fighting valiantly against the British. The famous lines by poet Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, "Khoob lari mardani woh to Jhansi wali rani thi" (Like a man she fought, she was the Rani of Jhansi), are recited by children across India.