Read this article to learn about the cause, course, spread,

causes, nature impact and the causes of the failure of the

revolt of 1857 in India!

Causes of the Revolt:

a. Political Causes:
Lord Dalhousie was the Governor-General of India till 1848-1856.
Under him the British followed an expansionist policy in India.
Dalhousie through his policies had added considerable territories to
the British Empire in India.

Image Curtsey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_capture_of_the_king_of_delhi_by_Captain_Hodson.jpg

The policy of annexation reached its climax when he implemented the

policy of Doctrine of Lapse and annexed the Indian states on charges
of mis-governance and absence of an heir. In the course of eight years
Dalhousie annexed Satara (1848), Sambhalpur (1850), Jhansi (1853),
Nagpur (1853), Jaipur (1849) and Bhagat (1850).
This policy enraged the Indian rulers against the British government.
As part of the Doctrine of Lapse policy, the titles and pensions of some
Indian princes were confiscated. The pension of Baji Rao lls son Nana
Sahib was discontinued after his fathers death and Rani of Jhansi had
been deprived of her right to rule in violation of the recognized Hindu
law. Dalhousie further proposed to abolish the title of the Mughal
emperor after the death of Bahadur Shah II.
b. Economic Causes:
The economic policy of the British adversely affected every section of
the Indian society. The British exploited the economic resources of
India to their advantage and drained her wealth by crippling the
Indian trade and industry. Under the British, India turned into a
colonial economy to serve the British capitalist interests.
Indian resources were unabashedly exported to London to promote
British industries. Consequently, the country was reduced to poverty
as traditional handicrafts and industries were ruined. Many people
were rendered jobless and there was overcrowding in the agrarian
sector.
Further the high revenue demand crippled the agrarian sector. Both
the peasants and the zamindars were pushed by the British to produce
more to appropriate the maximum revenue. The various revenue

settlements were designed to benefit the government and displayed

total disregard for the cultivators.
In case of failure to pay the stipulated amount the lands of the
zamindar were taken away by the government. A large number of
zamindars were thus dispossessed of their lands and estates as part of
this policy. These grievances left the Indian people dissatisfied of the
British eventually turned out to be bitter enemies of the British.
c. Social and Religious Causes:
The British looked down upon the Indians as inferior race and
discriminated with them racially at every step. Indians were not
allowed at many places such as railway compartments and public
places as parks and hotels as these were specially reserved for the
Englishmen. This racial arrogance of the British hurt the Indian
masses most and they began to regard the Englishmen as their worst
enemies.
The attempt to bring about social reforms in India by the British was
not liked by the general public. The social legislations on the evils as
sati, infanticide, re-marriage of widows, etc. were considered as
interference in the religious matters of Indians about which the
Englishmen knew nothing.
The introduction of English education, the propagation of the work of
the Christian missionaries and the changing of the Hindu law of
property with a view to facilitate the conversion of Hindus to
Christianity alarmed many orthodox Indians. They feared that these
practices would upset the social and religious order of the traditional
Indian society.

d. Military Causes:
Dissatisfaction was widespread among the military rank and file under
the British. There was great inequality in treatment between the
Indian and the British counterparts in terms of salary and other
benefits. There was also a disparity in numbers between the Indian
and European troops as the latter numbered far less than the Indians.
Majority of the Indian soldiers were sent to Crimea, China and Iran to
fight wars of the English.
The Indian soldiers were considered inferior and were ill-treated by
high officers. The high ranks in the army were exclusively reserved for
the Englishmen and the Indians were deliberately excluded from
responsible positions.
What hurt the Indian soldiers most was the prohibition to wear caste
and religious marks while serving that amounted to interference in
their personal affairs by the British. The immediate cause of the revolt
was the introduction of the new Enfield rifle and the greased cartridge.
In loading the rifle the sepoy before inserting the cartridge had to bite
off its top. It was believed that the grease was made out of the fats of
cows and pigs. This was objectionable to the Hindus and Muslims
alike.
This rumour sparked off fire of discontent against the British in the
form of the revolt. The first sign of unrest appeared in 1857 at Barrackpore in Bengal. A sepoy, Mangal Pandey on 29th March 1857, killed
senior officers on parade and started the revolt.

Course and Spread of the Revolt:

The revolt spread to Berhampur in Bengal. On 24th April 1857 about
ninety men of the Native Cavalry stationed at Meerut refused to accept

the greased cartridges. Eighty-five of them were dismissed and

sentenced to ten years imprisonment. On 10th May the revolt started at
Meerut and the mutineers after killing some of their officials marched
towards Delhi.
Delhi:
On 12th May Delhi was seized and Bahadur Shah II was proclaimed the
emperor of India. The real command was in the hands of Bakht Khan
who had led the revolt at Bareilly and brought the troops to Delhi.
Kanpur:
Here the revolt was led by Nana Saheb who declared himself the
Peshwa and governor of Bahadur Shah. Tantya Tope did most of the
fighting. Rebels defeated General Windham outside Kanpur.
Lucknow:
The revolt was led by Hazrat Mahal, the Begum of Awadh. She had
proclaimed her young son Brijis Kadiras the Nawab of Awadh against
the wishes of the British. Henry Lawrence, the British resident was
killed at Lucknow.
Jhansi.
After some initial vacillations, Rani Laxmi Bai assumed the leadership
of the mutiny. After being defeated at Jhansi, she captured Gwalior
with the help of Tantya Tope and Afghan guards.
Bareily:
Khan Bahadur Khan proclaimed himself as the Nawab and led the
revolt there. The other centres of the revolt were Benaras, Allahabad,
Gwalior, Nasirabad in Rajputana, Indore, Aligarh and Kota. At all
these places the sepoys killed the senior officers and other Europeans

on whom they could lay their hands, in many cases not even sparing
women and children. They also released prisoners from jail, plundered
the treasury and burnt land records at many pieces.
However the superior British forces soon suppressed the revolt.
Bahadur Shah II proved to be a weak leader. Delhi was recaptured on
20th September 1857 by John Nicholson. Bahadur Shah was arrested
and deported to Rangoon where he died in 1862. The rebels were
defeated by General Havelock in Kanpur. Nana Saheb after being
defeated refused to surrender and escaped to Nepal. At Jhansi Hugh
Rose suppressed the revolt and Rani Laxmi Bai died on the battle
field. Benaras, Bareilly and Gwalior were also recaptured by British
officers.

Causes of the Failure:

(a) The revolt was highly localized and restricted to North India.
Regions beyond the river Narmada in the south remained largely
undisturbed.
(b) The revolt failed to embrace all the sections of the society. Many of
the native rulers and the big zamindars refused to join the revolt
against the British. They extended an active support to the British to
suppress the revolt. Modern educated Indians were suspicious of the
rebels. They feared the opposition of the rebels in bringing about
social reforms.
(c) The revolt was poorly organized and lacked coordinated planning
amongst the leaders.
(d) The rebels lacked a common cause and had different goals. At most
places the rebels were encouraged to revolt against the local zamindars

and money-lenders and did not have a larger goal to pursue. They
lacked a spirit of nationalism.
(d) The British had better resources and succeeded in suppressing the
revolt. They had vast resources at their disposal and were helped by
the modern means of transport and communications. They also had
the services of capable generals as Havelock, Outram, and Lawrence
available who could plan the suppression of the revolt well and win
back their lost regions.

Nature of the Revolt:

Historians have described the nature of the rebellion of 1857 variously.
Some call it a sepoy mutiny since the initial thrust of the revolt in the
form of the cartridge episode was given by the soldiers. These scholars
also contend that the revolt was not related to the general people so
much as the sepoys and they formed the bulk of the rebels.
Nationalists as V.D. Savarkar opine that the revolt was the first war of
independence. They feel that the revolt sparked off the discontent of
the Indians towards the foreign rule and they fought bitterly to drive
away the foreigners from their homeland. According to them, the
Hindus and Muslims participated equally in the revolt and displayed a
new bond of unity against the British.
The Marxists view the revolt as a soldier-peasant struggle against
feudal bondage. They contend that the Indian soldier was a peasant in
uniform and wanted to throw away the feudal domination infused by
the British.

On the whole one may look at the revolt as a product of the

accumulated discontent of the people against the foreign government.

Impact of the Revolt:

(a) Policy Change:
The Queens Proclamation of November 1858 announced the policy of
the British government to be followed from now on in India. It
announced that the policy of territorial extension was to be
abandoned. The native rulers were assured of the safety of their
territory, rights and honour if they cooperated with British.
The right of a ruler to adopt a child in the absence of a natural heir was
accepted. The government regarded the native rulers as the bulwark
against the masses and henceforth followed a policy of protecting this
reactionary segment of the Indian society.
A policy of divide and rule was actively pursued to keep the Hindus
and Muslims divided.
(b) Administrative Changes:
On January 1st 1877 Queen Victoria was proclaimed as the Queen
Empress of India and the administration of India was transferred the
East India Company to the British Crown. India was to be
administered by the Secretary of State and his fifteen-member council
through the Viceroy. The Governor-general became the viceroy and
the representative of the Crown in India.
(c) Reorganization of the Army:
The army was re-organized to strengthen British control over the
country and avert any further rebellions in future. The number of

British soldiers was increased and all the higher posts and key
positions were filled up by the British.
(d) Communal and Racial Bitterness:
The revolt of 1857 created a big gap between the different religious
communities especially the Hindus and the Muslims as each blamed
the other for its failure. The Indians, however, developed a deep racial
bitterness towards the English and opposed the inferior status granted
to them.