THE SEPOY MUTINY SERIES

Holmes, History of the Indian Mutiny (3 vol., 1904–12) A. Malleson, History of the Indian Mutiny (6 vol., 1896) T. Although it is too much to say that the mutiny constituted a nationalist uprising, it was at that time that the first stirrings of active Indian nationalism began to be felt. Military precautions against further uprisings included increasing the proportion of British to native troops and restricting artillery service to Britons. However, the rebellion was long remembered with bitterness by the British. Expropriation of land was discontinued, religious toleration was decreed, and Indians were admitted to subordinate positions in the civil service. Revoltĭespite the army's sometimes savage reconquest, the British government did recognize the urgent need for reform, and in 1858 the East India Company was abolished and rule assumed directly by the British crown.

THE SEPOY MUTINY SERIES

The British replaced the cartridges when the mistake was realized but suspicion persisted, and in Feb., 1857, began a series of incidents in which sepoys refused to use the cartridges. He was accepted as the symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity.

They declared old Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah as the Badshah of India. When the sepoys of Meerut reached Delhi there was huge upsurge. This belief was strengthened when the British furnished the soldiers with cartridges coated with grease made from the fat of cows (sacred to Hindus) and of pigs (anathema to Muslims). As the revolt was started by the Indian sepoys in the British army, the revolt became known as Sepoy mutiny. The Indian soldiers were dissatisfied with their pay as well as with certain changes in regulations, which they interpreted as part of a plot to force them to adopt Christianity. In 1853, Nana Sahib, leader of the Marathas, was denied his titles and pension by the British, and the aged Bahadur Shah II, last of the Mughal emperors, was informed that the dynasty would end with his death. The political expansion of the East India Company at the expense of native princes and of the Mughal court aroused Hindu and Muslim alike, and the harsh land policies, carried out by Governor-General Dalhousie and his successor, Lord Canning, as well as the rapid introduction of European civilization, threatened traditional India. In the years just prior to the mutiny many factors combined to create a climate of social and political unrest in India. It is also known as the Sepoy Rebellion, sepoys being the native soldiers. Indian Mutiny, 1857–58, revolt that began with Indian soldiers in the Bengal army of the British East India Company but developed into a widespread uprising against British rule in India.

The sepoy mutiny