The Revolt of 1857; India's Freedom Struggle

Learning about India’s history and fight for independence is something that changed the way I look at the nation I live in today. British colonialism within the Indian subcontinent shook the country and its people to the core, and once the indigenous people began to recognise the exploitation of their motherland, they set foot into their fight for independence from the unruly British reign. India’s first war of independence, better known as The Revolt of 1857, can be traced back to the introduction of the British East India Company, a trading company, that set foot in India in the early 15th century, with the intention to participate in the rich spice trade and later gain power over the subcontinent. The company gained political power in the year 1772 A.D, with the chief purpose of deriving benefits out of Indian territories. As they continued to gain power over India, their influence and colonial policies became widespread, the company became so strong that they had their own army. This army comprised of both British and Indian soldiers; these Indian soldiers were identified as sepoys; they were higher-class Indians, & were detested for betraying their own people. By 1857, tension had built up greatly between the sepoys and British men due to various reasons that made the Indian soldiers feel uncomfortable. This tension gave rise to a significant part of history known as the Revolt of 1857, The Sepoy Mutiny or India’s first war of independence (depending on your perspective).

Over the years, the British company treated these sepoys like their little puppets and forced them to go against their religious beliefs. The conditions of service in the British army became increasingly demanding, and these conditions would come in opposition to the beliefs of these sepoys. Several of these demanding conditions prompted the Indian soldiers to take aggressive action, causes like religious frictions provoked the soldiers; where the officers would actively attempt to covert the sepoys into Christians, the introduction of the Enfield rifle (which is something that greatly aggravated the sepoys), the general service enlistment act discussing the need to cross the sea (although crossing the sea, to a religious Hindu, meant the loss of caste), an unfair justice system towards Indians (being treated as subordinates), minimal pay compared to British officers, among other causes. The Enfield rifle is particularly considered to be an immediate cause of this revolt; the Enfield rifle was introduced by the technologically advanced British colonizers and it required the soldier to bite the cartridge to use the weapon, this cartridge was said to be greased with pig and cow fat, which goes against the beliefs of both Hindus and Muslims. The introduction of this rifle acted as a tipping point, the sepoys believed this weapon to be a method of indirect religious reform and conversion to Christianity; which they despised.

By 1850, most Indians resented that the British dominated the nation, and the acts of the British, such as forceful conversion to Christianity by the missionaries as well as the reinforcement of racist policies, aggravated the Indians. This rebellion brought together the Indians for a cause, like never before; evoking a sense of unity and togetherness, which the British feared, as evident in their Divide and Rule policy (where they exploited pre-existing boundaries of the Hindus and Muslims for an easy rule, leaving India in chaos). In early 1857, sepoys broke out in mutiny after the introduction of the Enfield rifle that went against their religious beliefs; sepoys across the subcontinent took part in this mutiny. On 9th May 1857 in Meerut, 85 sepoys were stripped of their uniform and sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment for disobeying the orders on the issue of the greased cartridges, once this took place, a mutiny broke out and the sepoys marched to Delhi where they persuaded a Mughal emperor (Bahadur Shah) to lead the revolt. Numerous other ruling figures joined into this rebellion; leaders from Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly and Arrah. After a long year of fighting and violence, the British managed to seize control of Delhi, and Bahadur Shah (a local ruling figure who joined as an ally) was taken as a prisoner while other ruling figures were captured and shot to their death. The revolt was aggressive and greatly violent; both sides, the ruling East India Company and the Indians committed terrorizing atrocities; sepoys and other Indians killed British officers, their wives and their children, while Britain captured rebels and strapped them to canons.

Whether a rebellion is successful or not, it tends to have some consequences or impacts on both the mutineers and the people being mutinied against; in terms of the revolt of 1857, the impacts on the indigenous people are both positive and negative. Much of the blame for the mutiny fell on the incompetence of the British trading company, which led to power being transferred directly to the British crown to protect and seize firm control over Britain’s valuable trading empire. The revolt prompted the official British Raj (rule), which was a more aggressive and direct control. On the other hand, in terms of positive impacts, the mutiny evoked a feeling of unity and nationalism among the indigenous people, giving rise to the subsequent successful stages of India’s freedom struggle. In addition to this, the event augmented distrust between Britain and the Indians which worsened racism through discriminatory policies. Britain tried to cover up this incident and its impact by making it seem insignificant with the use of the term “sepoy mutiny”, however, this occurrence is vital to be able to understand India’s history and why the country stands where it is today.

To understand how Britain made the rebellion seem irrelevant and insignificant, we must take a closer look into the difference between the terms used by Indians and Britain to describe the event. While the Indians called it their “First War of Independence”, Britain called it the “Sepoy Mutiny”; in the perspectives of an Indian, they believed this rebellion to be an important cause that brought them together to fight for their nation, whereas Britain believed it to be meaningless and unworthy of any attention; nevertheless, the Revolt of 1857 is a chief part of Indian history that resulted in the fall of the company. The sepoy mutiny was a great struggle, amongst many others during India’s fight for independence, it allowed Indians to realize what was happening to their country before their eyes; a sense of nationalism was evoked that prompted the later stages of the successful freedom struggle. The Indians were united by revolution. After 200 years of rule and struggle for independence, in 1947, the British reign came to an end, leaving India 45 trillion dollars poorer and partitioned.

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