The Indian Mutiny, 1857

The Indian Mutiny, or the Indian Rebellion of 1857, was a turning point in British rule over South Asia. It came about by the reliance on native Indian troops, called sepoys. Following the Battle of Plassey, the Company preferred to recruit high-caste Hindus from Bengal for their army. To secure their loyalty, these high-caste sepoys were allowed separate quarters and dining halls and did not have to serve outside the country, all to avoid religious pollution. The mutiny stemmed from threats to these privileges that also threatened their religious purity, as well as from unhappiness over British rule: attacks on Hindu society, higher taxes, and greater political ambitions. Above all, there was a great fear of forced conversion to Christianity.

The spark came from rifle cartridges. The rifles used by the sepoys used greased paper cartridges, which the user had to bite to open. Rumor spread that animal fats were used in the grease - from both cattle and pigs, thus offending both Hindus and Muslims and causing ritual impurity. After weeks of rumors and rising tensions and some individual incidents, on April 24, a number of sepoys at Meerut refused to drill with the new cartridges, and on May 9 were court-martialed and sentenced to hard labor. The next day their companions freed them from prison, killing several European officers, and riots broke out in town. You can read an account of the start of the mutiny here: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1857greathed.asp (Links to an external site.)

The rebellious troops went to nearby Delhi, where more troops rebelled and the Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah, joined the rebellion, which was quickly becoming Hindu and Muslim jointly. Company panic made the rebellion worse; only the lack of unity among rebellious prevented loss of the colony, as some rebels wanted a return of the Marathas, others wanted jihad, and still many native rulers and forces sided with the British. The sepoys were joined by large numbers of civilians, turning this from a mutiny into a general rebellion. However, ehen Bahadur Shah was proclaimed by the rebels as Emperor of all India, the Sikhs of Punjab and the people of Bengal turned against the rebellion.

The public back in Britain were shocked and horrified, especially as the stories of the mutiny had grown in the telling, with stories of large numbers of European women and girls brutally raped and murdered. Historians have found little evidence for the claims of rape, but certainly many civilians were killed, sometimes gruesomely. Newspapers whipped the British into horror and anger, and helped drive the harsh reaction to the mutiny.

Image result for indian mutiny 1857

Image result for indian mutiny 1857

There is a good, small image archive at https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/photos/57-stunning-images-from-the-sepoy-mutiny-of-1857/ss-BBltFqw#image=8 .

Eventually the British organized and a European, Gurkha, Sikh, and Pashtun force laid siege to Delhi in July and the city was recaptured on September 21. By spring of 1858 the mutiny had largely been put down, although fighting continued until July 1858. The death toll was massive, with atrocities on both sides, including the massacre of civilians and wounded. The British reprisals were brutal, and during the suppression of the mutiny often they took no prisoners; prisoners taken were executed in horrible fashion, with a common punishment being tied to the mouth of a canon, which was then fired. The brutality of the repression also shocked the British government and public, and this led to the takeover of India by the government directly.

The Sikhs

This is one topic that needs far more coverage than I can provide here.

Sikhism is a religion that originated in the Punjab in the late fifteenth century. Its first guru was Guru Nank (lived 1469-1539) and there were nine gurus after him. The last guru designated the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib as the perpetual guru. Sikh means 'disciple' or 'learner'. Sikhism believes in a supreme being or spirit, and the religion is a path to finding that reality and leaving behind the distortions of the material world. Whether Sikhism is monotheistic is debated (as monotheism is defined in a western way, and even then it can be problematic); it sees the Hindu deities as alternate names/images for the One.

Guru Nanak's teaching rejected both Hinduism and Islam. Leaving aside the question of divine revelation, some see the religion as developing as a bridge between Hinduism and Islam; others see it as evolving as a rejection of Islam. The region where Sikhism developed was ruled by the Mughals, and Sikhs were persecuted. In the 17th century a Sikh confederacy or empire arose in resistance to the Mughals and was fully established in 1799 with its capital in Lahore. (One of the great ironies of the post-9/11 world is that Sikhs often were targets of anti-Muslim attacks by westerners because of their beards and turbans; there is a LA Times story with an interview with an American Sikh; although the title is 'Being Sikh in Trump's America', this has been a problem for nearly two decades: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-trump-sikhs-20170509-htmlstory.html . The man interviewed explains some of the Sikh traditions, succinctly.)

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Initially making treaties with neighboring British colonial authorities, divisions among the Sikh community and British ambitions in Afghanistan led to the Anglo-Sikh wars (1845-46, 1848-49). The first war saw the Sikhs cede valuable territory to the East India Company, including Kashmir; the second war saw the Company fully take control of the Punjab and despite the wars, the Sikhs became very strong supporters of the British. When the Mutiny began, the Sikhs considered using the opportunity to throw off British rule, but when the rebels declared the Mughal Emperor to be their leader, the Sikhs' animosity toward the Mughals saw the province remain loyal to the British. Those Sikhs in the army were solidly loyal, and played an important role in putting down the rebellion; and although much of the blame for the treatment of the rebels lies with the Company and its British leaders, the animosity of the Sikhs toward the Muslim Mughal forces played a role as well.

The Fresno County (California) Office of Education produced a short video, "Who are the Sikhs?) to educate those not familiar with Sikhs and Sikhism and talk about Sikhs in America:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONaoBQgBSKY

The Gurkhas

One of the major groups that the British could rely on were the Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers for the Company. Following a war between Nepal and the Company in 1814-16, the company began recruiting units of Gurkhas. The Gurkha units remained loyal during the mutiny and became a major part of the Indian Army following the Mutiny. A battalion of Gurkhas was responsible for saving the remaining British at Meerut. More than 200,000 would serve in World War I and more than 250,000 in World War II. In World War I they achieved a reputation for fearlessness and willing sacrifice.

They were identifiable by their knives, the khukuri; and they have become legends in the British Army for their heroism and sacrifice. If you'd like to learn more, look at some of these articles:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-10782099

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-most-savage-soldier-2016-6

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/10-things-no-one-tells-you-before-you-join-the-gurkhas1/ (warning, #6 is on animal sacrifice with a photo of an animal about to be sacrificed)