📘 Class 12 History – Chapter 11
✳️ Rebels and the Raj (Revolt of 1857)
✨ Revolt of 1857 (विद्रोह 1857)
📅 Key Events
- 29 March 1857 → Young soldier Mangal Pandey was hanged at Barrackpore (बर्रकपुर) for attacking his officers.
- ⚔️ Meerut tension → Soldiers refused to perform military drills with new cartridges (कारतूस).
- 🐄🐖 Soldiers believed cartridges were greased with cow & pig fat, which was a religious insult (धार्मिक अपमान) for both Hindus and Muslims.
- 9 May 1857 → 85 soldiers were dismissed and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment (सज़ा) for disobedience.
- 10 May 1857 → Rebellion started at Meerut. Soldiers captured local administration and marched towards Delhi.
- 🏰 At Red Fort, soldiers sought support from Bahadur Shah Zafar → Emperor had no choice but to support them.
❇️ Rebellion in Meerut (मेरठ)
- ⚡ 10 May 1857 → Soldiers broke Meerut jail and freed prisoners.
- 🔥 Attacked British officers and killed them.
- 🏕️ By afternoon, rebellion spread across Meerut cantonment.
❇️ Revolt in Delhi (दिल्ली)
- 11 May 1857 (Ramzan month) → Soldiers reached Red Fort gate and asked Emperor for blessings (आशीर्वाद).
- 🚪 Entered the fort without following etiquette (शिष्टाचार).
- 👑 Bahadur Shah Zafar was forced to support → rebellion now ran in the name of Mughal Emperor.
- ✉️ Emperor wrote letters to chiefs & rulers across the country calling for federation (संघ) to fight the British.
- 🌍 News of Delhi’s capture spread → rebellion intensified in Ganga valley and west Delhi.
- 🏙️ In cities like Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly, rich people & moneylenders (सट्टेबाज) were attacked and looted (as reported in Delhi Urdu newspapers).
1️⃣ Economic Causes
- 💰 Heavy Revenue Policy (राजस्व नीति) → High taxes on farmers.
- 🏭 Decline of Handicraft Industry (हस्तशिल्प उद्योग का पतन) → Artisans became unemployed.
- 📉 Trade & business policies ruined merchants (व्यापारी).
- 🏚️ Farmers reduced to beggars (भिखारी) → According to R.C. Dutt, condition of peasants in Ryotwari areas became like beggars.
👉 Conclusion: Widespread economic discontent (आर्थिक असंतोष) → Farmers, artisans, and merchants were ruined → Revolt started.
2️⃣ Political Causes
- 🏴☠️ Lord Dalhousie’s annexation policy → Expansion of British territories.
- 👑 Merger of Awadh → Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was removed.
- ❌ Insult to Nana Saheb & Rani Laxmibai.
- 🏰 Mughal dynasty insult → Bahadur Shah’s successors were forced to live in a small house near Qutub Minar (1849 AD).
- 📢 1856 → Lord Canning announced that the title of Emperor would be taken from Mughals after Bahadur Shah.
👉 Conclusion: State pensions and titles were snatched (छीना) → Political discontent increased → Prepared ground for revolt.
3️⃣ Social & Religious Causes
- ✝️ Interference of Christian missionaries.
- 🔥 Abolition of Sati (सती प्रथा समाप्त).
- 🌊 Sea voyage (काला पानी) restrictions caused resentment.
- 🙏 Encouragement of religious conversion (धार्मिक परिवर्तन).
- 👶 Ban on adoption (दत्तक पुत्र पर प्रतिबंध) → Doctrine of Lapse.
👉 Conclusion: British interventions hurt social-religious traditions → Hindus & Muslims both angered → Sparked the rebellion.
4️⃣ Military Causes
- 🪖 Soldiers were an integral part of Indian society (समाज का अभिन्न हिस्सा).
- 😡 Discrimination (भेदभाव) faced by soldiers.
- 💂 British army policy → Unequal pay (वेतन) & promotions.
- 🏰 Important strategic locations (रणनीतिक स्थल) controlled by British soldiers.
👉 Conclusion: Military discontent (सैनिक असंतोष) fueled the revolt.
5️⃣ Immediate Cause (तात्कालिक कारण)
- 🔫 New Enfield rifle cartridges → greased with cow & pig fat.
- 🦷 Soldiers had to bite cartridges → Religious insult.
- 📍 Barrackpore & Berhampur soldiers refused cartridges.
- ✝️ Belief: British wanted to convert Hindus & Muslims to Christianity.👉 This acted as the spark that ignited the Revolt.
✳️ Methods of Communication (संपर्क के साधन)
- ✉️ Soldiers used messengers → moved from station to station.
- 👥 Panchayats formed → decisions taken collectively.
- ⚔️ Sepoys shared common caste & lifestyle → solidarity created → revolt spread quickly.
❇️ Leaders and Followers
- 🏰 When British control collapsed in Delhi, there was no organized rebellion for about a week.
- ⚔️ One by one, soldiers in different regiments revolted and moved to support other centres like Delhi, Kanpur, and Lucknow.
- 👑 Nana Saheb (adopted son of Peshwa Bajirao) declared himself the Governor under Bahadur Shah Zafar.
- 👑 Birjis Qadr (son of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Lucknow) was declared the new Nawab. His mother, Begum Hazrat Mahal, actively led the rebellion against the British.
- ⚔️ Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, along with Nana Saheb’s general Tatya Tope, posed a serious challenge to the British.
- 📡 On 6 August 1857, Lt. Col. Tyler informed his Commander-in-Chief: “Our men are tired, every village is against us, and even zamindars (landlords – ज़मींदार) are standing against us.”
- 🌟 Other leaders:
- Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah (Faizabad) predicted the end of British rule.
- Bakht Khan (sepoy from Bareilly) marched to Delhi with a large force and became a key rebel leader.
❇️ Rumours and Predictions
- 🐄🐖 Soldiers from Meerut told Bahadur Shah that the Enfield rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat.
- 🔥 Although the British denied this, the rumour spread like wildfire in the cantonments (army stations – छावनियाँ) of North India.
- 📖 Captain Wright’s Report (Jan 1857): A low-caste khalasi (labourer – मज़दूर) offered water to a Brahmin soldier. When refused, he said:👉 “Your caste will soon be corrupted, as you will have to bite cartridges greased with cow and pig fat.”
- 🤔 Though the report’s authenticity is uncertain, once the rumour spread, it created deep anger among sepoys.
❇️ Other Rumours
- 🥣 Rumours claimed that the British had mixed cow and pig bone powder in market flour (आटा).
- 🚫 People refused to even touch the flour.
- 🌸 Symbols of the Revolt (1857): Lotus Flower 🌸 & Chapati 🍪
📌 Notes:
- Governor-General during revolt → Lord Canning.
- Modernisation attempt → Enfield rifles with greased cartridges introduced, causing revolt.
✳️ Revolt in Awadh
- 🍒 Lord Dalhousie described Awadh as “a cherry that will fall into our mouths one day.”
- 🤝 Subsidiary Alliance (1801) introduced in Awadh → British influence increased.
- 🌾 Awadh was a major producer of cotton & indigo and an important market for Upper India.
- 🗺️ By 1850, regions like Maratha land, Doab, Karnataka, Punjab, Bengal were conquered. Annexation of Awadh in 1856 completed the territorial conquest that began with Bengal (1757).
- 👑 Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was deposed and exiled to Calcutta on charges of misgovernance.
- 💔 British believed the Nawab was unpopular, but in reality he was loved by the people, who mourned his removal.
- 🎭 The Nawab’s removal led to the decline of Lucknow’s rich culture → poets, musicians, dancers, cooks, retainers, and officials lost their livelihood.
❇️ Imagination of Unity
- 📜 Rebel declarations of 1857 invited all sections of society irrespective of caste or religion.
- 🙏 A proclamation in the name of Bahadur Shah Zafar appealed to people, invoking both Mohammed and Mahavir.
- ⚔️ Despite British efforts to create division between Hindus & Muslims, there was no such conflict seen in Bareilly (Western U.P.) in Dec 1857. Even spending ₹50,000, the British failed.
- 🔥 In many places, rebellion became an attack on all forces supporting the British or oppressors of people.
- 🏚️ Rebels insulted city elites, burnt moneylenders’ books, and ransacked houses → showing their desire to end social hierarchy (उच्च-नीच).
✳️ Repression by the British
- ⚖️ British imposed Martial Law (सैन्य शासन) across North India, giving officers & even civilians power to punish suspected rebels.
- 🚢 Reinforcements came from Britain → dual strategy adopted to capture Delhi → finally taken in September 1857.
- 🏹 In Oudh, resistance was strong → large-scale military force used.
- 🤝 British tried to break unity of zamindars & peasants → restored lands of loyal zamindars, expelled rebels.
✳️ Rebellion through Art & Literature
- 📚 Few records from the rebel side; most accounts came from official British records.
- 🖋️ British officials left diaries, letters, autobiographies, histories, reports.
- 📰 British newspapers/magazines exaggerated rebel violence, stirring public anger & calls for revenge.
- 🎨 Paintings, posters, cartoons, market prints (by both British & Indians) became important sources.
- 🖼️ British painters made works that evoked different emotions. Example → Relief of Lucknow (Thomas Jones Barker, 1859) commemorated British heroes suppressing rebels.
✳️ Prestige of English Women & Britain
- 📰 Newspaper reports highlighted violence against women & children, shaping public anger in Britain.
- 👩 The British govt urged protection of women’s honour (इज़्ज़त) and safety of helpless children.
- 🎨 Artists expressed trauma in visuals.
- 🖼️ In Memoriam (Joseph Noel Paton, 1859) depicted women & children surrounded by rebels, awaiting humiliation & death → aimed to incite fury and revenge.
- 💥 Such artworks portrayed rebels as violent & brutal.
