The Uprising of 1857
Indian soldiers mutiny at Meerut, sparking a vast revolt across north India that is crushed with great brutality and ends Company rule.
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
- Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire — C. A. Bayly, Cambridge University Press (1988)
- India: A History — John Keay, HarperCollins (2000)
On 10 May 1857 sepoys at Meerut, near Delhi, rose against their British officers. The spark was a rumour that new rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat, offensive to Hindus and Muslims alike, but the anger ran deeper: annexations of Indian kingdoms, heavy land revenue demands, and fears that the British meant to undermine Indian religions.
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
- Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire — C. A. Bayly, Cambridge University Press (1988)
The rebels marched to Delhi and proclaimed the elderly Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader. Revolt spread across the Ganges plain, to Kanpur, Lucknow and Jhansi, where Rani Lakshmibai led her troops into battle. Both sides committed atrocities: British women and children were killed at Kanpur, and British reprisals, with mass hangings, villages burned and Delhi sacked, were savage.
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
- India: A History — John Keay, HarperCollins (2000)
By 1858 the revolt was crushed. Parliament abolished the East India Company’s rule and placed India directly under the Crown, Queen Victoria promised not to interfere with Indian religions, and the army was reorganised to rely on groups the British considered “martial races”. Bahadur Shah was exiled to Burma, ending the Mughal dynasty.
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
- Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire — C. A. Bayly, Cambridge University Press (1988)
The first war of independence, a national uprising of Hindus and Muslims together against foreign rule. V. D. Savarkar popularised this reading in his 1909 book "The Indian War of Independence of 1857".
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
A massive but uneven set of revolts by soldiers, dispossessed princes, landholders and peasants, each with their own grievances, concentrated in the north. Many Indians, including most Sikhs and most of the South, did not join, and some fought for the British. More than a mutiny, but not yet a single national war.
- Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire — C. A. Bayly, Cambridge University Press (1988)
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
Why it matters today
What you call it shows how you see it. British histories long said "the Indian Mutiny"; many Indians call it the First War of Independence. Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, who died fighting, is a national heroine celebrated in school poems and films.