10 May 1857 – 20June 1858 : THE FIRST FIRES OF INDEPENDENCE
The Spark
On 29 March 1857, a 29 year old sepoy of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry, put on his uniform, loaded his musket and walked out to the Barrackpore parade ground, near Calcutta. He took position near the saluting base and when the Sergeant Major and the Battalion Adjutant approached, fired and injured them. His calls must have struck a chord, yet none of his comrades joined him. In frustration, he placed his musket against his chest, yanked the trigger with his toe and tried to take his own life. His uniform burst into flames and he suffered a severe chest injury, but he survived to face a court martial and was hanged to death just a week later. His act was not futile. Mangal Pandey had just fired the first shots of India’s First War of Independence.
Mangal Pandey
The resentment that Mangal Pandey felt was shared with hundreds of thousands of Indians. Ever since their victories at Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764) the East India Company had subjugated local rulers and looted and exploited at will. Anger had also been brewing amongst the 300000 strong Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army against the deliberate erosion of Indian values and systems. The final spark came when a new Enfield P – 53 rifle was issued to the troops. To load this weapon, the firer had to bite the cartridge and release its gunpowder. The cartridge was suspected to be greased with beef and pork fat – offending both Hindu and Muslim sensibilities. The harsh methods used by British officers created further resentment till it finally found expression in Mangal Pandey’s act of open rebellion.
The Outbreak
The news of Mangal Pandey’s act spread, as did his call to revolt. The simmering resentment came out in the open in Meerut – one of the largest military cantonments with over 2500 Indian and 2000 British troops stationed there. On 9 May 1857, 90 men of the 3 Bengal Light Cavalry refused to perform firing drills. The soldiers were stripped of their uniforms, placed in shackles and paraded in front of the entire garrison – harsh even by British standards. The next day – Sunday, 10 May 1858 – Indian solders broke into Meerut jail, freed their imprisoned compatriots, and attacked British officers and their families. Crowds also attacked British soldiers in the bazaar. It was a spontaneous move in which years of resentment erupted.
The troops then marched to Delhi and reached the palace of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the aged Mughal Emperor. Even though the Mughal Empire only existed in name, he was still venerated as the de facto Emperor of India. From beneath the ramparts of the Red Fort they called out to him to lead the revolt. Bahadur Shah wavered, but urged by his advisors, he gave his blessings for the battle against the British. Three battalions of Bengal Native Infantry stationed in Delhi also joined the revolt and turned against British officers, as they did in cantonments across the country.
Bahadur Shah Zafar – The last Emperor
The movement spread across the country as Indians rose spontaneously against the British. Meerut, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ambala, Allahabad, Benaras, Fatehpur, Agra and a host of towns were taken over by the Sepoys and the British inhabitants either killed or pushed out. Seeing the scale of the movement additional troops from shipped in from England. By June relief columns were formed – composed of British, Sikh, Gurkha and other loyal troops – which began marching towards Meerut and Delhi. Sikh troops did not join the revolt. The rebellious troops were largely from the Bengal Native Infantry, which had been used by the British to fight the Sikhs in the Anglo-Sikh wars, and this was cleverly used to ensure their loyalty.
By end June, Imperial forces reached Delhi and established themselves around the area of Delhi Ridge. A three month long siege of the capital began. Both sides suffered heavily in a series of attacks and daily skirmishes. Then on 15 August, three additional battalions of British, Sikh and Pakhtoon troops arrived and heavy siege guns were brought up. Finally on 15 September, after an intense bombardment, the city was stormed through Kashmiri Gate and after a week of heavy fighting British troops reached the Red Fort. Bahadur Shah Zafar and his sons were captured. His two sons and grandson were executed and their heads presented to the old Emperor. Bahadur Shah was exiled to Rangoon where he died and was buried in in unmarked grave. The last of the line of Mughal India, and its symbolic head was quietly erased.
British troops ravaged the city committing unimaginable atrocities. Civilians were massacred and the town looted. They then moved to Agra, relieved the British troops besieged there and took over the city. They then moved towards Kanpur and Lucknow, two of the major fires of the battle.
In June, sepoys from the garrison of Kanpur (then Cawnpore) had risen against their British officers and men. Most of the British soldiers were killed, and women and children imprisoned and later killed in a bungalow called Bibighar. (literally ‘House of the Ladies’). The killings in Kanpur set of a chain of reprisals by the British and has often been used to justify their atrocities.
British forces retook Kanpur in August 1857 and then focused on Lucknow where around 1700 Europeans (including loyal sepoys) had occupied a position inside the Residency compound and had been besieged for over 90 days. The defenders were finally relieved on 18 November 1857. However the Indians under TatyaTope continued to hold Lucknow and it was only in March 1858, that a large army under General Campbell defeated the Indian force and reoccupied the city. With this the British regained control of virtually every garrison town of North India.
The British force could have been eliminated much earlier, but the Indians were let down by poor tactics and lack of cohesive leadership. No central leadership existed to give overall direction to the struggle and the role of Bahadur Shah Zafar was symbolic as best. In different cities and areas, Indian soldiers fought isolated battles without an overall strategy. Yet what is significant is that Hindus, Muslims and all races and creeds fought as one against foreign rule. That unification which was revealed then would re-emerge only decades later during our second struggle for Independence.
Central India
The fires of Independence had also spread to Central and South India. In Jhansi, when the Raja of Jhansi died without a biological male heir, his kingdom was annexed by the British. His widow, the feisty Rani Lakshmi Bai – who would be immortalised as the Rani of Jhansi – insisted that her adopted son would be the heir to the throne. When the War of Independence broke out she was in the forefront, leading battles with her infant son strapped to her back. Jhansi became the centre of the rebellion and Rani Lakshmi Bai held on till March 1858, when British troops laid siege to Jhansi and captured her city, forcing her to flee in disguise to Gwalior. She continued her struggle from Gwalior but unfortunately was killed in Gwalior fort on 17 June 1858 after a very heavy bombardment. Gwalior was captured three days later and with it the last bastion in the struggle for independence had fallen.
Rani Lakshmi Bai
In the yearlong campaign, the British regained all the garrison towns. Unimaginable atrocities were committed. Captured Sepoys were blown off with their bodies tied to the mouths of cannons; entire villages were burnt and the male population indiscriminately hanged to death. Loot, plunder and destruction of the reoccupied towns was a norm and Delhi, Meerut, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Ambala and other centres of resistance were virtually razed to the ground. The toll is estimated to be between 1,50,000 – 2,50,000 Indian lives. Another 2 – 300000 were killed in the next few years by a deliberately induced famine. The only change that happened was that the British East India Company was replaced by the rule of the Crown. But the loot and exploitation went on for 90 years more, till we finally cast off the shackles and attained independence on the midnight of 15 August 1947.