Asoka founded the most powerful secret society on earth: that of the Nine Unknown Men. What can have been the aim of these men?
1857 - The War of Independence: The Sepoy Mutiny
The Revolutionary Upheaval of 1857
Although dismissed by some as merely a sepoy's mutiny or revolt, or as a
protest against the violation of religious rights by the British, the great
uprising of 1857 is slowly gaining recognition as India's first war of
independence. And in it's broad sweep it was the greatest armed challenge to
colonial rule during the entire course of the nineteenth century. Attracting
people from all walks of life - both Hindus and Muslims, it triggered demands
for radical social and economic reforms, calling for a new society that would be
more democratic and more representative of popular demands.
Early Precedents
Neither was it a bolt out of the blue. Although not very well known, the
period between 1763 and 1856 was not a period during which Indians accepted
alien rule passively. Numerous uprisings by peasants, tribal communities and
princely states confronted the British. Some were sustained - others sporadic -
a few were isolated acts of revolutionary resistance - but nevertheless they all
challenged colonial rule. Precipitated by the policy of unchecked colonial
extraction of agricultural and forest wealth from the region - the period saw
tremendous growth in rural poverty, the masses being reduced to a state of utter
deprivation.
Even as official taxation was backbreaking enough, British officers routinely
used their powers to coerce additional money, produce, and free services from
the Indian peasants and artisans. And courts routinely dismissed their pleas for
justice. In the first report of the Torture Commission at Madras presented to
the British House of Commons in 1856, this was acknowledged along with the
admission that officers of the East India Company did not abstain from torture,
nor did they discourage its use. A letter from Lord Dalhousie to the Court of
Directors of the East India Company confirms that this was a practice not
confined to the Madras presidency alone in September 1855 where he admits that
the practice of torture was in use in every British province. Click for more
details
Desperate communities had often no choice but to resist to the bitter end.
Armed revolts broke out practically every year - only to be brutally suppressed
by the British. Lacking the firepower of the British arsenal - they were
invariably outgunned. And lacking the means of communication available to the
British - individual revolts were also unable to trigger sympathetic rebellions
elsewhere. Disadvantageous timing led to crushing defeats. Yet, some of these
struggles raged for many years. Click for more details
Amongst the most significant were the Kol Uprising of 1831, the Santhal
Uprising of 1855, and the Kutch Rebellion, which lasted from 1816 until 1832.
There was also precedence for a soldiers mutiny when Indian soldiers in Vellore
(Tamil Nadu, Southern India) mutinied in 1806. Although unsuccessful, it led to
the growth of unofficial political committees of soldiers who had several
grievances against their British overlords.
Seething Grievances
For instance, in the Bengal Army, the 140,000 Indians who were employed as "Sepoys"
were completely subordinate to the roughly 26,000 British officers. These sepoys
bore the brunt of the First British-Afghan War (1838-42), the two closely
contested Punjab Wars (1845-6, and 1848-9) and the Second Anglo-Burmese War.
They were shipped across the seas to fight in the Opium Wars against China
(1840-42) and (1856-60) and the Crimean War against Russia (1854). Although at
constant risk of death, the Indian sepoy faced very limited opportunities for
advancement - since the Europeans monopolized all positions of authority.
Many of the sepoys in the Bengal Army came from the Hindi speaking plains of
UP where (excluding Oudh) the British had enforced the "Mahalwari" system of
taxation, which involved constantly increasing revenue demands. In the first
half of the 19th century - tax revenues payable to the British increased 70%.
This led to mounting agricultural debts with land being mortgaged to traders and
moneylenders at a very rapid rate. This inhumane system of taxation was then
extended to Oudh where the entire nobility was summarily deposed.
As a result, the dissatisfaction against the British was not confined to the
agricultural communities alone. By bankrupting the nobility and the urban middle
class - demand for many local goods was almost eliminated. At the same time
local producers were confronted with unfair competition from British imports.
The consequences of this were summarized by the rebel prince Feroz Shah, in his
August 1857 proclamation: "the Europeans by the introduction of English articles
into India have thrown the weavers, the cotton dressers, the carpenters, the
blacksmiths and the shoe-makers and others out of employ and have engrossed
their occupations, so that every description of native artisan has been reduced
to beggary."
Contrast this turn of events with the arrival of Mughal rule in India. Babar,
in spite of his distaste for the Indian climate and customs, noted the
tremendous diversity and skill of Indian craftspeople, and saw in that a great
potential for expanding Indian manufacturing. Quite unlike the British, the
Mughals built on the manufacturing strengths of the Indian artisan - (already
well establish in the earlier Sultanate period) - and took them to dazzling
heights in the later periods. But by the mid-19th century, this pre-industrial
virtuosity in manufacturing had been virtually choked of by British policies. A
British chronicler of the period, Thomas Lowe noted how " the native arts and
manufactures as used to raise for India a name and wonder all over the western
world are nearly extinguished in the present day; once renowned and great cities
are merely heaps of ruins..."
All this inevitably prepared the ground for the far more widespread revolt of
1857. Although concentrated in what is now UP in modern India - the 1857 revolt
spread from Dacca and Chittagong (now Bangladesh) in the East to Delhi in the
West. Major urban centres in Bengal, Orissa, and Bihar including Cuttack,
Sambhalpur, Patna and Ranchi participated. In Central India - the revolt spread
to Indore, Jabalpur, Jhansi and Gwalior. Uprisings also took place in Nasirabad
in Rajasthan, Aurangabad and Kolhapur in Maharashtra and in Peshawar on the
Afghan border. But the main battleground was in the plains of UP - with every
major town providing valiant resistance to the British invaders.
Starting out as a revolt of the Sepoys - it was soon accompanied by a
rebellion of the civil population, particularly in the North Western Provinces
and Oudh. The masses gave vent to their opposition to British rule by attacking
government buildings and prisons. They raided the "treasury", charged on
barracks and courthouses, and threw open the prison gates. The civil rebellion
had a broad social base, embracing all sections of society - the territorial
magnates, peasants, artisans, religious mendicants and priests, civil servants,
shopkeepers and boatmen.
For several months after the uprising began in Meerut on May 10, 1857 -
British rule ceased to exist in the northern plains of India. Muslim and Hindu
rulers alike joined the rebelling soldiers and militant peasants, and other
nationalist fighters. Among the most prominent leaders of the uprising were Nana
Sahib, Tantia Tope, Bakht Khan, Azimullah Khan, Rani Laksmi Bai, Begum Hazrat
Mahal, Kunwar Singh, Maulvi Ahmadullah, Bahadur Khan and Rao Tula Ram. Former
rulers had their own grievances against the British, including the notorious law
on succession, which gave the British the right to annex, any princely state if
it lacked "legitimate male heirs".
Expressions of Popular Will
The rebels established a Court of Administration consisting of ten members -
six from the army and four civilians with equal representation of Hindus and
Muslims. The rebel government abolished taxes on articles of common consumption,
and penalized hoarding. Amongst the provisions of it's charter was the
liquidation of the hated 'Zamindari' system imposed by the British and a call
for land to the tiller.
Although the former princes who joined with the rebels did not go quite as
far, several aspects of the proclamations issued by the former rulers are
noteworthy. All proclamations were issued in popular languages. Hindi and Urdu
texts were provided simultaneously. Proclamations were issued jointly in the
name of both Hindus and Muslims. Feroz Shah - in his August 1857 proclamation
included some significant points. All trade was to be reserved for Indian
merchants only, with free use of Government steam vessels and steam carriages.
All public offices were to be given to Indians only and wages of the sepoys were
to be revised upwards.
Overpowered by British Might, Betrayed by the Princes
Threatened by such a radical turn of events, the British rulers poured in
immense resources in arms and men to suppress the struggle. Although the rebels
fought back heroically - the betrayal by a number of rulers such as the Sikh
princes, the Rajasthani princes and Maratha rulers like Scindia allowed the
British to prevail. Lord Canning (then Governor General) noted that " If Scindia
joins the rebels, I will pack off tomorrow". Later he was to comment: " The
Princes acted as the breakwaters to the storm which otherwise would have swept
us in one great wave". Such was the crucial importance of the betrayal of the
princes. The British were also helped by the conservatism of the trading
communities who were unwilling to put up with the uncertainties of a long drawn
out rebellion.
But equally important was the superior weaponry and brutality of the British
in defending their empire. British barbarity in suppressing the uprising was
unprecedented. After the fall of Lucknow on May 8, 1858 Frederick Engels
commented: " The fact is, there is no army in Europe or America with so much
brutality as the British. Plundering, violence, massacre - things that
everywhere else are strictly and completely banished - are a time honoured
privilege, a vested right of the British soldier..". In Awadh alone 150,000
people were killed - of which 100,000 were civilians. The great Urdu poet, Mirza
Ghalib wrote from Delhi, " In front of me, I see today rivers of blood". He went
on to describe how the victorious army went on a killing spree - killing every
one in sight - looting people’s property as they advanced.
Bahadur Shah's three sons were publicly executed at "Khooni Darwaaza" in
Delhi and Bahadur Shah himself was blinded and exiled to Rangoon where he died
in 1862. Refusing to plead for mercy from the British, he courageously retorted:
" The power of India will one day shake London if the glory of self-respect
remains undimmed in the hearts of the rebels". Thomas Lowe wrote: "To live in
India now was like standing on the verge of a volcanic crater, the sides of
which were fast crumbling away from our feet, while the boiling lava was ready
to erupt and consume us"
The 1857 revolt, which had forged an unshakable unity amongst Hindus and
Muslims alike, was an important milestone in our freedom struggle - providing
hope and inspiration for future generations of freedom lovers. However, the
aftermath of the 1857 revolt also brought about dramatic changes in colonial
rule. After the defeat of the 1857 national revolt - the British embarked on a
furious policy of "Divide and Rule", fomenting religious hatred as never before.
Resorting to rumors and falsehoods, they deliberately recast Indian history in
highly communal colors and practiced pernicious communal politics to divide the
Indian masses. That legacy continues to plague the sub-continent today. However,
if more people become aware of the colonial roots of this divisive communal gulf
- it is possible that some of the damage done to Hindu-Muslim unity could be
reversed. If Hindus and Muslims could rejoin and collaborate in the spirit of
1857, the sub-continent may yet be able to unshackle itself from it's colonial
past.
