Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a large-scale uprising against the rule of the British East India Company in northern and central India. It began as a mutiny of Indian soldiers, or sepoys, at Meerut on 10 May 1857 and spread to civilian revolts across the Ganges plain before being crushed in 1858. Known in Britain for a long time as the Indian Mutiny, and in India often as the First War of Independence, it ended the Company's rule and brought India under direct government by the British Crown.

A century after the Battle of Plassey, the Company controlled most of India, directly or through dependent princes. Its expansion had created many grievances. Under the policy known as the doctrine of lapse, Governor-General Lord Dalhousie annexed states whose rulers died without a natural heir, including Jhansi, and in 1856 the Company annexed the kingdom of Awadh, or Oudh, on grounds of misgovernment. Landholders lost estates under new revenue settlements, and many Indians feared that Western reforms and missionary activity threatened their religions.

The Company's Bengal Army recruited heavily from high-caste Hindus of Awadh and neighbouring regions. Sepoys resented changes to their pay and conditions of service. The final spark was the new Enfield rifle, whose cartridges had to be bitten open and were rumoured to be greased with cow and pig fat, offensive to Hindus and Muslims alike.

In March 1857 a sepoy named Mangal Pandey attacked his officers at Barrackpore near Calcutta and was later hanged. At Meerut, when sepoys who had refused the cartridges were publicly shackled and imprisoned, their comrades rose on 10 May, freed them and killed British officers and civilians. They rode to Delhi, about 60 kilometres away, and proclaimed the elderly Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar their leader, giving the revolt a symbol of legitimacy drawn from the Mughal Empire.

Mutinies and uprisings followed across the North-Western Provinces, Awadh and parts of central India. At Kanpur, then Cawnpore, the besieged British garrison surrendered to forces under Nana Sahib in June but was attacked as it left by boat; later, about two hundred British women and children held captive were killed at a house known as the Bibighar. At Lucknow, the British residency was besieged for months before its relief in November. In central India, Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi became one of the rebellion's best-known leaders.

Large parts of India remained quiet. The Madras and Bombay armies stayed largely loyal, many princes supported the British, and newly recruited Sikh and Punjabi soldiers helped retake Delhi.

British forces recaptured Delhi in September 1857 after a long siege and heavy street fighting. Bahadur Shah was captured, and several of his sons were shot. British troops carried out brutal reprisals, including summary executions, the burning of villages, and the practice of tying rebels to cannon and firing them. Lucknow was finally retaken in March 1858. Rani Lakshmibai was killed fighting near Gwalior in June 1858, and the remaining rebel forces were gradually hunted down; the leader Tantia Tope was captured and executed in 1859.

About 6,000 of the roughly 40,000 Britons in India are thought to have died. Indian deaths, including many civilians, were far higher but remain uncertain; some estimates for Awadh alone reach 150,000.

The Government of India Act of 1858 dissolved the Company's authority and transferred it to the Crown, which ruled through a viceroy, creating the British Raj. Queen Victoria promised religious toleration and an end to annexations. Bahadur Shah was exiled to Rangoon, ending the Mughal dynasty. The army was reorganised with a higher proportion of British troops and recruitment shifted towards groups considered loyal. Later Indian nationalists looked back on the rebellion as an early struggle for independence.

Our 1815 map shows the expanding territory of the East India Company, and the 1878 map the British Raj established after the rebellion.