Why was there a mutiny in India in 1857?

Authors Avatar

Nihar Parikh

History 10B

28/2/2004

History Coursework

  1. Why was there a mutiny in India in 1857?

The Indians felt that the British rule was getting a little too dominant. For example, they intended to replace native princes. The leader of the Marathas: Nana Sahib, was denied his titles in 1853 and his pension was stopped. The last of the Moghul emperors, Bahadur Shah II, was told that he would be the end of his dynasty. Doctrine of Lapse was carried out by General Dalhousie and had a law which said the government would seize land if there was no male heir. The British then also abolished “sati” (voluntary or sometimes even forced killing of a widow when their husband dies), and child marrige. Although this may seem civilized of the British to do so, the Indians at the time were very prideful of their tradition and disliked the abolishment of sati and child marriges.

The Indian soldiers also known as the “sepoys”, were unhappy about their pay and with the changes in the army regulations which they thought were a plot to force them to adopt Christianity. At this point of extreme tension between the Indians and the British the final provaction came in the shape of a gun cartridge.

Join now!

The British introduced the sepoys to the Enfield rifle. It required only the end to be bitten off and the cartridge then rammed down the muzzle of the weapon. For this process the cartridge was heavily greased - with animal fat. Sepoys heard and quickly passed on the rumour that the grease was a mixture of cow (sacred to Hindus) and pig (foul to Muslims) fat. Biting such a cartridge would break the caste of the Hindu sepoys and taint the Muslims.

In Calcutta, the sepoys, or Indian troops, had heard rumours about this and refused to load ...

This is a preview of the whole essay