Information Related to The Revolt of 1857 of 1857 (First Indian War of Independence):

The great Revolt of 1857 took place only during Lord Canning's rule as Governor-General. The Revolt of 1857 of 1857 started from Meerut on May 10, 1857, which gradually spread to places like Kanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi, Delhi, Awadh etc. This revolution started as a military revolt, but later changed its form to a mass revolt against British power, which was called India's First war of Independence.

There is no consensus on the nature of this great revolution of 1857. Scholars have propounded their different opinions about this, which are as follows - 'Sepoy Rebellion', 'Freedom Struggle', 'Feudalist Reaction', 'People's Revolution', 'National Rebellion', 'Muslim Conspiracy', 'Christian A religious war against religion' and 'the struggle of civilization and Barbarism' etc.

Political Causes of the Revolt of 1857:

  • Lord Wellesley Auxiliary Treaty - In the year 1798, the then Governor-General of India, Lord Wellesley, had made a subsidiary treaty with all the states of India, under which 1. British troops would be stationed on the territory of all the allied kings, those troops would be The cost of maintenance will be borne by the king. 3. A British resident will be appointed in the king's court who will send every news to the governor-general and 5 king will neither make any treaty with any other ruler nor break the British treaty. All these things were forcibly imposed on the rulers, due to which a widespread resentment began to arise in their mind.
  • Lord Dalhousie's policy of lapse - In the year 1848 and the then Governor-General Lord Dalhousie made a law under which if an Indian ruler has no heir, then the British government will rule that state in future. This law came to be called the Law of Grab. Various rulers started showing their anger on this law, and this anger got more air during 1857.
  • Ban on Jhansi's successor and Nana Saheb's pension stopped - When King Gangadhar Rao of Jhansi died, Rani Laxmibai expressed her desire to make an adopted son the heir but the British government did not allow her and ruled over Jhansi. Due to which the anger of the Rani of Jhansi and the people towards the British government started increasing. Nana Saheb was the adopted son of Peshwa Bajirao II. After the death of the Peshwa, the British Empire took the place of the Maratha Empire and also stopped the pension received by Nana Saheb, due to which the people of Kanpur started opposing the British government.
  • British Occupation of Satara and Nagpur- After the death of Shahji, the ruler of Satara in the year 1848, Satara was also occupied by the British Empire under the Lapse Act, due to which anger towards the British government began to arise among the soldiers of Satara. Soon after, the British government did the same to Nagpur as it had done to Satara. Negative thoughts about the British government were starting to arise in the minds of the soldiers and farmers of both the regions.
  • Snatching their land from landlords and farmers - The British government had taxed the different provinces of India more and more and made some important laws. When a farmer and landlord could not fulfill their conditions, then they used to take possession of his land and property. This caused widespread resentment in the minds of both the farmer and the landlord.

Economic Causes of the Revolt of 1857:

  • Snatching their livelihood from Indian artisans- Due to the Industrial Revolution in England, machine-made products were sold in India at very cheap prices, due to which the means of employment of Indian artisans were snatched and from above the British government imposed more taxes on them. Due to which the feeling of dissatisfaction started taking birth in the minds of those artisans.
  • Business Policy of the British - Due to the business policy of the British, the trade of all the Indians of India had come to a standstill. For sending Indian products abroad, excessive fees had to be paid, in which there was a possibility of loss instead of profit and no one was ready to buy Indian products in India because their price was more than the products of England, due to which Indian trade almost came to an end and anger among Indian merchants began to grow.
  • The policy of permanent settlement of the British Empire and excessive taxes - The British government made the landlords of India the owners of the land under the policy of permanent settlement. The zamindars who deposited a certain amount of tax in the government treasury and collected maximum amount of tax from the farmers. The government had imposed a huge amount of tax on the general public also, due to which the general public also started opposing the government.

Social and Religious Causes of the Revolt of 1857:

  • Religious Disabilities Act of 1856 - The British government made a law in 1856 under which only persons who converted to Christianity were considered entitled to their ancestral property and they were given the facility of promotion in jobs, admission in educational institutions. Due to this law, the clergy converted Hindus and Muslims to Christianity on a large scale, due to which the Indian religious society started getting angry with the British.
  • Reform work in Indian society - The British Empire saw some evils of Indian society at that time and decided to correct them, such as Lord William Bentinck in the year 1829, with the help of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, abolished the practice of Sati and child The marriage was banned. Due to this Indian Hindus considered it against their religion and started opposing the British government.
  • English Education - The British had started English schools to educate the Indian society, in which they started providing education to Indians, due to which the people of all religions of India started to feel that they definitely want to make Indians Christian. He started English schools.
  • Criticism of other religions by Christian preachers - Christian preachers started misrepresenting the scriptures and doctrines of other religions in order to describe their religion as the best in India, due to which there was widespread anger against the British in India.

Military Causes of the Revolt of 1857:

  • Sending Indian soldiers to fight on the sea - In the year 1856, a law was passed according to which the soldiers could be sent across the sea to fight, but Hindu soldiers considered going across the sea to be against their religion.
  • Indecent behavior with Indian soldiers- British soldiers used to behave indecently with Indian soldiers during the parade. They used to make fun of their civilization, culture and religion in front of the Indians, due to which the resentment of the Indian soldiers started increasing against the British government.
  • Discrimination against Indians in salary, promotion and posting - British administration used to adopt a discriminatory policy with Indian soldiers, they only increased the salary and rank of British soldiers and officers. He also used to deploy Indians in disturbed areas while British soldiers were deployed in calm and clean areas.

The immediate causes of the revolt of 1857:

  • Fat cartridges - The immediate cause of the 1857 revolt was the new greased cartridges given to the soldiers. These new handicrafts were covered with the fat of pigs and cows, which were torn from the mouth and put in the guns. Both Hindus and Muslims were included in the British army and they had refused to use it considering it against their religion, but the British government did not listen to their words. The use of these fat cartridges was first opposed by the soldiers of Barrackpore Cantonment. Knowing the truth of these acts, Mangal Pandey got angry and even killed a British officer.

Spread of the revolt of 1857:

  • Soon after the capture of Delhi, the rebellion spread to central and northern India.
  • On June 4, a rebellion started in Lucknow under the leadership of Begum Hazrat Hazmat Mahal, in which Henry Lawtens was assassinated.
  • On June 5, Kanpur was captured under the leadership of Nana Saheb, Nana Saheb was declared Peshwa.
  • Rani Lakshmi Bai led the rebellion in Jhansi.
  • After the fall of Jhansi, Lakshmi Bai along with Tatya Tope led the rebellion in Gwalior. Ultimately Lakshmibai attained Veergati while fighting the British General Huroes.
  • On the death of Rani Lakshmi Bai, General Hughes said, "The woman who sleeps here among the Indian revolutionaries is a man."
  • Tatya Tope's real name was Ramchandra Pandurang. He went to Nepal after the fall of Gwalior where a landlord was caught for the betrayal of Mansingh and hanged on 18 April 1859.
  • In Jagripur, Bihar, the landlord Kunwar Singh raised the flag of the revolt of 1857.
  • Maulvi Ahmadullah led the revolt of 1857 in Faizabad.
  • The British, worried about Ahmadullah's activities, had announced a reward of 50 thousand rupees for his capture.
  • Khan Bahadur Khan led the revolt of 1857 in Rohilkhand, which was captured and hanged.
  • Raj Kumar Surendra Shahi and Ujjwal Shahi led the rebellion at Sambalpur in Orissa.
  • Maniram Dutt led the revolt in Assam.
  • Bengal, Punjab and most parts of South India did not participate in the rebellion.
  • The British recaptured Delhi in September 1857 after a long and terrible war.

Famous Leaders of the Revolt of 1857 and their Centres:

Leaders Name Date of Revolts Centres
Bahadur Shah Zafar, Bakht Khan 11th March 1857 Delhi

Bahadur Shah Zafar: Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last King of the Mughal Empire in India, who led the sepoys in the 1857 revolt in Delhi. But the people of India were defeated in this war, after which Bahadur Shah Zafar was sent to Burma (present-day Myanmar) by the British. Where he died on 7 November 1862.

Bakht Khan: Bakht Khan was the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian troops in the 1857 revolution going on in Delhi. Khan was earlier posted as a Subedar in the British East India Company, but he turned against the British due to the use of pork and cow fat on the cartridges of the Enfield rifle.

After which, on July 1, 1857, Delhi Aakar joined the ongoing freedom struggle against the British.
Nana Saheb, Tantya Tope 5th June 1857 Kanpur

Nana Saheb: Nana Saheb, whose real name was 'Dhondupant', led Indian soldiers from Kanpur in India's first war of independence against the British. There were many disputes between Nana Saheb and the British, in which the main reason was the non-acceptance of the title of Peshwa by Nana Saheb after the death of his father Peshwa Baji Rao II on 28, 1851, and the second main reason was the refusal of the British to start the Peshwai pension, etc.

On 5 June 1857, he announced his participation in the Revolution of 1857 against the East India Company after the capture of the East India Company's treasury from a British magazine at Kanpur.

Tantya Tope: Tatya Tope was appointed as his military advisor by Nana Saheb in the ongoing 1857 revolution in Kanpur. Brigadier General Havelock attacked Kanpur from the Allahabad side with the British army, then Tatya devoted his life to the security of Kanpur, but he was defeated on 16 July 1857 and had to leave Kanpur.

Even after this, after the departure of Jhansi's Rani Lakshmi Bai, Rao Saheb, Bahadur Shah Zafar etc., he was taking command of the Indian revolutionaries for about a year.
Begum Hazrat Mahal, Birjis Qad 4th June 1857 Lucknow
Begum Hazrat Mahal: Begum Hazrat Mahal was the second wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh (in present-day Uttar Pradesh). When Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was driven out of his own kingdom by the British, Begum Hazrat handled the state affairs of the princely state of Awadh.

From 1857 to 1858, under the leadership of Raja Jailal Singh, the Hamis of Begum Hazrat Mahal fought against the British East India Company. After which he re-established his authority over Lucknow. He died on 7 April 1879 in Kathmandu, Nepal at the age of 60.

Birjis Qad: Birjis Qadr was the 6th king of Awadh and the son of Begum Hazrat Mahal. In 1857, the whole country was dominated by revolution, the British government was killing the revolutionaries one after the other. Then Birjis Qadr along with his mother was fighting against the Oranges. Notably, when the Maulvi faction was decimated by the fall of Lucknow, Begum Hazrat retained a semblance of her predecessor's rule from a local fort, hosting parliaments and issuing edicts in the name of Qadr.
Rani Lakshmi Bai 4th June 1857 Jhansi
Rani Lakshmi Bai: Rani Laxmibai used to be the queen of Jhansi state of present-day Uttar Pradesh ruled by Marathas. He fought with the army of the British Empire in the revolution of 1857 at the age of just 29 but got martyrdom in this fight for freedom. Rani Lakshmibai died on 18 June 1858 while fighting with the British army at Kota's inn near Gwalior.
Veer Kunwar Singh, Babu Amar Singh 12th June 1857 Jagdishpur

Veer Kunwar Singh: Veer Kunwar Singh led his commander Macu Singh and Indian soldiers in the 1857 war. Veer Kunwar Singh took command of the mutineers at Danapur on 25 July 1857. Two days later they captured Ara, the district headquarters. But Major Vincent Eyre relieved the city on 3 August 1857, defeated Singh's army and destroyed Jagdishpur.

Babu Amar Singh: Babu Amar Singh was the chief warrior and revolutionary of India's first freedom struggle of 1857. He was the brother of Babu Kunwar Singh. Babu Amar Singh had originally assisted his brother's campaigns, including the infamous Siege of Arrah. After the death of Babu Kunwar Singh on 26 April 1858, Babu Amar Singh became the head of the army and continued the struggle against heavy odds and ran a parallel government in Shahabad district for a long time.
Maulvi Ahmadullah June, 1857 Faizabad

Maulvi Ahmadullah: Ahmadullah Shah was the Maulvi of Faizabad, popularly known as the Light House of the Revolt of 1857. He fought for independence in the Revolt of 1857, along with Nana Sahib and Khan Bahadur Khan.

He was actively involved in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and 1858. He led the revolutionary army of Awadh along with Barkat Ahmed and won a fierce battle against the English army of Henry Montgomery Lawrence. He was killed by treacherously firing a cannon shot.
Maulvi Liaquat Ali June 1857 Allahabad

Maulvi Liaquat Ali: Maulvi Liaquat Ali was one of the leaders of the 1857 Indian War of Independence against the British. He belonged to village Mahagaon in pargana Chail of Prayagraj. The people of Chail also supported Liaquat Ali with ammunition.

He captured Khusro Bagh and made it the headquarters for the soldiers. But Khusro Bagh was taken back by the British in two weeks. Maulvi was sentenced to death 14 years later in September 1871 at Mumbai's Byculla railway station, but died in prison on 17 May 1892 in Rangoon (present-day Yangon).
Khan Bahadur Khan Ruhela June 1857 Bareilly

Khan Bahadur Khan Ruhela: Khan Bahadur Khan Ruhela was the grandson of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, the second Nawab of Rohilkhand. He opposed the British during the Revolt of 1857, and formed his own government after the success of the rebellion at Bareilly. When the Indian Rebellion of 1857 failed, Bareilly also came under the British.

He escaped from there and went to Nepal, but the people there caught him and handed him over to the British where the British hanged him on 24 February 1860.

Consequences of the Revolt of 1857:

  • After the rebellion, the Company rule in India was abolished and the rule of India was placed under the British Crown.
  • The Governor General of India now came to be called the Viceroy.
  • A 15-member Indian Council was set up with India Secretary.
  • After the revolt of 1857, the proportion of Europeans to Indian soldiers in the army was increased on the report of the Peel Commission set up by the British Government to reorganize the army.
  • Abandoning the policy of conquest and annexation towards Indian princely states, the government allowed the adoption of kings.

Important facts related to the Revolt of 1857:

  • Bahadur Shah was a symbolic leader in Delhi. The actual leadership was in the hands of a council of soldiers, headed by Bakht Khan.
  • The Governor General of India at the time of the Revolt of 1857 was Lord Canning.This revolt was devoid of any social alternative to be implemented after
  • seizing power.
  • The rulers of Punjab, Rajputana, Hyderabad and Madras did not participate at all in the revolt of 1857.
  • There were many reasons for the failure of the rebellion, the main reason being lack of unity, organization and resources.
  • The zamindars of Bengal helped the British to crush the rebels.
  • B. D. Savarkar, through his book India's First War of Independence, gave rise to the notion that the revolt of 1857 was a well-planned national freedom struggle.
  • In fact, the revolt of 1857 was not just a military rebellion, but every section of the society was involved in it. About one and a half lakh people died in the rebellion.

Now practice related questions and see what you learnt?

☞ 1857 Revolt GK Questions and Answers 🔗

Read also:

Revolt of 1857 FAQs:

Dhondu Pant was the name of Nana Saheb, the leader of the rebellion of 1857, who was the architect of the first war of Indian independence. In the freedom struggle, Nana Saheb led against the British in Kanpur.

Mangal Pandey had given the slogan of Maro Firangi at the time of 1857 revolution. This slogan was raised against the British rule by the rebel fighters and pioneers of Indian independence. This slogan increased the zeal and enthusiasm of the rebel fighters and played an important role in the fight for Indian independence.

The rebellion is known by many names: Sepoy Mutiny (by British historians), Indian Mutiny, Great Mutiny (by Indian historians), Revolt of 1857, Indian Mutiny and First War of Independence led by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

The Revolt of 1857 in Lucknow was led by Begum Hazrat Mahal. Begum Hazrat Mahal was the second wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh.

Lord Cunning was the Governor-General of India at the time of the Revolt of 1857. He was the administrative ruler of British India and his tenure went to PEC. During the rebellion, he was leading the way for maintaining peace and law and order in India on behalf of the British government.

  Last update :  Wed 29 Mar 2023
  Post Views :  49317
  Post Category :  Modern Indian History