Modern History (Revolt of 1857) by Shivlal Gupta

Model Answer

Question #1. “The Mutiny of 1857 was much more than a Mutiny of Sepoys and much less than a National Rebellion”. Comment.

Approach:

• The question focuses on 2 pillars: 1) The Mutiny of 1857 was much more than a Mutiny of Sepoys, 2) The Mutiny of 1857 was much less than a National Rebellion,.
• Introduction (Summary of key demand of the question, along with necessary facts).
• Conclusion by summing up the gist of the answer.

Hints:

It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that the 1857 revolt came to be interpreted as a “planned war of national independence”, by V.D. Savarkar in his book, The Indian War of Independence, 1857. Savarkar called the revolt the first war of Indian independence. He said it was inspired by the lofty ideal of self rule by Indians through a nationalist upsurge. Dr S.N. Sen in his Eighteen Fifty-Seven considers the revolt as having begun as a fight for religion but ending as a war of independence.

The historians have divergent opinion regarding the nature of uprising . The British considered it just a ‘A Military Revolt’ which had neither the leadership of any of the Indian leaders , nor the cooperation of the people.

The Mutiny of 1857 was much more than a Mutiny of Sepoys:

• The Revolt was more than a mere sepoy Mutiny - N. Sen and Dr. R.C. Mujumdar have given an objective and balanced view that the sepoy mutiny assumed the character of a revolt and assumed a political dimension when the mutineers of Meerut after proceeding to Delhi declared the restoration of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah II, and the landed aristocracy and civil population declared their loyalty in his favor. What began as a right for religion ended in a war of independence, for there is not the slightest doubt that the rebels wanted to get rid of the alien government and restore the old order of which the Mughal emperor was the rightful representative.

The Mutiny of 1857 was much less than a National Rebellion:

• Dr C. Majumdar, however, considers it as neither the first, nor national, nor a war of independence as large parts of the country remained unaffected and many sections of the people took no part in the upsurge. If the revolt of 1857 was the National War of Independence,then the small portion of British troops could not suppress that revolt.

One may say that the revolt of 1857 was the first great struggle of Indians to throw off British rule. S.B. Chaudhuri observes, the revolt was “the first combined attempt of many classes of people to challenge a foreign power.

Question #2. For a long, the Revolt of 1857 has been mistaken to be a mere mutiny of the Indian sepoys in the Bengal army. However, its causes need to be searched for not only in the dissatisfaction of the army, but in a long drawn process of fundamental social and economic change that upset the peasant communities. Discuss.

Approach:

• The question focuses on 3 pillars :1) Mutiny of the Indian sepoys,2) Economic Causes,3) Socio- Religious Causes.
• Introduction (Summary of key demand of the question, along with necessary facts). 
• Conclusion by summing up the gist of the answer.

Hints:

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown.The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the Company’s army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi.

The Revolt of 1857 was a major upheaval against the British Rule in which the disgruntled princes, to disconnected sepoys and disillusioned elements participated.The historians have divergent opinion regarding the nature of uprising .

Mutiny of the Indian sepoys:

Many Historians have called the Revolt of 1857A.D. as a military revolt. among these historians, Sir john Lawrence and Seelay thought it as a Military revolt and nothing.

Arguments in favour:

• The revolt had spread only in some Northern India. It had not spread in southern India and in many areas of North India especially in Punjab.
• That revolt started from military cantonment area and its development and influential areas were military centres.
• The peasants and other citizens took a very little part in the revolt of 1857.

It was a long drawn process of fundamental social and economic change that upset the peasant communities.

Economic Causes:

• The colonial policies of the East India Company destroyed the traditional economic fabric of the Indian society. The peasantry were never really to recover from the disabilities imposed by the new and a highly unpopular revenue settlement. Impoverished by heavy taxation, the peasants resorted to loans from money-lenders/traders at usurious rates, the latter often evicting the former from their land on non-payment of debt dues. These money-lenders and traders emerged as the new landlords, while the scourge of landless peasantry and rural indebtedness has continued to plague Indian society to this The older system of zamindari was forced to disintegrate.

Socio-Religious Causes:

• Racial overtones and a superiority complex characterised the British administrative attitude towards the native Indian population. The activities of Christian missionaries who followed the British flag in India were looked upon with suspicion by Indians. The attempts at socio-religious reform such as abolition of sati, support to widow-marriage and women’s education were seen by a large section of the population as interference in the social and religious domains of Indian society by outsiders. These fears were compounded by the government’s decision to tax mosque and temple lands and making laws such as the Religious Disabilities Act, 1856,which modified Hindu customs, for instance, declaring that a change of religion did not debar a son from inheriting the property of his ‘heathen’ father.

In his discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru maintains that the Revolt of 1857 was more than a sepoy mutiny. Although, initially it started as a mutiny of the Indian soldiers, but when it spread rapidly assumed the nature of a mass rebellion. He further maintains that the Revolt of 1857 was essentially a feudal uprising although there were some nationalistic elements in it.