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Sepoys on the Move

1857 : Sepoys on the Move

 
THE VERY men who helped the British carve out an empire in India brought it to the verge of collapse — the sepoys!
British historians called it a mere mutiny of sepoys. Veer Savarkar hailed it as a glorious war of independence. Many Indian historians describe it as a great revolt of the people — an uprising that was more than a mutiny but less than a war of independence.
The sepoys serving the British army came from different parts of the country and from different castes. There were Brahmin sepoys who would not drink water from a lotha polluted by the touch of a khalasi; there were sepoys from the warrior class of Kshatriyas; there were Sikhs, Afghans, Rajputs, Pathans, Tamils, Bengalis and Marathas. The happenings in their home states made an impact on sepoys serving in far-off places. Thus the annexation of Avadh in the North, angered the sepoys of the 34th Native Infantry posted in Bengal as many of them were natives of Avadh. When taxes were raised in the Bombay Presidency, the Maratha sepoys serving in the North-west felt the pinch!
The sepoys had to put up with low pay, a hard life, and the contempt of their British officers. A contemporary English observer noted :
"The sepoy…is treated roughly. He is addressed as a 'suar' or pig… the younger men (officers)… treat him as an inferior animal." All these, the sepoys could take in their stride. But not the threat, real or imaginary, to their religion. And they had reason to believe that the new supply of cartridges which came with grease made of animal fat, of hog and ox, were meant to pollute them. 
The top brass of the British army was aware of the feeling of distrust among the sepoys. But they did nothing to set their minds at rest.
On 24th April 1857, in Meerut, when 85 troopers of the 3rd Cavalry refused to touch the cartridges, they were court-martialed.
On 9th May, the condemned men were led to the parade ground clad in their regimental uniforms — soldiers still. Then the sentence was read aloud — five years hard labour.
Reporting what followed, British historian, Kaye writes:


"Lifting up their hands…the prisoners implored the General to have mercy upon them, and not to consign them to so ignominious a doom. Then, seeing that there was no other hope, they turned to their comrades and reproached them for quietly suffering this disgrace to descend upon them."
Kaye concludes, "There was not a sepoy present who did not feel the rising indignation in his throat. But in the presence of those loaded field guns and those grooved rifles and the glittering sabres of the Dragoons, there could not be a thought of striking."
The sepoys of the 3rd Cavalry did strike on Sunday May 10th, 1857. They broke open the prison, set their comrades free and galloped towards the parade ground where they were joined by men of other regiments. They set out to slay Europeans and burn and plunder their houses.
As dusk fell the sepoys left for Delhi, 40 miles away.
They reached Delhi soon after day-break on 11th May. They went straight to the Red Fort. As the bewildered Bahadur Shah, the last Mughal came out to receive them, they proclaimed him Emperor.
The English Raj had come to an end, or so they thought!

Another Time, Another Sepoy…

The Englishman of Calcutta dated May 30, 1857, published a report about another mutiny at Barrackpore in 1825:
When the mutiny at Barrackpore broke out in 1825, the ring leader, a Brahmin of the 27th Native Infantry, was hanged on the edge of the tank where a large Banian tree now stands and which was planted on the spot to commemorate the fact.
This man was at the time considered in the light of a martyr and his brass poojah or worshipping utensils were carefully preserved… These relics, worshipped by the sepoys have been for thirty-two years in the safe-keeping of Regiments… and have served to keep alive, in the breasts of many, the recollection of a period of trouble, scene of Mutiny and its accompanying swift and terrible punishment…
It was a strange coincidence that it was at Barrackpore that Mangal Pande, revolted on 29th March 1857 and was subsequently hanged.

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