War & Conflict:- The Sepoy Mutiny

In 1600 the British East India Company was established to secure the lucrative South Asian spice market. Eight years later, in 1608, the first British ships arrived in Surat in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. What followed next was a series of battles to establish trading outposts in the subcontinent that would culminate in the Battle of Plassey, in 1757, in which the Nawab of Bengal would be defeated, and the British East India Company would gain control of the states of Bengal, Orissa, and Bihar.

Following its victory, the British East India Company would continue to expand and soon the whole of India would come under its control. In the years that followed, the British East India Company would strengthen its hold on India, and in order to further its ambitions it would appoint agents that would be authorized to collect taxes on behalf of the British East India Company and the implementation of this system, which was known as the zamindari system, would put a strain on laborers, and there would be numerous instances when the British East India Company and its agents would make arbitrary and often onerous decisions that would lead to undue hardships, and many of the laborers were unhappy with the way in which the British East India Company governed India.

In the midst of this discontent there was increasing dissatisfaction among Hindu and Muslim sepoys with the use of the standard issue Enfield rifles because beef and pork lard was used to grease the cartridges and neither Hindu nor Muslim sepoys felt comfortable using them.

Things would come to a head when in 1857, a young Indian sepoy by the name of Mangal Pandey shot his British officer in an act of defiance. He would subsequently be executed.

In the aftermath of his execution, sepoys especially in the north of India mutinied, and Europeans and Anglo-Indians, many of whom were Christians, were attacked, and many men, women and children were killed in these attacks.

The non-Christians at the time were of the view that the British were suppressing other faiths and were trying to propagate the Christian faith.   

The British retaliated, and many Indians would suffer a similar fate like the Europeans and the Anglo-Indians earlier, and the conflict would escalate.

The sepoys would march to Delhi and approach the Mughal sultan, Sultan Bahadur Shah, and ask to fight under his banner and Bahadur Shah would reluctantly consent. The mutineers from then on would fight under the Mughal banner.  

The mutiny was largely confined to the north of India, and it did not spread to the south. The British East India Company, despite the fact that its treatment of Indian laborers or coolies as they were more commonly known, was at times, to put it mildly, oppressive, did receive support, in terms of arms and soldiers from various principalities especially those that were opposed to the Mughals.

The mutiny, some called it a rebellion, a lot of historians feel that it was too big an uprising to be called a mutiny, and was more along the lines of a rebellion, and despite the fact that not everyone was in favor of the British East India Company, there were sepoys that remained loyal to the Company, had garnered enough support, in the initial stages anyway, to pose a threat.

The uprising lasted for approximately a year and six months, but the British brought in reinforcements, from Crimea, and other parts of Europe. On their way to Delhi, the advancing soldiers would kill many innocent civilians. Delhi would be the final battleground.

British soldiers would surround the city, and fighting would go back and forth, but eventually the mutineers would be forced to concede. The British granted amnesty to all the mutineers with the exception of those that had committed murder, and many mutineers would take up the offer.

Bahadur Shah’s sons were executed, and the sultan was forced into exile. Following the British victory, the British East India Company would cease operations in India, and Britain would take direct control of India.

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