The first signs of unrest appeared early in 1857 at Barrackpore and Berhampore in Bengal; they were, however, quickly suppressed and the culprits were punished. But the Sepoys broke out into open revolt at Meerut on the 10th May, 1857, swarmed into the prisons, released their imprisoned comrades, murdered a few European officers and burnt their houses. General Hewitt, the incapable commanding officer at Meerut, although he had 2,200 European troops under him, took no steps to suppress the mutineers, who galloped the next morning to Delhi, where not a single British regiment was stationed at that time, and brought it under their control. They massacred many Europeans and destroyed their houses. Mutineers soon occupied the palace and proclaimed the aged nominal king, Bahadur Shah-II, Emperor of Hindustan. The loss of Delhi, which had felled into British hands as a result of much hard fighting and diplomacy, dealt a severe blow to the prestige of the British Empire.
But before any attempt could be made to recover Delhi, insurrections broke out by the first week of June in almost all the upper Gangetic provinces and parts of Central India—at Nasirabad in Rajputana, at Bareilly in Rohilkhand, at Cawnpore, at Lucknow in Oudh, at Benares and in certain parts of Bihar.
The mutineers at Cawnpore were led by Nana Saheb, who had been living at Bithur near Cawnpore and had proclaimed himself as Peshwa.
The recovery of Delhi, the important rallying centre of the insurgents, could not but engage the serious attention of the British Government. On the 14th September, the Kashmir Gate was blown up, and the city and the palace were captured after six days’ desperate fighting. The city was sacked by British soldiers. The titular Delhi Emperor, Bahadur Shah- II, was arrested at the tomb of Humayun and his sons and a grandson surrendered. Bahadur Shah -II was deported to Rangoon, where he spent his last years in exile, till he died in 1862, at the age of eighty-seven. The princes were shot down by Hodson. At Lucknow, the revolt broke out on the 30th May. But with the valuable help of Jang Bahadur of Nepal, the head of a powerful Gurkha contingent, Lucknow finally brought under British control on the 21st March, 1858.
Meanwhile, the insurgents in Central India had found an able leader in Tantia Tope, who with the mutinous Gwalior contingent joined the troops of Nana Saheb, and repulsed. But he was defeated, and driven out, on the 6th December, 1857. Tantia Tope then joined Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi and carried on a desperate fight in Central India. But Hugh Rose defeated Tantia Tope on the Betwa River, and stormed Jhansi on the 3rd April. Leaving the fort of Jhansi during the night of the 4th April, the Rani went with a few followers to Kalpi, which also was captured by the English on the 22nd May. The indomitable Rani and Tantia Tope then marched to Gwalior, and drove out Sindhia to Agra. Nana Saheb was proclaimed as the Peshawa. Hugh Rose took prompt measures to check the activities of the Rani and Tanita. He recovered Gwalior. The Rani of Jhansi, dressed in male attire, died a soldier’s death in one of these battles on the 17th June, 1858. Tantia Tope, chased from place to place, was given up to the English, early in April, 1859, by Man Singh, a feudatory of Sindhia, and was hanged on charges of rebellion.
Repurcussions
For more reasons than one, the revolt marks a turning-point in the history of India. In a sense in demonstrated that the hold of the Company on India was still rather weak.
Firstly, the control of the Indian Government was finally assumed by the Crown, in spite of protest from the Company.
The assumption of the government of India by the Sovereign of Great Britain was announced by Lord Canning on 1st November, 1858, in the name of the Queen.
Rise of the Sikh power
The Sikh struggle for independence from 1708 to 1716 under the temporal leadership of Banda Bahadur came to a disastrous end by the year 1716. Banda was tortured to death and his followers were subjected to relentless persecution at the hands of the Mughuls. But the repression could not killed the military spirit of the Khalsa. Rather, the growing weakness of the Delhi Empire gave the Sikhs an opportunity to reorganise themselves. The whole country from the Jhelam to the Satlaj was partitioned among the Sikh chiefs and their followers. By the year 1773, Sikh sway extended from Saharanpur in the east to Attock in the west, and from Multan in the south to Kangra and Jammu in the north.
Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Sigh was born on 13th November, 1780. He was the son of Maha Singh. He was a boy of ten when his father died in 1790; and he was then the head only of a small confederacy with a little territory and very limited military resources, while there were many other superior chiefs. But the Indian invasions of Zaman Shah of Kabul, during 1793-1798, exercised a decisive influence on his career. In return for the conspicuous services that Zaman Shah received from Ranjit, he appointed him governor of Lahore at the age of nineteen, with the title of Raja, in 1798.
Ranjit Singh aimed at supremacy over all the Sikhs. This extension of Ranjit’s influence was not liked by some of the Sikh chiefs. They sought British help against Ranjit Singh. Their appeal passed unheeded.
But for strategic and diplomatic reasons, the English soon thought it necessary to check Ranjit Singh’s eastern advance to the Jumna. Lord Minto took recourse to diplomacy. The double object of resisting Ranjit’s advance and enlisting his friendship against an apprehended French invasion, he sent Metcalf on a mission to the Sikh king to negotiate for an offensive and defensive alliance against the French, if they should ever invade India through Persia. But in the meanwhile the danger of Napoleon’s invasion of India had disappeared.
Encouraged by this change in the political situation, the British Government decided not to purchase Ranjit’s alliance.
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