Sepoy Rebellion
Honors World History
Location of East India Company
(EIC)
• Start of 18th Cen. EIC’s presence was one
of trade
• By the end of 18th C
it was militarily
dominant
Two Phases of EIC
• To 1850
• Expanded from coasts to
take over center of India
• War in land
• Gain control of rich areasBengal
• 1850-1870
• Consolidate control over
Bengal and other areas
• Extend control over
Ganges to Delhi
• Subdue other Indian
States
– Conquer
– Forcing their rulers to
become allies with EIC
Why was the EIC interested in
India?
• Trade built on Indian economy
• India offered foreign traders skills of its
artisans
– Weaving cloth, silk
– Agricultural products
• Sugar, opium, indigo dye
– Services of rich merchants and bankers
– Mughal Empire was eroding
Weavers in India
Mughal Empire Declines
• When Empire declined,
states chose their own
rulers
• This created conflict
between states
• Some states looked to
EIC for help
• European nations
“helped” by placing their
clients on the throne
Internal Conflicts and Militarization
• Ongoing battles between
national and foreign powers led
to the EIC making their OWN
army
*Sepoys
EIC continued to trade but also
created these huge armies
some British regiments in with
sepoys
Sepoy’s Jobs
• Armies were to:
– Defend companies territories
– Coerce Indian states to join EIC area
– Crush internal resistance against EIC
• Collect Taxes
– Indian Collectors
Military Expansion of EIC
• As the EIC expanded –
– Control more land
– Take more taxes
– Took more control of local Indian government
– Need for more soldiers
• Need answered by
– Importing British Soldiers
– Increasing Sepoy’s
Sepoy Mutiny in the making
• Relations with Sepoys as troops
weakened
– British required Sepoys to act more “british”
• Introduction of the pork/beef cartridge
• Reasons for Mutiny
– Christian Evangelism
– Change in Sepoy Status
– General Service Enlistment Act
– Enfield Rifle
British Reaction
“We shall never again occupy a
high ground in India until we
have put a yoke upon the
Brahmins. We have conceded
too much to the insolence of
caste. Not one high caste man
should henceforward be
entrusted with a sword.... He
has been trusted with power,
and how has he betrayed it?
The graves of 100 English
women and children—worse,
the unburied bones of those
poor victims—are the
monuments of high bred sepoy
chivalry.” -- Delhi Gazette
British Retribution
British Retribution
•
John Lawrence wrote to
the British high command
in August 1857:
“We have killed and drowned 500 out of the
600 men of the [26th] regiment.”
•
Colonel James Neill and the
“Bloody Assizes” beginning in
Allahabad on June 11, 1857.
“Every native that appeared in
sight was shot down without
question, and in the morning
Colonel Neill sent out parties of
regiment [?]...and burned all the
villages near where the ruins of
our bungalows stood, and hung
every native that they could catch, on the trees
that lined the road. Another party of soldiers
penetrated into the native city
and set fire to it, whilst volley
after volley of grape and
canister was poured into the
fugitives as they fled from their
burning houses
Stories from the British
• June 29 1857:
• Neill orders "the village of Mullagu and
neighborhood to be attacked and destroyed
— slaughter all the men — take no
prisoners…. All insurgents that fall into good
hands hang at once—and shoot all you
can.”
The judge in charge of trials at
Bareilly had lost his wife during the
conflict; he told McCausland:
• A British Soldier in Delhi:
“If ever I get the chance of [judging]
these Black rebels I will hang a man
for every hair that was in my wife’s
head.”
“All the people found within the
walls when our troops entered
were bayoneted on the spot….
These were not mutineers but
residents of the city, who
trusted to our well-known mild
rule for pardon. I am glad to say
they were disappointed.”
He had executed “close on 700 well
I said if you just continue you will have made
good your work and turning to Sergt
Aden I said you mind what Sir Colin
[Campbell]
said to us at Cawnpore that every man that
had a black face was our enemy and we
could not do wrong in shooting him so
you know how to act here.” –
David McAusland of the 42nd Highland
Regiment (diary)
Reactions
Direct Control by the British
Now India is a Jewel in Britain’s Crown
India to Britain
Britain to India
Focus on India become more
British and “less” India
• Religiously
– Forced conversions
– education
• Cultural Practices
– Sutee
– Thuggee
• “Apartheid”
Apartheid in India
• “In India every European, be he German, or Pole
or Rumanian, is automatically a member of the
ruling race. Railway carriages, station retiring
rooms, benches in parks, etc. are marked 'For
Europeans Only.‘ This is bad enough in South
Africa or elsewhere, but to have to put up with it
in one's own country is a humiliating and
exasperating reminder of one's enslaved
condition.”
-- Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian nationalist and first
Prime Minister
Famine in India
• • Post-Railroad Famines in
19th-Century India
• 1865-66: Bengal, Bihar,
Orissa.
– Orissa worst hit; 1 million
died in the three districts.
• 1876-8: Maharashtra and
South India (7 million)
• 1896: Maharashtra and
South India
• 1899-1900: Gujarat and
Rajasthan
• • 1877: Massive Famine in
Madras
• Immediate cause was a
drought which lasted
two years
• But exacerbated by British
control over food prices
And British use of food as way to
control economy
Major famines in India (Death estimates in millions, where available)
Before British rule (1000–1745)
[30][31][32]
British era (1770–1947)
[30][31][32]
Years
Famine
Deaths
Centur
y
Famine
s
Location
1770–
1800
4
21
11th
2
local
5
1
13th
1
Around Delhi
1800–
1825
14th
3
local
1825–
1850
2
0.5
15th
2
local
16th
3
All local
1850–
1875
6
5
17th
3
Area not defined
18
26
18th
(1745)
4
Northwestern provinces
Delhi, Sindh (twice),
local
1875–
1900
1900–
1925
1
0.23[36]
Total
18
-
1925–
1947
1
5[36]
Total
40
58.73
Famine
What are the Social Sciences that are
seen through the British Imperialism
and the Sepoy Rebellion
•
•
•
•
•
•
Geographic
Political
Economic
Cultural
Sociological
Psychological