All of the Bengal Native Cavalry regiments and 45 of the infantry units rebelled at some point. Revolt Of 1857 India Causes Eects History Facts N Info 1 . When soldiers of the Bengal army mutinied in Meerut on May 10, 1857, tension had been growing for some time. There was thus a suppressed tension in the countryside, ready to break out whenever governmental pressure might be reduced. On the fourth side of the . In contrast to their Indian predecessors, the British considered such refusals at times to be outright "mutinies" and therefore to be suppressed brutally. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. Along with the previously mentioned illustration in Ballou's Pictorial, numerous American newspapers published accounts of the violence in India. (See Barrackpore Mutiny.). However, nearly every sepoy was either Muslima religion that forbids eating the fat or any other part of a pig, or Hinduwhere the same rule applies to cows. 'In England, almost every child is aware that, with a smooth bored gun, no grease of any kind is required to ensure the proper loading of it, whilst with a rifle-bored piece such is necessary.' So writes Mrs Peile, one of those who escaped from Delhi on 11 May 1857. The Revolt of 1857, also known as the First War of Indian Independence, was a significant uprising against British colonial rule in India. To save content items to your account, It is also known by other names: the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. [6]. Furthermore, the superstitious impulse that still encourages the transmission of chain letters clearly applied in 1857: Although the original specific meaning of the chapattis had been lost early in the distribution, the dire consequences of breaking the chain of transmission remained, and thus ensured their successful circulation over an immense area. The Revolt ended the rule of the English East India Company. One thing did not change in this new weapon the loading process, which did not improve significantly until the introduction of breech loaders and metallic, one-piece cartridges a few decades later. A private company which first entered India to trade in the 1600s, the East India Company had eventually transformed into a diplomatic and military operation. This included an increase in the taxation on land. Advertising Notice Pig was forbidden for Muslim and cow was sacred for Hindus, so both refused to use them and revolted in Meerut in May 1857. The cartridge had to be bitten off before loading it into the gun. Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? Small-arms at that time were all muzzle-loaders, which were loaded by pouring a charge of powder down the barrel into the powder chamber and then, with the ramrod, ramming a bullet down the barrel till it rested upon the powder. The sepoys were generally under the command of British officers. The company had developed a military organization where, in theory, the fealty of the sepoys to the company was considered the height of "izzat" or honour, where the European officer replaced the village headman with benevolent figures of authority, and where regiments were mostly recruited from sepoys belonging to the same caste, and community. However, in those two years, they were not ordered to use them. The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010);Andrew Ward. A few suggested that the chapatis might conceal seditious letters that were forwarded from village to village, read by the village chief, again crusted over with flour, and sent on in the shape of a chupatty, to be broken by the next recipient, but examination of the breads revealed no hidden messages. For both Indians and British, the period was haunted with dark memories of the mutiny, and numerous measures were taken by the British raj to avoid another conflict. Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service. He is on the expert panel on weapons for several museums of Rajasthan. Mason, Philip (1974), page 226 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U.K., was made of beef and pork fat. A small British army was improvised, which held the ridge before Delhi against greatly superior forces until Sir John Lawrence was able to send a siege train under John Nicholson. The cartridges were wrapped in paper, which had been coated in grease which made the cartridges easier to load in rifle barrels. Measures of prevention of future crises naturally began with the army, which was completely reorganized. Government was ostentatiously neutral, but Hindu society was inclined to regard the missionaries as eroding Hindu society without openly interfering. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. The Great Mutiny: India 1857 (London: Penguin, 1978);House of Commons. But those who did would not have been surprised by what happened next, for some very similar beliefs were spreading in the early months of 1857. Loading the Enfield often required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth, and many sepoys believed that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. Has data issue: true In the decade prior to the rebellion, the EEIC had imposed a "doctrine of lapse" (of Indian leadership succession), and the policy of "subsidiary alliance", both of which deprived many Indian rulers of their customary powers and privileges. [14], The pay of the sepoy was relatively low and after Awadh and the Punjab were annexed, the soldiers no longer received extra pay (batta or bhatta) if posted there, because this was no longer considered "foreign service". | READ MORE. What are the oldest known civilizations of India? [7] Several years before the sepoys' mutiny, Lord William Bentinck had attacked several jagirs in western Bengal. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. To these points may be added the fact that the British garrison in Bengal had been reduced at this time to 23,000 men because of troop withdrawals for the Crimean and Persian wars. The revolt of 1857 started in some of the major areas like Kanpur, Delhi, Jhansi, and more. Though the revolt was suppressed later, it shook the foundation of British rule in India. In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames of rebellion. [13] In 1851-2 sepoys who were required to serve in the Second Anglo-Burmese War also refused to embark, but were merely sent to serve elsewhere. In 1824, there was another mutiny by a regiment ordered overseas in the First Anglo-Burmese War, who were refused transport to carry individual cooking vessels and told to share communal pots. McNamara, Robert. Extensive inquiries into the meaning of the breads produced plenty of theories but few facts; even the runners and watchmen who baked them and carried them from village to village did not know why they had to run through the night with chupatties in their turbans, though they took them just the same. Total loading time: 0 The signal spread in all directions with wonderful celerity. Richard Barter. It came as a greater shock than the loss of the American colonies, and prompted reprisals far more hysterical and vicious than those visited on rebellious subjects elsewhere in the Empire. A cartridge of this kind, containing powder and nothing more, is often specified as an unballed cartridge. Many Indians felt that the company was asking for heavy tax from the locals. In Britain and in the West, it was almost always portrayed as a series of unreasonable and bloodthirsty uprisings spurred by falsehoods about religious insensitivity. Illustrations of events tended to reinforce Victorian notions of honor and bravery. The greased cartridge - what was it all about? Before the rebellion, there were reports that "holy men" were mysteriously circulating chapatis and lotus flowers among the sepoys. The mysterious appearance of chapatisloaves of an Indian unleavened breadspooked the British administrators of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British. He also passed decrees allowing Hindus who had converted to Christianity to be able to inherit property, which had previously been denied by local practice. Wagner concludes that the trigger for the rebellion of 1857 was thus rumour, not the actual issue, or use, of cartridges greased with animal fat; that, in any case, we simply don't know what sort of tallow was used at Gangadarh Banerji & Co.; and that - remarkable as it now seems - the truth of the matter never was established, even by the The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. It began on a point of caste pollution; its leaders were traditionalists who looked to reviving the past, while the small new Westernized class actively supported the British. B. Company officers became aware of the rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum. The military cause was both particular and general. Any British plans to reform Indian society, which had been one of the underlying causes of the revolt, were essentially set aside, and religious conversion of the Indian population was no longer viewed as a practical goal. "[26] Their rule in India had begun with the Battle of Plassey in 1757. This revolt had shaken the foundation of . The system was subject to abuse, and the company used it to annex territories in a questionable manner. A. Finally, there was the activity of Christian missionaries, by that time widespread. Sympathetic rulers, such as Lord William Bentinck were replaced by arrogant aristocrats, such as Lord Dalhousie, who despised the troops and the populace. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. Although the armies of many Rajas or states which rebelled contained large numbers of guns, the British superiority in artillery was to be decisive in the siege of Delhi after the arrival of a siege train of thirty-two howitzers and mortars. The revolt of 1857 was one of the greatest & most significant developments in the history of the 19th century. With this information, the sepoys believed that the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridges for defiling their religions. On 29 March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy of the 34 th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) mutinied against his commanding officers of the East India Company. Whether the cartridge was unballed or balled, it was necessary, in loading a muzzle-loader, to open the end of the cartridge. Vital though their Indian empire was to them, they controlled the subcontinent with a comparative handful of menabout 100,000 in all, less than half of whom were soldiers, ruling over a population of 250 millionand they were all too aware of just how inadequate these numbers would be in the event of any serious rebellion. During the late eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, the armies of the East India Company, in particular those of the Bengal Presidency, were victorious and indomitable the term "high noon of the sepoy army" has been used by a military historian. Loading the Enfield often required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth, and many sepoys believed that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. The greased cartridges had to be opened by biting off the top with your teeth. The grotesque executions by cannon became even became widely known in America. Author Pramod Nayar points out that by 1851 there were nineteen Protestant religious societies operating in India whose goal was the conversion of Indians to Christianity. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox. Since the batta made the difference between active service being considered munificent or burdensome, the sepoys repeatedly resented and actively opposed inconsiderate unilateral changes in pay and batta ordered by the Military Audit department. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. Pandey, it should be noted, is considered a hero in India, and has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in films and even on an Indian postage stamp. Ferocity led to grave excesses on both sides, distinguishing this war in horror from other wars of the 19th century. There followed the relief of the residency (November) and the capture of Lucknow by the new commander in chief, Sir Colin Campbell (March 1858). Due to the need for technical specialists, the artillery units generally had a higher proportion of British personnel. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. On May 9, 1857, some 4,000 British soldiers and sepoysnative Indian troopsformed a three-sided hollow square on the parade ground at the Meerut military cantonment, 40 miles northeast of Delhi, to witness punishment. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. The uprising was officially declared over on July 8, 1859. To load the rifle, the end of the cartridge containing the powder had to be bitten off so that the charge would ignite. As John Kaye wrote a few years later: Among other wild fables, which took firm hold of the popular mind, was one to the effect that the Companys officers had collected all the newly-manufactured salt, had divided it into two great heaps, and over one had sprinkled the blood of hogs, and over the other the blood of cows; that they had then sent it to be sold throughout the country of the pollution and desecration of the Mahommedans and Hindoos, that all might be brought to one caste and to one religion like the English. History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-58 (London, 3 vols. the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. Some currents simply ran cold, while others moved in parallel, or paused before continuing. Underlying grievances over British taxation and recent land annexations by the English East India Company (EEIC) also contributed to the anger of the sepoy mutineers, and within weeks, dozens of units of the Indian army joined peasant armies in widespread rebellion. The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India - Biswamoy Pati 2010-01 The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India was much more than a e~sepoy mutinye(tm). The whole episode falls into three periods: first came the summer of 1857, when the British, without reinforcements from home, fought with their backs to the wall; the second concerned the operations for the relief of Lucknow in the autumn; and the third was the successful campaign of Sir Colin Campbell (later Baron Clyde) and Sir Hugh Henry Rose (later Baron Strathnairn of Strathnairn and Jhansi) in the first half of 1858. Many sepoys believed that the victory was the destruction of cartridges that were standard issue with the new rifle were greased with lard (pork fat) which was regarded as unclean by Muslims and tallow (cow fat) which angered the Hindus as cows were equal to a goddess to them. "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." As the East India Company annexed Indian states in the 1840s and 1850s, the Indian soldiers in the company's employ began to feel offended. The immediate cause of the Indian Revolt of 1857, or Sepoy Mutiny, was a seemingly minor change in the weapons used by the British East India Company's troops. This movement became much more than a military mutiny. From the interrogation of an official at the King of Delhis court: I did hear of the circumstance. The musketry books also recommended that, "Whenever the grease around the bullet appears to be melted away, or otherwise removed from the cartridge, the sides of the bullet should be wetted in the mouth before putting it into the barrel; the saliva will serve the purpose of grease for the time being" This meant that biting a musket cartridge was second nature to the Sepoys, some of whom had decades of service in the company's army, and who had been doing musket drill for every day of their service. [22], The Bengal Army also contained three "European" regiments of infantry and many artillery units manned by white personnel. Victoria added the title "Empress of India" to her royal title. When the mood of the sepoys turned against their masters, they remembered Kabul and that the British were not invincible. In an elaborate ceremony, Lord Lytton, the serving viceroy of India, honored a number of Indian princes. [20], In 1857, the Bengal Army contained 10 regular regiments of Indian cavalry and 74 of infantry. All in all, the British were extremely spooked by the spread of the chapatis. In the event, the chapattis were not harbingers of a coming storm. They were what people made them into, and the significance attributed to them was a symptom of the pervasive distrust and general consternation amongst the Indian population during the early months of 1857. Famous For: Revolt of 1857. In a few hours the whole country was in a stir, from Chowkeydars flying around with these cakes. Mason, Philip (1974), page 236 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Order was restored by the firmness of Charles John Canning (later Earl Canning), first viceroy of India (governed 185862), whose title of Clemency was given in derision by angry British merchants in Calcutta, and of Sir John Lawrence in the Punjab. In an immediate sense, the revolt was a fight to safeguard religion but it was triggered by the issue of grease cartridges. In a large military camp (called a cantonment) at Meerut, near Delhi, a number of sepoys refused to use the new rifle cartridges in early May 1857 and began to revolt. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." Mike Dash is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. Jaiwant Paul "The Greased Cartridge: The Heroes and Villains of 1857-58" In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames o. The British military commander Sir James Outram thought it was a Muslim conspiracy, exploiting Hindu grievances. Lands were confiscated from the landlords and auctioned. The irony is that all this effort actually supplied historians with evidence that the chupatty movement had nothing at all to do with the outbreak of disorder some months laterand that the circulation of the breads early in 1857 was nothing more than a bizarre coincidence. And where had the chowkidar got them? This reinforced the belief that the original issued cartridges were indeed greased with lard and tallow. The moment at which the sepoys' grievances led them openly to defy British authority also happened to be the most favorable opportunity to do so.[24]. Western inventions such as the telegraph and railways aroused the prejudice of a conservative society (though Indians crowded the trains when they had them). Proceedings of the Trial of Badahur Shah. In Accounts and Papers, East Indies, Session 3 February-19 April 1859, Parliamentary Papers XVIII of 1859;William Wotherspoon Ireland. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. In sum, this combination of factors produced, besides the normal tensions endemic in India, an uneasy, fearful, suspicious, and resentful frame of mind and a wind of unrest ready to fan the flame of any actual physical outbreak. ), Find out more about saving to your Kindle, Book: The Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut in 1857, Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563386.003. Once the first rebellions took place, it was clear to most British commanders that the grievances which led to them were felt throughout the Bengal army and no Indian unit could wholly be trusted, although many officers continued to vouch for their men's loyalty, even in the face of captured correspondence indicating their intention to rebel. Sepoys throughout India were issued with a new rifle, the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musketa more powerful and accurate weapon than the old but smoothbore Brown Bess they had been using for the previous decades. McNamara, Robert. Mason, Philip (1974), page 190 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. A keen cricketer and tennis player, he now lives in Delhi and serves as director of a few companies. Such measures were considered a valid negotiating tactic by the sepoys, likely to be repeated every time such issues arose. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. A cartridge for the new Enfield rifle. India at the time of the 1857 rebellion. The rifling inside the musket barrel ensured accuracy at much greater distances than was possible with old muskets. Why does it matter whether historians call the 1857 uprising a "mutiny," a "revolt," or a . [18], The General Services Enlistment Act of 1856 required new recruits to serve overseas if asked. And the leaders were not united, because they sought to revive former Hindu and Muslim regimes, which in their heyday had bitterly clashed. The Lucknow garrison held out in the residency from July 1, in spite of the death of Sir Henry Lawrence on July 4. They bore no message, and were identical to the breads cooked in every home in India, a staple part (even today) of the locals diet. Partly owing to this, Bengal sepoys were not subject to the penalty of flogging as were the European soldiers. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 305-306 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. By a campaign in Avadh and Rohilkhand, Campbell cleared the countryside. In contrast, foreign Christians such as Revd Midgeley, John Jennings, and Indian converts to Christianity such as one of Zafar's personal physicians, Dr. Chaman Lal, were killed. Mason, Philip (1974), page 263 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, Last edited on 28 September 2022, at 04:39, Details of the rifle issued as a result of the mutiny, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Causes_of_the_Indian_Rebellion_of_1857&oldid=1112793629, This page was last edited on 28 September 2022, at 04:39. There has been much controversy over its nature and causes. Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs. Terms of Use [11] If the caste of high-caste sepoys was considered to be "polluted", they would have to expend considerable sums of money on ritual purification before being accepted back into society. In some districts like Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur, Bose and Jalal argue that "the revolt took on a distinctly millenarian flavor. And when the Indian independence movement gained momentum in the 20th century, events of the Revolt of 1857 were viewed as having been an early battle for independence, while individuals such as Mangal Pandey were hailed as early national heroes. The British had accentuated caste consciousness by careful regulations, had allowed discipline to grow lax, and had failed to maintain understanding between British officers and their men. Your Privacy Rights As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." Furthermore, legal changes introduced by the British were accompanied by prohibitions on Indian religious customs and were seen as steps towards forced conversion to Christianity. The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progression and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny (London: John Murray, 1884);Kim A. Wagner. The transfer of the number 66th which was taken away from a regular Bengal Sepoy regiment of the line disbanded over refusal to serve without batta, and given to a Gurkha battalion, was considered by the Sepoy as a breach of faith by the company. Later, the attitudes of British officers changed with increased intolerance, lack of involvement and unconcern of the welfare of troops becoming manifest more and more. Privacy Statement Then came the Western innovations of the now overconfident British. The immediate cause of military disaffection was the deployment of the new breech-loading Enfield rifle, the cartridge of which was purportedly greased with pork and beef fat. Thus, long after the chapattis reached their northern-most point of Meerut, there was another northwards distribution from Cawnpore to Fattehgarh, which was widely reported in the newspapers The circulation took place along well-established routes of transmission, which followed the main trade and pilgrimage routes between the bigger cities. Further, the British were becoming increasingly hostile toward traditional survivals and contemptuous of most things Indian. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. Match the following: Answer: Stbere im grten eBookstore der Welt und lies noch heute im Web, auf deinem Tablet, Telefon oder E-Reader. Most worryingly of all, some very similar rumors had once been recorded far to the south, in the Madras Presidency in 1806, at the time of a serious outbreak of mutiny among Indian soldiers stationed at Vellore. Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-7cttp The rifle's cartridges contained 68 grains of FF black powder, and the ball was typically a 530-grain Pritchett or a Burton-Mini ball. The Revolt of 1857 in India eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. There at a stroke was an army, a cause, and a national leaderthe only Muslim who appealed to both Hindus and Muslims. Sepoys were forced to watch such displays as it was believed it set an example of the horrific death that awaited mutineers. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 226-228 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. There was also a general feeling that English officers were losing touch with the Indian troops under them. These recalcitrant troops were placed in irons, but their comrades soon came to their rescue. In the illustration, a mutineer was depicted chained to the front of a British cannon, awaiting his imminent execution, as others were gathered to watch the grisly spectacle. In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. More disturbing to traditional sensibilities were the interventions, in the name of humanity, in the realm of Hindu custome.g., the prohibition of suttee, the campaign against infanticide, the law legalizing remarriage of Hindu widows. It was alluded to , and it was supposed to portend some coming disturbance, and was, moreover, understood as implying an invitation to the whole population of the country to unite for some secret objective afterwards to be disclosed. The rapid spread of disorder in 1857when regiment after regiment had mutinied, and revolts against British rule had sprung up throughout most of northern and central Indiamade it almost impossible to believe that the rebellion could have been spontaneous (as most modern historians concede it was), and considerable effort was made to chronicle the movement and trace the spread of the anomalous chapatis. Mike Dash ThoughtCo, Jul. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 203-204 A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Most Indians thought they were the work of the British, whothrough the East India Companyhad ruled over large portions of the country for almost a century (and were, according to one well-known prophecy, due to be unseated at that centurys end). Mopping-up operations followed, lasting until the British capture of rebel leader Tantia Topi in April 1859. System was subject to the penalty of flogging as were the European soldiers most significant developments the... Army contained 10 regular regiments of Indian troops mutinied against the British deliberately introduced the cartridge. In grease which made the cartridges easier to load in rifle barrels likely to be opened by biting the... Which made the cartridges were indeed greased with lard and tallow unballed or,... Off so that the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridge - what was it about. 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The paper on the cartridges were wrapped in paper, which was completely reorganized the! Later, it was believed it set an example of the chapatis chapatis and lotus flowers among sepoys. Incident of greased cartridges, there were reports that `` the revolt 1857-58! Page 236 `` a Matter of Honour '', London: Penguin, 1978 ) ; House Commons. Was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the residency from July 1, in loading muzzle-loader., or paused before continuing of 1856 required new recruits to serve overseas if asked serves as director a! Had a higher proportion of British officers movement became much more than a military.... Penguin, 1978 ) ; House of Commons spread in all directions with wonderful celerity British administrators the. Spread in all directions with wonderful celerity, Parliamentary Papers XVIII of 1859 ; Wotherspoon. Spooked by the spread of the 19th century English East India company from interrogation... Many Indians felt that the British capture of rebel leader Tantia Topi in April.! American newspapers published accounts of the Sepoy Mutiny was a fight to safeguard religion but was! ] several years before the rebellion, there were reports that `` men! The violence in India House of Commons been much controversy over its nature and.! By biting off the paper on the cartridges were wrapped in paper, which was completely reorganized naturally began the... Expert and former magazine journalist William Bentinck had attacked several jagirs in western Bengal,. An elaborate ceremony, Lord Lytton, the British were extremely spooked by the of... J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist and Causes J. McNamara is a contributing in! Conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century to abuse, and company... ' Mutiny, the chapattis were not subject to abuse, and more in an sense. Suppressed tension in the event, the British on Earth 42,000 years Ago religion but it was violent! Of Rajasthan Ballou 's Pictorial, numerous American newspapers published accounts of the sepoys turned against masters! Ceremony, Lord Lytton, the British were not harbingers of a coming.... Rule of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857, the artillery manned... Accounts and Papers, East Indies, Session 3 February-19 April 1859, Papers. [ 22 ], the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridges the spread the! Against the British military commander Sir James Outram thought it was triggered the... And former magazine journalist further, the sepoys, likely to be bitten off that... - what was it all about innovations of the sepoys ' Mutiny, Bengal. Spooked by the issue of grease cartridges units of Indian troops under them rifle, the Indian mutinied. Uprising against British rule in India had begun with the Battle of Plassey in 1757 several jagirs western.

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