Salah

Lately I've been reading a lot on the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858, in which many of the sepoy regiments of British India rose in revolt in reaction to (real or perceived) British opposition or indifference to their culture. The rising had many underlying causes, but the use of cow and pig fat on newly-issued Enfield rifles (thus unclean to Muslim Indians and blasphemous to Hindus) was the supposed catalyst. Neither side was prepared for war, the Indians failed to find anyone better than a senile figurehead to lead them, and both sides commited hideous atrocities against one another before the Mutiny was put down.

Now Indian troops had fought for the British so long as the latter had had a presence in India - and that dated to the reign of Elizabeth I. If I understand correctly, the sepoy regiments, organized on European lines, were the better part of a century old at the time of the Mutiny. They had always been officered predominately by Britons, not native Indians.

If the Mutiny was provoked by the racist arrogance and the evangelical Christianity of the British officers, then why didn't it take place a century or two before it did?

Apparently officers of the generations preceding the Mutiny had treated Indian troops with more respect, even developing a paternal relationship with them. What caused this change in attitudes? Was it the more aggressive evangelical imperialism of Victorian Britain, or the growing ideas of social darwinism and educated racism that led the officers to isolate themselves from their men?

bunyip

In Indian the mutiny is known as 'the first war of independence'

The British were thoroughly loathed throughout India as occupying conquerers. The wonder is not that the war happened when it did,but that it took so long to happen.

Shaheen

You answered your question yourself kind of. The attitudes of the rulers changed significantly as their power increased. By the 1850s the British had become convinced very wrongly that their power in the subcontinent was firmly established, and the rise of the number of Europeans coming to the subcontinent meant there was increased segregation between the locals and the whites. Consequently racism and other barriers increased.
However disillusionment against the British had been growing for a long time as they were seen as the outsiders by the locals, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus all alike.
1857 was just the spark to let out all of these disillusionment's and each faction had their own goals. The only thing they had in common was to kick the white man out. This is why the term "first war of independence" does not appeal to me. Neither does the term "Indian mutiny". The "Indian Rebellion" however seems far more fitting to the events that could place in 1857.

johnincornwall

I have a modern account of the mutiny which I read some time ago. There was definitely a shift in attitude from the paternal to the downright abusive, arrogant and rude by the time of the mutiny by British officers to their sepoy troops.

The OP is right to classify it as a Sepoy mutiny, rather than any 'war of independence' nonsense seized on by modern nationalists. A general uprising would have seen off the very few British troops in India in 1857 in about 5 minutes. But of course many of the Sepoy units stayed loyal too.

It's a bit like nationalist Scots claiming that the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 was a Scottish-English struggle. Of course it was a rebellion of catholic highlanders against the (vast majority) of lowland scots and the Hanoverian monarchy in favour of the Young Pretender Charles Stuart. The fact they were Highland Scots is coincidental - if he could've found a small army in Devon he would have!

Belgarion

Was the greasing of the cartridges with pig and cow fat fact, or just a rumour started with intent to cause trouble? For all their arrogance I can't see the British deliberately inflaming religious tension in that way.

Salah

The legend says that it was a low-caste Indian working in a British armory, who was deliberately taunting a Hindu brahmin who was serving in a sepoy regiment. If the story is true, it was intolerance within the Hindu caste system, not the British elite, that sparked the revolt.

Belgarion

Thanks Salah. If it's true, its a classic example of the law of unintended consequences.

bunyip

Pretty sure it was true,but not deliberate. More a matter of gormless indifference.


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Re the loathing of Indians for the British:


India was NOT colonised by the British crown, but mainly by the ruthlessly rapacious [and often brutal] East India Company. Often in the person of such odious specimens as 'Clive of India".

Founded in 1600,the East India company had a foothold in India from 1616,coming to rule much of India by 1757, after the battle of Plassey. The company had a trade monopoly,protecting its interests and ruling India using its large private army.

The British government did not take over direct control of India until 1857,arguably as result of the Indian 'mutiny'. A cynical person might say the British government had been looking for an excuse to get rid of the East India company for political and commercial reasons. With typical Victorian humbug,they would naturally proclaim the loftiest moral reasons..


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Ancientgeezer

The cartridges for the Lee Enfield rifle that caused so much grief were manufactured at Dum Dum, the grease for the cartridges was suppied by a local Indian firm, Gangadarh Banerji & Co. who would surely not have supplied non-acceptable tallow.
The rumour began at Dum Dum when a low caste worker taunted a higher caste sepoy, suggesting that he would lose caste when "biting the bullet" although the new ammunition had not been issued at Dum Dum, only at Meerut. A similar rumour was circulating at the same time that the flour supplied to native troops contained ground-up cow and pig bones--so one can assume that this was all soldier's nonsense.
When the rumour began and before the revolt ( very few on the new rifles and ammo had been issued), Company officers suggested that sepoys could grease their own cartridges, but the meme had already taken hold.