Event Summary:
In May 1857, a great Indian national uprising broke out in British India (present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) against British colonial rule and for national independence.
During this period, countless Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs put aside their religious hatred and united to expel their foreign enemy, Britain
。 The officers were British men trained at a school set up by the East India Company.
By 1857, the three British colonies of Mumbai, Madras and Kolkata each had their own troops, maintaining more troops than the British regulars. Of these, 50,000 were British soldiers and 300,000 were Indian mercenaries, i.e. Indian soldiers.
Indian soldiers consisted mainly of Hindus and Muslims. Because India was a British colony, the British tried to turn India into a market for the sale of goods and a source of raw materials, which aroused great hatred among farmers and craftsmen
。 In addition, the British also implemented a policy of annexing feudal lords in India, which caused dissatisfaction among the princes and nobles.
In 1857, the East India Company did not effectively solve the problem when it resolved the contradiction between the Indian soldiers and the British officers, and the Indian soldiers called an uprising and were later sentenced to hanging
。 The East India Company then imprisoned the other Indian soldiers, and eventually, halal anger swept across the Indian subcontinent, and the Indian National Uprising officially broke out.
After the uprising was suppressed by the British army, the British government revoked the privileges of the East India Company in India and established a British Indian colony. Since then, India has come under the direct jurisdiction of the British government.
First, the colonial life without worries about food and clothing
From 1850 onwards, the East India Company began to promote Westernized management in India, but in the process of enforcing it, it stimulated conflicts with the local indigenous people, and this distrust led the East India Company to establish a system of mercenaries.
By 1857, the east india company's mercenaries had surpassed the number of regular British troops, but the company treated them unfairly, especially the expeditionary forces to Burma, which traditionally lost their caste and were expelled from the tribe.
This caused a great deal of discontent among the mercenaries. At the same time, the British soldiers had comfortable accommodation, but the Indian soldiers could only live in simple tents.
By 1856, with the annexation of the Kingdom of Oda in India, the British colonial area reached the himalayas and took full control of all of India.
The small British merchant venture company has become a very powerful force, the power is monstrous, the colonization of the rich side of the British is a good charity for India, the living conditions of the people have improved, and no one has any dissatisfaction with the colonization.
And those princes and nobles who were deposed, they instantly changed from nobles to commoners, bid farewell to the days of food and clothing, and lived a very difficult life. Controlling such a large area required a large army, and these soldiers were mainly selected from the locals, who were called "Sipai" (Indian soldiers in the old British army).
In 1857, King Odda and some local princes and nobles secretly plotted to overthrow British rule, and there was such a good opportunity to implement it.
Their British army began to use new rifles, new Enfield-style rifles, which required teeth to bite off the oiled wrapper at one end of the bullet. It is said that the lubricating oil used is made of tallow and lard.
When Indian soldiers use bullets, they first use their teeth to bite open the wrapping paper, and then use their teeth to bite through the shell of The Minnes bullet.
As everyone knows
Muslims forbid pork products, and when they touch the fat of forbidden animals with their mouths, they will be in an unthinkable situation. Hinduism originally worshipped cattle, and acts of collision would also become unforgivable people.
These British armies not only ruined their lives in this life, but also tried to destroy their hopes of rebirth.
Second, the Kanpur massacre
The Indian soldiers panicked, they became the embodiment of the devil, 22 barracks simultaneously rebelled, officers and Europeans were slaughtered. The insurrection in the northern Indian city of Kampur was the pinnacle of this insurgency.
After several days of siege, the British garrison surrendered to Nana Sassiber and his "Sipay" forces.
The British officers were killed, and their wives, daughters, sisters and children, 206 in all, were locked up in a large apartment that had once been a ballroom for the ladies.
These people were imprisoned for a total of 18 days, and the horrors they encountered are now unknown to us, 18 days later at dusk.
Five men with sabers entered the room and closed the door. Then there were cries, screams, and groans coming from the room. The saber that had been broken three times was handed out from the window of the room, asking for a sharper one.
Finally, the moans and screams subsided and everything returned to silence. The next morning, a pile of mutilated limbs was thrown into an empty well.
The account of the crimes of the rebellious Indians was buried forever in the well in Kampur, and the Indian soldiers calmly opened fire. They killed British officers, slaughtered Europeans and indigenous Christians, and burned them, an event that caused a sensation in Britain and became a turning point in India's modern history, which the British called the "Great Rebellion" and post-independence India called the "Great Indian National Uprising".
3. Bloody repression and massacres
Two days later, the British began to fight back. Enraged by siege and angered by the atrocities of the rebels, the Mood of the British army rose to a bloodthirsty level.
Neither side dared to proudly recall the war they had waged after the war, when the Indians carried out massacres of British women and children in Kanpur and the British retaliated against the Indians for their brutal atrocities
Whether innocent or sinful, for a moment the power of hell seemed to be unleashed.
In the end, the balance of victory tilted in favor of the British, and the two sides repeatedly clashed near Delhi.
Finally, the British artillery blasted through the walls of Delhi and defeated the insurgent artillery. After a week of bloody street fighting, the British army captured the fort, and the uprising was over.
As the British marched into India, the massive uprising was eventually suppressed.
In this short war, the insurgents slaughtered Western civilians in large numbers, while the British plundered and destroyed the ancient city containing countless cultural, artistic, literary and economic wealth.
In retaliation for the massacre of Europeans by the insurgents, a large number of Indians were killed by the British.
For example, after the British recaptured the northern stronghold of Lucknow, they slaughtered the Indians in the city indiscriminately
。 The number of people who were retaliated against and liquidated by the colonizers is difficult to count. The colonists committed far greater evils than the insurgents.
4. Queen Zhangxi
In March 1858, the British army concentrated 20,000 troops and 180 cannons to capture Lucknow, and after two weeks of looting after entering the city, the British army began to attack Zhangxi. Leading the revolt in the western state of Zhangxi was Queen Laxmibay. She was originally the queen of the King of Zhangxi Tubang, and died in 1853, and at the age of 18 she became a widow.
At this time, the British East India Company annexed the territory of Jansi on the grounds that her adopted son had no right to inherit. Laximibay protested against the annexation of the British, winning the sympathy and support of the people of the native states.
After the restoration of Delhi in 1857, she contacted the old ministry to capture the city of Zhangxi, and then she ascended the throne of Zhangxi as the guardian of her adopted son, repeatedly defeating the British counterattack.
In March 1858, after capturing Lucknow, the British began to concentrate their forces on the west of The Baeks. The Queen personally commanded the battle.
Dressed in men's clothes on the castle wall, the queen tied her young adopted son, the monarch, around her waist, stepped onto a white horse, and rushed out of the city with more than a dozen cavalry and galloped west.
A British lieutenant led a horse in hot pursuit. The heroic queen turned her horse's head and cut off the British leader with a knife in her hand. Queen Laxmibay united with Dontiah Toby and other rebel armies in Gabir and continued to fight against the British for more than two months.
On June 18, the city of Gualior fell. The queen led more than ten horsemen to break through again after a fierce battle. Just as she was galloping away, suddenly a wide ditch appeared in front of her, and the horse could not jump over it, and hovered on the edge of the ditch. At this time, the British pursuers who had caught up surrounded her. The queen, who had been fighting for a long time, gradually moved slowly, her strength was weak, and blood began to flow from her wounds, but she still fought with the enemy.
In the fierce battle, a British soldier slashed the queen's chest, and the blood flowed immediately, but she angrily used the last bit of strength to cut off the horse of the British soldier who cut her, and just as the queen turned around, the British army fired a shot into the abdomen at close range, and the bullet went directly into the abdominal cavity, and the queen fell.
While the post-mutiny rift between races may have been exaggerated compared to what had been the case before, there is no doubt that the mutiny left scars on inter-race relations that were almost insurmountable. Foreign British rule was different from the past and was not easy to get rid of. In the years that followed, as the colonies of British India increased and more British women emerged, a new hierarchy was formed, and rulers were unfamiliar with religious, cultural, and emotional tendencies.
In addition, the British also changed their attitudes.
In 1858, the Old East India Company, which had played an important role in the past, was relegated to a bureaucracy run by the British government.
epilogue
Although this movement struck a blow to the British authorities, gave India a glimmer of hope for independence, and raised India's international standing, the Indian bourgeoisie did not take advantage of this opportunity well.
Because the rebel army failed to form a unified leadership, fighting separately, coupled with the Two-Handed Policy of military suppression and bribery of the feudal princes by the British colonists, the Indian national uprising failed after nearly two years of heroic struggle.
Resources:
The Indian National Uprising
Historical Figures
A Brief History of Britain
Modern Indian History