The First War of Independence, 1857

Causes for the First War of Independence

1. Political Causes
a. Policy of Expansion
i. Company’s territorial power increased rapidly
ii. British expanded their political power by four was
1. By outright wars
a. British waged many wars such as
i. The Battle of Buxar - Bengal
ii. Anglo-Mysore Wars - Mysore
iii. Third Anglo-Maratha War - Maratha
iv. Second Anglo-Sikh War - Punjab(Sikhs)
2. By Subsidiary Alliance
a. Introduced by Lord Wellesley
b. It was an agreement between the British East India Company and
the Indian Princely States in which these states lost their
sovereignty to the British
c. They agreed to
i. Accept British as the supreme power
ii. Surrender their foreign relations
iii. Agreed that they would not enter into any alliance with any
other power
iv. Would not wage wars
v. Accept a British Resident at their headquarters
vi. Agreed not to employ any European in their service without
consulting the Company
vii. Agreed to maintain British troops at their own cost
viii. Virtually lost their independence
d. Awadh was the first to enter into an alliance like this(Treaty of
Allahabad)
3. By Using the Doctrine of Lapse
a. Introduced by Lord Dalhousie
b. If an Indian ruler died without a natural male heir, it would come
under the Company’s territory
c. Jhansi - adopted son, Anand Rao
d. States annexed
i. Satara
ii. Sambalpur
iii. Nagpur
iv. Udaipur
v. Jaitpur
e. Regal titles of Nawabs and Carnatic and Tanjore were taken away
4. On the Pretext of Alleged Misrule
a. Lord Dalhousie annexed Awadh by this method
b. He declared that Awadh was being misgoverned and British rule
was needed to ensure proper administration
c. People faced more hardships
i. Had to pay higher land revenue and additional taxes
 ii. Dissolution of the army threw thousands of soldiers out of
jobs
iii. Estates of taluqdars or zamindars were confiscated
iv. The sepoys who were from Awadh resented the fact that
they had helped the British the rest of India and now their
homelands had come under foreign rule
b. Disrespect shown to Bahadur Shah
i. Bahadur Shah Zafar was under the protection of the Company
ii. Received a pension from the British
iii. The name of the Mughal King was removed from the coins minted by the
Company
iv. Lord Dalhousie announced that his successors would not be permitted to
use the Red Fort as their palace and should be shifted to a place near the
Qutub Minar
v. His successors would not be allowed to use the imperial titles with their
names
vi. This hurt the feelings of the Muslims
c. Treatment given to Nana Saheb
i. Nana Saheb was the adopted son of Baji Rao II, the last Peshwa
ii. British refused to grant pension they were paying to Baji Rao II
iii. He was forced to live at Kanpur, far away from his family seat at Poona
iv. This was widely resented in the Maratha region
d. Absentee sovereignty of the British
i. It means that India is being ruled by British thousands of miles away
ii. The earlier rulers had settled in India over time and spent the revenue on
India’s welfare
iii. Indians felt that India’s wealth is being drained
2. Socio-Religious Causes
a. Interference with Social Customs
i. The feelings of the people were not taken into consideration
ii. The reforms were not welcomed by the masses
1. Abolition of Sati
2. Widow Remarriage Act
3. Western education to girls
b. Apprehension about modern innovations
i. People were suspicious of introduction of modern innovation like railways
and telegraph
ii. Railway compartments was believed to defy their caste and religion as the
higher castes and the lower castes were made to sit side by side
iii. There were rumours that telegraph poles were erected to hang those who
were against the British
c. Policy of racial discrimination
i. British were rude and arrogant towards the Indians
ii. They ill-treated and insulted Indians
iii. Such acts of unjust discrimination alienated the British from the Indian
masses
d. Corruption in administration
i. The police and petty officials were corrupt
 ii. The rich got away with crime but the common man was looted, oppressed
and tortured
e. Oppression of the poor
i. The poor’s inability to pay arrears of rent, land revenue and interest on
debt were quite common
ii. The growing poverty made the poor desperate and led them to join a
general uprising
f. Activities of the Missionaries
i. British showed a friendly attitude towards Indian religions
ii. This attitude underwent a change
iii. British began to interfere with the local religious and social customs
iv. They denounced idol worship and dubbed local beliefs as ignorance
v. Indians thought that the Government was supporting missionaries who
would convert them to Christianity
g. Fears regarding western education
i. The Western system of education was introduced in a number of schools
ii. This was not received well by the Pandits and the Maulvis
iii. They was in it an attempt to discourage traditional Islamic and Hindu
studies
iv. The suspected that it was to encourage their children to become Christians
h. Taxing religious places
i. Religious sentiments of the Indians were hurt by taxing lands belonging to
temples and mosques
ii. Earlier rulers exempted this from taxation
iii. They propagated that the British were trying to undermine the religions of
India
i. Law of property
i. Religious Disabilities Act(1850) changed the Hindu Law of Property
ii. It enabled a convert from Hinduism to other religions to inherit the
property of his father
iii. Hindus regarded this as a method to give up one’s religious faith
3. Economic Causes
a. Exploitation of economic resources
i. British exploited Indian resources for their own benefits
ii. They made agricultural India an economic colony to serve the interests of
industrial England
iii. India was forced to export at cheaper rates
iv. India was made to accept readymade British goods either duty-free or at
nominal duty rates while Indian products were subjected to high import
duties in England
v. Indian handmade goods were unable to compete with the British
machine-made goods
vi. This ruined the Indian industry and deprived the artisans of their income
b. Drain of wealth
i. The transfer of wealth from India to English for which India got no
proportionate economic return, is called the Drain of Wealth
ii. British used to bring gold in exchange for the Indian cotton and silk
iii. After the conquest of Bengal, the British stopped getting gold
 iv. They began to purchase raw material for their industries from the revenues
of Bengal and profits from duty-free inland-trade
c. Decay of Cottage Industries and Handicrafts
i. Heavy duties on Indian silk and cotton textiles in Britain destroyed Indian
industries
ii. British goods were import into at a nominal duty
iii. The art of spinning and weaving became extinct and made thousands of
artisans unemployed
iv. The misery of the artisans was further compounded by the disappearance
of their traditional patron
d. Economic decline of peasantry
i. Peasants were discontent with the official land revenue policy
ii. In Bengal, the land revenue was double the amount collected under the
Mughals
iii. Not even a part of this revenue wa spent on the development of agriculture
or on the welfare of the cultivator
iv. Increase in the land revenue forced many peasants into indebtedness
v. Merchants and moneylenders who replaced zamindars pushed rents to
exorbitant levels
e. Growing unemployment
i. Traditional rulers had given financial support to scholars, preachers and
men of arts
ii. The coming of British led to the decline of their patronage
iii. All those who depended on their patronage were unemployed
iv. Thousands of soldiers and officials, military and judicial posts became
unemployed because British excluded Indians from high posts
v. All those people became bitter enemies of the British rule
f. Inhuman treatment of indigo cultivators
i. Indigo trade was highly profitable to the British
ii. Peasants were forced to cultivate only indigo in the fields chose by British
planters
iii. If they planted anything else, their crops were destroyed and their cattle
were carried off as punishment
g. Poverty and famines
i. Economic exploitation, decay of indigenous industries, high taxation, the
drain of wealth, exploitation of the poor reduced the Indians to extreme
poverty
ii. Famines ravaged the country in the second half of the 19th century
iii. British did nothing to lessen people’s misery
h. Decline of landed aristocracy
i. The taluqdars and the hereditary landlords were deprived of their estates
ii. Estates were confiscated when the landlords failed to produce evidence like
title-deeds by which they held the land
iii. These confiscated lands were sold by public auctions to the highest bidders
iv. Such estates were usually purchased by merchants and moneylenders
v. This drove the landed aristocracy to poverty
4. Military Causes
a. Ill-treatment of Indian soldiers
i. Indian soldiers were poorly paid, ill-fed and badly housed
 ii. British forbade them from wearing caste or sectarian marks, beards or
turbans
iii. They showed disregard for the sentiments of the sepoys
b. General Service Enlistment Act
i. It was a taboo for a Brahmin to cross the seas
ii. British passed General Service Enlistment Act(1856) in which Indians could
be sent overseas for duty
iii. Brahmins saw in this a danger to their caste
iv. This led to resentment
c. Larger proportion of Indians in the British Army
i. The number of British soldiers were one in four thousand
ii. Dalhousie recommended that more British soldiers should be recruited in
the army
iii. It made it easier for the large number of Indians to take up arms against
the British
d. Bleak Prospects of Promotions
i. Indians could not rise above the rank of a Subedar
ii. The future of the Indian soldiers was bleak without chances of promotions
iii. All higher positions in employment were reserved for the British
irrespective of their performance
e. Deprivation of allowances
i. They were required to serve in areas away from their homes without extra
payment and additional Bhatta
ii. The Post Office Act(1854) withdrew the privilege of free postage enjoyed by
sepoys
f. Faulty distribution of troops
i. Places of strategic importance like Delhi and Allahabad had no British
armies
ii. England was engaged in several wars outside India
iii. Indians felt that British were in difficulty and the safety of the Indian
empire depended on them
iv. The Indians were determined to strike at a suitable time
g. Lower salaries
i. The wages of the Indian soldiers were inadequate to support their families
ii. British received more than eight times the salary of the Indian soldiers

Immediate Cause
1. In 1886, the British replaced the old fashioned musket/Brown Bess by the new ‘Enfield
rifle’
2. The loading process involved biting off the top greased paper with the teeth
3. There was rumour in Bengal that the greased cartridge had the fat of cow or pig
4. Hindus and Muslim refused to use the cartridges
5. They were convinced that it was a deliberate attempt to defile Hindu and Muslim
religions

Consequences of the First War of Independence

1. End of Company’s Rule
a. The end of the rule of the East India Company and assumption of Government
of India directly by the Crown wa done by Government of India Act(1858)
 b. Provision of this act
i. Transfer the power to govern India from the East India Company to the
British Crown
ii. A member of the British Cabinet was appointed Secretary of State for
India and made responsible for all matters related to the governance of
India. He was given a Council to advise him, the Indian Council
iii. Actual governance was to be carried on as before by the
Governor-General who was given the title, Viceroy. Lord Canning was
appointed as the first Viceroy
iv. Appointments to the Civil Service was to be made by open competition
2. Queen Victoria’s Proclamation
a. Queen’s Proclamation was made at Allahabad on 1858 by Lord Canning
b. It promised that the Government of India would
i. Not intervene in social and religious matters
ii. Treat all subjects as equal in appointments
iii. Grant a general pardon to all those who took part in the War except
those found guilty of murder of British subjects
iv. Do its best to advance the industries in India
3. End of Mughals and Peshwas
a. With the death of Bahadur Shah II, who was deported to Yangon, the Mughal
dynasty came to an end
b. Nana Saheb, the last Peshwa had fled to Nepal and the Peshwas came to an
end
4. Relations with Princely States
a. Policy of Annexation and the Doctrine of Lapse were abandoned
b. Some Indian princes who had remained loyal will be rewarded with the
announcement that their right to adopt heirs would be respected
c. The Indian princes willingly became agents/junior partners because they were
promised that they would continue as rulers of their States
5. Increased Racial Bitterness
a. Racial bitterness increased
b. British dubbed all Indians as unworthy of trust
c. Subjected the Indians to insults and humiliation
6. Rise of Nationalism
a. It paved way for the rise of the national movement
b. Sacrifices made by Rani Laxmi Bai, Nana Saheb and Mangal Pandey served as
a source of inspiration
c. Established tradition of resistance to the British rule
7. Widening of the Gulf Between Hindus and Muslims
a. Hindus and Muslims showed great enthusiasm to fight against the alien
government
b. But after the Uprising, the gulf widened
c. This was the consequence of the British policy of Divide and Rule by which they
sowed seeds of dissension between the two communities
8. Policy of Divide and Rule
a. The turned
i. The princes against the people
ii. Province against province
iii. Caste against aste
 iv. Group against group
v. Hindus against Muslims
b. Used the attractions of government service to create a split along religious
lines among the educated Indians
c. Encourage hatred and ill-feelings among the Hindus and the Muslims
9. Economic Exploitation
a. India was turned into a typical colony for exporting raw materials and
importing finished goods
b. The salary and allowances of the Secretary of State and members of the Indian
Council were a large drain on the country’s resources
c. Rural artisans industries such as handicrafts, spinning and weaving collapsed
d. Peasants were poverty-stricken under the British rule
e. Indians had to pay heavy interests on the British capital invested in India such
as railways, plantations, coal mines, jute mills, shipping, etc
10. Changes in the Army
a. Strength of European troops in India was increased. The general principle was
that the number of Indian sepoys should not exceed twice that of the European
troops
b. European troops were kept in key geographical and military positions
c. The sophisticated weapons and ammunition were never placed under the
charge of Indians
d. Discrimination was practised in the recruitment of the army
e. Newspapers, journals and nationalist publications were prevented from
reaching the soldiers