Revolt of 1857: its causes

Political causes

• Doctrine of Lapse: Lord Dalhousie took over states whose rulers died without a natural heir. An adopted son could no longer inherit the state or the British pension. Satara, Nagpur and Jhansi were annexed this way.
• Before this, a childless ruler could freely adopt an heir; now he needed British consent.
• The Subsidiary Alliance had already brought many states under British control.
• Nana Saheb, adopted son of the last Peshwa Baji Rao II, was refused his father's pension.
• Awadh was annexed in 1856 on the charge of misgovernment, though its Nawab had been loyal. Those who lost jobs got no others, and peasants paid more revenue.
• Soldiers, nobles, craftspeople, scholars and priests who depended on these rulers lost their living. Thousands of zamindars and poligars lost control of their land.

Economic causes

• The British drained India's wealth and raw materials to England and kept the high posts and salaries for themselves.
• Cheap machine-made cloth from England ruined Indian handicrafts and left millions of craftsmen without work.
• Heavy duties on Indian goods made India a buyer of British goods and a supplier of raw materials.
• Railways and steamships carried raw materials to the ports and brought British goods inland.
• High land revenue under the Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems drove peasants into debt, and many lost their land to moneylenders and traders.
• There were 12 major famines and many minor ones between 1770 and 1857.

Social and religious causes

• Laws against sati and female infanticide, and support for widow remarriage and women's education, upset many orthodox people.
• Christian missionaries opened schools and colleges to win converts, and many believed the government was helping them.
• Act XXI of 1850 let a convert to Christianity inherit ancestral property, which spread fear.
• In 1806, at Vellore in the Madras Presidency, Hindu sepoys were told to remove their caste marks and Muslims to trim their beards.
• Many sepoys believed that crossing the sea, the 'black water', meant losing their caste, so overseas service hurt their religious feelings.

Discontent in the army

• Most sepoys came from peasant families already hit by British policies.
• No Indian could rise above the rank of subedar.
• Sepoys were paid less than British soldiers.
• The extra allowance, called bhatta, for overseas duty was often not paid.
• Sepoys who refused to cross the sea were punished harshly, so morale was low and distrust of officers grew.

The spark: the greased cartridges

1. 1856
   The old musket is replaced by the new Enfield rifle, with greased cartridges.
2. How it loads
   A sepoy has to bring the cartridge to his mouth and bite off its end.
3. January 1857
   A rumour spreads that the grease is made of cow and pig fat.
4. Why it hurts
   The cow is sacred to Hindus and the pig is forbidden to Muslims, so both feel their faith is under attack.
5. 29 March 1857
   Mangal Pandey defies orders at Barrackpore.
6. 10 May 1857★
   The sepoys at Meerut rise, and the revolt begins.

★ key step