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FREEDOM MOVEMENT
Eternal India
encyclopedia
point in the history of India. It led to direct rule
by the Crown which replaced the rule of the
East India Company in 1858.
A perusal of the contemporary records,
both in India and England, leaves no doubt
that the outbreak of 1857 was regarded by
the people and statesmen in England, and
even in foreign countries, as a grave peril to
the British domination in India.
Reference may be made in this connec-
tion to the following extract from Lawrence's
minute, dated 10 April, 1858 :
‘Many thoughtful and experienced
men now in India believe that it has only
been by a series of miracles that we have
been saved from utter ruin. It is no ex-
aggeration to affirm that in many in-
stances the mutineers seemed to act as
if a curse rested on their cause. Had a
single leader of ability arisen among
them, nay, had they followed any other
course than that they did pursue in
many instances, we must have been lost
beyond redemption. But this was not to
be.’
Horrible deeds of cruelty were perpetrated
on both sides. At Meerut, where the uprising
began, neither women nor children were
spared. When the sepoys reached Delhi these
scenes were repeated.
A letter written by an Englishman from
Varanasi on June 16,1857 describes the fol-
lowing scenes witnessed by the writer at
Allahabad: “A
gang of upwards of two dozen
sepoys cut into two an infant of two or three
years of age, while playing about his mother;
next they hacked into pieces the lady; while
she was crying out of agonising pains for
safety... felled, most shockingly and horridly,
the husband.”
The English were no less guilty of acts of
cruelty. General Neill who proceeded from
Calcutta in May 1857 with a regiment towards
Varanasi and Allahabad gave written instruc-
tions to Major Renaud to “attack and destroy
all places enroute close to the road occupied
by the enemy.” Renaud pressed on for three
days leaving behind a trail of indiscriminate
executions, villages which had been burnt and
corpses dangling from the branches of trees.
The Englishmen did not hesitate to boast that
they had “spared no one”.
One of the volunteers in the fort of
Allahabad writes : “
Every day we led expedi-
tions to burn and destroy disaffected villages.
I have been appointed the chief of a commis-
sion for the trial of all natives charged with
offences against Government and persons.
Day by day we have strung up eight or ten
men. We have the power of life in our hands;
and assure you we spare not. A very summary
trial is all that takes place. The condemned
culprit is placed under a tree, with a rope
round his neck, on the top of a carriage, and
when it is pulled away, off he swings
” English
officers used to sit, puffing their cigars and
look on at the convulsive struggles of the
victims.
William Howard Russell, the correspon-
dent of
The Times
of London wrote : “All
these kinds of vindictive, unchristian torture,
such as sewing Mohamedans in pig-skins,
smearing them with pork before execution
and burning their bodies, and forcing Hindus
to defile themselves, are disgraceful.'”
There was a general impression among
the English that the Muslims were the chief
instigators and ring leaders of the uprising.
They therefore suffered more heavily in the
repression that followed. The Muslims lost
whatever political influence they possessed
and their future appeared to be very gloomy.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan played a promi-
nent role in bringing about a rapprochement
between the British Government and the
Muslims and introducing the modern type of
education among them. He was a loyal Gov-
ernment servant and had been stationed at
Bijnor during the Revolt. He visited England
in 1869 and after his return in 1870 carried on
a vigorous propaganda for the spread of Eng-
lish education in his community. In 1877 he
founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental
College at Aligarh.
The revolt and its suppression marked the
end of a phase in the history of British rule in
India. The outbreak of 1857 would surely go
down in history as the first and direct chal-
lenge to the British rule in India on an exten-
sive scale. As such it helped the genuine
national movement for the freedom of India
from British yoke which started half a cen-
tury later. The memory of 1857-58 sustained
the later movement, infused courage into the
hearts of its figures, furnished a historical
basis for the grim struggle, and gave it a
moral stimulus, the value of which it is im-
possible to exaggerate. The memory of the
Revolt of 1857, distorted but hallowed with
sanctity, perhaps did more damage to the
cause of the British rule in India than the
revolt itself.
R.C. Majumdar
Dr. S.N. Sen observes:
What began as a fight for religion
ended as a war of independence. There
is not the slightest doubt that the reb-
els wanted to get rid of the alien gov-
ernment and restore the old order of
which the king of Delhi was the right-
ful representative.