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The First War of Indian Independence of 1857

By the middle of the 19th century, the English rule in India was firmly established .
The system of Subsidiary Alliance and the Doctrine of Lapse had extended the
English territory to its natural limits. However, discontentment was growing within
this apparent stability, which resulted in the revolt of 1857. This revolt has been
called as the Sepoy Mutiny by the British Historians and as the first war of Indian
Independence by Indian Historians.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India
Company 's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut , and soon erupted into
other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central
India , with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh , Bihar,
northern Madhya Pradesh , and the Delhi region.
The rebellion posed a considerable threat to Company power in that region, and it
was contained only with the fall of Gwalior on 20 June 1858. The rebellion is also
known as India's First War of Independence , the Great Rebellion, the Indian Mutiny,
the Revolt of 1857, the Uprising of 1857, the Sepoy Rebellion, and the Sepoy Mutiny.
Other regions of Company-controlled India Bengal province, the Bombay
Presidency , and the Madras Presidency remained largely calm. In Punjab , the Sikh
princes backed the Company by providing both soldiers and support. The large
princely states, Hyderabad , Mysore , Travancore , and Kashmir , as well as the
smaller ones of Rajputana did not join the rebellion . In some regions, such as Oudh,
the rebellion took on the attributes of a patriotic revolt against European presence.
Rebel leaders, such as the Rani of Jhansi , became folk heroes in the nationalist
movement in India half a century later; however, they themselves "generated no
coherent ideology" for a new order. The rebellion led to the dissolution of the East
India Company in 1858, and forced the British to reorganize the army, the financial
system, and the administration in India. India was thereafter directly governed by
the Crown in the new British Raj .

Causes after War The Indian Rebellion of 1857 did not occur as a result of one
specific event; it was an accumulation of several events, over time, resulting in its
eventual outbreak. The sepoys were a combination of Hindu and Muslim soldiers.
Just before the Rebellion there were over 200,000 Indians in the army compared to
about 40,000 British. The forces were divided into three presidency armies: the
Bombay; the Madras; and the Bengal.

Slide 7:
The Bengal Army recruited higher castes , such as " Rajputs and Brahmins ", mostly
from the Avadh (near Lucknow ) and Bihar regions and even restricted the

enlistment of lower castes in 1855; in contrast, the Madras Army and Bombay Army
were "more localized, caste-neutral armies" that "did not prefer high-caste men.
The domination of higher castes in the Bengal Army has been blamed in part for
initial mutinies that led to the rebellion. In fact, the role of castes had become so
important that men were no longer selected on account of the most important
qualities in a soldier, i.e., physical fitness, willingness and strength, docility and
courage, but because he belonged to a certain caste or sect. Continued In
1772, when Warren Hastings was appointed the first Governor-General, one of his
first undertakings was the rapid expansion of the Companys army. Since the
available soldiers, or sepoys , from Bengal many of whom had fought against the
Company in the Battle of Plassey and Battle of Buxar were now suspect in British
eyes

Continued:
Continued ,Hastings recruited farther west from the high-caste rural Rajputs and
Brahmins of Awadh and Bihar, a practice that continued for the next 75 years.
However, in order to forestall any social friction, the Company also took pains to
adapt its military practices to the requirements of their religious rituals.
Consequently, these soldiers dined in separate facilities; in addition, overseas
service, considered polluting to their caste, was not required of them, and the army
soon came officially to recognize Hindu festivals. This encouragement of high caste
ritual status, however, left the government vulnerable to protest, even mutiny,
whenever the sepoys detected infringement of their prerogatives.It has been
suggested that after the annexation of Oudh by the East India Company in 1856,
many sepoys were disquieted both from losing their perquisites, as landed gentry,
in the Oudh courts and from the anticipation of any increased land-revenue
payments that the annexation might bring about. [13] Others have stressed that by
1857, some Indian soldiers, reading the presence of missionaries as a sign of official
intent, were convinced that the Company was masterminding mass conversions of
Hindus and Muslims to Christianity.

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Growth of Political Ideas and Political Associations (up to 1885)


One important effect of the introduction of western culture in India was the growth
of modern political concepts like nationalism, political rights; etc.The Indian subcontinent witnessed the growth of political ideas and organizations hitherto
unknown to the Indian world. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the first Indian leader to
start an agitation for political reforms in India. Many public associations were
started in different parts of India after 1836.All these associations were dominated
by wealthy and aristocratic elements-called in those days prominent persons- and
were provincial or local in character. They worked for reform of administration,
association of Indians with the administration, and spread of education and sent
long petitions, putting forward Indian demands to the British Parliament. The Bengal
British India Society was founded in 1843 which in 1851, merged with the
Landholders Society and formed the British Indian Association. The East India
Association was organized by Dadabhai Naoroji n 1866 in London to discuss the
Indian question and influence public men in England to promote Indian welfare. The
Indian Association of Calcutta was founded in 1876 by Surendrenath Bannerjee and
Anand Mohan Bose. Poona Sarvajanik Sabha was founded in 1867 by M.G. Ranade
and others, with the object of serving as a bridge between the Government and the
people. The Bombay presidency Association was started by Badruddin Tyabji,
Pherozshah Mehta and K.T. Telang in 1885, and the Madras Mahajan Sabha was
founded in 1884 by M. Viraraghavachari, B. Subramiya Aiyer and P. Ananda Charlu.
The Indian National Congress
The time was now ripe for the formation of an all-India political organization of the
nationalists who felt the need to unite politically against the common enemy-foreign
rule and exploitation. Many Indians had been planning to form an all-India
organization of nationalist political workers. But the credit for giving the idea
concrete and final shape goes to A.O. Hume, a retired English civil servant. He got in
touch with prominent Indian leaders and organized with their cooperation the first
session of the Indian National Congress at Bombay in December 1885. It was
presided over by W.C. Bonnerjee and attended by 72 delegates. The aims of the
National Congress were declared to be the promotion of friendly relations between
nationalist political workers from different parts of the country, development and
consolidation of the feeling of national unity irrespective of caste, religion or
province, formulation of popular demands and their presentation before the
government, and most important of all, the training and organization of public
opinion in the country.

It has been said that Humes main purpose in encouraging the foundation of the
Congress was to provide a safety valve or a safe outlet to the growing discontent
among the educated Indians. He wanted to prevent the union of a discontented
nationalist intelligentsia with a discontented peasantry. The safety valve theory is,
however a small part of the truth and is totally inadequate and misleading. More
than anything else, the National Congress represented the urge of the politically
conscious Indians to set up a national organization to work for their political and
economic advancement. Thus with the foundation of the Indian National congress in
1885, the struggle for Indias freedom was launched in a small but organized
manner. The history of the Indian national movement can be divided into three
phases. The first phase from the period 1885 to 1905 can be called the moderate
phase, the second from the period 1905 to 1919, the period of extremism and
finally the third period 1919 to 1947 as the Gandhian phase.
= = ==
The Home Rule Movement
The home Rule Movement was the Indian response to the First World War. Indian
leaders like Tilak and Annie Besant decided to put new life in the national
movement in the country by launching the home rule Movement. Therefore, two
Home Rule Leagues were started in 1915-16, one under the leadership of
Lokamanya Tilak with its head quarters at Poona and the other by Annie Besant. The
object of this movement was to attain Home Rule or self- government within the
British Empire by all constitutional means and to educate and organize public
opinion in the country to wards the attainment of the same. The two Home rule
leagues worked in close cooperation with each other and prepared the masses for
Gandhian style of politics. August 1917 declaration of Montague and Montford
reforms were influenced by the Home rule agitation.
The Lucknow session of Congress
The Lucknow session of the Congress is memorable for it marked the reunion of the
Moderate and the Extremist parties after the Surat split. The union became possible
due to the efforts of Annie Besant and Tilak. Another noteworthy development was
the coming together of congress and Muslim League and signing of the famous
Congress - League Pact popularly known as Lucknow Pact for acceptance of a united
scheme of constitutional reform. An important role in bringing about this
development was played by Tilak and Jinnah. The two organizations put forward a
joint scheme of political reforms based on separate electorates and demanded that
British Government should make a declaration that it would confer self- government
of India at an early date. The Lucknow pact marked an important step forward in
Hindu- Muslim unity. The unity between the Moderates and the Extremists and
between the Congress and League aroused great political enthusiasm in the

country. Even the British government felt it necessary to placate the nationalists.
This culminated in the Montague Chelmsford reforms of 1919.

====
Quit India Movement
In the backdrop of the failure of Cripps Mission, imminent Japanese threat, the
British attitude towards Indians who were left behind in Burma and the prevailing
anger to an alien and meaningless war, Gandhiji framed a resolution calling for
British withdrawal and a non0 violent non-cooperation movement. The Quit India
resolution was passed on 8 August 1942 at Golwallia Tank, Bombay. Gandhi asked
the British to quit and leave India in Gods hand. His message to common man
was Do or Die. The British Government took prompt steps to prevent the outbreak
of movement. In early morning of August 9, 1942, Gandhi and all other important
Congress leaders were arrested and the Congress was once again declared illegal.
Spontaneous acts of protest- hartals, strikes processions- followed the arrests. There
were strikes in factories, colleges and schools. Police stations, post offices and
railway stations which were considered the symbols of British Authority were
attacked. Later some acts of sabotage were also indulged in. School and college
students remained din the forefront. In some areas, such as Ballia in eastern U.P. in
Midnapur district of West Bengal and in Satara district of Maharashtra, parallel
governments were set up. The trend of underground revolutionary activity also
started during this phase. Socialist leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar
Lohia , Aruna Asaf Ali were among the prominent leaders of the underground
movement. The Government reacted sharply and let loose a reign of terror. The
Muslim League and the Communist Party of India did mot support the movement.
====
Divide and Quit : Muslim League
The communal question had become a baffling one as the Muslim League stiffened
its demand for Pakistan. Against the Congress demand of Quit India, the Muslim
Leagues new slogan was Divide and quit. On March 23 1943, Muslim League
observed as Pakistan Day. Released from prison on May 6, 1944, Mahatma Gandhi
made earnest efforts for communal harmony and held discussion with Jinnah on the
basis of Rajagopalacharya formula in 1944. The Rajaji formula was that if the
Muslims endorsed the demand for national independence, Congress would agree to
the demarcation of contiguous Muslim majority areas in the north-West and northEast of India. In such demarcated areas, the inhabitants should be allowed to decide
by plebiscite whether they would remain in India or form a separate State or states
of their own. The talks proved futile as Jinnah rejected the Rajaji formula. Jinnahs

conception of Pakistan was not a bundle of contiguous areas but comprised the
whole of six provinces.

Conclusion
The Muslims of India had appreciated the step and started turning in the favour of
the British but the British soon gave in against the mounting pressure of Hindus
which helped the Muslims to realize the importance of standing on their feet and to
organize themselves politically. It also affirmed the apprehension of Sir Syed that
the Muslims might submerge in the majority of Hindus and lose their separate
entity.

====
INA Trials
The Revolt of 1942 and the INA had revealed the heroism and determination of the
Indian people. The new struggle took the form of a massive movement against the
trial of soldiers and officers of the INA. The government announced the decision to
prosecute Shahnawaz Khan, Gurdial Singh Dhillon and Prem Sehgal, officers of the
INA who had earlier been officers in the British Indian Army. The people considered
them as national heroes and organized mass protests for their release. The
Congress set up an INA Defense Committee which consisted of eminent lawyers as
Balubhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Nehru. A great sense of drama gripped the
nation as these national leaders stood up to defend the INA officers in the historic
Red Fort at Delhi. The INA officers were found guilty by the Court Martial, but their
sentences were remitted.
====
Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946
The Cabinet Mission comprising three members Lord Pethic Lawrence, Secretary of
State for India; Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the board of Trade and A.V.
Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, came to India on Marhc91, 1946. The main
recommendations were:
- Rejected the demand for a full fledged Pakistan
- There was to be a Union of India , embracing both British India and the Indian
States, with control over foreign affairs, defence and communications .All other
subjects were to be vested in the Provinces and the states.
- The Provinces were free to form groups for common action.

- India was to be divided into three Groups of provinces-group A consisting of


Madras, Bombay, central Provinces, United Provinces, Bihar and Orissa.; Group B of
the North West Frontier Province, the Punjab, Sind and Baluchistan, and Group C
comprising Bengal and Assam.
- The Cabinet Mission also recommended a scheme for constitution-making, which
provided that the Union Constitution was to be framed by a Constituent Assembly,
the members of which were to be elected on a communal basis by the Provincial
Legislative Assemblies and the representation of the states joining the Union.
- The Constitution of the provinces in each group was to be drawn up by the
representatives of the three groups of provinces meeting separately.
- Communal questions in Central Legislature were to be decided by a simple
majority in both communities.
- Provinces were to have full autonomy and residual powers.
- Establishment of an interim government having the support of the major political
parties by reconstitution of the viceroys Executive Council.
- The Cabinet Mission Plan was not considered satisfactory by any section of the
Indian people, but all of them sought to utilize it for their own interests.
The Muslim League proclaimed a Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946.
=====
Mountbatten Plan
Lord Mountbatten on reaching India tried to find a solution to the constitutional
problem of India. However meetings with leaders of different parties and
communities soon convinced him that partition was inevitable. He came out with a
plan called Mountbatten Plan on 3 June 1947. The main provisions were:
- The Plan declared that power would be handed over by 15 August 1947 on the
basis of dominion status to India and Pakistan.
- Mountbatten supported the Congress stand that the princely states must not be
given the option of independence. They would either join India or Pakistan.
- Boundary commission was to be headed by Radcliffe for demarcation of
boundaries.
- Punjab and Bengal legislative Assemblies would meet in two groups, Hindus and
Muslims, to vote for partition. If a simple majority of either group voted for partition,
then these provinces would be implemented. In case of partition, then these
provinces would be partitioned. In case of partition, two dominions and two
constituent assemblies would be created.
Indian Independence Act, 1947
The June 3rd Plan was given legal effect by the India Independence Act,1947 It was

implemented on 15th August 1947 and sovereignty of British Parliament was


abolished. Dominions of India and Pakistan were created. Each dominion was to
have a Governor-General. Pakistan was to comprise Sind, British Baluchistan, NWFP,
West Punjab and East Bengal.15th August 1947, dawned revealing the dual reality of
independence and partition. Lakhs of refugees, forced to leave the lands of their
forefathers, were pouring into the new states.
Integration of the Princely States
The Indian Independence Act, 1947 declared that British paramountacy over the
Indian states was to lapse on August 15, 1947. The States were allowed to join
either India or Pakistan. Sardar Patel, who took charge of the States Department in
July 1947, tackled the situation with great statesman, ably assisted by V.P.Menon.
He was successful in getting most of the Princely States except Kashmir, Hyderabad
and Junagadh to sign the Instrument of Accession with India. Later on all three also
became a part of India.

== == =

The Partition of Bengal was one of Lord Curzons administrative policies.


In 1905, he called for the partition of Bengal on administrative
grounds, but it was essentially a concealed attack on Indian nationalism. !e
presidency of Bengal was the most populated region of India at the time.
On 20th July 1905, Lord Curzon announced the division of the province of
Bengal into West Bengal with a non-Bengali Hindu majority and East Bengal
with predominantly Bengali Muslim majority. !erefore, the Hindu Bengali
community was reduced to a minority in both provinces.
!ere were many hidden reasons behind the partition, but the reason
given by Lord Curzon was that Bengal was too large a province to administer
under one government. Some of the unstated reasons were that Bengal was
the nerve centre of Indian nationalism and they hoped to curb the rising tide

of nationalism by partitioning Bengal. !e partition was also meant to foster


divisions on the basis of religion. !e Indian nationalists clearly saw the design
behind the partition and condemned it.
Hence, there was an anti-Partition movement launched by Congress and
other nationalists in which all sections of society rose up in opposition to
the partition. Newspapers like Bengali, Hitabadi and Sanjibani condemned
the partition. Hindus and Muslims composed songs, marched barefoot to the
Ganges and chanted slogans in protest. !ey also adopted the swadeshi and
boycott techniques. Raksha bandhan was celebrated in a new way with Hindus
and Muslims tying yellow threads on each other to signify their undying unity.
!ere were several notable impacts of the anti-partition movement; it
accelerated the national movement by adding a new zeal to it, it popularized
the swadeshi techniques as methods of agitation and it resulted in people losing
their faith in British justice. !e movement was successful as the partition was
revoked in 1911
====
Anti-Partition Movement:

The first part of a news item, which appeared in the Amrita Bazar Patrika of 17
October 1905 entitled Calcutta in Mourning-A Unique Sight, describing the
situation in Calcutta on 16 October 1905, the day Bengal was partitioned, is given
below.
Yesterday was one of the most memorable days in the history of the British
administration of India. It being the day on which the Bengal Partition scheme took
effect, the day on which our unsympathetic government forced a measure by a
proclamation in the official gazette against the wishes of the whole population, the
day on which our rulers tried to separate the Bengali speaking people of the East
Bengal from those of the West Bengal, the people of Calcutta, irrespective of
nationality, social position, creed and sex, observed it as a day of mourning. The
leaders of the Bengali community- Hindus and Mohammedans-did not however
silently mourn and weep. They as a legacy to posterity and as a landmark to British

administration laid the foundation of the Federation Hall. They also took a practical
step towards the furtherance of the Swadeshi movement by opening the National
Fund.

Sixteenth of October 1905 was observed as the day of mourning. Right from the
morning thousands of people began taking dip in Ganges. Hindus and Muslims tied
rakhis to each other to show their indestructible unity. People in Calcutta walked
bare-foot in the streets shouting the slogan Vande Mataram. Such was effect of the
slogan that the British prohibited the use of it in Bengal.

The partition of Bengal led many youths to resort to arms. In different parts of the
country a number of secret societies sprang up, particularly in Bengal and
Maharashtra. To terrorize the British officers, they trained members, mostly students
in the use of fire-arms. In this, Aurobindo Ghosh and his associates Bengal and one
Chapekar brother and the Savarkar brothers in Maharashtra were quite active. By
assassinating unpopular British officials and their Indian agents, their main method
was to spread terror. Attempts were made on the lives of Lt. Governor of Bengal and
the Viceroy. Khudiram Bose, a 16 year old fired a shot at a district judge on April 30,
1908, which accidentally killed two English women instead. He was caught, flogged
and hanged. But the main consequence of the Partition of Bengal was the Swadeshi
and Boycott movement.

It was with the sense of a need for organisation, the sense of intense bitterness at
the Congress, and the realisation that the liberation of India would have to be won
by force, that led to the emergence of the revolutionary terrorists. Many Swadeshi
movement radicals joined the movement: among them, Ajit Singh's group in Punjab
and the Tirunelveli radicals after the arrest of Pillai and Siva. These early
revolutionaries' special contribution was in putting forward a conscious alternative
path of struggle to the Congress's peaceful petitioning. Jugantar (which along with
Bande Mataram and Sandhya was one of the leading magazines representing this
trend) wrote about the police assault on the peaceful Barisal conference:
"The 30 crores of people inhabiting India must raise their 60 crores of hands to stop
this course of oppression. Force must be stopped by force."

Though the revolutionary terrorists did not lead mass struggles against the British,
their heroic acts and sacrifices won them enormous popularity among the common
people. Among the major groups were the Abhinav Bharat (centers in Nasik, and led
by V. Savarkar), the Anushilan Samity (based in Dacca and led by Pulin Das), the

Jugantar group (led by Jatindranath Mukherji) and the group led by Rash Behari Bose
and Sachindranath Sanyal. These groups carried out several armed raids to raise
funds, executions of English officials (especially of sadistic and racist district
magistrates), and a few spectacular attempts on the lives of major officials. Some of
their more famous actions included the unsuccessful attempt in 1907 on the life of
the lieutenant governor of Bengal, the 1908 attempt on the life of the notorious
Muzaffarpur district magistrate Kingsford, the 1909 execution of the Nasik district
magistrate, the 1909 London execution of the India Office bureaucrat Curzon-Wyllie,
and the 1912 attempt on the life of the Viceroy Lord Hardinge.

The sheer heroism of these men, who carried out these acts in the face of certain
death, moved the people. The would-be assassins of Kingsford (their bomb instead
killed two Englishwomen and left Kingsford unscathed), Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram
Bose, became heroes of Bengal. Chaki shot himself in captivity while Bose was tried
and hanged. Folk songs in their memory were composed and sung all over the
country.

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