•   The 1857 revolt was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the English East India Company (EEIC), which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown.

•   The rebellion began on 10^th May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the Company's army in Meerut and soon spread into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India.

•   The rebellion posed a considerable threat to British power in that region.

Causes of the Rebellion:

o  Economic Causes

1.  High Burden of Taxation – Peasentry suffered highly due to the new revenue settlements imposed.

2.  Commodification of land – Cultivators as well as old Zamindari class lost their customary rights over land.

3.  Ruin of Rural economy – One sided free trade and dumping of cheap manufactured goods by British collapsed the rural economy for artisans and handicraftsmen.

o  Political Causes

1.  Policies such as Subsidiary Alliance, Doctrine of Lapse etc - Annexation of Princely states led to discontent and suspicion among the rulers.

2.  Annexation of Awadh on false grounds of corruption and maladministration – Large mass of peasents and sepoy got discontent as half of the army of British was made up of soldiers from awadh only.

o  Eligious Causes

1.  Social reforms like Sati abolishon, Widow Remarriage etc made the people feel that their social fabric was being attacked by a foreign force.

o  Army related causes

1.  Racia Discrimination – Indian sepoy was highly discriminated with respect to equalant ranked European sepoy.

2.  Attack on their religious sentiments – the terms to serve in the army were made against the religious beliefs of Indians such as Sikhs have to shave their head and beard, restrictions were put on caste marks etc.

3.  Discontinuation of foreign allowances (Batta) to sepoys who were serving in Sindh and Punjab.

4.  Forcing the sepoys to cross the sea which was against Indian religion.

5.  Greased Cartige incident – soldiers refused to use the Enfeild rifle, whose cartridge was believed to be made using beef and pork (against the religious sentiments of Hindus and Muslims). This led to the hanging of Mangal Pandey in Barrackpore (West Bengal) on 29^th March 1857 and General mutiny among the soldiers of Meerut on 10^th May 1857.

•   Course of the Revolt:

o  The greased cartridge rumour and the hanging of Mangal Pandey led to the spread of mutiny into Meerut regiment on 10^th May 1857, who refused the use of cartridge and decided to march towards Delhi.

o  Reaching Delhi, they proclaimed Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah Jafar as the Emperor of India and leader of the revolt.

o  Bahadur Shah wrote to all the rulers and Chiefs in India to declare war against British rule.

o  Soon the revolt spread to various regions viz Awadh, Rohilkhand (North West UP), Doab, Bundelkhand (parts of Southern UP and Northern MP), central India, parts of Bihar and Eastern Punjab.

o  Regionwise leaders:

1.  Delhi – Nominal leadership was under Bahadur Shah Jafar but real leader was General Bakth Khan.

2.  Kanpur – Nana Saheb

3.  Lucknow – Begam Hazrat Mahal

4.  Bareilly – Khan Bahadur Khan

5.  Bihar – Kunwar Singh

6.  Jhansi – Rani Lakshmi Bai

7.  Faizabad (Awadh) – Maulvi Ahmadulla

•   The revolt was violently suppressed by British Empire completely by 1858 in which the main British commanders were:

o  Colin Campbell (Kanpur)

o  Sir Hugh Rose (Jhansi)

o  Colonel Neil (Banaras) etc

•   Causes of failiure of revolt:

o  Limited territorial spread of revolt only upto Northern and Central India while East, West and South were unaffected.

o  Non participation and even support by some of the native rulers such as Nizam of Hyderabad, Rajput rulers, Punjab rulers. Schindhias and Holkars even helped British.

o  Poor leadership of weak and old Bahadur Shah, which was seen in complete lack of coordination among different rulers/ local leaders.

o  Rebels were unarmed or poorly armed with swords, sticks, stones and spikes against the guns and rifles of British forces.

o  Localized patriotism, vested interests and lack of vision among Indian rulers.

o  Lack of modern nationalism among the people and their affiliations were limited to only to their local areas.

o  Well established communication system of Railway lines and Telegraph etc gave an edge to British forces.

•   The Doctrine of Lapse was an annexation policy followed widely by Lord Dalhousie when he was India's Governor-General from 1848 to 1856.

•   The policy gave way for British annexation of states without a direct natural or adopted heir, because Dalhousie believed that Western rule was preferable to Eastern and to be enforced where possible.

•   Annexation in the absence of a natural or adopted heir was enforced in the cases of Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Baghat (1850), Chota Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853), and Nagpur (1854).