Introduction
In 1757, the British East India Company took control of most of India on behalf of the British Government. The Company employed a large number of Indian-born soldiers in their private army, including Muslims, Sikhs, and in 1857 some of these ‘sepoys’ rose up in rebellion. The reasons were complex, but clearly explained here by two Indian schoolmasters, writing in 1944.
THE mutiny was a rebellion of the army which took place at a time when there was a great deal of unrest and suspicion in the public mind owing to the policy of Lord Dalhousie.* This led to the rapid spread of the mutiny. Fortunately for the British, the mutiny was not widespread.
The policy of annexations pursued by Lord Dalhousie had caused a great deal of unrest in the minds of Indian rulers who were growing suspicious of the intentions of the British. Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the last Peshwa, was deeply offended because he was not allowed the pension of his adoptive father. The youthful Rani of Jhansi was aggrieved since she was not allowed to adopt a son. The annexation of Oudh had given offence to the Taluqdars* there. Bahadur Shah II, the titular emperor at Delhi, was chafing that after his death, his family would have to vacate the palace and the fort. The Marathas were also aggrieved because their states of Nagpur and Satara had been annexed.
* James Ramsey (1812-1860), 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, was appointed Governor-General of India in 1847 and returned to England in 1856 with his reputation high after adding several new regions, such as Oudh, to British rule by astute military campaigns, making wide-ranging improvements to the Company’s administration in India, and enforcing popular social reforms (at home and and in India) such as the bans on sati, human sacrifice and female infanticide brought in by Lord William Bentinck in 1829. Support from among the Indian population came among others from Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), who as a child had been compelled to watch and listen as his seventeen-year-old sister-in-law was thrown onto her late husband’s pyre.
* Nana Saheb Peshwa II (1824-1859) subsequently led the action at the British residency at Cawnpore (Kanpur) in which hundreds of women and children and the sick there were massacred on the Satichaura Ghat or riverside landing place, as they were being evacuated to Allahabad with, so they believed, Nana Sahib’s assurances of safe conduct.
* A taluqdar was a hereditary land-owner and tax-collector under the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire that followed it, and into the British Raj that began after the Mutiny. They wielded enormous power and took ill any meddling in the management of their affairs. Rajput taluqdars held interests in Oudh and played a significant role in the Mutiny.
Précis
In 1857, a revolt broke out in the British East India Company’s militia. Lord Dalhousie, Governor of Bengal, had pursued an aggressive policy of territorial gain in Oudh and several other areas of northern India, and had overruled rulers of princely states in matters of succession and property rights that they felt were beyond his authority. (56 / 60 words)
In 1857, a revolt broke out in the British East India Company’s militia. Lord Dalhousie, Governor of Bengal, had pursued an aggressive policy of territorial gain in Oudh and several other areas of northern India, and had overruled rulers of princely states in matters of succession and property rights that they felt were beyond his authority.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: besides, just, must, not, otherwise, since, until, who.
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