History Quiz: The revolt of 1858 and its aftermath (Administrative Changes) | 20 May, 2021

Begum Hazrat Mahal took over the reign at Lucknow where the rebellion broke out on June 4, 1857 and popular sympathy was overwhelmingly in favour of the deposed nawab.

• At Bareilly, Khan Bahadur, a descendant of the former ruler of Rohilkhand, was placed in command. Not enthusiastic about the pension being granted by the British, he organized an army of 40,000 soldiers and offered stiff resistance to the British.
• In Bihar, the revolt was led by Kunwar Singh, the zamindar of Jagdishpur. An old man in his seventies, he nursed a grudge against the British who had deprived him of his estates. He unhesitatingly joined the sepoys when they reached Arrah from Dinapore (Danapur).

• Maulvi Ahmadullah of Faizabad was another outstanding leader of the revolt. He was a native of Madras and had moved to Faizabad in the north where he fought a stiff battle against the British troops.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

The most outstanding leader of the revolt was Rani Laxmibai, who assumed the leadership of the sepoys at Jhansi.

• Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general, had refused to allow her adopted son to succeed to the throne after her husband Raja Gangadhar Rao died, and had annexed the state by the application of the infamous ‘Doctrine of Lapse’.

• Driven out of Jhansi by British forces, she gave the battle cry—” main apni Jhansi nahin doongi” (I shall not give away my Jhansi).
• She was joined by Tantia Tope, a close associate of Nana Saheb, after the loss of Kanpur.
• The Rani of Jhansi had died on the battlefield earlier in June 1858. Jhansi was recaptured by Sir Hugh Rose.
• “Here lay the woman who was the only man among the rebels” — Hugh Rose.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

Centres of Revolt and Leaders

• Delhi – General Bakht Khan
• Kanpur – Nana Saheb
• Lucknow – Begum Hazrat Mahal

• Bareilly – Khan Bahadur
• Bihar – Kunwar Singh
• Faizabad – Maulvi Ahmadullah
• Jhansi – Rani Laxmibai
• Baghpat – Shah Mal

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

The British Resistance

• Delhi – Lieutenant Willoughby, John Nicholson, Lieutenant Hudson
• Kanpur – Sir Hugh Wheeler, Sir Colin Campbell

• Lucknow – Henry Lawrence, Brigadier Inglis, Henry Havelock, James Outram, Sir Colin Campbell
• Jhansi – Sir Hugh Rose
• Benaras – Colonel James Neill

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India. 

Nature of the Revolt:

• R.C. Majumdar and S.N. Sen— “Not an organised ‘national’ revolt”
• R.C. Majumdar— “Neither first, nor National War of Independence”
• V.D. Savarkar— “War of independence”
• Eric Stokes— “Elitist in character”

• Lawrence and Seeley— “Mere sepoy mutiny”
• T.R. Holmes— “A conflict between civilisation and barbarism”
• James Outram— “A Mohammedan conspiracy making capital of Hindu grievances”
• Percival Spear—Three phases of the revolt

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

The Satyarth Prakash (The light of Truth) is the masterpiece of Swami Dayanand Saraswati.

• As the great writer of this masterpiece Swami Dayanand was a symbol of ultimate morality and spiritualism and was a sage of standing.
• This book (Satyarth Prakash) is, indeed, and encyclopedia of the various contemporary social religious and political currents cross-currents and movements going on at the time of the writer’s life.
• To go it further, the writer has not spared the past events and guiding philosophies, which has polluted the human mind and deteriorated the man’s quest for true knowledge and right way of life.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

The 1857 revolt had exposed the Company’s limitations in administering under a complex situation. Till then, there had not been much accountability. The 1858 Act sought to rectify this anomaly—

• India was to be governed by and in the name of the Crown through a secretary of state and a council of 15.
• The initiative and the final decision were to be with the secretary of state and the council was to be just advisory in nature. (Thus, the dual system introduced by the Pitt’s India Act came to an end.)

• Governor-general became the viceroy (his prestige, if not authority, increased).

The assumption of power by the Crown was one of formality rather than substance. It gave a decent burial to an already dead horse—the Company’s administration.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that the 1857 revolt came to be interpreted as a “planned war of national independence”, by V.D. Savarkar in his book, The Indian War of Independence, 1857.

• Savarkar called the revolt the first war of Indian independence. He said it was inspired by the lofty ideal of self-rule by Indians through a nationalist upsurge.
• Dr S.N. Sen in his Eighteen Fifty- Seven considers the revolt as having begun as a fight for religion but ending as a war of independence.
• Dr R.C. Majumdar, however, considers it as neither the first, nor national, nor a war of independence as large parts of the country remained unaffected and many sections of the people took no part in the upsurge.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

Cornwallis (governor-general, 1786-93) was the first to bring into existence and organize the civil services. He tried to check corruption through—

• raising the civil servants’ salary,
• strict enforcement of rules against private trade,
• debarring civil servants from taking presents, bribes etc.,
• Enforcing promotions through seniority.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.

To begin with, domination of the European branch over the Indian branches was ensured. The commissions of 1859 and 1879 insisted on the principle of a one-third white army (as against 14% before 1857).

• Finally, the proportion of Europeans to Indians was carefully fixed at one to two in the Bengal Army and two to five in the Madras and Bombay Armies.
• Strict European monopoly over key geographical locations and departments, such as artillery, tanks and armed corps, was maintained.
• Even the rifles given to Indians were of an inferior quality till 1900, and Indians were not allowed in these high-tech departments till the Second World War.
• No Indians were allowed in the officer rank, and the highest rank an Indian could reach till 1914 was that of a subedar (only from 1918 onwards were Indians allowed in the commissioned ranks).
• As late as 1926, the Indian Sandhurst Committee was visualising a 50% Indianised officer cadre for 1952.

Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.