The revolt started on 10th May 1857 at Meerut the “ancient city” of Uttar Pradesh by the Indian troops on the British East India Company which was located at the main states like Chennai, Mumbai and Bengal.
Various Names
This mutiny is also known as:
1. The Indian Mutiny
2. The Great Rebellion
3. First War Of Independence
4. Revolt of 1857
5. Indian Insurrection
Main Centers
1. Arrah
2. Lucknow
3. Bareilly
4. Gwalior
5. Jhansi
6. Kanpur
Important Leaders
The important leaders who led the Sepoy Mutiny are
Mangal Pandey - Barrackpore
Kunwar Singh & Amar Singh - Bihar
Bahadur Shah II - Delhi
Rani Laxmi Bai- Jhansi
Nana Sahib/ Rao Sahib/ Tantia Tope/ Azimullah Khan - Kanpur
Major Causes For The Revolt of 1857
1. Socio-religious:
Practice of racial segregation – restricting people to go to certain areas like church, school etc...Isolating them based on their caste and appearance.
They ran free Christian missionaries which provoked Indians to convert to Christian Faith.
Indians believed that learning English might ruin their culture and traditions.
Reforms like sati, child marriage and animal sacrifice were terminated by the British which hurt the Hindu sentiments. The Muslims also turned against the British for having ousted the last Mughal Emperor from power.
2. Political cause:
Doctrine of lapse (if any Indian ruler dies without leaving a male heir his country will be automatically under the control of the British) introduced by Lord Dalhousie made the Indian rulers angry.
The feelings of Muslims were badly hurt after the death of Bahadur shah II.
3. Military Causes:
Low salary and special allowance were not provided to the warriors. They were forced to fight outside the country. The British were seated in the higher posts whereas the higher posts for Indians were those of Subedars.
4. Economic Causes:
Imposition of heavy taxes on Indian goods and promotion of goods procured from Britain.
Exploitation of India's natural resources to supply raw materials to Britain.
Exploitation of the farmers by the British.
5. Immediate cause:
The grease paper of the rifle was made by the fat of pig and cow which provokes both Hindus and Muslims which was the main and immediate cause of the war.
Effects Of The War
1. Political Effects:
For the betterment of India the British parliament passed an act in which Queen Victoria was declared as the ruler of British India. This is known as “Queen’s proclamation”. East India Company came to an end after this proclamation.
2. Economic Effects:
After the massive economic destruction, they still continued to exploit India's natural resources but this time is a more subtle way.
3. Military Effects:
Heavy weapons were handled to the European because of increase in the number of European troops. The warriors of different classes were mixed. As a result, unorganized plan and lack of good leadership led the war fail to spread all over India and it came to an end by the Queen’s Proclamation.
Written By - V. Mary Adhasha.
Edited By - Tushna Choksey
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