THE PERIOD OF COLONIAL RULEagricultural land and this over-assessment had nearly ruined them. Rajputs
and Gujars were also among the rebels, particularly in areas which had
been reached by the British only fairly recently and where the memory of
autonomy was still fresh. The rani of Jhansi became the Indian equivalent
of Joan of Arc during this revolt. She fought at the head of her troops with
fierce determination. The British had annexed her state because her
husband had died without a male heir and the adoption of a son by her
had not been recognised by them. Whereas the British had tried to
maintain friendly relations with Indian princes in the period before the
consolidation of their hold on India, they had turned to a policy of
annexation in the 1850s and used any available pretext. Lack of an heir
was the most convenient excuse, although mismanagement of the state
could also be given as a reason for deposing the prince and introducing
direct British rule. The latter was done in the case of the nawab of Oudh in
1856 and this caused resentment among those soldiers of the British Indian
army who belonged to this state.
All these various causes for dissatisfaction would not necessarily have
led to an open revolt had it not been for the mutiny of the soldiers at
Meerut on 10 May 1857 and their subsequent march to Delhi. The
immediate cause of this mutiny was the distribution of new cartridges
greased with animal fat. The handling of these cartridges violated the
soldiers’ religious taboos and there were rumours that the British were
doing this intentionally, in order to convert the soldiers to Christianity
after they had been polluted with this grease. Communication between
British officers and Indian soldiers was no longer what it had been in
earlier days. The social distance between officers and men had increased:
no longer the daring and resourceful warriors of old, these officers were
people looking for a well-paid job and they treated their soldiers like
menial servants. The soldiers, on the other hand, were experienced men
who had seen many years of service. They had conquered the Panjab for
the British only a few years previously. They had to be handled with some
skill and consideration.
The British colonel who commanded the garrison at Meerut was sadly
deficient in both. He wanted to pre-empt all resistance to the new cartridges
by introducing them in a demonstrative manner. He lined up ninety soldiers,
lectured them, had the cartridges distributed and was shocked to see that all
but five of the men refused to take them. The resisters were tried for breach
of discipline and, in line with British tradition, were judged by their peers,
i.e. fellow-soldiers. This caused additional resentment because the accused
suspected that their fellow-soldiers would arrive at a judgment which they
thought would please the colonel, rather than do justice to them. This was
exactly what happened: all culprits were sentenced to long periods of
rigorous imprisonment and the colonel got his troops lined up in order to
witness how the convicts were put in chains.