THE PERIOD OF COLONIAL RULENext day the mutiny broke out and the mutineers marched immediately
to Delhi—no attempt being made to prevent them. The British seemed to
be dumbfounded by this unforeseen catastrophe. The Great Mughal
around whom the soldiers rallied could not provide much leadership. He
finally found an ex-corporal of the British Indian artillery to serve as
commander of the troops, who managed to hold Delhi from May to
September 1857 and to besiege Lucknow until November 1857. In Kanpur
the British asked the Peshwa—of all people—for help and entrusted their
local treasury to him. Within a day he also joined the mutineers and
expelled the British from Kanpur. For some time almost the whole of
northern India seemed to be lost. But then irregular Sikh troops were
organised against the rebels. They had an axe to grind because they had
only recently been subjugated by the very same army units to which the
mutineers belonged, and so gladly fought against them. After Delhi and
Lucknow were recovered the scene shifted to Gwalior, which was held by
the Peshwa and the rani of Jhansi until June 1858. The rani died fighting
while defending Gwalior.
The long and severe fighting left indelible marks. The over-confident
liberalism of the British, who had believed that they were bestowing the
blessings of civilisation on a grateful India, quickly evaporated. India had
proved to be ungrateful and hostile. Of course, the new English-educated
elite had remained loyal, but the British did not accord them respect for
this and were more impressed with the old feudal leaders, some of whom
had valiantly fought against them. From now on they no longer wanted to
offend these ‘natural leaders of the people’. The majority of princes and
zamindars who had not raised a finger thus profited from the fighting
spirit of a few. A new ‘aristocratic school’ of British civil servants
dominated the Indian scene in the next decades. They believed that India
was conservative and must be governed in a conservative spirit.
In addition to this change of approach, there were also material
consequences of the mutiny which were of immediate importance. The
treasury was empty and the East India Company was at the end of its
tether. As long as the shareholders could pocket the dividend derived from
the tribute of India, everything was fine; but now they were faced with
having to raise a good deal of capital in order to foot the bill for the whole
affair. They therefore gladly left India to the Crown and thus the company
ceased to exist in 1858 after 258 years’ chequered career. The fears which
had prevented Pitt from entrusting British rule in India to the Crown no
longer applied: Parliament had consolidated its position, the monarchy was
thoroughly constitutional, and the British economy had grown so much
that the annual tribute of India—which amounted to about £36m, was not
going to upset the political system because it was only about 5 per cent of
the British national income. Moreover, at the time the Crown took over
India not much of a tribute could be expected in any case. The future