Sepoy Mutiny (1857–1859)

Abstract The Sepoy Mutiny (1857–1859), also commonly known as the Indian Mutiny, Indian Rebellion, or, amongst an older generation of nationalist historians, the First War of Independence, was an armed uprising that began in locally raised units of the East India Company's Bengal Army (the other two armies of the East India Company were the Madras Army and the Bombay Army). Upwards of three‐quarters of the sepoys serving in the Bengal Army mutinied. While there were signs of discontent in some units of the other two presidency armies, the fact that these armies remained largely loyal would later prove critical to the British ability to retain their hold on India. Not only did Madras and Bombay provide the British with military forces with which they could attack the rebels in the north, but they also prevented the spread of rebellion into the wider civilian populations of the Madras and Bombay presidencies. And while the mutineers did draw support, in some cases rather grudgingly, from some key members of the Indian aristocracy who were aggrieved at their diminished authority, other princes either chose to support the British or remained neutral, thus denying the rebels the leadership that would have allowed them to break out of their circumscribed area of operation. The king of Nepal, for example, offered troops to the British. In Bengal, however, anger at British rule soon spread amongst the civilian population in the strategically vital plains of central and northern India, where it took on many of the attributes of a popular uprising. This explains the lack of consensus amongst historians as to how best to title these events. British rule in India was seriously threatened and the fighting that ensued was marked by brutality and savagery on both sides. It has been calculated that rebels killed as many as 6,000 Europeans, but there are no reliable estimates as to the numbers of Indians who died. However, if we compare the census of 1871 with earlier calculations of the population of North India, there is a noticeable decline, suggesting that Indian casualties could possibly number in the hundreds of thousands.