H 21: REVOLT OF 1857:
Revolt of 1857 is an important landmark in Indian History. If Battle of Plassey laid foundation for East Indian Company in India then 100 years later Revolt of 1857 shook that foundation & ended the rule of East India Company. (1/19)
@indiansharieff

H 21.1: 1857 revolt is mistaken to be a mere mutiny of the Indian sepoys in the Bengal army but it was result of long drawn out series of fundamental social & economic changes that upset different communities during the first century of the Company's rule & caused outrage. (2/19)

H 21.2: As far as sepoys were concerned, they were nurturing for a long time no. of grievances:
1) Their religious beliefs were in conflict with their new service conditions
2) Their salary level dropped
3) They suffered discrimination in matters of promotion & pension….(3/19)

H 21.3:….5) Service abroad was considered to be prejudicial to their caste rules, but expansion of British empire made that unavoidable.
6) Majority of sepoys belonged to peasants family & heavy taxation had taken toll on them
7) Racism was also prevalent. (4/19) @SassyReview

H 21.4: The annexation of Awadh in 1856 had a major adverse effect on morale of the Sepoys, as about 75000 of them were recruited from this region. The annexation of Awadh shook loyalty of these sepoys, as it was an ultimate proof of untrustworthiness of the British. (5/19)

H 21.5: To the discontent with service conditions was added a constant fear that British were determined to convert them into Christianity. The presence of missionaries, the controversy about the cartridge for Enfield rifles etc all fitted nicely into a conspiracy theory. (6/19)

H 21.6: Grievances of feudal elements was against Lord Dalhousie's "Doctrine of Lapse" policy which derecognised adopted sons of deceased Kings as legal heirs & their kingdoms were annexed. In this way, Satara, Nagpur, Udaipur & jhansi etc were taken in quick succession. (7/19)

H 21.7: Taluqdars/Landed Magnates joined the ranks of the Rebels in Revolt. The summary settlement 1856 led to dispossession of no. of powerful taluqdars, thus taluqdars lost majority of estates, their forts demolished resulting in considerable loss of status & power. (8/19)

H 21.8: The peasants joined rebellion because they were hard hit by high revenue demands of state. Cultivators felt the burden of revenue more severely than others & increased public sales of landed rights were index of pressure, which became a major cause of the revolt. (9/19)

H 21.9: In 1853 in the North Western Provinces alone, 110,000 acres of land were sold in auction & therefore, when the revolt started, the British, the baniya, the mahajan & their properties became the natural targets of attack by the rioting peasants. (10/19)
@SassyReview

H 21.10: The deposed princes offered leadership to rebels & thus provided legitimacy to revolt. Thus, Nana Sahib assumed leadership in Kanpur, Begum Hazrat Mahal took over Lucknow, Khan Bahadur Khan in Rohilkhand & Rani Lakshmibai as the leader of the sepoys in Jhansi. (11/19)

H 21.11: On 29 March in Barackpur, Sepoy named Mangal Pandey fired at European officer & his comrades refused to arrest him. They were hanged but disaffection of Sepoys could not be contained & incidents of disobedience & arson were reported from many army cantonments. (12/19)

H 21.12: On 10th May, Sepoys from Meerut rescued their arrested comrades & killed European officers & proceeded to Delhi, where on 11 May they proclaimed Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zaffar as Emperor of Hindustan.cFrom Delhi the uprising soon spread to other regions. (13/19)

H 21.13: The mutiny mainly affected Bengal army while Punjabi & Gurkha soldiers helped to suppress rebellion. Canning wrote, "In Rohilcund & Doab from Delhi to Cawnpore & Allahabad the country is not only in rebellion against us, but is utterly lawless." (14/19)

H 21.14: There was remarkable religious amity during revolt, as all believed Hindustan belonged to Hindus & Muslims alike. They wanted to restore decentralized political order where autonomous provincial rulers acknowledged Mughal emperor as source of political legitimacy.(15/19)

H 21.15: Thomas Metcalf wrote,"There is a widespread agreement that it was something more than a sepoy mutiny,but something less than a national revolt".It was not national cuz popular character of revolt was limited to Upper India while some regions/groups remained loyal.(16/19)

H 21.16: The revolt of 1857 is in many ways an important watershed in Indian history. It ended the rule of East India Company. British parliament passed on 2 August 1858 an Act for the Better Government of India, declaring Queen Victoria as the sovereign of British India. (17/19)

H 21.17: Queen issued Proclamation, which promised religious toleration & proposed to govern
Indians according to their established traditions & customs. The proclamation provided for the ordering of relationship b/w the monarch & her representatives in India. (18/19)
#History

H 21.18: Racial segregation became firmly entrenched after Suppression of Revolt. British became more autocratic & denied aspirations of educated Indians for sharing power. It made Empire vulnerable & thus frustration of educated middle classes arose modern Nationalism. (19/19)