02-04-2007, 10:55 PM
One more article by Akhilesh Mittal in Deccan Chronicle , 4 Feb., 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->What made Bengal fan 1857 revolt?
By Akhilesh Mithal
March 29, 1857 was to the British in India what 9/11 is and has been to the Americans. On that fateful Sunday, Mangal Pandey, a 26-year-old sepoy with an impeccable service record of nine years disturbed by the conduct of his employers, came under the influence of bhaang, took out his musket from the armoury and marched up and down the parade ground in Barrackpore openly preaching rebellion against the British.
When two British officers, first individually and then severally tried to engage him in order to apprehend and kill him, he successfully incapacitated them both without having to kill either or himself suffering even a graze. The overwhelming European superiority in weapons, âFor we have the Maxim gun and they have notâ, had induced a smug self-confidence which had bred a false sense of invincibility and bestowed a feeling of innate, by-birth and by-race superiority on all whites from Tommies to Generals.
When a common or garden native, a young sepoy with nine-years service, succeeded in flouting authority and injuring not one but both Europeans who tried to restrain him individually without any fear and apprehension, overpowered the British mind, heart and things were never the same again. Sir Frederick James Halliday, Lt Governor of Bengal in his overview dated September 30, 1858, states âhardly any district of Bengal has escaped either actual danger or the serious apprehensions of danger.â
<b>The 1858 overview was based upon a collation of all the reports from magistrates and commissioners received in response to a May 23, 1857 circular asking for reports on popular feelings and conditions. The genuineness of the grievances of the sepoys was never believed by the British. They convinced themselves that all the discontent was caused by badmaashs and malcontents and believed that a conspiracy was being and had been hatched against their rule and it was bound to surface as armed revolt anytime, anywhere.</b>
The fact that nothing happened was not enough to allay the apprehensions and fears of the European population who were constantly expecting an attack of the kind that had occurred in Delhi and Kanpur. The cantonments of Dum Dum, Barrackpore, Berhampore, Jalpaiguri Dacca and Chittagong witnessed voluble discontent amongst sepoys while some regiments of the Bengal Native Infantry were openly defiant. This had a disturbing effect on the civilian populations of these military outposts.
Where disbandment occurred the interaction between the cashiered sepoys and the civilians, thus causing tensions to arise. At border outposts such as Jalpaiguri and Chittagong, the British feared a ganging up with the neighbouring Bhutanese and Kukies while the ferment amongst the tribes in the independent kingdom of Tripura kept them on alert. With Nawab Wazir Wajid Ali Shah interned in Garden Reach, there arose the fear that the disbanded sepoys hailing as they did from Awadh, might make common cause with him and rise against the British.
The Nawab Wazir rarely moved out of his residence and therefore a strict surveillance was conducted on everyone who visited him. Colonel Cavanagh, the Town Major kept a diary on this account and mentioned on May 21 that Taluqdar Man Singh called on the prisoner and according to his informant, Man Singh had asked for Wajid Ali Shahâs sanction to a popular uprising in his favour.
The fear grew so much that Peter Grant, member, Governor Generalâs Executive Council, wrote on June 10, âWe have, as enemies, three Native Infantry Regiments and a half, of which one and a half are the very worst type we know, one, two or three (for no one knows) thousand armed men at Garden Reach (Nawab Wazirâs residence), or available there at a moment: some hundred armed men of the Scinde Amirs at Dum Dum.â
All this fear led to the request that a general disarmament of natives be undertaken. Also that Europeans be allowed to form a corps of armed volunteers for self defence. Canning acceded and enrollment of European volunteers started under the name and title âCorps of Volunteer Guards of Calcuttaâ. The corps consisted of a battery of four cannon, five troops of cavalry and seven of infantry. It was a paramilitary force under the command of Lt Col Orfeur Cavanagh, the Town Major in Fort William. Concurrently, the European population of Calcutta was arming themselves and an unprecedented sale of weapons occurred.
On July 23, the Police Commissioner wrote to the government, â...it is perfectly true that during the last three moths the sale of arms and particularly firearms in Calcutta has been enormous.â He took comfort in recording that the greater portion of those sold had come into possession of the Christian population of Calcutta. Perhaps it was this rift that was to lead Bengal into becoming the vanguard of the national movement of Indiaâs freedom.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->What made Bengal fan 1857 revolt?
By Akhilesh Mithal
March 29, 1857 was to the British in India what 9/11 is and has been to the Americans. On that fateful Sunday, Mangal Pandey, a 26-year-old sepoy with an impeccable service record of nine years disturbed by the conduct of his employers, came under the influence of bhaang, took out his musket from the armoury and marched up and down the parade ground in Barrackpore openly preaching rebellion against the British.
When two British officers, first individually and then severally tried to engage him in order to apprehend and kill him, he successfully incapacitated them both without having to kill either or himself suffering even a graze. The overwhelming European superiority in weapons, âFor we have the Maxim gun and they have notâ, had induced a smug self-confidence which had bred a false sense of invincibility and bestowed a feeling of innate, by-birth and by-race superiority on all whites from Tommies to Generals.
When a common or garden native, a young sepoy with nine-years service, succeeded in flouting authority and injuring not one but both Europeans who tried to restrain him individually without any fear and apprehension, overpowered the British mind, heart and things were never the same again. Sir Frederick James Halliday, Lt Governor of Bengal in his overview dated September 30, 1858, states âhardly any district of Bengal has escaped either actual danger or the serious apprehensions of danger.â
<b>The 1858 overview was based upon a collation of all the reports from magistrates and commissioners received in response to a May 23, 1857 circular asking for reports on popular feelings and conditions. The genuineness of the grievances of the sepoys was never believed by the British. They convinced themselves that all the discontent was caused by badmaashs and malcontents and believed that a conspiracy was being and had been hatched against their rule and it was bound to surface as armed revolt anytime, anywhere.</b>
The fact that nothing happened was not enough to allay the apprehensions and fears of the European population who were constantly expecting an attack of the kind that had occurred in Delhi and Kanpur. The cantonments of Dum Dum, Barrackpore, Berhampore, Jalpaiguri Dacca and Chittagong witnessed voluble discontent amongst sepoys while some regiments of the Bengal Native Infantry were openly defiant. This had a disturbing effect on the civilian populations of these military outposts.
Where disbandment occurred the interaction between the cashiered sepoys and the civilians, thus causing tensions to arise. At border outposts such as Jalpaiguri and Chittagong, the British feared a ganging up with the neighbouring Bhutanese and Kukies while the ferment amongst the tribes in the independent kingdom of Tripura kept them on alert. With Nawab Wazir Wajid Ali Shah interned in Garden Reach, there arose the fear that the disbanded sepoys hailing as they did from Awadh, might make common cause with him and rise against the British.
The Nawab Wazir rarely moved out of his residence and therefore a strict surveillance was conducted on everyone who visited him. Colonel Cavanagh, the Town Major kept a diary on this account and mentioned on May 21 that Taluqdar Man Singh called on the prisoner and according to his informant, Man Singh had asked for Wajid Ali Shahâs sanction to a popular uprising in his favour.
The fear grew so much that Peter Grant, member, Governor Generalâs Executive Council, wrote on June 10, âWe have, as enemies, three Native Infantry Regiments and a half, of which one and a half are the very worst type we know, one, two or three (for no one knows) thousand armed men at Garden Reach (Nawab Wazirâs residence), or available there at a moment: some hundred armed men of the Scinde Amirs at Dum Dum.â
All this fear led to the request that a general disarmament of natives be undertaken. Also that Europeans be allowed to form a corps of armed volunteers for self defence. Canning acceded and enrollment of European volunteers started under the name and title âCorps of Volunteer Guards of Calcuttaâ. The corps consisted of a battery of four cannon, five troops of cavalry and seven of infantry. It was a paramilitary force under the command of Lt Col Orfeur Cavanagh, the Town Major in Fort William. Concurrently, the European population of Calcutta was arming themselves and an unprecedented sale of weapons occurred.
On July 23, the Police Commissioner wrote to the government, â...it is perfectly true that during the last three moths the sale of arms and particularly firearms in Calcutta has been enormous.â He took comfort in recording that the greater portion of those sold had come into possession of the Christian population of Calcutta. Perhaps it was this rift that was to lead Bengal into becoming the vanguard of the national movement of Indiaâs freedom.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->