First war of independence: 1857

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Some interesting facts in an HT article. But not posting the link since it contains baseless anti-RSS propaganda.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New research is revealing astounding facts. The view that Sikhs sided with the British in 1857 is false. Patiala, Nabha, Jind and Kapurthala cis-Sutlej Rajas, the men to send soldiers against Zafar to Delhi, were even anti-Ranjit Singh. They sided with the British during Ranjit Singh’s lifetime as well as during the two Punjab wars. After Ranjit Singh’s death in 1840, his Khalsa army took control of the Lahore Durbar. Like the Bengal army sepoys, the Khalsa soldiers too were ‘peasants in uniform’. After being disbanded in 1849, they fanned out into the Punjab countryside. In 1857, Mohar Singh, a Khalsa army veteran, declared openly in Bahadur Shah Zafar’s favour, going as far as declaring a KhalsaMughal Raj in Ropar.

So it was only the cis-Sutlej Sikhs that supported the British. But here too, in 1858, the 10th Sikh Infantry revolted. British officers and the rulers of Patiala, Nabha and Jind were on record stating that they could not trust their soldiers, and that even cis-Sutlej Sikhs were “getting excited by news from Awadh and the Hindustani areas”.

This is sensational because the entire 10th Sikh Infantry revolt has been suppressed. Students of history are mostly unaware of their pro-Zafar role, including the Benaras-Jaunpur revolt of the Ludhiana Regiment. Zafar’s proclamations and the 1857 ‘national song’ mentions Sikhs, along with Hindus and Muslims, as patriotic Indians. No less revealing is the role of the Bombay army and the Maharashtra-Gujarat-Karnataka risings. Bombay army infantry and cavalry units revolted in Kolhapur, Satara, Karachi, Bombay Aurangabad, Nasir , abad and Ahmedabad. No one knows that two sepoys –– one Hindu and one Muslim –– of the Bombay infantry were blown to bits from a cannon’s mouth, in what today is Azad Maidan in Mumbai.

The 1858 Konkan-West Coast guerrilla fight stretched from Raigad and Ratnagiri to Savantwadi. In it, Mahar, Maratha, Kannada and Tulu warriors fought shoulder to shoulder. Nearly every Indian district –– whether in the UP-Bihar-Madhya Pradesh belt, in Orissa and Assam-Bengal, or in west India –– showcases an amazing pattern of ‘one Hindu, one Muslim’ martyr. In Jharkhand, a plaque in Chatra commemorates Jaimangal Pandey and Sheikh Nadir Ali. The 1857 prisoners from Assam sent to the Andaman penal colony were split equally between Hindus and Muslims. In Maharashtra, Pathans and Arabs figure prominently in the 1857 Khandesh (Nasik-Jalgaon-Dhule) struggles launched by the Bhils and Kolis. In Karnataka, the Gulbarga, Dharwar, Raichur risings saw Lingayat-Ramoshi-MarathaMuslim participation.

It is commonly believed and propagated that the Madras army and the Madras Presidency was bereft of risings. Yet, in Vaniyambadi of Madras, which was full of Labbai Muslims, the 8th Madras Cavalry rose. Elsewhere, led by Thevar-Vellala sepoys, several men of the 37th Madras Infantry deserted. In Vellore, in 1858, Madras army sepoys killed their British officers. In the Andhra-Telangana country Girijan tribes of the , coastal-Godavery belt rose under a Reddi leader and a Muslim-Pathan ex-soldier. In Adibalad and Warangal, and Cuddapah and Nellore in Rayalseema, Pathans and Sheikhs formed a small army with Gond and Kapu help. In Kerala, Moplah agitators, helped by Ezvhas (scheduled castes) and Namboodiris (Brahmins), staged risings in the Malabar.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->