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NCERT Class 12 History Chapter 11 Rebels and The Raj
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Rebels and The Raj
Chapter: 11
| THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY (PART – III) |
TEXTUAL QUESTIONS ANSWER
1. Why did the mutinous sepoys in many places turn to erstwhile rulers to provide leadership to the revolt?
Ans: The rebels needed leadership and organisation to face the British. So they turned towards those who had been leaders before the arrival of the British.
(i) First of all, the rebels sought the blessings of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor. They appealed to him to accept the leadership of the revolt. Initially, Bahadur Shah was hesitant. But at least he agreed to be the nominal leader of the rebellion. It motivated the sepoys and legitimised the rebellion as it was in the name of the Mughal Emperor.
(ii) In Kanpur, the sepoys and the people of the town implored on Nana Sahib, the successor of Peshwa Baji Rao II, to join the revolt and lead it.
(iii) There was also a great pressure on Rani of Jhansi to assume the leadership of the uprising. She was unable to resist the demand of the people of Jhansi who had a great regard for her. Later on poet Subhadra Kumari Chauhan wrote about Rani Jhansi’s role: “Khoob Lari Mardani Woh To Jhansi Wali Rani Thi”. In other words, she fought against the British rule with strong determination.
(iv) Similarly the people approached Kunwar Singh, a Zamindar in Arrah in Bihar and requested him to guide and lead them.
(v) The people of Awadh were not happy with the displacement of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, who was very popular. So when the news about the fall of the British rule reached, they hailed Birjis Qadr, the young son of the Nawab and appointed him as their leader.
2. Discuss the evidence that indicates planning and coordination on the part of the rebels.
Ans: The Revolt of 1857 was well-planned and well-coordinated. It is evident from the following points:
(i) There was coordination and harmony between sepoys and the ordinary people. Both wanted to target the white people.
(ii) The revolt got a tinge of legitimacy as it was carried forward under the leadership of Bahadur Shah, the last Mughal Emperor in India.
(iii) The Hindus and the Muslims united and rose together against the white people.
(iv) There was communication between the sepoy lines of various cantonments.
(v) Another example of good planning and organisation can be cited from Awadh where Captain Hearsey of Awadh Military Police was provided protection by his Indian subordinates during the mutiny. The 41st Native Infantry, which had killed all its white officers, insisted that the military police would either kill Captain Hearsey or hand over him as prisoner. But the military police refused to kill Captain Hearsey. At last they decided to settle the issue in a panchayat having native officers drawn from each regiment.In other words, many decisions during the rebellion were taken collectively.
3. Discuss the extent to which religious beliefs shaped the events of 1857.
Or
Discuss the religious causes for the Revolt of 1857.
Ans: (i) The Christian missionaries were assuring material benefits to Indians to convert them to Christianity. So many people of India became antagonistic towards the British.
(ii) Lord William Bentinck, the Governor- General of India, initiated reforms in the Indian society. He abolished customs like sati and permitted remarriage of the Hindu widows. Many Hindus viewed these steps against the ideology of Hinduism.
(iii) The British introduced western education, western ideas and western institutions in India. They set-up English-medium educational institutions. But many Hindus considered these steps as attempts to encourage religious conversion.
(iv) Many people felt that the British were destroying their sacred ideals that they had long cherished.
(v) Many Hindus were enraged when the Christian missionaries criticised their scriptures or religious books.
4. What were the measures taken to ensure unity among the rebels?
Ans: The following measures were taken to ensure unity among the rebels:
(i) In all their proclamations, the rebels repeatedly appealed to all sections of society. They did not take caste or creed into consideration.
(ii) Many proclamations were made by the Muslim princes. A few others were issued in their names. But all such proclamations took into consideration the sentiments of the Hindus.
(iii) The rebellion had an equal participation of both the Hindus and the Muslims. They had equally to lose or gain.
(iv) Many pamphlets were issued which glorified the co-existence of different communities under the Mughal Empire. Bahadur Shah appealed to all the Muslims to fight in the name of Muhammad. He also exhorted the Hindus to rise against the white people in the name of Mahavir. There was a complete unity between the Hindus and the Muslims.
5. What steps did the British take to quell the uprising?
Ans: It was not easy for the British to con- trol and crush the Revolt of 1857. Even then, they took several steps to quell it.
These can be studied as follows:
(i) Martial Law and Death Sentence: The British passed a series of laws to quell the insurgency in India. By the law passed in May and June, 1857, the whole of North India was put under martial law. The military officers were also empowered to try and punish the rebel Indians. They ignored ordinary processes of the law and trail. They gave only one punishment to all the rebels and that was death. In other words, the British tried to suppress the revolt by all means.
(ii) Two-Pronged Military: The British knew the symbolic value of Delhi. Thus, they initiated a two-pronged attack. One force moved from Calcutta into North India. The other force started from Punjab to reconquer Delhi. At last the British captured Delhi in September, 1857. Similarly, the British forces went ahead village by village in the Gangetic plain. They recaptured the lost ground step by step. In fact, the British knew that they were not merely dealing with a mutiny and rather were facing an uprising that had a popular mass support. According to Forsyth, a British official, about 75% adult male population in Awadh was in rebellion.
(iii) Counter-Insurgency Operations: The British took up various anti-insurgency operations to suppress the rebellion. They followed protracted fighting. They did not care for the heavy losses that they faced to snatch Delhi from the rebels.
(iv) Diplomacy: The British were worried where the big landlords and peasants had offered united resistance. So they tried to break up this unity by adopting diplomatic means. They promised to return the estates of the landlords. They dispossessed the rebel landholders and rewarded the loyal landholders. Few of these landlords either died while fighting with Britishers or ran away to Nepal where they died due to starvation or illness.
6. Why was the revolt particularly widespread in Awadh? What prompted the peasants, taluqdars and zamindars to join the revolt?
Ans: (a) The British annexed Awadh on grounds of mal- administration and wrongly assumed that the Nawab was an unpopular ruler. On the contrary he was greatly loved and his departure from Lucknow was marked by widespread grief and sorrow.
(b) The emotional grief of the people was aggravated by immediate material losses. Awadh’s annexation led to the dissolution of the court and its culture. A whole range of people- musicians, dancers, poets and artisans lost their livelihood.
(c) The annexation also dispossessed the taluqdars of the region. The taluqdars had earlier maintained armed retainers, built forts and enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. But immediately after the annexation, the taluqdars were disarmed and their forts destroyed.
(d) The British land revenue policy further undermined the position and authority of the taluqdars. The 1856 Summary Settlement was based on the belief that the taluqdars were interlopers with no permanent stakes in land. Thus the settlement sought to remove taluqdars wherever possible and the number of taluqdars came down. Many taluqdars of southern Awadh lost more half of the total number of villages they had previously held.
(e) The grievances of the peasants were carried over into the sepoy lines since the vast majority of the peasants were recruited from the village of Awadh. Low wages, ill-treatment by the British officers, difficulty in taking leave and the issue of the greased cartridges among other intensified their discontent.
(f) The majority of the sepoys of the Bengal army were recruited from the villages of Awadh and eastern U.P. The problems that the sepoy’s families faced and the threats they perceived were quickly transmitted to the sepoy lines and vice versa.
(g) Thus a chain of grievances in Awadh linked the peasants, sepoys and the common people. In different ways all came to identify British rule with the end of their world. Thus more than any other place, the revolt became an expression of popular resistance to an alien order.
7. What did the rebels want? To what extent did the vision of different social groups differ?
Ans: Who were the Rebels? According to the British officials, the rebels were a group of ungrateful and barbaric people. But in fact, they were patriots who loved their motherland and wanted that the alien rulers should be ousted. They included sepoys and ordinary people. They were not very educated and therefore propagated their ideas and programmes through ishtahars (notifications). They persuaded the people to join revolt against the foreign rulers.
What the Rebels Wanted? From the official record of the British Government, it is not clear what the rebels wanted, but every Indian knows that the rebels wanted freedom from the foreign rule. They were against the tyranny and oppression of the infidel and treacherous Englishpeople. They thought of the well-being of the common people.
Vision of Different Social Groups: All the rebels of the 1857 uprising came from different social groups. They were queens, kings, nawabs, taluqdars, Zamindars, peasants, sepoys and other ordinary people. Therefore, their methods may have been different but the goal of all was the same, that is, the freedom from the alien rule. It is evident from the following points:
(i) The ordinary people joined hands with the sepoys and attacked the white people. They ransacked their bungalows and burnt their property. They also destroyed and plundered all government buildings like the jail, court, treasury, post office and record office.
(ii) They attacked, looted and killed a large number of Europeans.
(iii) They legitimised their rebellion by seeking the blessings of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor. They also declared him as the king of India.
(iv) The rebellion was extensive and targeted everything and everybody connected with the white men. They even burnt all government records. There was a general defiance of all kinds of authority and hierarchy.
(v) The Hindus and the Muslims united to exterminate the firangis, a derogatory term used to designate foreigners.
(vi) The ordinary people also joined the revolt. They attacked the rich moneylenders as they were seen as the local oppressors and the allies of the British.
(vii) The sepoys decided their own strategy. They were the makers of their own rebellion.
(viii) In Meerut, faqir rode an elephant and conveyed messages to the sepoys who visited him fequently. Similarly in Lucknow, there were a few religious leaders and self styled prophets who preached the destruction of British rule.
8. What do visual representations tell us about the revolt of 1857? How do historians analyse these representations?
Ans: The visual representations tell us about the revolt of 1857 through nineteen pictures and the role played by different characters and people of groups. Different historians have also analysed there representation in their own angle and outlook. We will discuss the all figures related with chapter in the following way:
Fig. 11.1: This figure indicates the portrait of Bahadur Shah. Physically he was very weak due to his old age but the rebel sepoys of Meerut who met him at the gate of Red Fort and wish to have his blessing though he was not eager but he was help- less and ultimately he gave them his blessing.
Historians say that surrounded by the sepoys Bahadur Shah had no other option but to comply. The revolt thus acquired a kind of legitimacy because it could now be carried on in the name of the Mughal emperor.
Fig. 11.2: This picture is related with common people of Lucknow. They joined the
sepoys in attacking the British in Lucknow. The British were consider firangi by all Hindus and Muslims of Lucknow. The British historians describe that moneylenders, rich people as well as the British officials and their belongings were destroyed by the rebels. In the beginning the rebels got success in crushing the British rule. One British officer has noted “collapsed like a house made of cards”. Even the Delhi Urdu Akhbar refers “that due to activities of rebels ordinary life of the people was disturbed extraordinary during the days of mutiny. The prizes of vegetables have gone up very high and even the water supply had been disturbed.”
Fig. 11.3: Rani Lakshmi Bai was very popular among the people of state. Most of the Indian historians point her as a great brave lady of the time but some unsuccessfully try to this figure his brave deeds just by putting the fact in wrong manner that she was only worried about her own family and state. I think those historians are forgetting the political situation of that time of India. Every state was in fact independent state of her own rulers like Jhansi of Lakshmi Bai.
Fig. 11.4: This figure is of Nana Sahib. He fought very bravely against the English. At the end of 1858 when the rebellion collapse he escaped to Nepal. His escape had added to the legend of his courage and valour. It is correct interpretation of hist- orians because the Fig. English were very clever and they should have been mercyless. Nana Sahib had reply them in a courageous manner.
Fig. 11.5: It is Henry Hardinge. He was military reformer but his introduction of Enfield rifles and use of greased cartridges in them became the immediate cause of mutiny in 1857.
Fig. 11.6: This picture point out the outwardly good position of the zamindars. Af- ter crushing the Revolt of 1857, zamindaris were re- turned to old zamindars. It shows that even in 1880 zamindari continued in Awadh and they use to live comfortable life.
Fig. 11.7: Picture shows the different arms and weapons used by British troops and Bengal sepoys use European style uniforms during the British rule upto August 1947.
Fig. 11.8: This picture shows that religious places of different people were not destroyed but during mutiny days mosques and other places might have been ruin due to miscreants of the rebels.
Fig. 11.9: This figure tells us that very grand buildings were built by Nawab of Awadh and Mughal architecture and style had been shifted in different capitals of different states but property as well as loss of human life was felt during the days of mutiny.
Fig. 11.10: Lucknow was recaptured by the English after a long war and struggle. The paintings of Thomas Janes Barker show the clearly the control of the English forces on Lucknow, the capital town of Awadh.
Fig. 11.11: The figure shows that rebels had created great panic in the minds of English women and children during the days of mutiny.
Fig. 11.12: This figure shows that the English women were grantly worried about protection of their owner and life in Kanpur against the rebellious sepoys.
Fig. 11.13: In Kanpur the painful event of terrible massacre took place on 12 Sep, 1857. This event created hate between the colonial rulers and the Indians.
Fig. 11.14: In this picture the ruling class or the white people have painted just lions and their rebels have been pointed at tiger. The tigers were crushed mercylessely by the ruling class people after mutiny.
Fig. 11.15: This picture shows that the English believe in rewarding exemplary death penalty to teach lesson to Indian soldiers. They wanted to teach that whosoever would think to revolt against the English king or government would face the same treatment.
Fig. 11.16: The English like to give death penalties in open surrounded by cannon to teach about their terror and mode of extreme punishment to soldiers as well as the common people. Peshawar was the centre of this terror located nearby Afghanistan. The Britishers desired to torturous the people of north west frontier as well as Afghans also.
Fig. 11.17: Mutiny took place during the days of Governor Lord Canning. After mutiny he became the first Governor General of India during the rule of the British Crown. This picture shows that new set-up of government favoured mask clem- ancy but side by side the new Viceroy desired well discipline soldiers. There was no place for mutiny such as it took place in 1857.
Fig. 11.18: This picture shows that India is a land of brave men and women. Rani Lakshmi Bai was worshipped as a brave lady and great heroine of India by comming generation.
Fig. 11.19: Mutiny took place in different places of India. The different pictures/dresses and designs of different people indicate that not only sepoys but common Indians were also against the British rule.
9. Examine any two sources presented in the chapter, choosing one visual and one text, and discuss how these represent the point of view of the victor and vanquished.
Ans: Fig. 11.2: shows ordinary people join the mutiny of 1857. Lucknow was one of the main centres. The sepoys of Awadh were joint by peasants, zamindars, traders and talukdars.
Source: Sisten and the tahsildar: This source indicate that the effect of the rebellions had spread even among those officers who had earlier supported the British. The English men worried about their lives, property, owner of women and children. The geographical extent of the revolt was much greater. The magistrate use to get news and development day-to-day through their governmental representatives but they were suspicious as later on magistrate of Sitapur came to know that the Sisten who came to him was a great sympathise of the rebellions.
10. On an outline map of India, mark Calcutta (Kolkata), Bombay (Mumbai) and Madras (Chennai), three major centres of British power in 1857. Refer to Map 1 and Map and plot the areas where the revolt was most widespread. How close or far were these areas from the colonial cities?
Ans: (a)
(b)
(c)
