Revolt of 1857 in Madhya Pradesh | Course for MPPSC Preparation - MPPSC (Madhya Pradesh) PDF Download

Revolt of 1857

The first expression of organised resistance was the Revolt of 1857. It began as a revolt of the sepoys of the Company’s army but eventually secured the participation of the masses. Its causes lay deeply embedded in the grievances that all sections of Indian society nurtured against the British rule.

Causes of The Revolt of 1857 in Madhya Pradesh

Political Cause:

• The policies used by the British for territorial annexation [Doctrine of lapse, Subsidiary Alliance] angered the Indian rulers.

Economic cause:

• The Great Revolt of 1857 was also an outburst of grievances due to the economic exploitation of the company.
• India’s traditional economy collapsed as a result of the British ‘investment’ policies and revenue administration.
• The company’s trade policy destroyed Indian handicrafts.
• Huge numbers of Indians were thrown out of employment.
• The British, opened a new avenue of exploitation on the peasants By introducing permanent settlement.

Social cause:

• The English could not establish any social relationship with the Indians.
• The racial arrogance of the British created a difference between the rulers and the ruled.
• There was fear that British were converting Hindus and Muslims in Christianity.

Military Cause:

• Induction of enfield riffles in the army, catridge of which had fat of cow and pig. Hindu and Muslim soldiers protested against this.
• There was discrimination among the British and Indian soldiers. British soldier’s behavior was rude against the Indian soldiers.

Beginning and Spread of Revolt of 1857 

• The reports about the mixing of bone dust in Atta (flour) and the introduction of the Enfield rifle enhanced the sepoys growing disaffection with the Government. The cartridge of the new rifle had to be bitten off before loading and the grease was reportedly made of beef and pig fat. The Army administration did nothing to allay these fears, and the sepoys felt their religion was in grave danger.
• The greased cartridges did not create a new cause of discontent in the Army, but supplied the occasion for the simmering discontent to come out in the open. The revolt began at Meerut, 58 km from Delhi, on May 10, 1857 and then, gathering force rapidly, soon embraced a vast area from the Punjab in the north and the Narmada in the south to Bihar in the east and Rajputana in the west.
• Even before the Meerut incident, there were rumblings of resentment in various cantonments. The 19th Native Infantry at Berhampur, which refused to use the newly introduced Enfield rifle and broke out in mutiny in February 1857, was disbanded in March 1857.
• A young sepoy of the 34th Native Infantry, Mangal Pande, went a step further and fired at the sergeant major of his unit at Barrackpore. He was overpowered and executed on April 6 while his regiment was disbanded in May. The 7th Awadh Regiment which defied its officers on May 3 met with a similar fate.
• And then came the explosion at Meerut. On April 24, ninety men of 3rd Native Cavalry refused to accept the greased cartridges. On May 9, eighty-five of them were dismissed, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and put in fetters. This sparked off a general mutiny among the Indian soldiers stationed at Meerut.
• The very next day, on May 10, they released their imprisoned comrades, killed their officers and unfurled the banner of revolt.
• They set off for Delhi after sunset. In Delhi, the local infantry joined them, killed their own European officers including Simon Fraser, the political agent, and seized the city. Lieutenant Willoughby, the officer-in- charge of the magazine at Delhi, offered some resistance, but was overcome. The aged and powerless Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed the emperor of India.
• Delhi was soon to become the centre of the Great Revolt and Bahadur Shah, its symbol. This spontaneous raising of the last Mughal king to the leadership of the country was recognition of the fact that the long reign of Mughal dynasty had become the traditional symbol of India’s political unity.
• With this single act, the sepoys had transformed a mutiny of soldiers into a revolutionary war, while all Indian chiefs who took part in the revolt hastened to proclaim their loyalty to the Mughal emperor.
• Bahadur Shah, after initial vacillation, wrote letters to all the chiefs and rulers of India urging them to organise a confederacy of Indian states to fight and replace the British regime. The entire Bengal Army soon rose in revolt which spread quickly. Awadh, Rohilkhand, the Doab, the Bundelkhand, central India, large parts of Bihar and East Punjab shook off British authority.
• The revolt of the sepoys was accompanied by a rebellion of the civil population, particularly in the north-western provinces and Awadh. Their accumulated grievances found immediate expression and they rose en masse to give vent to their opposition to British rule.
• It is the widespread participation in the revolt by the peasantry, the artisans, shopkeepers, day labourers, zamindars, religious mendicants, priests and civil servants which gave it real strength as well as the character of a popular revolt.
• Here the peasants and petty zamindars gave free expression to their grievances by attacking the moneylenders and zamindars that had displaced them from the land. They took advantage of the revolt to destroy the moneylenders’ account books and debt records.
• They also attacked the British-established law courts, revenue offices (tehsils), revenue records and police stations.
• According to one estimate, of the total number of about 1, 50,000 men who died fighting the English in Awadh, over 1, 00,000 were civilians.
• Within a month of the capture of Delhi, the revolt spread to different parts of the country.

Role of Madaya Pradesh in 1857 Revolt

• Madhya Pradesh is a heart of India also strategic location most of the fight or operations of the 1857 were controlled by here only.
• In the Revolt of 1857 Madhya Pradesh played an important role. People like Gaya Dutt, Manik Chand Kochar, Choudhary Shankar Lal, and several other Indian Freedom Fighters inspired the masses to participate in the Indian freedom struggle for the Indian Independence Movement. The modern history of Madhya Pradesh also witnessed numerous martyrs who willingly laid down their lives for liberating their motherland from the British Raj.
• The social nature of the revolt in MP – Though civilians played a key role, units of the Indian Army spearheaded the agitation. The reported issue of cartridges greased with pigs’ fat and official interference with traditional religion disturbed elements of the army in central as in other parts of India. Soldiers in Jabalpur heard with tension the reactions of their compatriots in Delhi and Meerut by 17 May, though by then troops in Sagar and probably Jabalpur also had refused to use any fresh cartridges that might be handed out.
• Numbers of civilians from well defined clans or communities made common cause with the army in its revolt against the government. To these civilians the initiative passed after the first wave of rebellion by the army. Prominent among them were the Gond rajas and thakurs of Jabalpur, Mandla, Narsimhapur and Hoshangabad. The Raja of Garha-Mandla’s sympathy for the revolt and his subsequent annihilation fired the patriotism of many Gond leaders and drew them into the agitation. But in joining the revolt they were also protesting against the administration’s attitude to the tribal community in general. Officials condemned tribal agriculture and criticized tribals as lazy, ignorant, wild and drunken. Moreover, after showing little concern with the wilderness, the government had suddenly asserted its claim to the forests where tribals had roamed for centuries.
• The revolt of 1857 in the Sagar and Narmada Territories had other features besides its civil and military nature. Patriotism formed a strong element in the revolt. The revolt of the army itself was an act of hostility to the British state and the administration of the East India Company. Army regiments in Jabalpur and Sagar shared with fellow soldiers elsewhere their opposition to government interference with religious and social customs. A wider patriotism was evident among troops, too, as news of army movements from other parts of the country ‘agitated’ them, making them ‘indignant against the foreign rulers’. In many places rebel troops formed close connections with civil leaders in a union that sought to remove foreign rule and restore an Indian government to the region. Thus Shankar Shah became a focus of loyalty for troops and civil rebels alike, as did the Rajas of Banpur and Shahgarh.
• The revolt of 1857 enjoyed wide support in the countryside north of the Narmada. In addition to the chiefs leading the movement, large numbers of malguzars, agriculturists, and even labourers took part.
• This was mainly because Bundela, Lodhi and Gond leaders commanded support among their respective clans and communities. After the revolt British courts in Damoh sentenced cultivators, patwaris, sons of cultivators, artisans and coolies for serving rebel leaders or accompanying rebels when they collected rents or plundered. The adherents of the Raja of Ramgarh were also said to comprise ‘so many coolies’. Duryao Singh, a relative of the Raja of Shahgarh, had a band of 50 soldiers who plundered at night and returned to their villages by day. Holders of jagirs also incited their men to arms, and when the chiefs of Mandla joined the revolt they did so with their ‘Gond retainers’. In Jabalpur Gond and Lodhi thakurs took their followers with them; and in Sagar and Damoh where many malguzars were in league with the rebels, some were so for reasons of clan loyalty
• In terms of areas controlled by rebels the revolt of 1857 was extremely effective, at least in the short term.
• The greater part of Sagar district was in rebel hands at one time or another, isolating the town and fort from the outside. Rebels seized most of Damoh district, police there and in Sagar deserting their thanas or joining the revolt. Rebels in Damoh also compelled British officials to abandon the district headquarters, and though the Maharaja of Panna occupied it subsequently, Lodhis from Hindoria and elsewhere defeated his troops, sacked the town, destroyed public buildings, and burnt records.
• In Jabalpur rebels took over the Bargi region, while the thakur of Vijayaragogarh joined the revolt. Rebels also snatched most of Mandla from British control, and in November the deputy commissioner, Waddington, quit Mandla town for Seoni, not regaining control until mid-January.
• Ramgarh taluka remained in Indian hands until the end of March 1858.
• Little occurred to disturb British rule in Seoni and Betul, and in Narsimhapur and Hoshangabad the revolt was on a small scale.
• The fertile talukas of Chawarpatha and Tendukhera in Narsimhapur were the objects of repeated Indian attack, both slipping from British hands by October I857. However, the rebels were mostly from other districts, the local Gond Rajas of Chichli and Dilheri with others withholding their forces from action.
• In Narsimhapur south of the Narmada and Hoshangabad most Gond chiefs preserved an armed neutrality, and some agreed to official requests to suppress dacoities. Agitations by police in Hoshangabad earlier in the revolt came to nothing, though Neemawar pargana in the district fell briefly to supporters of the Gwalior State.
• Rani laxmi Bai -The mother who fought for her mother land – She fought in first freedom fight -1857. She was a queen she could have done peace treaty with british like many other ruler of that time did, But i think so they lacked passion for their motherland. She entered the war zone carrying her baby on back. Still many folklore and story of here bravery are famous in parts of central India.She was not born in M.P neither jhansi was in M.P but M.P. was the place where she fought against british.
• Thakur Kundan Singh motivated people including tribals to rise against the British : Thakur Kundan Singh, who is part of folklore in Jabalpur, is unknown outside his native place. Kundan Singh was born in Baghraji near Jabalpur and rose in rebellion against the British in 1857 and motivated the local people including tribals to rise against the British rule. He died a painful death at the hands of the British army but not before killing many English soldiers.
• Towards the end of revolt in MP
• Despite the scale and intensity of the revolt, British military forces put an end to the agitation as they had done with other movements of protest. From August 1857 the moveable column from Nagpur engaged the rebels in Jabalpur, Sagar and Damoh. In October troops reopened communications between Sagar and Narsimhapur.
• In some districts such as Narsimhapur local officers cleared areas of rebels in November I857, preparing the ground for the British Indian Army to enter the region in December.
• In January I858 the end of the revolt was near, when Sir Hugh Rose marched from Bhopal into Sagar district to attack Rahatgarh.
• On 3 February he entered Sagar town itself, after which rebels yielded up Khurai and most of north Sagar, including the strongholds of Malthone and Nariaoli. Rose also recaptured Garhakota, and drove the Rajas of Banpur and Shahgarh into Bundelkhand. In January other troops took possession of Vijayaragogarh in Jabalpur, and Whitlock terminated resistance in the district before recovering Damoh in March.
• For some weeks sporadic burning and looting of police posts took place, but by the time the troops marched out of Sagar on 27 March the revolt was almost over.
• In Mandla, Waddington recovered the district headquarters in midJanuary after helping quell disturbances in Seoni.
• Ramgarh fell to British forces in April, and in June troops aided by detachments from Raipur and Rewa recaptured Sohagpur.
• Renewed attacks on several towns in Damoh in June and July I858 caused a mild panic, but by August additional troops had suppressed the disturbances

Major Centres and Leaders of the Revolt in India

• Lucknow – Begum Hazrat Mahal
• Kanpur – Nana Saheb
• Delhi – General Bhaktkhan
• Bihar – Kunwar Singh
• Jhansi – Rani Lekshmi Bai
• Faridabad – Maulavi AhmmadullaRevolt of 1857 in Madhya Pradesh
• Bareili – Khan Bahadur

Major Reasons of Failure of Revolt of 1857 in Madhya Pradesh

• There was communication gap between the leaders of different parts of India.
• There was no central leadership and the rebellion got limited to some parts of India only.
• Rebels did not have enough weapons and finance where British people had advanced weapons and enough finance.
• The leaders of this revolt could not get the support of several native states like Holker, Scindia and Rajput sardars and kings. They supported the British. Educated middle-class people also were behind the British power.
• Lack of planning and discipline among the rebels.
• The mutineers lacked a clear understanding of colonial rule; nor did they have a forward looking programmer, a coherent ideology, a political perspective or a societal alternative.

Nature of the Revolt of 1857 in Madhya Pradesh

• Views differ on the nature of the 1857 revolt.
• It was a mere ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ to some British historians “a wholly unpatriotic and selfish Sepoy Mutiny with no native leadership and no popular support”, said Sir John Seeley.
• Dr K. Datta considers the revolt of 1857 to have been “in the main a military outbreak, which was taken advantage of by certain discontented princes and landlords, whose interests had been affected by the new political order”. The last mentioned factor gave it an aura of a popular uprising in certain areas.
• It was “never all-Indian in character, but was localised, restricted and poorly organised”. Further, says Datta, the movement was marked by absence of cohesion and unity of purpose among the various sections of the rebels.
• It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that the 1857 revolt came to be interpreted as a “planned war of national independence”, by V.D. Savarkar in his book, First War of Indian Independence.
• Dr S.N. Sen in his Eighteen Fifty- Seven considers the revolt as having begun as a fight for religion but ended as a war of independence.
• Dr R.C. Majumdar, however, considers it as neither the first, nor national, nor a war of independence as large parts o£ the country remained unaffected and many sections of the people took no part in the upsurge.
• According to Marxist historians, the 1857 revolt was “the struggle of the soldier-peasant democratic combine against foreign as well as feudal bondage”. However, this view does not stand scrutiny in the light of the fact that the leaders of the revolt themselves came from a feudal background.

Effects of the Revolt of 1857 in Madhya Pradesh

• East India Company’s rule ended in India and the ruler ship was handed over to the Queen Victoria.
• Reforms were introduced in the army and all the steps were taken so that no such incident occurs in the future.
• Indian’s were assured of better governance.
• Awakening of Peasants class: The peasants joined this revolt which was out and out against the British. This was unique.
• Racial hatred and suspicion between the Indians and the English was aggravated.
• It was declared that there will be no discrimination and people will have more power and respect.
• Doctrine of Lapse was withdrawn.

Conclusion: One may say that the revolt of 1857 was the first great struggle of Indians to throw off British rule. It established local traditions of resistance to British rule which were to pave the way for the modern national movement.