An interesting recounting of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, with a further exploration of parallels between the policies of the East India Tea Company (torture, for example), the specifics of the sepoy rebellion (killing civilians, regiments disbanded), modern events (Bangladesh and Pakistan), and the arming of the Iraqi militia - The article provides many links to references.
http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ September 20, 2005 The Enfield Posted by Jim Macdonald at 01:31 PM * 42 comments There I was, pottering away, quoting some Kipling in an attempt to make a point about novels (specifically, "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, / And every single one of them is right!"). This led back to the poem itself, "In the Neolithic Age." There we find another line: And I stepped beneath Time's finger, once again a tribal singer / And a minor poet certified by Traill. So who was Traill? Me an' Google are chums, so off I went and soon found H. D. (Henry Duff) Traill, editor of the weekly Literature. Sounds good to me, I think we have a match. But along the way I found this: On that last day in Lucknow fort! We knew that it was the last; That the enemy's lines crept surely on, And the end was coming fast. To yield to that foe meant worse than death; And the men and we all worked on; It was one day more of smoke and roar, And then it would all be done. — "The Relief of Lucknow" by Robert Traill Spence Lowell The Indian Mutiny, the Sepoy Rebellion, the First War of Independence … hadn't been touched on very hard in World History when I was in high school. Other than it happened, that is. Most of what I knew of the Sepoy Insurrection had come from Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser, a book I recommend to everyone. Not many other novels make it worthwhile to keep a bookmark in the endnotes. It's part of a series of what you might call an unusual treatment of the military history of the 19th century, told by a villain from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes. "Was Flashman here then?" "Yes; and a dirty, little, snivelling, sneaking fellow he was too. He never dared join us, and used to toady the bullies by offering to fag for them, and peaching against the rest of us." "Why wasn't he cut, then?" said East. "Oh, toadies never get cut; they're too useful. Besides, he has no end of great hampers from home, with wine and game in them; so he toadied and fed himself into favour." I suppose you could call The Flashman Papers Tom Brown fanfic. But what of the Great Mutiny? The rule of the East India Company wasn't marked by cultural or religious sensitivity. Torture became a financial institution in colonial India, and was challenged by a petition from the Madras Native Association presented in January of 1856. The petition was dismissed on the basis of a lack of evidence, despite the fact that, according to the Marx, "there was scarcely any investigation at all, the Commission sitting only in the city of Madras, and for but three months, while it was impossible, except in very few cases, for the natives who had complaints to make to leave their homes". Marx also refers to Lord Dalhousie's statements in the Blue Books that there was "irrefragable proof" that various officers had committed "gross injustice, to arbitrary imprisonment and cruel torture". "John Company" trusted its native troops (the Sepoys). One of the sparks to the rebellion came when those troops were issued the very newest, top-of-the-line modern military rifles. Enfield Rifle Musket: British - (1857) .577 caliber. British service rifle 1857-1866. Muzzle-loading, percussion. The Enfield's paper ammunition wrapper, said to be greased with the fat of cows and pigs, was one of the causes for the Indian Mutiny. Three years later that same Enfield rifle was being used widely by both sides in the American Civil War. The sepoys took the initiative in killing women and children although in most cases this was done by riotous civilians and the riff raff. Still the sepoys are to be blamed since overall they were in charge. The British reprisals took place mostly in retaliation but as the adage goes i.e. two wrongs don't make a right. The British reprisals were, however, much less in magnitude if we compare them with atrocities against civilians committed by Nadir Shah in 1739 or by Ahmad Shah in 1756-61 or even by the Indo-Pak armies in 1971 in Bangladesh, or later in Balochistan, Indian Punjab or Kashmir. The British behaviour may perhaps be closely compared to Pakistan Army behaviour in East Pakistan in 1971. The initial atrocities were committed by the Bengalis but the martial races settled the 'duby' a very large margin, exceeding at least by 100,000 to 200,000 men perhaps! But then Karl Marx made some very profound remarks about 1857 and these can be applied to any such situation. Karl Marx said "However infamous the conduct of sepoys, it is only the reflex, in a concentrated form, of England's own conduct in India, not only during the epoch of the foundation of her Eastern Empire, but even during the last ten years of a long settled rule. The characteristics that rule it suffices to say that torture formed an organic institution of its financial policy. There is something in human history like retribution; and it is a rule of historic retribution that its instrument be forged not by the offended, but by the offender himself." The Sepoy Rebellion was marked by atrocities on both sides. Butchery, hangings, men blown from the mouths of cannon, others forced to lick clotted human blood from the floor, sold into slavery, floggings … it's all here. There had been a prophecy, widely repeated, that the rule of the British would soon come to an end. Then…. Somewhere about the end of the third week in January 1857, a khalasi, that is to say a labourer, accosted a high Brahmin sepoy and asked for a drink of water from his lotah (water-pot). The Brahmin refused on the score of caste. The khalasi then said, "You will soon lose your caste, as ere long you will have to bite catridges covered with the fat of pigs and cows," or, it is added, "words to that effect." (Palmer 15) Here's a bit of a timeline. March 29, 1857: Mangal Pandy, a Hindu Sepoy of 34 Native Infantry at Barrackpore, shoots at British sergeant-major and Regiment Adjutant. A jemadar (non-commissioned officer) is told to arrest Pandy, but refuses to do so. Mutineers in general were later referred to by the British as "Pandy" or "Pandies," much as later foes would be referred to as boche, jerries, slopes, gooks, Charlie, or ragheads. March 31, 1857: 19th Native Infantry disbanded. The practice of disbanding or disarming regiments which were disaffected may have added a number of recruits to the rebel cause. These men were thrown out of the army losing their pay and pensions with little prospect of securing other employment. They bore a considerable grudge against the British for this. April 7, 1857: Mangal Pandy, and the jemadar who refused to arrest him, are hanged. 34th Native Infantry regiment disbanded. May 3, 1857: 7th Oudh Irregular Infantry Regiment refuses to handle rifle cartridges. May 9, 1857: 85 members of 3rd Light Cavalry refuse to handle the cartridges at Meerut. They are stripped of their uniforms in public, sentenced to ten years of hard labor. May 10, 1857: 7th Oudh Irregular Infantry Regiment disbanded. The sepoys revolt at Meerut, free their imprisoned comrades, then march on Dehli. May 11, 1857: Sepoys capture Delhi, and proclaim Bahadur Shah II the emperor of all India. British defenders blow the magazine. May 12, 1857: Lahore secured by British. May 13, 1857: British march on Dehli. May 14, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Ferozepur; march to Dehli. May 20, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Aligarh, British east-west connection between Punjab and Calcutta cut. May 22, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Mainpuri. Native troops disarmed in Peshawar. May 23, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Ettawa. Rebels dispersed at Mardan by British; surviving sepoys sold into slavery. May 24, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Bulandshahr. May 30, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Lucknow. May 31, 1857: British regain control of Lucknow. The Indian Mutiny By the middle of the nineteenth century, the British had come to believe they were a chosen race; chosen to distribute the benefits of western civilization to the backward areas of the globe. That the inhabitants of such areas often didn't want these benefits and certainly not the accompanying British control of their lives was immaterial to Britain's sense of a mission. Native opposition frequently required military force to be brought against it and few years passed without the British Army being involved, somewhere in the empire, in a continual series of border skirmishes and punitive expeditions. May 31, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Bareilly and Shah Jahanpur. June 1, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Badaun. and Moradabad June 3, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Sitapur, Nimach, and Moradabad. June 4, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Cawnpore and Khairabad. Road cut between Lucknow and Calcutta. British garrison at Cawnpore takes defensive positions in the Entrenchment, besieged by forces under Nana Sahib. The Siege of Cawnpore … the siege of Cawnpore was not a protracted affair. It lasted just over three weeks, but it took place in June when the Indian sun is at its most merciless. The entrenchment had almost no shade and contained only one serviceable well. This, the only source of water was in an extremely exposed position, covered by enemy fire. Many men died trying to get water. Inside the position were about a thousand Britons, including 300 women and children. Ammunition, at least, was plentiful but the food supply was dangerously small. The mutineers never actually took the place by storm though they made a few half-hearted attacks. They could, however, cover almost every inch of the entrenchment with their muskets and kept up a constant stream of fire into the British position. The British could get no rest and their movement was severely restricted. Still they held on, hoping for relief from Lucknow to the north-east or Allahabad downstream on the Ganges. June 5, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Jhansi. June 6, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Allahabad but are unable to take the magazine which is held by Sikh troops. June 8, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Faizabad. June 9, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Mehidpore, Gwalior, and Nowgong. June 18, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Farrukhabad. June 27, 1857: British surrender at Cawnpore. British troops are massacred. June 30, 1857: Sir Henry Lawrence defeated at Chinhat, retreats to Lucknow Residency. July 1, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Lucknow and Indore. Central India is no longer in British hands. British columns reach Dehli; seige of Dehli begins. July 7, 1857: British/Sikh forces meet Sepoys at Jhelum; British are repulsed with heavy casualties. July 9, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Sialkot. July 15, 1857: Massacre of British civilians at Bibi-Ghar (Cawnpore Well). July 16, 1857: Sepoys reinforce Dehli. British victory at Maharajpur. July 17, 1857: British retake Cawnpore. July 19, 1857: British take Bithur. July 25, 1857: Sepoys rebel at Dinapur, attack British garrison at Arrah but are repulsed; rebels then move to Lucknow. July 29, 1857: British victory at Unao. August 2, 1857: Hindustani troops reach Agra. August 31, 1857: British enter Dehli. September 16, 1857: Pubjabi Muslim rebellion at Gugera. September 25, 1857: Reinforcements reach Lucknow Residency. The Siege of Lucknow Finally, 90 days after the siege began, gunfire was heard on the outskirts of the city. Two days later, on September 25th, a mob rather than an army burst into the residency. The lead troops were highlanders and in their furious push into the Residency they bayoneted a few loyal sepoys by mistake. The highlanders' uniforms were ragged and patched and their bearded faces were grimy with the smoke of powder. They were under the joint command of Sir Henry Havelock and Sir James Outram and had fought a gruelling campaign up from Cawnpore. Unfortunately, there were only a thousand of them and no sooner had the Residency gates closed behind them than the siege continued. September 29, 1857: British forces take the Red Fort at Dehli. Bahadur Shah arrested; his sons are shot and their heads presented to him. November 4, 1857: Muslim resistance suppressed in the Punjab. November 15, 1857: Brigadier Gerard defeats Jodhpur Legion. November 18, 1857: Relief of Lucknow. And they wept, and shook one another's hands, And the women sobbed in a crowd; And every one knelt down where he stood, And we all thanked God aloud. The relief force made no attempt to enter the Residency for its numbers were small. Instead it pacified the city long enough for the inhabitants of the Residency to be withdrawn. On November 18th the withdrawal began with, of course, the women and children leaving first. The city was not completely quiet and much of the withdrawal was made under fire. When the non-combatants were safe, the garrison left. It was no proud march past and the soldiers broke step to disguise their leaving. Finally the rearguard slipped out and the Residency and city of Lucknow were given up to the mutineers. The British remembered to take down the Residency flag before they left. The whole force now made its way back to Cawnpore and safety. With their going the mutiny sputtered out into a sordid series of punitve hunts and guerilla engagements. Lucknow was retaken the following year and though sporadic fighting continued into 1859, with the relief of the Residency the mutiny was effectively over and it was only a matter of time before the British re-established themselves as rules of the north of India. March, 1858: British troops retake Lucknow; advance on Jhansi. June 1, 1858: Rani of Jhansi captures Gwalior. June 21, 1858: Sepoys surrender at Gwalior. July 8, 1858: Peace signed. May 28, 1859: Battle of Sirwa Pass. Remaining Sepoys flee into Nepal. "The scale of the Indian Mutiny should not be exaggerated. Three quarters of the troops remained loyal, barely a third of British territory was affected" — Sir Winston Churchill 1858: The East India Company abolished. The Sepoys' errors: a) Failure to organise as brigades or divisions. b) Failure to effectively threaten the British line of communication. c) Failure to launch timely counter-attacks. d) Failure to use cavalry to protect flanks. e) Failure to have contingency plans in case of unforeseen enemy movement. f) Failure to resort to manoeuvre warfare. g) Failure to maintain a reserve to meet unforeseen enemy manoeuvres. Nana Sahib was never captured. His fate is unknown. Due to the bloody start of the rebellion, and the violence perpetrated upon the Europeans by the Indian forces especially after the apparent treachery of Nana Sahib and butchery in Cawnpore, the British believed that they were justified in using similar tactics. The British press and British government did not advocate clemency of any kind, though Governor General Canning tried to be sympathetic to native sensibilities, earning the scornful sobriquet "Clemency Canning". Soldiers took very few prisoners and often executed them later. Whole villages were wiped out for apparent pro-rebel sympathies. The Indians called it Devil's Wind. History doesn't necessarily repeat itself. But history does echo. Tell me — in Iraq, as we train and arm the Iraqi armed forces, as "they stand up" and "we stand down," what would happen if one-quarter of the Iraqi forces in one-third of that unhappy country were to mutiny and turn their weapons on the American forces on the ground? What would it look like? And what would George, Dick and Donald say on that day? ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- This is ZESTGlobal. 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