The 1857 War of Independence-Part I

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THE 1857 SEPOY MUTINY OR WAS IT THE FIRST INDIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

1857?

 

British and most native Indian historians treat this event alike as a

Sepoy mutiny, a mutiny of the British Indian native foot soldiers

against their British officers. Brave and loyal Indians, among the

princely states of Baroda, Jaipur, Bikaner, Patiala, Nabha, and Jind

and Nepal, put this mutiny.

 

To get an idea of the treatment of the subject one has to only read a

prescribed text in Indian Universities, the highly regarded text " An

Advanced History of India-" by the esteemed Historians - R C

Majumdar, H. C. Ray Chaudhary, Kalika Ranjan Dutta. Macmillan India,

New Delhi republished this textbook first published in 1946, in its

4th edition in 1990.

 

It tells us that, the British were fortunate "to secure the loyalty

of and receive valuable aid from the likes of Sir Dinkar Rao of

GWALIOR, Sir Salar Jung of HYDERABAD, Jang Bahadur of NEPAL". Praise

and thanks are bestowed on the Rajput princes of Rajastan and the

Sikh princes of Punjab, Gulab Singh of Kashmir, all of whom were by

then, little more then pensioners and tax collectors for the British.

Scindia of Gwalior, Gulab Singh of Kashmir, are singled out for

special praise. Of Scindia the British Historians wrote " he. Saved

India for the British" and of Salar Jang (later Sir Salar Jang), as

a " man whose name deserves to be ever mentioned by Englishmen with

gratitude and admiration"

 

The cause is supposed to have been the adoption of fat filled

cartridges in the newly introduced bullets. The fat was of Pigs and

Cows, thus offensive to both Muslims and Hindus.

 

The revolt spread from Calcutta to Peshawar and Central India. To

suppress it help came the quarters above.

 

A conspiracy, against the British, British, between Nana Sahib

Peshwa the adopted son of Baji Rao II, the last Peshwa, and the Rani

of Jhansi, Laxmi Bai and others is also suggested, and it is also

suggested that the conspiracy existed even before the revolt.

 

At it end untold atrocities were committed on the Indian people in

revenge.

 

The Bombay Telegraph reported, on the aftermath of the taking of

Delhi by the British,

 

" All the city people found within the walls when our troops arrived

were bayoneted on the spot; and the number was not inconsiderable, as

you may suppose when I tell you that in some houses forty or fifty

people were hiding"

 

When it was over, names like Laxmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi, Nana Sahib

Peshwa, Tantia Tope, lived on in the minds of the Indian psyche, to

be evoked as the precursors and role models of the freedom movement

that came later, and led to the independence of India from the

British in 1947.

 

However one is inclined to ask was this all, and was this cause

enough for a major conflagration to envelope then known British

India. ?

 

How is that such a well-coordinated effort existed from one end of

the nation to the other?

 

Was the entire Indian population so enthralled that they would risk

and not only risk but also give their lives?

 

Was all this to save a pension for Nana Sahib Peshwa, or so that

Laxmi Bai's adopted son could ascend the throne?

 

The causes, the organizers, the organization, and the coordination

were a little deeper, yet the story has not been told in full.

 

Names like Swami Omanand, Swami Purananand, Swami Virajanand, Swami

Dayanand are nowhere mentioned.

 

There is no cognizance of names like Nahar Singh, Rao Tula Ram, and

of sacrifices of the men and women of the Jat Sarv Khap. There is no

mention in our histories of how the headmen of the Panchayat of each

village in then Haryana were hanged to death, and entire villages

were burnt to the ground.

 

Haryana as it then was not the miniscule Haryana, of toady, but a

vast republic, which spread from the Sutlej in then Punjab, to

Rajasthan to Madhya Pradesh to Western UP. Its supreme Panchayat

governed this vast entire territory through its panchayat system.

Formed in 600 AD by the Jat Emperor Harsh Vardhan Virk, it was

headquartered at Shoron, district Muzzafarnagar, some 150 Kilometers

north east of Delhi on the Delhi - Dehradun Road. This republic faced

down the invaders like Ghazni, Ghauri, Timur and the Khiljis for over

one thousand years.

 

When the 1857 war was lost, it was destroyed. Its people were

punished. It was divided between the petty protectorates of the

British, the princes of Rajasthan, Punjab, and one part to form the

United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, and one to create what later

became the Union Territory of Delhi. The name Haryana was erased from

history.

 

Some records survived, and Dilip Singh Ahlawat, after much research

in the Sarv Khap records, wrote a History book in Hindi; Titled " Jat

Viron ka Ithihass" published from Rohtak in1988.

 

His account of the first war of Independence of 1857 is a little

different from the standard one

 

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