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Santosh Kumar, Lovely Professional University Unit 13: Map I

Unit 13: Map I Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
13.1 Important Centres of the Revolt 1857
13.2 India before Independence
13.3 Summary
13.4 Key-Words
13.5 Review Questions
13.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
• understand and analyse the geographical and political conditions of India before independence
through the maps of 1857 Revolt.

Introduction

The view of the British historians was that the outbreak of 1857 was a Mutiny. The fashion was
originally set by the Government of the day. Earl Stanley, the then Secretary of State for India,
while reporting the events of 1857 to Parliament, used the term “Mutiny” and most of the English
writers on the subject followed his lead and writers like Charles Ball, G.W. Forrest, T.R. Holmes,
M. Innes, J.W. Kaye, G.F. Macmunn, G.B. Malleson, C.T. Metcalfe, Earl Roberts and others used
the term “Mutiny” in this connection. Sir John Lawrence was of the opinion that the Mutiny had
its origin in the army and its cause was the greased cartridges and nothing else. It was not
attributable to any antecedent conspiracy what-soever, although it was taken advantage of by the
mutineers to increase their number. The view of Sir John Seeley was that the Mutiny was a
“wholly unpatriotic and selfish sepoy mutiny with no native leadership and no popular support.”
The British officers conducting the trial of Bahadur Shah II held him responsible for originating
the Mutiny in conspiracy with the Shah of Iran and other Muslim rulers of the Middle East. Sir
Theophilius Metcalfe deposed in the trial of Bahadur Shah that six weeks before the outbreak, a
seditious poster was found pasted on the walls of Jama Masjid proclaiming that the Shah of Iran
would invade India and all the Muslims should be ready to join the Jehad. British historians are of
the view that Nana Sahib organised the revolution long before its outbreak at Meerut. To quote
Kaye, “For months, for years, indeed ever since the failure of the mission to England had been
apparent, they had been quietly, spreading their network of intrigue all over the country. From one
native court to another, from one extremity to another of the Great Continent of India, the agents of
Nana Sahib had passed with overtures and invitations, discretely perhaps mysteriously worded, to
princes and chiefs of different races and religions, but most hopeful of all to the Marathas. Nana
Sahib’s two most important agents were Rungo Bapoji in the South and Azimullah in the North.”
There were also writers who considered the revolt of 1857 the result of a Hindu conspiracy. The
Hindus were said to have a genius for conspiracy. “They possess a power of patience of foreseeing
results, of carefully weighing chances, of choosing time and weapon, of profiting by circumstances,

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