Page 211 - DHIS204_DHIS205_INDIAN_FREEDOM_STRUGGLE_HINDI

Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes
N GILGIT
JAMMU PRE-PARTITION
&
NWFP KASHMIR MAP OF INDIA
Before 1947
BALUCHISTAN PUNJAB PUNJAB STATES

RAJPUTANA
UNITED
BALUCHISTAN BAHAWALPUR RAMPUR SIKKIM ASSAM
STATES Ajmer PROVINCES COOCH KHASI STATES
SIND Merwara
BEHAR
RAJASTHAN GUJARAT BENGAL MANIPUR
& CENTRAL INDIA EASTERNINDIA TRIPURA
BIHAR
NAGAR CENTRAL PROVINCES
Arabian HAVELI
Sea

HYDERABAD ORISSA
KOLHAPUR & Bay
DECCAN STATES YANAM of
Bengal
GOA MADRAS

MYSORE
MAHE PONDICHERRY
ANDAMAN &
KARAIKAL
MADRAS NICOBAR ISLANDS
LACCADIV (INDIA) STATES
Map not to Scale
Princely States
British India Copyright © 2012 www.mapsofindia.com
I N D I A N O C E A N (Updated on 5th April 2012)

13.3 Summary

• 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.

206 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY