Revolt of 1857 in Bihar

Revolt of 1857 in Bihar

There has been a long-drawn controversy with regard to the nature of the 1857 rebellion. Scholars have expressed diverse views about it. Whether or not this rebellion was broad-based like the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution, and had the willing support and cooperation of the civilian Population at large is a disputed question. It is true that the entire civilian population of the British Indian empire did not come forward to side with the revolting sipahis. It would not however be true to hold that throughout the period of the revolt the rebel soldiers stood absolutely divorced from the sympathy and support of the common people. The people joined the sipahis for diverse reasons in most of the areas where troops rebelled.

The revolt that began at Meerut on May 10, 1857 very soon spread to large parts of northern India, including Bihar. There were three major developments in Bihar during July 1857. At Patna there was an uprising led by Pir Ali and his associates (Pir Ali was a book-seller); the mutiny at Danapur (Dinapur); and the assumption of Leadership of the revolt in the region by Kunwar Singh. On July 25 three regiments stationed at the major cantonment of Danapur on the outskirts of Patna rebelled. Most of the troops crossed the Son river into Shahabad, where they joined the rebels under Kunwar Singh who were then besieging a small European community at Arrah.

At the time of the revolt the Bihar province (or, rather, Patna division) of the Bengal presidency consisted of the following six districts: Patna, Bihar, Saran, Shahabad, Tirhut and Champaran. It needs to be underlined that these, along with Bengal and Orissa, were the earliest large-scale territorial conquests of the East India Company. Bihar had enjoyed considerable importance in the trading activities of the European companies since the seventeenth century. Indigo production played a significant role in the colonial exploitation of the region (opium was the other major commodity of the colonial economy of Bihar). Under the East India Company a system of forced cultivation of indigo, and exploitation of the cultivators by European indigo planters and indigenous zamindars, was imposed in the countryside.

BEGINNING OF A WIDESPREAD REVOLT

The first major incident in Bihar during the revolt was the Patna uprising of July 3, with Pir Ali at its forefront. On this date the Deputy Opium Agent of the Patna Opium Agency, Dr Lyell, was killed. This was as an attack on a major source of colonial revenue. Gangetic Bihar, together with the Banaras-Ghazipur region was the main area of opium production in the East India Company’s territories. It is significant that this entire tract was engulfed by the upheavals of the revolt.

Pir Ali was charged with Lyell’s murder, convicted and hanged. William Tayler was the Commissioner of Patna division at this time (Tayler carried out the operations against Pir Ali and his associates and was distinguished by his sadistic brutality. Yet, writing of Pir Ali’s valiant conduct on the eve of his execution he was forced to remark: ‘… he is the type of a class with many of whom we have, in this country to deal, men whose unconquerable fanaticism renders them dangerous enemies and whose stern resolution entitles them in some measure to admiration and respect’! Apart from Ali, sixteen more rebels were hanged for their participation in the Patna uprising another seventeen were imprisoned with hard labour, and two were transported to penal settlements.

After the rebellion in Patna, sipahis of three of the regiments in Danapur mutinied on July 25, 1857. This may be said to mark the beginning of a widespread revolt in Bihar, which lasted for more than a year. On July 26 the troops reached Shahabad in an effort to organize themselves under the leadership of the octogenarian Kunwar Singh, raja of Jagdishpur, who had already launched a movement against the British. Kunwar Singh gathered a large number of followers, who included his brothers Amar Singh and Ritnarain Singh; his nephews Nishan Singh and Jai Krishna Singh; Thakur Dayal Singh and Bisheswar Singh. It may be mentioned here that whereas a section of the landlords of Bihar, including some very prominent zamindars, took part in the revolt, the bulk of the big landlords remained loyal to the colonial government and helped it in crushing the movement. Nevertheless the uprising was fairly widespread in the region, and did have strong popular support in several areas.

In Patna and Chhotanagpur divisions the soldiers and civil population fought together against the British government. In Shahabad the rajputs rose in arms under the leadership of Kunwar Singh. The rebel troops in Gaya were strengthened by a large number of disaffected villagers and Bhojpuri rebels under the leadership of Jeodhar Singh and Haider Ali Khan. In Hazaribagh the Santhals, and some local leaders, launched a movement against the British. The activities of Nilambar and Pitambar in alliance with the Chero zamindars made Palamau a centre of serious popular agitation during the revolt. Singhbhum witnessed a struggle of the sipahis in Conjunction with the Kols and other tribes of the district under the leadership of Arjun Singh. In Manbhum the sipahis, the Santhals, and the raja of Panchet estate, Nilmoni Singh, rose in revolt against the government. In Sambalpur the mutinous sipahis in their struggle against the British were led by Surendra Sahi, Udwant Sahi, and other leaders from amongst the civilian population. In Patna the Wahhabis played a leading role in the revolt. The Danapur mutiny also had an impact on the Muzaffarpur area, where too an uprising took place in the wake of the events at Danapur. The mutiny of the 12th Irregular Cavalry at Sugauli on the Indo-Nepal border eventually led to the outbreak of a revolt in Champaran and Saran. Purnea rose in revolt under the influence of the Jalpaiguri mutineers. The contagion of the Danapur mutiny and the provocation of the detachments of the Ramgarh battalion provoked the Hazaribagh revolt that had its echoes in Ranchi and Sambalpur.

KUNWAR SINGH, A NATURAL LEADER

Kunwar Singh (1777 – 26 April 1858) was a notable leader during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He belonged to a royal Ujjainiya (Panwar) Rajput house of Jagdispur, currently a part of Bhojpur district, Bihar, India. At the age of 80, he led a select band of armed soldiers against the troops under the command of the British East India Company. He was the chief organiser of the fight against the British in Bihar. He is popularly known as Veer Kunwar Singh.

Singh led the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in Bihar. He was nearly eighty and in failing Health when he was called upon to take up arms. He gave a good fight and harried British forces for nearly a year and remained invincible until the end. He was an expert in the art of guerilla warfare. His tactics left the British puzzled.

While many zamindars and local leaders were with the government, others were sympathisers of the agitated masses and openly participated in the rebellion and became its leaders. The most important of them was Kunwar Singh who was generally looked upon as a ‘natural’ leader by most rebels in Bihar. When some Bihar rebels were being tried in September 1857, one of them declared, ‘the supremacy of the English and the Company is at an end, and it is now Kunwar Singh’s reign’. Thus, the rebels of Danapur, Chhotanagpur, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Palamau wanted to carry on the struggle together under his common leadership. Jadunath Sahi (the son-in-law of Kunwar Singh’s brother Dayal Singh) who had taken a leading part in the rebellion in Ranchi, was located as a follower of Kunwar Singh. Raja Arjun Singh of Singhbhum as well as Arjun Singh’s brother, along with many local leaders, were keen to fight under Kunwar Singh’s leadership. Many of them sought to help Kunwar Singh by sending their forces to join him.

Kunwar Singh moved from place to place fighting the British with the help of local chiefs and the common people. However, at a critical juncture the British were saved by Major Eyre, who defeated Kunwar Singh’s forces at Bibiganj on August 3. This was a great relief for the British garrison. But this did not mark the end of Kunwar Singh’s struggle. He shifted out of Bihar, moving to Mirzapur, Rewa, Banda, Lucknow and Kanpur.

Kunwar Singh adopted the unique method of attacking the weakest positions of the English, while keeping his men mobilised for any eventuality. This perhaps explains why the rebellion could be sustained for such a long time. Avoiding fixed positions, Kunwar Singh moved around extensively in areas like Rewa, Banda and Kalpi, along with his comrade-in-arms Nishan Singh. He was joined by the Gwalior troops and then proceeded to take part in the battle of Kanpur. Next he marched to Lucknow and then to Azamgarh. The governor-general ordered the re-occupation of Azamgarh as Kunwar Singh had seized it, which forced the latter to march towards Ghazipur. By April 23, 1858 Kunwar Singh was back at Jagdishpur. He had lost an arm, but his determination to fight the English had not weakened. He defeated the English force in an important engagement but died very soon after this.

Fight with British Empire

Kunwar Singh inspired the leaders in Chhotanagpur, the Santhal Pargannas, and other parts of Bihar to carry on the struggle. After his death his brother Amar Singh led his followers, who held out bravely in different parts of Bihar. Their activities continued to be a cause of serious concern for the East India Company’s administration. The forest area of Jagdishpur was the base of Amar Singh’s military campaign. The struggle between Amar Singh and the British force under Sir E Lugard in the first half of 1858 assumed epic dimensions. Engels took note of Amar Singh’s military acumen in an ARTICLE in the New York Daily Tribune (October 1, 1858): ‘These impenetrable forests [in Jagdishpur] of bamboo and underwood are held by a party of insurgents under Ummer [Amar] Singh, who shows rather more activity and knowledge of guerrilla warfare; at all events, he attacks the British wherever he can, instead of quietly waiting for them. If, as it is feared, part of the Oude insurgents should join him before he can be expelled from his stronghold, the British may expect rather harder work they have had of late. These jungles have now for nearly eight months served as a retreat to insurgent parties, who have been able to render very insecure the Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Allahabad, the main Communication of the British’. In other words, Engels saw in Amar Singh the one great hope of the continuation of the revolt. After the retreat of Nana Sahib into Nepal, Amar Singh went over to the terai region to assume the leadership of Nana’s troops, but was captured in December 1859. He was imprisoned by the British at Gorakhpur, but died of illness at Gorakhpur on January 3, 1860 before he could be placed on trial.

The indigo planters got an opportunity to prove their loyalty to the raj in 1857. They fought against the rebels, protected government treasuries and guarded settlements of Europeans from possible attacks. Such help in the severest crisis that the raj had to face in Bihar gave the government full confidence in them. And in return they began to seek all possible support from the government machinery for the cultivation of indigo in the post-1857 period. Since popular participation of the common people in the revolt threatened the foundations of the empire, the colonial administration was in search of a common ally to buttress British rule. Thus the appeasement of the landed aristocracy became the hallmark of British policy after the revolt. In order to exercise control over the raiyyats it was necessary to form a joint front with the local zamindars. Since the planters had ready cash, they began to pay higher rents to the zamindars. The zamindars therefore preferred to enter into arrangements with the planters rather than the raiyyats when it came to leasing land. Thus, during the latter half of the nineteenth century a ‘triple’ alliance was formed in the Bihar countryside to exercise control over tillers of the Soil.

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The Revolt of 1857 in Bihar was a major uprising against the British East India Company that took place in the Indian state of Bihar. The revolt began in Meerut on May 10, 1857, and spread to Bihar soon after. The rebels were led by Mangal Pandey, a sepoy in the British Indian Army. The revolt was eventually suppressed by the British, but it had a profound impact on the history of India.

Mangal Pandey

Mangal Pandey was born in a Brahmin family in the village of Barrackpore, near Calcutta, in 1827. He joined the British Indian Army in 1849 and was stationed at Meerut. In 1857, he was one of the sepoys who refused to use the new cartridges that had been greased with animal fat. The sepoys believed that using these cartridges would defile them, as they were both Hindu and Muslim.

On March 29, 1857, Pandey attacked a British officer and was arrested. He was tried and sentenced to death, but he was executed on April 8, 1857. His execution sparked the revolt that spread to Bihar and other parts of India.

The causes of the revolt

The Revolt of 1857 was caused by a number of factors, including:

• The introduction of new cartridges that were greased with animal fat. This offended both Hindu and Muslim sepoys, who believed that using these cartridges would defile them.
• The growing resentment of the Indian people towards British rule. The British had imposed a number of taxes and restrictions on the Indian people, and they had also interfered in Indian religious and cultural practices.
• The growing sense of nationalism among the Indian people. The Indian people were beginning to realize that they had a common identity and that they should unite against British rule.

The course of the revolt

The revolt began in Meerut on May 10, 1857, when a group of sepoys refused to use the new cartridges. The revolt quickly spread to other parts of India, including Bihar. The rebels were led by a number of different leaders, including Mangal Pandey, Tantia Tope, and Nana Sahib.

The British were initially caught off guard by the revolt, but they eventually suppressed it. The revolt was particularly bloody in Bihar, where the British carried out a number of massacres. The revolt ended in 1858, with the recapture of Delhi by the British.

The impact of the revolt

The Revolt of 1857 had a profound impact on the history of India. It led to the end of the British East India Company’s rule in India, and it also led to the establishment of the British Raj. The revolt also had a significant impact on Indian nationalism, and it helped to pave the way for India’s independence in 1947.

The legacy of the revolt

The Revolt of 1857 is still remembered today in India. It is a symbol of Indian resistance to British rule, and it is also a reminder of the sacrifices that were made for Indian independence. The revolt is also a reminder of the need for unity among the Indian people.

The Revolt of 1857, also known as the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Sepoy Mutiny, or the First War of Indian Independence, was a Major Armed Uprising against British rule in India. It began in Meerut on 10 May 1857, and spread rapidly to other parts of northern and central India. The revolt was ultimately unsuccessful, but it had a profound impact on British rule in India.

Here are some frequently asked questions about the Revolt of 1857:

• What were the causes of the Revolt of 1857?

The causes of the Revolt of 1857 were complex and varied. Some of the most important causes include:

• The introduction of the Enfield rifle. The Enfield rifle was a new type of rifle that the British East India Company began to issue to its sepoys (Indian soldiers). The cartridges for the Enfield rifle were greased with animal fat, which many sepoys believed to be a sacrilege, as they were either Hindu or Muslim and did not want to consume animal products.
• The growing discontent among Indian soldiers. Indian soldiers were often poorly paid and treated with contempt by their British officers. This led to growing resentment among the sepoys.
• The economic and social changes that were taking place in India. The British East India Company was rapidly transforming India’s economy and Society. This led to the displacement of many Indian peasants and artisans, and the Growth of a new class of Indian merchants and bankers. These changes created new tensions and resentments among the Indian population.

• The role of religion. Religion played a significant role in the Revolt of 1857. Many Indian sepoys believed that the British were trying to undermine their religion and culture. This belief was fueled by rumors and propaganda that spread throughout India in the months leading up to the revolt.

• What were the main events of the Revolt of 1857?

The Revolt of 1857 began in Meerut on 10 May 1857, when a group of sepoys refused to use the new Enfield rifles. The revolt quickly spread to other parts of northern and central India, and by June 1857, the British had lost control of most of the region. The rebels captured Delhi, the capital of the Mughal Empire, and proclaimed Bahadur Shah II as the new emperor of India.

The British were able to suppress the revolt by the end of 1857, but it had a profound impact on British rule in India. The revolt led to the end of the East India Company’s rule in India, and the British government took direct control of the country. The revolt also led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Indians, and the destruction of much of India’s Infrastructure-2/”>INFRASTRUCTURE.

• What were the consequences of the Revolt of 1857?

The Revolt of 1857 had a profound impact on British rule in India. The revolt led to the end of the East India Company’s rule in India, and the British government took direct control of the country. The revolt also led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Indians, and the destruction of much of India’s infrastructure.

The revolt also had a significant impact on Indian nationalism. The revolt showed that Indians were capable of resisting British rule, and it inspired a new generation of Indian nationalists. The revolt also led to the development of a new Indian identity, which was based on a shared history and culture.

• What is the legacy of the Revolt of 1857?

The Revolt of 1857 is a complex and controversial event in Indian history. The revolt was a major turning point in British rule in India, and it had a profound impact on Indian nationalism. The revolt is still debated by historians today, and its legacy continues to be felt in India.

Here are some MCQs about the Revolt of 1857:

1. What was the immediate cause of the Revolt of 1857?
   (A) The introduction of the Enfield rifle, which used cartridges that had to be bitten open by the soldiers.
   (B) The growing discontent among the Indian soldiers over their pay and conditions.
   (C) The rumors that the British were planning to defile Hindu and Muslim holy sites.
   (D) The growing economic and social inequality between the British and the Indians.

2. Which of the following was not a major center of the Revolt of 1857?
   (A) Delhi
   (B) Lucknow
   (C) Kanpur
   (D) Bihar

3. Who was the leader of the Revolt of 1857 in Delhi?
   (A) Bahadur Shah Zafar
   (B) Nana Sahib
   (C) Tantia Tope
   (D) Rani Lakshmibai

4. What was the outcome of the Revolt of 1857?
   (A) The British were defeated and the Indian rebels were victorious.
   (B) The British were victorious and the Indian rebels were defeated.
   (C) The British and the Indian rebels reached a stalemate.
   (D) The Revolt of 1857 was a turning point in the history of British rule in India.

5. Which of the following was not a consequence of the Revolt of 1857?
   (A) The British government abolished the East India Company.
   (B) The British government took direct control of India.
   (C) The British government instituted a number of reforms in an attempt to appease the Indian population.
   (D) The British government executed a number of Indian rebels.

6. What was the name of the British officer who led the suppression of the Revolt of 1857?
   (A) Lord Canning
   (B) Lord Dalhousie
   (C) Lord Hardinge
   (D) Lord Lawrence

7. Which of the following was not a major figure in the suppression of the Revolt of 1857?
   (A) Sir Henry Havelock
   (B) Sir Colin Campbell
   (C) General James Outram
   (D) Nana Sahib

8. What was the name of the British woman who was killed by Nana Sahib during the Siege of Kanpur?
   (A) Margaret Wheeler
   (B) Julia Inglis
   (C) Fanny Parkes
   (D) Annie Besant

9. Which of the following was not a major battle of the Revolt of 1857?
   (A) The Battle of Delhi
   (B) The Battle of Kanpur
   (C) The Battle of Lucknow
   (D) The Battle of Bihar

10. What was the name of the British officer who was killed during the Battle of Lucknow?
    (A) Henry Lawrence
    (B) James Outram
    (C) Colin Campbell
    (D) John Nicholson

These are just a few examples of MCQs that could be asked about the Revolt of 1857. There are many other possible questions that could be asked, depending on the specific focus of the test or quiz.