INDIAN MUTINY. The British occupa tion of India had been largely aided by native troops called Sepoys, who were enrolled under British officers in the service of the East In dia Company. At the close of Lord Dalhousie's sway in 1856, when the whole of India seemed to have been either reduced directly under British rule, or if retaining its native princes to have placed itself under British protection, the Sepoy mutiny, a contingency for which the gov ernment ought not to have been altogether un prepared, occurred. Previous symptoms of dis affection had not been wanting. Mutiny had on several occasions broken out in the native army, in a way to indicate how easily, through causes which Europeans, from their defective sympathy with native thought and feeling, could not anticipate these troops might be alienated; but, on the other hand, the general fidelity of the Sepoys merited confidence, and this feeling pre vailed over any grounds of suspicion which might have been formed from isolated occur rences. The Sepoys in Bengal were mostly either Mohammedans, or Hindus of the Brah manical or military castes. The recent annex ations had alarmed the native chiefs, while the fanatical Hindus had been deeply offended by reforms, including the successive abolition of various rites of their worship. Two European regiments had been drafted off for the Crimean War, and had not been replaced. Others had been sent to Burma, and in the beginning of 1857 fresh regiments were despatched to Persia, so that only eighteen regiments were left in all Northern India, of which nine were in the Punjab. In Oudh, where, from its recent an nexation, disaffection was rife, there was only one British regiment, and Delhi and Allaha bad, the two chief arsenals, were guarded by native troops. To add to these favorable cir cumstances a Hindu devotee had prophesied the termination of British rule at 100 years after the battle of Plassey. A slight incident sufficed to give point and direction to a spirit of dis affection which so many circumstances tended to favor. At this time the Enfield rifle was introduced into the Bengal army. This rifle was loaded with a greased cartridge, the end of which required to be bitten off at the time of loading. By a natural inadvertence the au thorities had neglected to consider how this seemingly trifling requirement might affect the easily excited sensitiveness of the Hindus in re gard to caste, and this insignificant circum stance removed the last security, against a united movement of disloyalty among the native troops, by establishing a bond of sympathy between the Mohammedans and Hindus. A report got abroad that the cartridges were to be soaked in cow and pork fat. The prejudices of Hindus and Mohammendans were thus equally involved, and as this rumor rapidly spread, the excited imagination of the Sepoys conceived a con spiracy on the part of the government to con vert them forcibly to Christianity, by compelling them to violate the laws of their own religion. When this grievance was explained it was at once removed, the manufacture of greased car tridges at Dumdum was stopped, and the men were instructed to grease them themselves with materials produced at the bazaars. Suspicion once aroused, however, was not to be allayed, and easily found a new object of contention. The paper of the new cartridges was glazed, and it was again alleged that grease was used in its manufacture. The spirit of disaffection be came too deep-rooted for any measures of con ciliation. Conferences among the disaffected gave rise to ambitious schemes and the original grievances became a pretext in the hands of unscrupulous leaders, whose excesses debarred them even from the plea of patriotism, to extir pate the British power in India. On 26 Febru ary the first overt act of mutiny took place at Berhampur, when a regiment refused to re ceive their cartridges. Another dangerous out break took place at Barrackpur on 29 March. The arrival of a British regiment from Burma and the disbandment of the disaffected regiments was thought to have ended the trouble, but it soon became evident that disaffection, which had only wanted an occasion, was spreading rapidly not only among the Sepoys, but among the Hindus generally. Another outbreak took place on 2 May, near Lucknow, when a regi ment of cavalry were, by some oversight of the government's instructions, ordered to bite their cartridges. Sir Henry Lawrence succeeded by a show of force in disarming it. A more for
midable outbreak occurred about the same time at Meerut, 35 miles northeast of Delhi, when the mutineers, with the assistance of the native inhabitants, indiscriminately massacred the Euro peans and escaped to Delhi. The advance-guard of the mutineers reached Delhi on 11 May, and at once entered the city, where they were as sisted by the king's servants in massacring the Europeans. The native troops cantoned outside the city in the meantime joined the main body of the mutineers, and assisted in massacring their European officers. About 50 Euro peans sought refuge in the palace and placed themselves under the protection of the king, who had placed himself on the throne of the Moguls. These, after some days, were coolly murdered in an open court in presence of a general concourse of spectators, conspicuous among whom was Mirza Mogul, the king's eldest son, who had assumed the title of com mander-in-chief. The magazine at pelhi had been blown up by its defenders; but the ex plosion was only partial, and most of its con tents fell into the hands of the mutineers. European troops were now summoned from all quarters. Several regiments were detached from an expedition which was proceeding under Lord Elgin to China, and the Persian War having been the troops en gaged there were immediately recalled. When intelligence of these events reached the Punjab, the mutinous spirit which prevailed among the large body of Hindustani troops there was promptly subdued by disarmament. The Sikhs, though the Punjab had been so recently an nexed, continued faithful. But the revolt had spread rapidly elsewhere, and British authority was almost extinct, throughout the Bengal presidency. Everywhere the mutiny was at tended with savage excesses — women were outraged, and Europeans, without distinction of age or sex, barbarously murdered. Sir Hugh Wheeler, at Cawnpore, was betrayed by Nana Sahib, maharajah of Bithur, who after offer ing aid, took the mutineers into his pay, and raising the Mahratta standard, besieged Cawn pore. The siege, or rather bombardment, lasted from 7-24 June, when a capitulation was agreed to, on a sworn promise of Nana Sahib to allow the garrison to retire to Allahabad. But as the embarkation was proceeding the boats were at tacked by the Nana's troops and the men in discriminately massacred. The women and children were for the meantime made prisoners. Sir Henry Lawrence was besieged in Lucknow, where he died on 4 July, from a wound re ceived in a sortie.
Meanwhile mutineers had been converging on Delhi, and British reinforcements were hasten ing to the besieging camp on the ridge above the city. After protracted operations and re peated reinforcements on both sides, Delhi was taken by assault, 14-20 September. Sir Henry Havelock, who had been engaged in the Per sian campaign, had arrived in Calcutta, and immediately set out for Allahabad, to commence operations for the relief of Lucknow and Cawn pore. While his force was victoriously advanc ing on Cawnpore, Nana Sahib on 15 July bar barously massacred his prisoners, consisting of 210 women and children. Havelock was suc ceeded in the command, at Lucknow, by Sir James Outram, who held it till relieved by Sir Colin Campbell, on 17 November. At first it was feared that the mutiny might extend to the Bombay and Madras presidencies, and from this cause and the occupation of the troops in Bengal, the mutineers had been left unchecked in Central India. At length columns organized in these presidencies entered Central India, and were united under Sir Hugh Rose. By the operations of these commanders the brave Rani of Jhansi, who died fighting at the head of her troops, was defeated, and Tantia Topi, whose military capacity had prolonged Nana Sahib's resistance, was captured and the mutiny was finally suppressed. The war was substantially closed by June 1858, although the complete paci fication of Oudh was not effected till the end of the year. During the mutiny the Sikhs and Gurkhas remained loyal ; and the bulk of the population was at least passively so. The sup pression of the revolt was followed by a full amnesty to the rank and file who had not borne a hand in the massacre of Europeans, and by the transfer to the British government of the powers possessed by the East India Company. (See INDIA, EAST INDIA COMPANY). Consult the histories of the Mutiny, by Forrest (1904); Holmes, (1898); and Malleson (1878-80).