The Significance Of The Sepoy Mutiny Of 1857

By Alexandra Anderson


One of the most famous rebellions that the world has ever seen was none other than the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the Indian Rebellion of 1857. This was said to be the event that sparked the hate of the Indians toward their colonizers. It is said that without this event, the people of India would not have fought for their independence from the British.

Long before the mutiny, Britain had already established itself a great and advanced country with a lot of resources. Because of this, they wanted to get out of their comfort zone, and add more territories to their already big land. One of the lands that they conquered and really concentrated their colonization on was none other that India. It was their goal to spread their culture and manner to these so called savages of Asia.

Great Britain eventually established the British East India Company which recruited native soldiers into their camps in order to serve Britain. The British army then trained these natives in armed and unarmed combat as well as military strategy so that they could be the mightiest British army in all of India. These troops who were called the Sepoys, eventually increased in number and became more than the European troops.

Now, there were many times that these Sepoys wanted to rebel against the European soldiers but failed. The reason for these small rebellions were because the colonization had affected their life a lot. They basically wanted freedom and simply could not take having foreigners rule them.

All of these small outbursts eventually lead to the big massacre which is known as the Sepoy Mutiny. This huge killing spree started when the British required the soldiers to use a rifle where they needed to bite the cartridge to make the rifle work. This angered them because the cartridge was filled with grease that was said to be pig or cow fat. Of course, since India was made of both Hindus and Muslims, both sides took this as an insult and went ahead to carry on a huge rebellion.

With this, the upper class Indians in the caste system decided to fire up the people to rebel against the British too. The higher class told the people that Europe is trying to force the European culture and beliefs unto India. The people then joined in with the Sepoys and staged an all out mutiny.

Europeans were being slaughtered everywhere on the streets of India. While all of the freedom fighters marched to Delhi under the command of Bahadur Shah, they killed all European men, women, and children. Around two hundred or more people were killed when this happened.

It took months before the British were able to stop the Indian forces. When they did, all of those who were involved were either beheaded or hung on the gallows. Now although the Indians failed in trying to stop their colonizers, this event did serve as an inspiration to freedom fighters that would appear in the future. The significance of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 was to bring about the patriotic spirit of Indians in the country.




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