Nawabs played a big role in the revolt of 1857. State the causes that led to to their
joining in the revolt with the help of some examples.
Answers
Explanation:
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 had diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes.
An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle February, 1857. The cartridges were rumoured to have been made from cow and sow fat. Loading the Enfield required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth. This would have insulted both Hindu and Muslim religious practices; cows were considered holy by Hindus, while pigs were considered unclean by Muslims. Underlying grievances over British taxation and recent land annexations by the British East Indian Company (BEIC) were ignited by the sepoy mutineers, and within weeks, dozens of units of the Indian army joined peasant armies in widespread rebellion. The old aristocracy, both Muslim and Hindu, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the BEIC, also rebelled against British rule. Another important source of discontent among the Indian rulers was that the British policies of conquest had created unrest among many Indian rulers. In the decade prior to the rebellion, the BEIC imposed a 'doctrine of lapse' (of Indian leadership succession), and the policy 'subsidiary alliance' both of which deprived Indian rulers of some of their sovereignty. One of the main reasons for the revolt was that the British East India Company also started meddling with India's political and financial system. Sepoy units combined with local populations in a major rebellion in 1857 that temporarily unified many Indians across sect, caste, and religious differences.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major, but ultimately unsuccessful, uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown.[4][5] The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the Company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi (now Old Delhi). It then erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India,[a][6][b][7] though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east.[c][8] The rebellion posed a considerable threat to British power in that region,[d][9] and was contained only with the rebels' defeat in Gwalior on 20 June 1858.[10] On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, though they did not declare the hostilities to have formally ended until 8 July 1859. Its name is contested, and it is variously described as the Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Mutiny, the Great Rebellion, the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Insurrection, and the First War of Independence