what are the revolt of social causes of revolt of 1857?
Answers
Answer:
1. Political and Administrative Reasons:
The expansionist and annexationist policies of the British power in India made all the Indian rulers, big and small, Hindu and Muslim look with suspicion and develop hatred towards the British power in India. Naturally, this type of reaction is justified as the Indians are the losers and the British gainers. Tara Chand observes, “Each region became, after annexation, a scene of resistance and revolt, in which land holders and peasants were involved and in which the disbanded soldiers of the landlords, the ministers of religion and the dismissed dependents participated”, as a result of the British occupation by annexation.
Failure on the part of the British East India Company in honouring the provision of 1833 Charter Act that “no Indian shall by reason of his faith, place of birth, descent, complexion or any of them, be disabled from holding any place, office or employment under the East India Company”, convinced the educated Indians of the arrogant racial hatred of the British towards the natives of India.
2. Economic Causes:
Added to political and administrative distrust for the British East India Company, the economic policies of the British resulted in impoverishing all the segments of the Indian society except a handful of collaborators among the Indians. Owing to their colonial policies of economic exploitation, industry, trade commerce and agriculture languished and India became de-industrialized, impoverished and debt-ridden, while, William Bentinck himself admitted that by 1833-34 “The misery hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce. The bones of cotton weavers are bleaching the plains of India”.
The levels of exploitation of Indians were so high, that even the British felt so sad and disturbed that they wrote, “India is as much a manufacturing country as she is an agricultural one. She is a manufacturing country; her manufacturers of various descriptions have existed for ages, and have never been able to be completed by any nation wherever fair play has been given to them.
To reduce her now to an agricultural country would be an injustice to India.” While the above was the opinion of a Britisher, Mr. Martin, another Britisher, Mr Cope made the following statement before the Parliamentary Committee in 1840: “I certainly pity the East Indian labourer, but at the same time I have a great feeling for my family than for the East Indian labourer’s family. I think it is wrong to sacrifice the comforts of my family for the sake of the East Indian labourer because his condition happens to be worse than mine”.
As a result of the British economic exploitation all classes of people, peasants, landlords, traders, industrialists, labourers and middle class of India were badly affected and it is no exaggeration to state that unlimited poverty enveloped the entire society and made India an underdeveloped country.
3. Social and Religious Causes:
Added to thepolitical and administrative distrust and hatred, the economic exploitation, the social and religious discrimination of superiority complex viewing the Indians as racially inferior and culturally backward and their belief that God had created the white men to civilize the Indians and intolerance of the idolatry of the Hindus by the Christian missionaries also created distrust between the natives and the British.
In a way, partially the outburst of 1857 was a revolt of the old against the new, of Indian conservatism against the arrogant British hegemony and Christian indoctrination. The conservation of religion took the shape of rallying point in the revolt which was seen as a war of religion by the sepoys and the masses to some extent but religious grievances were not the total rallying points of the great revolt.
4. Military and Immediate Causes:
Besides the above political and administrative, economic, social and religious grievances, another major cause was the unrest of the sepoys in the army of the British. We are aware that the action of Mangal Pandey, a sepoy of Barrackpore near Calcutta on 29 March, 1857 led to the mutiny of sepoys in the beginning which precipitated the revolt of the people. Mangal Pandey’s action was not a spontaneous outburst against the British officer but it was a culmination of a simmering discontent brewing in the sepoys.
The causes for the Revolt of 1857 or First War of Independence were:
1. Political causes: The Doctrine of Lapse which was introduced by the British stated that any kingdom of India which did not have its natural heir the kingdom would pass on to the hands of the British. Many states were annexed under this Doctrine. This was why Laxmibai's son who was adopted was denied the throne.
2. Economic cause: In order to establish their monopoly over India, British employed landlords or jamindars of the Ryotwari Settlement and Mahalwari settlement. They were merciless and they forced the Indian farmers to do what they said.
3. Missionary causes: Christianity arose in India as the Britishers had been established there. So there were many Hindus who transformed themselves into Christians. This hurt the Hindus as they left their own natural caste. Also the abolition of certain reforms such as sati, child marriage, etc. was introduced. This hurt the Hindu sentiments and they thought that the Britishers were removing the Hindu caste and disregarding their religion.
4. Military cause: The discrimination in the British army between Indians and Britishers were great. All the Indian soldiers were treated with great contempt. While the British soldiers got up to high posts an Indian soldier could not rise above the post of a Subedar.
5. Immediate Cause: The Enfield Rifle: A new rifle was introduced in The British army. The cartridge of the rifle had a greased paper which was to be bitten off then to reload the rifle. It was known that the greased paper was made from the fat of the cows and pigs. This angered the Indians who just needed a spark to ignite their anger and this was provided by this incident. Mangal Pandey an Indian sepoy was hanged because he refused to open the greased paper of the cartridge.
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