Question

write a brief note on the Jaintia Revolt against the british in 1850

Answer 1

The Jaintia Kingdom was a kingdom in present-day Bangladesh and North-East India. It was annexed by the British East India Company in 1835. The origin of the Jaintia kingdom is unknown, but the Jaintia people share a megalithic culture with the related Khasi people on the Shillong plateau which is of uncertain age, but their common oral history claims that they settled the region in the distant past. After the 17th century invasion by the Kachari king Satrudaman, the Jaintia kingdom came under increasing Kachari and Ahom political influence.

British annexation Edit
The British came into contact with the Jaintia kingdom upon receiving the Diwani of Bengal in 1765 (Gurdon 1914:xiv). Jaintiapur, currently in Bangladesh, was the capital. The kingdom extended from the hills into the plains north of the Barak river (Gait 1906:253). The quarries in their possession was the chief supplier of lime to the delta region of Bengal, but with the British, the contact was not very smooth, and they were attacked in 1774. Subsequently, the Jaintias were increasingly isolated from the plains via a system of forts as well as via a regulation of 1799 (Gurdon 1914:xiv-xv).

After the conclusion of the First Anglo-Burmese War, the British allowed the Jaintia king his rule north of the Surma river (Gait 1906:284).

The kingdom was finally annexed on March 15, 1835 (Gait 1906:302). The king was handed over his property in Sylhet along with a monthly salary of Rs 500. The British administered the plain areas directly and the hill region indirectly via a system of fifteen dolois and four sardars. The fifteen administrators were free to adjudicate on all but the most heinous crimes.

Answer 2

Answer:

mutiny in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle February, 1857. A rumor was spread that the cartridges were made from cow and pig 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 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 East India Company, 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. The policies like the doctrine of lapse, Subsidiary Alliance deprived Indian rulers of their power.