The Revolt of 1857

4.1 Causes

• Political: Resentment over annexations (Doctrine of Lapse), the humiliating treatment and impending loss of status of the Mughal emperor's line, and the annexation of Awadh.
• Economic: Ruinous land revenue policies, decline of traditional industries (especially handloom weaving, devastated by cheap machine-made British textile imports), and heavy taxation.
• Social/Religious: Fears of forced conversion and cultural interference stemming from reforms (abolition of sati, legalisation of widow remarriage), missionary activity, and rumours around the new Enfield rifle cartridges, greased with cow and pig fat (offending Hindu and Muslim soldiers respectively) — the immediate spark.
• Military: Discontent among sepoys over pay, allowances, and the General Service Enlistment Act (1856), which required sepoys to serve overseas if ordered, violating some religious/caste sensitivities.

4.2 Course of the Revolt

• Began at Meerut on 10 May 1857 when sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier (29 March 1857, at Barrackpore) attacked his officers over the cartridge issue; the Meerut garrison mutinied fully on 10 May and marched to Delhi, proclaiming the aged Bahadur Shah Zafar as Emperor of India — giving the revolt symbolic pan-Indian legitimacy.
• Major centres and leaders:
• Delhi: Bahadur Shah Zafar (symbolic head); General Bakht Khan led military operations.
• Kanpur: Nana Sahib (adopted son of the last Peshwa, denied his pension) led the revolt, assisted by Tantia Tope.
• Lucknow: Begum Hazrat Mahal led resistance on behalf of her young son after the annexation of Awadh.
• Jhansi: Rani Lakshmibai led one of the most celebrated resistances, famously dying in battle near Gwalior (fighting alongside Tantia Tope).
• Bihar (Arrah): Kunwar Singh, an elderly zamindar leader.
• Faizabad: Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah.
• The revolt was largely confined to North and Central India (parts of the Ganges plain, Awadh, Bundelkhand, Rohilkhand); South India and Bengal/Punjab remained largely unaffected or even supportive of the British, and several princely states (e.g., Hyderabad, most Rajput states, and Sindhia of Gwalior) remained loyal to the Company, which was a major factor in the revolt's eventual suppression.

4.3 Suppression and Aftermath

• The British recaptured Delhi (September 1857), Kanpur, and Lucknow through 1857–58, with the last major resistance ending by 1858–59.
• Government of India Act 1858: Transferred power from the East India Company directly to the British Crown, ending Company rule; Bahadur Shah Zafar was tried and exiled to Rangoon, formally ending the Mughal dynasty; Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of India.
• Historians debate the character of the revolt — the British initially termed it a "Sepoy Mutiny," while Indian nationalist historians (notably V.D. Savarkar in his 1909 work) termed it "The Indian War of Independence"; most modern historians view it as a complex mix of a military mutiny with genuine, broader civil and elite discontent, though lacking a unified national vision or leadership.