The Revolt of 1857, popularly known as the 'Great Revolt' or the 'First War of Independence', is one of the most significant events in the history of modern South Asia. It was the largest uprising the British rule had ever faced in the subcontinent, and it shook the empire to the core. Although usually characterized as a reaction to the introduction of the infamous greased Enfield rifle, the Revolt was the culmination of several long-standing grievances against the East India Company and its policies among the different sections of the native society. For the native princes, the policy of annexation, termed as the “Doctrine of Lapse,” the reduction or withdrawal of the pensions, and confiscation of their properties were some of the major sources of their grievance against the Company. Similarly, the peasants were disaffected with the Company rule due to their experiments of various land reforms and revenue settlements, high taxes, and other forms of economic exploitation by the revenue officers. The local elites such as Taluqdar, Thakur, and other feudal classes resented the Company’s interventions in their land rights and the relationships with both their peasants and the regional kingdoms, which was perceived as an attack on their customary rights and local authority. Therefore, when the mutiny broke out in Meerut on May 9-10, 1857, many of these classes saw it as an opportunity to regain their authority, restore their rights, and be free from the social, political, and religious exploitation of foreign domination. As the news of the mutiny spread, many regions joined the movement one by one. It extended from Meerut to Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Sitapur, Jhansi, Gwalior, Bareilly, Neemuch, Muree, Arrah in Bihar and more. The nature of the rebellion also varied significantly across the regions. If the movement remained a sepoy mutiny in some areas, civilians dominated in others. Similarly, the rebels fought under a clear leadership in some places, whereas in certain others, there was no leadership or coordination.
One of the important questions before the historians of this movement is why some sections of the society, including the Indian troops, peasants, elites/native kings, and princes, joined the revolt, whereas certain others stayed out even when they shared similar grievances against the Company rule. Even the issue of Enfield rifles that dominate the colonial archive and the majority of secondary works in the popular domain as the primary reason behind the uprising becomes complicated when examined closer. In many instances during the Revolt, the sepoys used the very same Enfield rifles against their enemies. Therefore, the analysis of the Revolt presents some conceptual difficulties due to its complex nature and the limitation of the sources.
The information about the event is primarily based on the narrative of the Revolt presented by Surendra Nath Sen in his book Eighteen Fifty-Seven, and we have also relied on some other secondary sources for additional information. Some events follow a strict date and place timeline, whereas some descriptions collectively talk about a group of events to make some necessary connections. We collected the map from the National Library of Australia, which the Forster Groom and Co. created. We created an overlay of this map to the Google Maps API. Google Maps has the functionality to zoom in and out; thus, we made the whole map resizable and able to add the locations.
Though the project was envisioned to give a cartographic analysis of all the events of the revolt due to the limitation of time and resources, for now, our focus is only on the three cities– Meerut, Delhi, and Lucknow.
Meerut
Meerut was the birthplace of the Mutiny. The Indian troops, on their refusal to use the infamous Enfield Rifle, were put on trial and stripped of their uniforms. The next day, a revolt broke out and spread to other parts of the country.
Delhi
Delhi was the seat of the Mughal Emperor and a center of power. The empire that had started shrinking after the reign of Aurangzeb and the subsequent Maratha expansion retained only a symbol of sovereignty in the nineteenth century. Two decades before the revolt, the company had begun to disown the emperor and positioned itself not as a servant of the emperor but as an independent body. The emperor's name was removed from the coins issued in 1835, and the language of the court was changed from Persian to English. However, the appearance of sovereignty still mattered, and it was to Delhi–the symbolic seat of Mughal power that the rebellious Indian troops chose to march to after initiating the spark of rebellion in Meerut to legitimize their cause.
Lucknow
Lucknow was the capital of the princely state of Awadh and one of the most populous cities of the Bengal Presidency. The annexation of Awadh in February 1856 is often highlighted as a significant catalyst for the uprising. The kingdom of Awadh was home to one-third of the native soldiers in the Company army. Politically, Lucknow was as important as Delhi, and when the mutiny broke out in Lucknow, the siege of the Residency took more than six months.
Indian Culture. “Bahadur Shah Zafar.” Accessed December 6, 2023
http://indianculture.gov.in/stories/bahadur-shah-zafarLieut C H Mecham. Sketches of Incidents of the Siege of Lucknow, 1857.
http://archive.org/details/dli.venugopal.544National Archive of India. “Mohd Bhakt Khan Report to the C-in-C, 1857.” Accessed December 6, 2023.
https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2703503?searchWord=&backquery=[query=&frontend=frontend&filterquery=Mutiny+Papers+English&filtername=tags&filtertype=equals]Sen, Surendra Nath. Eighteen Fifty-Seven. Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, 1977.
Trove. “Sketch Map Illustrating the Indian Mutiny 1857.” Accessed November 18, 2023
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2934573267