Preview

Indian Freedom Struggle

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1303 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Indian Freedom Struggle
FREEDUM STRUGGLE OF INDIA
INTRODUCTION:-
In ancient times, people from all over the world were keen to come to India. The Aryans came from Central Europe and settled down in India.The Persians followed by the Iranians and Parsis immigrated to India. Then came the Moghuls and they too settled down permanently in India. Chengis Khan, the Mongolian, invaded and looted India many times. Columbus wanted to come to India, but instead landed on the shores of America. Vasco da Gama from Portugal came to trade his country's goods in return for Indian species. The French came and established their colonies in India.
The British achieved political power in India. And while the British power gained its heights during the middle of the 19th century, the resentment of the local rulers, the farmers the intellectuals, common man as also of the soldiers who became unemployed due to the liquidation of the armies of various states became widespread. This soon broke out into a revolt which assumed the dimensions of the 1857 Mutiny.
The Indian Mutiny of 1857
The Mutiny of 1857, which began with a revolt of the military soldiers at Meerut, soon became widespread and posed a grave challenge to the British rule. Even though the British succeeded in crushing it within a year, it was certainly a popular revolt in which the Indian rulers, the masses and the militia participated so enthusiastically that it came to be regarded as the First War of Indian Independence.
The 'sepoys' at Meerut whose religious sentiments were offended when they were given new cartridges greased with cow and pig fat, whose covering had to be stripped out by biting with the mouth before using them in rifles. The Hindu as well as the Muslim soldiers, who refused to use such cartridges, were arrested which resulted in a revolt by their fellow soldiers on May 9, 1857. The Hindus, the Muslims, the Sikhs and all the other brave sons of India fought shoulder to shoulder to throw out the British. The revolt was

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Anderson, C. (2007). Indian Uprising of 1857-8 : Prisons, Prisoners, and Rebellion. In C. Anderson, Indian Uprising of 1857-8 : Prisons, Prisoners, and Rebellion (p. 217). London, GBR: Anthem Press.…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After two years in Glasgow where there are countless Victorian buildings, statues and fountains erected to celebrate the achievements of Britain, this mémoire is an opportunity for me to learn more about the times when its imperial rule was not so glorious. The Indian Mutiny and the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica are two exemplary episodes of the colonial unrest faced by the British Empire during the nineteenth century. Both events came as a protest against aspects of British colonial rule and in both cases these contestations were severely repressed, but Britons did not all show exactly the same support for these repressions. Condemnation of the 1857 Indian Mutiny was unanimous on the British side and no measure was judged harsh enough to to put it down and to take revenge for it. As for the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion, while some people did support the severe repression ordered by Governor Eyre in roughly the same…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A few reasons the Indian people didn't want to unite against the British during the Sepoy Mutiny were that some Indians believed that the British were attempting to turn them into Christians , they also had weak leadership, there was also a split between the Hindus and the Muslisms, and the Indians didn't like the constant racism that the British spoke about them. The Muslims wanted the Muslim Mughal Empire repaired, the Hindus preferred the British rule over Muslim rule, this was the cause of the split between the Hindus and Muslims. During 1857, a rumor spread throughout the sepoys that their cartridges of the Enfield guns were lubricanted with pig and cow fat. In order to use the cartridges, the soldiers had to chew off the end. The Hindus…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The British East India company held India in its grasp until the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857 happened. Because of the rebellion England decided to take more control over the colony by having the actual government take root and complete control in 1857. With Britain having taken over India they turned it into a very efficient colony and maximizing its potential, while also putting controlling and racist laws to Indians and restricting them in most ways, by forcing them to farm non food crops, destroying whole industries and unneeded deaths from famines, to a massacre of peaceful protesters.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To start off the Sepoys were a group of Indian soldiers that worked for the European forces. These soldiers worked for the East Indian Company's army. In May 1857 they started a mutiny, or a rebellion. This brought on many other rebellions, and basically a war for independence.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bibliography: Chattopadhyaya, Haraprasad. The Sepoy mutiny, 1857: a social study and analysis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1957.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1800's, Britain's rule over the Indian people was oppressive. Several attempts were made to influence and alter the Indian culture including forcing English to be taught as a primary language along with creating laws that banned specific muslim practices such as sati, which allowed a widow to be burned to death on the funeral pyre of her dead husband. As they continued to change their culture, movements such at the rebellion of 1857 fought to object to these new rules. These were all violent protests often created by military personnel who in many cases were the main participants in these movements. These protests resulted in thousands of dead and injured people and the impact of the movement was minimal with barely any change.…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 is also known as the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and India’s First War of Independence. There are several contributing factors to the spirit of rebellion that inspired the Indian Sepoys to rise up against their British Officers, the most famous of which is the lubricated cartridges in the Sepoy’s rifles. This failed rebellion marks a significant change in the social and political relationship between The United Kingdom and British Controlled India that would create the long lasting tension between the groups and would eventually lead to India’s independence.…

    • 1903 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The British colonial government in India created relentless turmoil and tension among the subcontinent’s many religious communities. A notorious Indian uprising was the sepoy rebellion, which was perceived by the Indians as a…

    • 2080 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blatantly, the British wanted the Indians to abandon their traditional customs and culture for a more European approach. Nevertheless, many Indians did not approve of this and initiated a rebellion. These Indian protesters carried out The Great Rebellion (or “Indian Mutiny”) and were victorious in having the British cease their efforts of forcing their standards on them. This example is one of many throughout history that proves social structures often are the root of…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Not everybody was happy under British rule. The British limited Indian power and took away freedoms. Change was forced upon them. The British exploited Indian pluralism, resulting in religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Factories that posed a threat to British trade would be closed down to avoid competition. Local hand-made clothes were destroyed and finish goods using Indian raw material would be resold in India. The Indians could only trade with the British. When the Indians finally realized that the British would never see Indians as equals, no matter how Europeanized they became, they realized that they had to kick them out. However, try as they might, the British were simply too strong for a disconnected India. With ease, the British could take out ten times as many Indians in battle. Even after defeat, sepoys would suffer even more humiliation and abuse from the British. Indians felt a surge of nationalism. They resent their second-class status in their own countries, which leads us to today. Nationalist groups emerged. The Hindu Indian National Congress, which is later joined by the Muslim League encourage the Indians to take pride in their history and products. Millions of people are joining this movement and are fighting for…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This enabled the carrying of goods at a faster rate. Events around the world caused a need for such crops, so both the railroad and the trade crops were a boon to the British. The British railroad was a boon to the Indian people as well. It helped develop their economy and united them. Modernization with railroads was coupled with telephone lines and other infrastructure like canals and dams. With infrastructure and a better education system, literacy and health improved. Trade crops, however, were strictly regulated and as such, reduced the amount of edible crops the farmers produced, leading to famine. Resentment of this control, the attempts to change their religion, and racism, the Indians rebelled. In 1857, the sepoy Indians heard a rumor that their new rifles were greased with pork and beef fat, and they had to bite the cartages of these rifles to replace them. Since eating beef and pork are forbidden in Hindu and Islamic religions, respectively, they sepoy’s refused the guns. The sepoys who refused were jailed, the other sepoy’s rebelled and captured the city of Delhi. It took a year for the British to regain control, and this time they were stricter. The Raj was British rule under Queen Victoria, where a London cabinet member was in charge of policy making and a governor-general, or viceroy after 1877, followed these…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Imperialism Notes

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages

    * The revolt of Indian soldiers in 1857 against certain practices that violated religious customs, also known as the Sepoy mutiny…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Sepoy Rebellion

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages

    At first, the power that Britain had over India was that of an indirect rule, where they elected a local official who promised to stay loyal to Britain. In addition, the British East India Company, those with the rule of India at the time, established a military regime called the Sepoys who were loyal to the British and helped keep the Indian people in line. However, things could not always stay like this, especially when the people meant to stay loyal to Britain the most rebelled against them. The Sepoy Rebellion began because of the British using pig and cow fat on the ammunition cartilages, which are both animals that are forbidden to be consumed in the Muslim and Hindu faith. The Sepoys, who were expected to ripe off the ammunition paper before loading their guns saw this as a clear form of disrespect towards their religious beliefs. Although the rebellion led to many deaths on both parts of the battle, the Indians turned out losing when the British managed to suppress the rebellion. Since the British were fed up with the violence and disobedience in their empire the British East India Company lost all political control of the nation, the original empires, like the Mughal, were dissolved of all political power and the local officials who had been put into power were now exchanged for native British men. This all…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    British Imperialism

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mohandas Gandhi was the leader of civil disobedience in India. Before the independence movement in India began, India was a British Colony since the 1760s. Prior to British imperialism and colonialism in India, many Indians hand craft their tools and clothes for survival. Since the British took over most of India due to the British’s commercial interests in the region of India. The British East India Company defeated the Newab of Bengal which…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays