Sepoy Rebellion (I) -- Wahhabi Intrigue? [15min]

The Sepoy Rebellion began in the spring of 1857 in Bengal among the sepoys - a Sepoy is an Indian soldier. Some 45,000 white British soldiers, half of them in Punjab, waited in May anticipating the uprising. There was no chance of immediate reinforcements from England. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. (You may listen again online to the five most recent episodes of "Empire".)

The rebellion began at Meerut on 10 May. Within three days a figurehead Mogul emperor, Bahadur Shah the Second, was proclaimed. Inside three weeks the rebellion covered the Ganges valley.

The reasons for the rebellion were long standing and included: attempts by British missionaries to convert all India to Christianity; ineffectual command of the army in Bengal; insensitive recruiting policy and "Europeanization" of the sepoy regiments and sepoy objections to serving outside their homeland and traditional areas. The spark that started the rebellion was the relatively new objection by sepoys to cartridges coated with animal grease. This offended both Hindus and Muslims.

Sir John Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner, observed that "these combinations, arsons and émeutes are all caused by the disaffection which has arisen from the introduction of the new cartridge; nothing will put a stop to this state of affairs short of giving up the use of new cartridges of any kind. The disaffection pervades the whole of the Native Regular Army and will extend to the irregulars. Even punishment will not prove effective; for the sufferers will become objects of sympathy and be looked upon as martyrs for their religion".

Lawrence (1811-1879) was the brother of Sir Henry Lawrence who was killed during the siege of Lucknow in 1857. John Lawrence came from Richmond, Yorkshire and joined the Indian civil service in Delhi. As Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab he became famous for defending the local people from the excesses of their own leaders. It was he, with the sympathies and then military help of the local people who overcame the Punjab mutineers (relatively small in number) and so perhaps tipped the course of the mutiny in the favour of the British because the Punjab did not follow Bengal. In 1863, seemingly to his surprise, he was appointed Viceroy and Governor-General although he left no significant mark at government house.

At Meerut on 23 April 1857 troops refused to use the new cartridges. On 9 May they were publicly degraded, stripped of their uniforms and jailed. This prompted other sepoys to break open the jail and kill any European officer they could find before heading for Dehli. For some reason the British hadn't a full regiment on standby. On 30 May came the uprising at the Lucknow garrison followed by the notorious massacre of Europeans in Cawnpore.