Why did the events of 1857 happen?

As part of this assessment enquiry you should:1.Pursue historically valid enquiries including some you have framed yourself, and create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response.2.Understand how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to make historical claims and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.

The Sepoy Rebellion, 1857Small landowners and peasants couldn’t afford to pay the high taxes that the British were imposing on them.

Christian missionaries made Indians suspicious that the British were going to force Christianity on them

The British challenged the Indian customs and beliefs, eg. Sati

Indian princes and nobles lost power when the British took over their territories. They resented the British rulers

Britain wanted to impose a Western (British) style of education to India, with a focus on the English language

The sepoys heard a rumour that the Lee Enfield Rifle was greased with animal fat, which abhorrent to many Indian religions

Can you sort these causes of rebellion under the headings, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CULTURAL and RELGIOUS?

Jhansi Ki Rani (The Queen of Jhansi)

• Rani was the widow of the King of Jhansi• The Queen’s husband passed away and she was left penniless due to a

British law called the Doctrine of Lapse • The Rani lost everything including her clothes and jewels. • She appealed to the British for help, but they refused• She became bitter towards the British and joined forces with rebels

against the British empire• She remained a figure-head of resistance for many years• Indian school children have to learn this poem by heart and often recite it

in class!

• Doctrine of Lapse, introduced by Lord Dalhousie, said that any territories with no legitimate heir (i.e. son), the land would be passed on to the East India Company; alternatively if the EIC deemed the heir to be inappropriate (ie. Anti British), the Doctrine of Lapse would apply too

Jhansi Ki Rani (The Queen of Jhansi)• Over 3 pages draw 18 boxes – 6 to a page• Eg

• Read the poem of Jhansi Ki Rani. Summarise each verse in to a box • (You can do this in writing or in pictures, or a combination of both)

• What does it tell you about • the status of women in India under British Rule?• Indian attitudes to British rule

Mangal Pandey

• A sepoy working under the British East India Company, Mangal Pandey's name got etched into the pages of the Indian history after he attacked his senior British officers in an incident, which is today remembered as the sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the India's First War of Independence. The reason behind this was the rumour that the cartridges used by Indian sepoys were greased with the fat of cow and pig.

Mangal Pandey film• This is an Indian film, produced in 2005.• Some of the funding for the film was from British

sources• As you watch clips what does the film tell you

about:• Indian attitudes to the British?• British attitudes to the Indians?• Attitudes to British and Indian women?• Political, economic, social, cultural and religious

differences between the Indians and the British?

Massacre of the British officers and their wives at Jhansi, 1858

British officers and their wives trying to escape from Cawnpore, 1858

A historian’s view

• “While it is true that large numbers of European men, women and children were murdered with great brutality by the mutineers, it is equally evident that some of the stories of torture, rape and bestiality were either grossly exaggerated or totally untrue. Indeed, regarding the treatment of white women by their Pandi captors, it has not been possible to discover a single proven case of rape.

• However, the British relief forces felt that every Indian male capable of carrying arms was guilty of such crimes. Hundreds were killed in the fays following the capture of Delhi, either by shooting or slow strangulation.”

• R. Perkins, ‘The Kashmir Gate’, 1983

Assessment task

• 1. Why did the events of 1857 happen? Was it Religious, Political/ Power, Social or Economic reasons or a mix? Refer to the sources

• 2. How should the events of 1857 be remembered? Mutiny, revolt or revolution?

• 3. How significant were the events of 1857? • 4. Why did people from the UK disagree with

the Mangal Pandey films getting UK funding?

Now draw out this diagram, complete it then sum it up in a concluding

paragraph.