History of India is too old to cover in an article. But we certainly can cover some aspects of India History. So today we are going to discuss about a very interesting topic of Indian History.
In schools it is taught that the battle of 1857 between Indians and Britishers was the first war of independence. It is also said that this war was fought against British empire nationwide. But this is not totally correct. Today we are going to mention about some instances why this revolution started and what was consequences. You will also get to know about who participated in this war and who helped Britishers.
Since there are plenty materials on internet about the battle of 1857. So we will not discuss about while ruler fought from which region or what was written by Indian authors. We will mention about the reasons of this battle and also why this battle is hyped that much.
Most Kings supported British - So coming to the beginning, the battle of 1857 was not started within one month or one year, its preface had started years before when people of Bengal mainly Santhali and Pahari fought for their supremacy. Britishers developed a platform of kingdom before 18th century and Indian whether they were Santhali or Kings or Nawabs like Gwalior King, Hyderabad Nizam all supported britishers in all big battles.
Zamindar; an Agent of Britishers - Before starting the debate of 1857 battle you must know about farmers anger on zamindars. Mostly Zamindar represented British rule and they worked on behalf of Britishers like an agent. This made zamindar opponent of farmers. But not to forget that those small farmers were used before by Britishers against Aadivasi (Tribal) people. Santhali vs Paharia people battle is one of such biggest proof.
No king willingly participated in 1857 battle - You all know that no king participated in this war whether he is Rajputana, Scindia, Nawab, Nizam, Sikh whatever you say, they all supported Britishers in 1857. These kings / rulers found interest and benefit, therefore they refused patriotism, nationalism (as per today concept) and they enjoyed all benefits under British rule. But never forget those kings who were fighting against Britishers were losing their kingdom / empire because of "Rule of Doctrine", and there were many other regions why some other kings fought against him. We don't refuse that Sepoy Mutiny was one of the biggest reason but mostly rulers used those shoulders for the sake of self benefit.
We study about Rani Lakshmi Bai, Tatya Tope, Bahadur Shah Zafar all were really great, we solute to their sacrifices, these rulers fought until death, but we cannot ignore they were doing so because of "Doctrine Concept of infiltrating land."
Makale's New Education Policy - You must be thinking what is relation between Lord Makale's education policy and the war of 1857. In 1935 he introduced new education system and made sure English education rather custom languages used before. Until 1938 the official language of India was FARSI, similar to Urdu but later English replaced it, this resulted huge job loss of Muslims. Because of Urdu, Farsi script major portion of elite services were captured by Muslim persons. This was the biggest reason why Muslim Maulana, Mufi and such people released Fatwa and inaugurated a war against British rule. Actually common Muslims were influenced by their spiritual gurus (Maulana) and fought against Britishers.
Innocent Zamindar were killed - It's very sad part of 1857 war that is hidden from all of you that numerous innocent Zamindar were killed, robbed by cunning so called poor people. (All very not bad, but many incidents have been noted how farmers killed zamindars) Generally documents of loan, lands of farmers were in Zamindars' homes, thus way protesters / rebels burnt those houses, wounded them and killed them too. Most of Zamindars were absolutely bad, but never to forget it were Zamindar who always helped common people by providing money, providing food, work in real time.
Some Zamindar had to force over taxes on farmers because Britishers imposed tax hike on Zamindar (Read about Zamindari System of India).
This article is getting so long, therefore we have to stop here with some conclusion. Still in 1857 war only innocent died whether they were Zamindar or Farmers. Not every farmer was poor and treated inhumanly by Zamindar but some were indeed. It is really very difficult to point out whether it was THE FIRST INDIAN INDEPENDENCE WAR or not because this war was limited and many innocent farmers, common man, zamindar, businessmen were killed.
Other but very important thing is that development works were also getting place like establishing Telephones, Railways etc, this originated superstition among some less educated Indian society. One example is some Indians opposed Ships because they said Sea / Ocean is our God and it is a sin to ride ships on sea. This was superstition among some people and this lead them to participate on behalf of their rituals and customs.
Stay tuned with us, we will come back with another such revealing historical facts.
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