Indian Rebellion And Its Impact

Question 1

Describe the sepoys of the Bengal army?

Answer 1

Mainly peasant-soldiers from North India who were proud of their military status

Question 2

What caused discontent for the Bengal army in 1857?

Answer 2

Changes in pay and conditions of service in the army

Question 3

What was the real trigger for the Indian rebellion?

Answer 3

Anger from landlords and nobles who had been deprived of lands by governor-general Dalhousie. There had also been social and cultural grievances over British rule for a long time.

Question 4

What happened in February 1857?

Answer 4

sepoys in Bengal refused to obey British orders and other battalions followed

Question 5

What were the events of the rebellion at Meerut?

Answer 5

Sepoys turned against their British officers here and a mob was set upon local Europeans. Began at the headquarters of the Bengal army in Meerut. Many of the troops were high-caste Hindus with strict beliefs, many of the British officers were elderly so were an easy target

Question 6

What was significant about the rebellion starting from Meerut?

Answer 6

Discipline was notoriously slack here among the Bengal army

Question 7

What were the concerns of the Bengalese sepoys that caused rebellion?

Answer 7

. There were rumours that the regiments were going to be sent by sea to Burma which offended Hindu laws surrounding crossing waters

Question 8

How did Britain respond to the concerns of the sepoys?

Answer 8

Didn’t attempt to understand the feeling and announced any disobedience would be severely punished, worsening the situation

Question 9

How did the sepoys continue on the rebellion after Meerut?

Answer 9

Seized control of most northern cities (Agra, Lucknow and Cawnpore). These seizings were an attempt to resurrect the old Mughal emperor as a figurehead

Question 10

How had Britain historically set themselves up for cultural and religious attack?

Answer 10

Since the 1830s, Britain had attempted to ‘westernise’ India

Question 11

Who joined sepoy rebels?

Answer 11

. Not just sections of urban population but rural too:
- some were angry landowners who lost out under British rule
- some were peasants who resented taxation

Question 12

How were the hopes of restoring Mughal dynasty short-lived?

Answer 12

The Emperor’s sons were executed

Question 13

Which regiments didn’t join the rebellion?

Answer 13

Gurkhas, Sikhas and Pathan regiments remained loyal to Britain

Question 14

What happened in Cawnpore and how did Britain respond?

Answer 14

Massacre of 200 British women and children caused outrage where British public swore to revenge. 70k fresh troops were sent to India with latest Colt revolvers which delivered a swift and brutal revenge

Question 15

Where were the main battles in the rebellion fought?

Answer 15

Lucknow, Cawnpore and Delhi

Question 16

What happened in Delhi and Lucknow?

Answer 16

Villages were burnt, rebels were tortured and British officers, including their wives and children were murdered

Question 17

What was the Indian Rebellion a symbol of?

Answer 17

India finally acting on wanting independence

Question 18

When was British rule finally reasserted after the Rebellion?

Answer 18

June 1858 after a final battle at Gwalior

Question 19

What were the reasons for the outbreak of the Rebellion?

Answer 19

. Sepoys refused to bite cartridges on new Enfield rifle as cow is sacred to Hindus
. Underlying economic grievances - India progressively swamped by cheap British goods and high rents imposed by landlords
. Territorial expansion resented after new annexations such as Punjab
. Westernisation caused concern
. British failed to recognise the complexity of religion in India
. Dalhousie reforms

Question 20

When did the revolt properly start?

Answer 20

May 1857 as the entire sepoy army mutinied

Question 21

What were the Dalhousie reforms?

Answer 21

His attempt to modernise India. Tea plantations were set up which damaged the traditional economies of India and ‘Christian missions’ were encouraged

Question 22

When was peace declared after the Indian Rebellion?

Answer 22

8th July 1858

Question 23

How did post-rebellion India cause more British interference in India?

Answer 23

Britain tried to relieve themselves after the costs of suppressing the Indian mutiny

Question 24

Why was British reaction to the rebellion so brutal?

Answer 24

To make sure it didn’t happen again

Question 25

What were the main reason why the rebellion was defeated?

Answer 25

. Britain had superior resources
. Not all regiments joined the rebellion
. 70k fresh reinforcements from Britain
. Indians had less military experience
. Wasn’t much of a goal for Indians (Mughal empire + independence)

Question 26

What were the results of the mutiny?

Answer 26

. East India Company control ended
. British army was reformed - sepoy units more closely supervised and sepoys treated with greater respect
. Total British rule from now on (establishment of British Raj)
. British adapt policy of appeasement with powers of Old India, meaning Indian rulers got their prestige restored

Question 27

What happened in 1858 in India?

Answer 27

India became under direct rule of the British crown and internal wars that were part of life in many part of the subcontinent during the rule of the EIC ended. India now had one, centralised government

Question 28

Why was missionary actively discouraged in India following the Rebellion?

Answer 28

There was growing recognition that imposing Western Christian values in Indians was counter-productive

Question 29

How was relationship between ruler and ruled further aggravated?

Answer 29

. Rebellion
. British reprisals after the rebellion
. Reports of the Rebellion in Britain emphasised Indian rebels’ violence and largely ignored British brutality

Question 30

What fuelled arrogance in some British people over India?

Answer 30

Belief that the East could be ‘westernised’ was questioned so people who believed in social Darwinist views of superiority became arrogant

Question 31

How did Britain change religious policies in India?

Answer 31

Tried to be more religiously sensitive after the rebellion but also detached from the curiosity and admiration of the ‘exotic’ Indian culture. After 1858, there was a greater degree of separation from this admiration

Question 32

How were the British Raj administrating more unfairly than they believed?

Answer 32

. Imposed complex and expensive legal systems which favoured themselves more than the poor
. Supposed equality and opportunity from British rule may have helped wealthier Indians get into professions through better education, but did little for the many peasants
- even those who got education found it hard to get promoted beyond lower ranks of the colonial bureaucracy

Question 33

How was the British Raj generally viewed?

Answer 33

With resentment, but some Indian princes and landlords supported it (rich)

Question 34

What did Viceroy Canning (first Viceroy) do between 1859-61?

Answer 34

Toured India to win back those who had been dispossessed/alienated by British rule

Question 35

What came about from Viceroy Canning’s tour of India?

Answer 35

. Some land and titles were returned to Indians
. Star of India medals introduced (award of chivalry)
. Positions in Imperial assembly/statutory civil service shared among Indian nobility
. More educational establishments and teaching in English were opened

Question 36

How were schools were extended under the British Raj?

Answer 36

1857 - Unis established in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta
Elite schools such as Rajkunar college were set up to produce ‘westernised oriental gentlemen’ (wogs)
30 years after the rebellion, 60,000 Indians had joined the new universities

Question 37

What was the state of Calcutta university by 1882?

Answer 37

1712 students had graduated.
- 1/3 of them went into government service
- slightly more went into legal professions

Question 38

What did Mary Carpenter (social and educational reformer) do?

Answer 38

Visited India 4 times between 1866-75:
- helped establish a corporation of British teachers for India
- Girls schools in Bombay and Ahmedabad established
- college to train female Indian teachers established

Set up National Indian Association in 1870 to promote reforms in India, primarily for girls’ education and women’s prisons

Question 39

What were the economic changes in India under the British Raj?

Answer 39

Growth in investment in India after 1858, especially in railways:
. Railways built more for strategy than economy but helped stimulate trade and develop previously inaccessible areas
. Subsistence farming was very common, although number of tea plantations went from 1-295 between 1851-1871
. Increase in domestic production of raw cotton for export to Britain in 1880s and 90s.
. Some European-style factories built but no heavy industry as the bulk of manufactured goods were coming from Britain

Question 40

How were railways developed by the British Raj?

Answer 40

. Developed across India at 2 miles per day after the Rebellion
. Trains were used to consolidate British control as personnel and soldiers could be moved more quickly
. British relied on Indians to run them but most were Anglo-Indians or Christian Indians as they were viewed as more loyal to the Raj
. Workers for railways were accommodated in their own separate communities (‘railway colonies’)

Question 41

What were overall initial attitudes to India by the British Raj?

Answer 41

. Many Brits believed the ‘benign rule’ of India was liberating/freeing for Indians
. T.B Macauley (Whig reformist) believed in educating Indians to ensure they became ‘English in taste, in opinions, in morals.’

Question 42

How did the Morant Bay Rebellion (armed uprising in Jamaica) come about?

Answer 42

After the abolition of slavery in Jamaica in 1884, widespread poverty came about among black residents of Jamaica as they had different laws to white residents

Question 43

Who was the leader of the Morant Bay Rebellion?

Answer 43

Preacher Paul Bogle

Question 44

What were the events of the Morant Bay Rebellion?

Answer 44

October 1865: hundreds protested against the colonial administration in Morant Bay. Edward Eyre (British governor of the Bay) ordered the rebellion to be crushed
. Hundreds of Jamaicans killed
. Bogle executed along with hundreds of others