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Sepoy Rebellion
The British East India Company won rights to trade with India in the 1600s. They started small
and gradually took more and more territory. To defend this territory from invaders the
company built up its own army, made up of British and Indian troops called Sepoys. By 1857
there were 230,000 Sepoys in the British East India Company’s army and only 40,000 British
soldiers. That an almost 6-1 ratio. At this time the Indians and British had a fairly good
relationship founded in respect. Both countries were benefiting from the relationship. India
produced raw materials for Britain – cotton, indigo and jute. India also exported spices, sugar,
tea and wheat. British manufactured goods sold to India and railroads were built in the area.
However, in May 1857 a rebellion amongst the Sepoys broke out as they took up arms against
the British soldiers.
A Cause of the Sepoy Rebellion: The Enfield Rifle
The mutiny was, literally, triggered by a gun. Sepoys throughout India were issued with a new
rifle, the Pattern of 1853 Enfield Percussion cap rifled musket - a more powerful and accurate
weapon than the old smoothbore Brown Bess they had been using for the last several decades.
The innovations were that the firing mechanism switched from the old, unreliable Flintlock to
Percussion caps, and rifling inside the musket barrel ensured accuracy at much greater
distances than was possible with old smoothbore muskets. One thing did not change in this
new musket - the loading process, which did not change significantly till the introduction of
metallic cartridges a few decades later.
To load the new Enfield, just like the previous muskets they were issued with, soldiers had to
bite the cartridge open and pour the gunpowder it contained into the rifle's muzzle, then stuff
the cartridge case, which was typically paper coated with some kind of grease to make it
waterproof, into the musket as wadding, before loading it with a ball.
A rumor spread that the cartridges that were standard issue with this rifle were greased with
lard (pork fat) or tallow (beef fat) - this was offensive to Hindu and Muslim soldiers alike, who
were forbidden by their religions to eat beef or pork respectively.
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The Sepoys' British officers dismissed these claims as rumors, and suggested that the Sepoys
make a batch of fresh cartridges, and grease these with beeswax or mutton fat. This, not too
surprisingly, reinforced the rumor that the original issue cartridges were indeed greased with
lard and tallow.
The Commander in Chief in India, General George Anson reacted to this crisis by saying, "I'll
never give in to their beastly prejudices", and despite the pleas of his junior officers he did not
compromise.
After a month hundreds of Sepoy soldiers, British solders, British civilians and India civilians
died. This forever changed the relationship between Britain and India. There was much more
suspicion now between the two groups and a lot of the good feelings were gone forever.
British East India Company rule ended, India controlled directly by the British government.
Questions
1. Why did the British East India company need Indian troops? What were these troops called?
2. How did the British benefit from India? How did the Indians benefit from Britain?
3. Why did the British switch from using the Brown Bess gun to the Enfield rifle?
4. Explain the procedure involved in loading the Enfield rifle?
5. What rumors spread about the new gun cartridges? Why did this cause a problem?
6. Why do you think that General George Anson was unwilling to compromise about changing the rifle
and the way to load it? Do you think that this offended the Indians? Why or why not?
7. Explain the results of the Sepoy Rebellion?