Indian War of Independence

As children we have often came across the topic of the 'First War of Independence' or the 'Sepoy's Mutiny' or 'The Indian war of 1857, in our social studies textbooks. I have often wondered, if the 'First World War' was known as the 'Great World War' or simply 'The Great War', before the second world war broke out, like a sequel, when was the second war of independence fought, to call it the first as it was the only war fought by a confederation of a few small Indian kingdoms, against the East India Company(EIC) and their allies. Do you realize that it was the last ground war ever fought in the heart of mainland India, involving some of our major cities of that era. After the war was over, the British promptly described it as the Sepoy's Mutiny to avoid any kind of publicity or hype to the entire episode, with attention to the Indian public.
 
This war was NOT fought for the unification of India as projected in media and movies, but a war fought by rulers of small kingdoms, who rebelled against the imposition of the Doctrine of Lapse by the then Governor General Lord Dalhousie of the  East India Company, which stated in one of its clauses that, if the ruler was incompetent or died without an heir of the same blood line, the kingdom will be annexed to the company. When the first sparks were lit by Mangal Pandey at Barrackpore which raged after he was hung, there were many rulers who did not support or stand for the cause and instead joined hands with the EIC, some of them thinking that the return of the Mughals with Bahadur Shah Zafar as the emperor, as the foremost power of India, in a situation if EIC loses the war, the smaller kingdoms will be subject to a status established prior to 1700 AD.


 Did you know that 22 Indian states of that time, formed a coalition with the EIC against only 7 Indian kingdoms who came together under the Mughal emperor and had leaders like Peshwa NanaSaheb II, his general Tatya Tope(who was one of the greatest Generals of India) and Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi. I again wondered what name I could give this war, where in a majority of the Indian states joined hands with the British, against other Indian states. On a light note, I could be sure that the rebelling states would have lost heavily, even if there was a free and fair democratic elections held at that time. And yet, we call it our First War of Independence. It sounds more like the need of Independence by India, from India.

The war had a great effect on the psyche of the people of India. The result of the war was a complete annihilation of the rebel forces, permanent destruction of the Mughal power in India, along with the Mughal Royal family. Every male member of the family was beheaded and the emperor exiled to Rangoon to avoid any further communications with the rebels, Nanasaheb disappeared and was nowhere to be heard of, just rumors prevailed about what may have happened to him, Tatya Tope and many heroes like him were executed. It was widely believed that he was blown away tied to a cannon in contrary to the claim made that he was hung. Delhi was purged, its citizens were ruthlessly massacred by the British forces just for spite, something that went unnoticed in our popular version of written history. What happened to the British was, that the EIC was destroyed forever, never to live again. Instead the Crown took over the country directly under it. The idea of India was being born in the minds of the people, which gave rise to the later part of the struggle for freedom, of our beloved country The British realized that the only way to avoid such conflicts in the future, was to form military regiments based on castes and regions, which is followed till this day.(Wonder why we have the Jat Regiment, the Sikh Light Infantry, The Gurkha Regiment, the Punjab Reg., The Rajputana Rifles, etc.)

Sometimes, I still wonder, what if all the states of India had come together for this one cause, what kind of history would I have read at school and what kind of India would I have been living in today. It's unimaginable.
Coming back to the present, its sad to see that our successive governments, our people don't take lessons from the past and first think about our country, rather keep thinking about their own selfish gains, which benefit them only in the short run, but which always has disastrous consequences in the long run. This attitude of ours, had already made us subject to a foreign ruler many times in the past. Its time for at least once, to think about our country.

Its always when we secure our country, that we have a future, in return makes us secure and gives us a future, in turn making our children secure and providing them with a better future, later making them the future of this country,making it secure.

Pictures: Starting from Top to bottom: (Mangal Pandey, the Jhansi fort at the time of Rani Lakshmibai's rule, Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar on his death bed(only photograph ever taken of a Mughal emperor), The Red Fort in 1857, another picture of a gate at the Red Fort, Tatya Tope handcuffed, war heroes being hung and blown away by cannon.)