The Revolt of 1857 was a significant rebellion in India between 1857 and 1858 against the government of the British East India Company, which acted as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The uprising began on May 10, 1857, with a mutiny of Company army sepoys at the garrison town of Meerut, 40 miles northeast of Delhi. It eventually burst into further mutinies and civilian rebellions, primarily in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, though there were also incidents of insurrection in the north and east. 

Background

• Following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the British took the first step toward gaining control of northern India.
• And in 1857, there was a great ‘Revolt,’ which was a result of the character and practices of colonial administration after 1757, and which resulted in significant changes in British policy toward India.
• Over time, the cumulative effect of British expansionist tactics, economic exploitation, and administrative innovations had harmed all—rulers of Indian states, sepoys, zamindars, peasants, traders, craftsmen, gurus, maulvis, and so on.
• In 1857, the simmering anger erupted in a violent storm that rocked the British empire in India to its very core.
• However, there were intermittent public eruptions in the form of religiopolitical violence, tribal movements, peasant uprisings, agrarian riots, and civil rebellions between 1757 and 1857.
• Even in famine years, increased revenue expectations sparked resentment.
• Because the moneylenders had the protection of the police, many protests against local moneylenders escalated into rebellions against the Company’s control.
• Interference by the British in native religious/traditional rituals sparked discontent and led to rebellions.
• Rebellions and uprisings happened almost from the beginning of the East India Company‘s reign, for various reasons in various places.
• Even after the 1857 Revolt, some of the movements persisted.
• Major revolts broke out in the south, east, west, and north-eastern districts, which the Company brutally repressed.

Economic Causes of 1857 Revolt

Economic factors were important since they impacted a big portion of Indian culture. Since the British were granted Diwani in 1765, land income has been a major source of concern. The British government implemented “pocket area transformation,” which included the establishment of Permanent Settlements in Bengal, Mahalwari settlements in Central India, and Ryotwari settlements in southern India. Peasants were poor as a result of the ‘Drain of Wealth,’ and they took part in the 1857 revolt.

• The East India Company‘s colonial practices shattered Indian society’s conventional economic foundation.
• Due to severe taxes, peasants were forced to take out loans from moneylenders/traders at exorbitant interest rates, with the latter frequently evicting the former from their property for non-payment of debt dues.
• While the issue of landless peasants and rural indebtedness has plagued Indian society to this day, these moneylenders and businessmen emerged as the new landlords.
• The zamindari system, which had been in place for a long time, had to be dismantled.
• The artists and handicrafts people suffered during the British administration as well.
• Furthermore, British policies discouraged Indian handicrafts while emphasizing British items.

Economic Exploitation

• The Company’s sole objective was to gather as much money as possible with the least amount of work.
• Industry, trade, commerce, and agriculture declined as a result of their colonial practices of economic exploitation, and India became de-industrialized, poor, and debt-ridden.
• The annexation of Indian states resulted in the loss of employment and authority for Indian aristocrats, as well as their economic and social standing and advantages.
• The ancient economic fabric of Indian society was undermined by British colonial policy.
• The British policies affected peasants, Taluqdars, artisans, traders, and ordinary people.
• “The Indians were victims of both physical and economic kinds of class oppression by the British,” Karl Marx notes.

Ruin of the Mercantile Class

• The British purposefully hampered Indian trade and commerce by levying hefty tariffs on Indian commodities.
• They, on the other hand, supported the importation of British products into India.
• As a result, by the mid-nineteenth century, Indian exports of cotton and silk textiles had all but vanished.

Discontent among the Zamindars and a New Land Revenue System

• The English administrators had brought the peasants and the British government into touch with one another by introducing a new land revenue system in the newly acquired States, thereby removing the middlemen between the two parties.
• As a result, the great Talukdars and Zamindars, who used to collect land tax before that, lost both their income and their position.
• Those who had land freeships were required to produce the letters of grant issued to them to the government in order to confirm the validity of their proprietary rights in that area.
• In 1852, Lord Dalhousie ordered the Inam Commission to investigate the landlords’ title papers.
• Those who failed to present documentary proof of their property rights, on the other hand, were stripped of their rights.
• Their lands were stolen and auctioned off to the highest bidder. 20,000 properties were therefore seized in Western India alone.
• In Awadh, the epicenter of the Revolt, 21,000 Taluqdars had their estates stolen, leaving them without a means of income.
• Removing Indian soldiers from the army and the British government’s severe reliance on documentation proof to justify their ownership rights in the country, Oudh became a hotbed of resistance to the British.
• The newly implemented land revenue system in freshly acquired regions drove aristocratic households to abject poverty.

Destruction of Indian Manufacturers

• The British strategy of promoting the import of cotton goods from England to India destroyed all Indian cotton textile businesses.
• Prior to British domination in India, communities were self-sufficient in all fields. Villagers used to create their commodities to meet their wants and requirements.
• When British goods began to flood the Indian market, it threatened to destroy Indian manufacturing. Because the things produced in the industries of England were both beautiful and inexpensive, Indians began to utilize them.
• India’s handicrafts could not compete with those of England. It annihilated India’s small-scale and handicraft industries.
• The East India Company’s administration made no steps to avoid the disaster. It eventually resulted in the demise of Indian manufacturers as well as the devastation of local economies.
• It believed that free trade and the failure to apply protective duties on English-made machine-made items destroyed Indian manufacturing.