Sepoy Rebellion Excerpts

In 1857, Indian soldiers rose up in rebellion and tried to drive the English out of India. Atrocities were committed in the name of making India too terrible a place to stay, women and children were targeted in particular. The British responded with similar violence and eventually put the rebellion down.

Document A:
Causes of the Indian Rebellion of 1857by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Delhi: Asha
Jyoti BookSellers & Publishers. (Original work published in 1859)
In Causes of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan outlines his view on the roots
of the rebellion of 1857. The most important cause in Khan’s view was state act’s that interfered with the religion of India.
Misunderstanding on part of the Indians.
… I only wish to say that the Government (the British) were misconstrued by people, and that this misconstruction hurried on the rebellion. Had there been a native of Hindustan in the Legislative Council, the people would never have fallen into such terrors.
There is no doubt that all, be they illiterate or intelligent, high or low in society, they all thought that the heartfelt desire of our government (the British ruling India) was to intervene in religious and social customs and turn all, be they Hindus or Muslims, to Christianity and followers of the customs or norms of their own country. This was the main reason for the rebellion.
Document B:
C. Sita Ram (excerpted from Original)
It chanced about this time theSirkarsent parties of men from each regiment to different garrisons for instruction in the use of the new rifle. These men performed the new drill for some time until a new report got about, by some means or other, that the cartridges used for these new rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The men from our regiment wrote to others in the regiment telling them of this, and there was soon excitement in every regiment. Some men pointed out that in forty- years’ service nothing had ever been done by theSirkarto insult their religion, but as I have already mentioned thesepoys’ minds had been inflamed by the seizure of Oudh. Interested parties were quick to point out that the great aim of the English was to turn us all into Christians, and they had therefore introduced the cartridge in order to bring this about since both, Mohammedans and Hindus would be defiled by using it.
Document C:
Scene of the Massacre of British Women and Children in Cawnpore, July 21, 1857- Report of an Officer in General Havelock’s Relieving Force
I never was more horrified. The place was one mass of blood. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the soles of my boots were more than covered with the blood of these poor wretched creatures. Portions of their dresses, collars, children’s socks and ladies’ hats lay about, saturated with their blood; and in the sword cuts on the wooden pillars of the room, long dark hair was carried by the edge of the weapon….
….Their bodies were afterwards dragged out and thrown down a well outside the building where their limbs were to be seen sticking out in a mass of gory confusion.
Document D:
The British retaliate (fight back) against the Indians after the attack on Cawnpore- Streets, H. The rebellion of 1857: Origins, consequences, and themes. TeachingSouth Asia: An internet journal of pedagogy, 1, 85-104. 2001.
Every native that appeared in sight was shot down without question, and in the morning
Colonel Neill sent out parties of regiment (military men)…and burned all the villages near where the ruins of our bungalows stood, and hung every native that they could catch, on the trees that lined the road.