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badly, gave them meagre salary and did not give them other facilities
like promotion, good quality food etc. On the contrary, the British
soldiers were well-paid and well-fed, in addition to several other
privileges. This made the Indian soldiers unhappy. There were other
causes of their unhappiness too. The British had destroyed
agriculture and crafts of India, so a large number of people were
An Indian sepoy
unemployed. The Indians were becoming poorer. So, they wanted to
throw the British out of India. They were looking for a suitable opportunity.

Immediate Cause of the Uprising

To make their army stronger, the British introduced a new type of rifle called Enfield
rifle . Its cartridges were wrapped in a greased paper, which had to be torn open by
teeth before loading them in the rifle. It was believed that these cartridges were

greased with the fat of cows and pigs. This offended the Indian soldiers, both Hindus
and Muslims. In many units, they refused to use these cartridges. At this, the British
disbanded these units and sent the soldiers back to their villages.
A British unit was stationed at Barrackpore (in West Bengal). Mangal Pandey was an

Indian soldier in it. When he heard about this grease, he refused to use these
cartridges. When he was forced to do so, he attacked a British officer all alone and
killed him. He was caught and hanged to death on 29 March, 1857. This news spread
in all army units. The Indians and Indian soldiers were very disturbed at this.

The British tried to force the Indian soldiers at Meerut (in Uttar Pradesh) to use these
cartridges. 85 soldiers refused to do so. The British put these soldiers in jail. This made
the Indian soldiers there very angry. On 10 May, 1857, the people of Meerut rose in
revolt. They attacked the British in markets with sticks and knives. At this, the Indians
sepoys too rose in revolt. They
attacked the British and freed the
jailed soldiers. After this, the same
evening, they marched to Delhi.

There the soldiers declared Bahadur
Shah Zafar , the last Mughal
emperor, as the Emperor of India. Capture of Delhi 1857 The Memorial at Meerut

Soon, the revolt spread to other Commemorating the 1857 Uprising
parts of India. The Indian soldiers and freedom fighters fought shoulder to shoulder.
Common people joined and helped them with food and information. Thus, it became a
very massive war for freedom.

At many places, the Indians fought pitched battles with the British. At Kanpur, Nana
Saheb was declared the Peshwa . His army fought under Tantya Tope and Azimullah .

The First War of Independence 99