(Continues from my last blog on Sepoy Mutiny or the First Indian War of Independence)..
The whole Sepoy Mutiny was an impromptu uprising with hardly any planning. It was an instant reflex reaction to the prevalent perception of East India Company's surreptitious attempt to convert their Sepoys or Military recruits into Christians. This belief was reinforced by an active band of Evangelical Christians in North India who towards mid 19th century started proselytizing with vigor, establishing Churches and spreading the message of Jesus.
There were new converts amongst Indians, more Hindus than Muslims - including two prominent citizens of Delhi, Master Ramachandra, a much revered teacher at local college and another renowned Physician. The news of the conversion of well known personalities raised the fear and alarm of the natives. When the British wanted the Sepoys, mostly from Upper caste Hindus to fight the Burmese War in Rangoon their was murmurs of protest - for the Brahmins going across the seas was tantamount to becoming an outcast, losing their religion. They took it as a sign of the British trying to stealthily convert them.
Nothing divides and nothing unites more than religion in India in an age sans Bollywood and competitive cricket. But the most humiliating part which instantly fuelled the rebellion was the use of greased cartridges for the latest Enfield Rifles which were inadvertently or otherwise laced with cow and pig fats, both respectively anathema to the Hindu Sepoys and their Muslim counterparts.
Tension was thick in the air during the early summer of 1857. The rebellion started in Barackpore when a Brahmin Sepoy named Mangal Pandey refused to use the grease laces cartridge and shot his commanding Officer. He was promptly court marshalled and hanged.
But Mangal Pandey did his job. He lit a matchstick in a room full of inflammable gas. The die of revolt was cast, a move had been made. Soon the fire of rebellion spread towards West from Kanpur to Meerut when the marauding Sepoys killed whoever English came their way, including women and children in cold blood. First in hundreds then in thousands, the swarm of Sepoys a la devouring locusts marched in waves after waves into Delhi, the last Citadel of the weak Mughals.
The war so far between the rebelling Sepoys and the British. But soon it turned into a war between the Sepoys and Delhites - a least mentally as the citizens of the walled City of differed from the newcomers as chalks from cheese. On arrival in Delhi on 11th May, 1857 the Sepoys mostly consisting of peasants from Eastern UP and Bihar, also called PURBAIYA (The migrants from East) went berserk. They indulged in rampant looting, killing the British as well as those who they perceived as the collaborators of the Firangis (foreigners). Those natives who converted to Christianity, including the nascent Christians Master Ramachandra and the Physician were brutally murdered, their homes ransacked by the Sepoys. The authorities of the weak Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Jaffer were both unable and unwilling to stop the carnage.
But in affluent Delhi, the uncouth "Purbaiyas" were despised by the TEHZEEB oriented (well mannered), Muslim dominated citizens of Delhi. They didn't like the senseless killings as well as the curt, uncouth behavior of the new arrivals who forced the local inhabitants to feed them, extort money and passed lewd innuendos at their women folks. They even did not spare the palace of old but cultured and suave last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Jaffer. They ogled at his ZANANA (ladies) quarters and peed facing them, passing lascivious gluts of smut at them. Not to mention, they tied their ponies inside the famed gardens of the Emperor who maintained them with utmost care only to see it soon filled with horse poop
The Sepoys from the poor heartlands of present day Bihar and UP were dazzled by the spectre of Delhi, a city of culture and class which would soon clash with their brute force and lack of finesse in mannerism. They spent their nights in the Courtyards, going after the famed courtesans and prostitutes of Delhi, without cleaning after their act in an age sans condoms. It was resented by the Muslim elites of Delhi who cleaned themselves post copulation, a habit these rag tag rural peasantry lacked.
When the Englishmen came to know this through their well oiled spy network, it was music to their ears, fully knowing that such frolicking nature of their bete noires will do more harm than good to them. Many Purbaiyas contracted Sexually Transmitted diseases, which along with bouts of Cholera on the outset of monsoon created havoc in the Rebel camp - more than the well coordinated attacks from the British and their army of Sikhs, Gurkhas, Muslims from Punjab and North West. More of that latter.
Nothing divides and nothing unites more than religion in India in an age sans Bollywood and competitive cricket. But the most humiliating part which instantly fuelled the rebellion was the use of greased cartridges for the latest Enfield Rifles which were inadvertently or otherwise laced with cow and pig fats, both respectively anathema to the Hindu Sepoys and their Muslim counterparts.
Tension was thick in the air during the early summer of 1857. The rebellion started in Barackpore when a Brahmin Sepoy named Mangal Pandey refused to use the grease laces cartridge and shot his commanding Officer. He was promptly court marshalled and hanged.
But Mangal Pandey did his job. He lit a matchstick in a room full of inflammable gas. The die of revolt was cast, a move had been made. Soon the fire of rebellion spread towards West from Kanpur to Meerut when the marauding Sepoys killed whoever English came their way, including women and children in cold blood. First in hundreds then in thousands, the swarm of Sepoys a la devouring locusts marched in waves after waves into Delhi, the last Citadel of the weak Mughals.
The war so far between the rebelling Sepoys and the British. But soon it turned into a war between the Sepoys and Delhites - a least mentally as the citizens of the walled City of differed from the newcomers as chalks from cheese. On arrival in Delhi on 11th May, 1857 the Sepoys mostly consisting of peasants from Eastern UP and Bihar, also called PURBAIYA (The migrants from East) went berserk. They indulged in rampant looting, killing the British as well as those who they perceived as the collaborators of the Firangis (foreigners). Those natives who converted to Christianity, including the nascent Christians Master Ramachandra and the Physician were brutally murdered, their homes ransacked by the Sepoys. The authorities of the weak Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Jaffer were both unable and unwilling to stop the carnage.
But in affluent Delhi, the uncouth "Purbaiyas" were despised by the TEHZEEB oriented (well mannered), Muslim dominated citizens of Delhi. They didn't like the senseless killings as well as the curt, uncouth behavior of the new arrivals who forced the local inhabitants to feed them, extort money and passed lewd innuendos at their women folks. They even did not spare the palace of old but cultured and suave last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Jaffer. They ogled at his ZANANA (ladies) quarters and peed facing them, passing lascivious gluts of smut at them. Not to mention, they tied their ponies inside the famed gardens of the Emperor who maintained them with utmost care only to see it soon filled with horse poop
The Sepoys from the poor heartlands of present day Bihar and UP were dazzled by the spectre of Delhi, a city of culture and class which would soon clash with their brute force and lack of finesse in mannerism. They spent their nights in the Courtyards, going after the famed courtesans and prostitutes of Delhi, without cleaning after their act in an age sans condoms. It was resented by the Muslim elites of Delhi who cleaned themselves post copulation, a habit these rag tag rural peasantry lacked.
When the Englishmen came to know this through their well oiled spy network, it was music to their ears, fully knowing that such frolicking nature of their bete noires will do more harm than good to them. Many Purbaiyas contracted Sexually Transmitted diseases, which along with bouts of Cholera on the outset of monsoon created havoc in the Rebel camp - more than the well coordinated attacks from the British and their army of Sikhs, Gurkhas, Muslims from Punjab and North West. More of that latter.
No comments:
Post a Comment