Pattern of the rebellion

The essentials

On the afternoon of 10 May 1857, the sepoys in the cantonment of Meerut broke into mutiny. They seized arms and ammunition, attacked British officers and their families, and then rode to Delhi, arriving early the next morning (11 May). They gathered at the gates of the Red Fort and demanded to meet Bahadur Shah Zafar, the ageing Mughal emperor. Joined by sepoys in Delhi, they killed several Europeans, and the emperor reluctantly agreed to become the nominal leader of the uprising. The name of the Mughal emperor gave the revolt wide legitimacy.

Key points

• A pattern can be seen in many stations: sepoys began the action, often with a signal such as the firing of a gun or the sounding of a bugle; they seized the magazine (the store of arms and ammunition), plundered the treasury, attacked government buildings like jails, courts and post offices, and then townspeople and rural people joined.
• Communication among regiments was quick, which suggests planning; there were reports of the circulation of chapatis from village to village.
• The immediate cause in the army was the rumour that cartridges of the new Enfield rifle were greased with the fat of cows and pigs.
• Leaders emerged locally: Nana Sahib in Kanpur, Rani Lakshmibai in Jhansi, Kunwar Singh of Arrah in Bihar, Shah Mal in pargana Barout (in present-day Uttar Pradesh), Gonoo, a tribal cultivator of Singhbhum in Chota Nagpur, and Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah, who preached against the British.
• Many leaders joined under pressure from their own followers.

Common mistakes

• The revolt began at Meerut, not Delhi or Barrackpore.
• Bahadur Shah Zafar was a symbolic leader; he did not plan the revolt.