Causative Factors for People’s Uprisings

• Colonial land revenue settlements, heavy burden of

new taxes, eviction of peasants from their lands,
• Exploitation in rural society coupled with the growth
of intermediary revenue collectors, tenants and
moneylenders.
• Expansion of revenue administration over tribal lands
leading to the loss of tribal people’s hold over agricultural
and forest land.
Causative Factors for People’s Uprisings
• Promotion of British manufactured goods, heavy duties on
Indian industries, especially export duties, leading to
devastation of Indian handloom and handicraft industries.
• Destruction of indigenous industry leading to migration
of workers from industry to agriculture, increasing the
pressure on land/agriculture.
Land Revenue System
• The Permanent Settlement/ The Zamindari System
➢ Introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1793
➢ introduced in provinces of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Varanasi
northern districts of Madras
➢ Zamindars were recognized as owner of the lands. Zamindars
were given the rights to collect the rent from the peasants.
➢ The realized amount would be divided into 11 parts. 1/11 of
the share belongs to Zamindars and 10/11 of the share
belongs to East India Company
➢ This owner ship rights were hereditary and transferable
Land Revenue System
• The Permanent Settlement/ The Zamindari System
➢ Zamindars Vs Landlords → misunderstanding
➢ Low status of zamindars as compared to landlords
➢ Why Zamindars as owners of land→
▪ Need to create political allies- local supporters
▪ Financial Security
▪ Easy to collect revenue
▪ Expected to increase agricultural production
➢ John Shore – Gross Produce of Bengal – 100→ 45/15/40
Land Revenue System
➢ In Central India / Awadh – Temporary Zamindari System
➢ Zamindars → Owners of the land
➢ Revenue to be revised periodically.
Land Revenue System
• The Mahalwari System
➢ Mahal – Revenue estate – Village or Group of Village
➢ By Holt Mackenzie in 1822
➢ It was introduced in Central Province, North-West Frontier,
Agra, Punjab, Gangetic Valley, etc of British India
➢ Modified version of Zamindari System
➢ In Punjab – Village Sysytem
➢ In this system, the land was divided into Mahals. Each Mahal
comprises one or more villages.
Land Revenue System
• The Mahalwari System
➢ The villages committee was held responsible for collection
of the taxes.
➢ Demand to be revised periodically
Land Revenue System
• The Ryotwari System
➢ By captain Alexander Reed and Thomas Munro in 1820
➢ All over South India/South Western India→ No zamindars
with large estates
➢ Permanent System- Loss to company/peasant at the mercy of
zamindar
➢ System that always existed in India
➢ Major areas of introduction include Madras, Bombay, parts of
Assam and Coorgh provinces of British India.
➢ In Ryotwari System the ownership rights were handed over
to the peasants.
Land Revenue System
• The Ryotwari System
➢ British Government collected taxes directly from the
peasants
➢ To be revised periodically after 20-30 years
➢ Did not bring system of peasant ownership-
▪ Large no. of Zamindars → One big Zamindar – State
▪ Ver high land revenue was fixed (45-55%)
▪ Right to enhance land revenue at will
▪ Peasant to pay revenue in any case.
▪ Later Govt Accepted – Its rent/ not tax
Land Revenue System
• Effect
➢ Practice of Absentee Landlordism
➢ Land became a new form of private property which was
made salable, mortgageable and alienable
➢ Now he could borrow money on the security of land/sell it to
pay revenue
➢ Right of ownership – ryot → No improvement of agriculture
➢ Fundamental change in existing land system
➢ Shaken the stability and continuity of Indian Villages
Civil Uprisings
➢ Which is not related to defence/military
➢ Several zamindars and poligars who had lost control over
their land and its revenues due to the colonial rule, had
personal scores to settle with the new rulers.
➢ The ego of traditional zamindars and poligars was hurt
due to being sidelined in rank by government officials and a
new class comprising of merchants and money-lenders.
Civil Uprisings
➢ The ruin of Indian handicraft industries due to colonial
policies impoverished millions of artisans whose misery was
further compounded by the disappearance of their
traditional patrons and buyers—princes, chieftains, and
zamindars.
➢ The priestly classes instigated hatred and rebellion
against alien rule, because the religious preachers, priests,
pundits, maulvis, etc., had been dependent on the traditional
landed and bureaucratic elite. The fall of zamindars and
feudal lords directly affected the priestly class.
Civil Uprisings
➢ The foreign character of the British rulers, who always
remained alien to this land, and their contemptuous
treatment of the native people hurt the pride of the latter
CHARACTERSTICS
➢ backward looking and traditional in outlook.
➢ Their basic objective was to restore earlier forms of rule and
social relations.
➢ Result of local causes and grievances and were also localised
in their consequences.
Civil Uprisings
1. SANYASI REVOLT (1763-1800)
• Disastrous famine of 1770 and harsh economic order
• Majnum Shah (or Majnu Shah), Chirag Ali,
Musa Shah, Bhawani Pathak and Debi Chaudhurani were
important leaders
• Anandamath (1882) → novel by Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay, is based on the Sanyasi Revolt.
• Bankim Chandra also wrote a novel, Devi Chaudhurani, as he
saw the importance of women too taking up the struggle
against an alien rule that posed a threat to traditional Indian
values.
Civil Uprisings
2. Paika Rebellion (1817)
• The Paiks of Odisha were the traditional landed militia (‘foot
soldiers’ literally) and enjoyed rent free land tenures for their
military service and policing functions on a hereditary basis
• English Company’s conquest of Odisha in 1803
• Dethronement of the Raja of Khurda
• Extortionist land revenue policy of the Company
• Rise in prices of salt due to taxes imposed on it, abolition of
cowrie currency and the requirement of payment of taxes in
silver
Civil Uprisings
2. Paika Rebellion (1817)
• Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar had been the military chief of
the forces of the Raja of Khurda
• Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar led a sundry army of Paikas
forcing the East India Company forces to retreat for a time
• Though Khurda was back under Company control by mid-
1817, the Paika rebels resorted to guerilla tactics.
• The Paik Rebellion succeeded in getting large remissions
Civil Uprisings
3. Wahabi Movement (1830-61)
• Islamic revivalist movement founded by Syed Ahmed of Rai
Bareilly who was inspired by the teachings of Abdul Wahab
(1703-87) of Saudi Arabia and Shah Waliullah of Delhi
• Condemned the western influence on Islam and advocated a
return to pure Islam and society as it was in the Arabia of
the Prophet’s time.
Civil Uprisings
3. Wahabi Movement (1830-61)
• Dar-ul-Harb (territory of War) was to be converted into
Darul-Islam (the land of Islam), a jihad was declared against
the Sikh kingdom of Punjab.
• Later the English dominion in India became the sole target of
the Wahabis’ attacks
• The Wahabis played an important role in spreading anti
British sentiments
Civil Uprisings
4. Kuka Movement (1840)
• founded in 1840 by Bhagat Jawahar Mal (also called Sian
Saheb) in western Punjab
• Baba Ram Singh. (Namdhari Sikh sect.)
• After the British took Punjab, the movement got transformed
from a religious purification campaign to a political
campaign
• abolition of caste and similar discriminations among Sikhs,
discouraging the consumption of meat and alcohol and drugs,
permission for intermarriages, widow remarriage, and
encouraging women to step out of seclusion
Civil Uprisings
4. Kuka Movement (1840)
• On the political side, the Kukas wanted to remove the British
and restore Sikh rule over Punjab
• They advocated wearing hand-woven clothes and boycott of
English laws and education and products
• Concepts of Swadeshi and non-cooperation were
propagated by the Kukas
Peasant Movements with Religious Overtones
• Peasant uprisings were protests against evictions, increase in
rents of land, and the moneylenders’ greedy ways
• Their aim was occupancy rights for peasants among other
things.
• They were revolts and rebellions of the peasants themselves
though led by local leaders in many cases .
1. Narkelberia Uprising
• Mir Nithar Ali (1782-1831) or Titu Mir inspired the Muslim
tenants in West Bengal to rise against landlords, mainly
Hindu, who imposed a beard-tax on the Faraizis, and British
indigo planters.
• The revolt later merged into the Wahabi movement.
2. Pagal Panthis
• The Pagal Panthi, a semi-religious group mainly constituting
the Hajong and Garo tribes of Mymensingh district (earlier
in Bengal), was founded by Karam Shah.
• But the tribal peasants organised themselves under Karam
Shah’s son, Tipu
• to fight the oppression of the zamindars
3. Faraizi Revolt (1838-57)
• The Faraizis were the followers of a Muslim sect founded
by Haji Shariat-Allah of Faridpur in Eastern Bengal.
• They advocated radical religious, social and political changes
• Shariat-Allah son of Dadu Mian (1819-60) organised his
followers with an aim to expel the English intruders from
Bengal.
• The sect also supported the cause of the tenants
against the zamindars
• Most of the Faraizis joined the Wahabi ranks.
4. Moplah Uprising (1836-54)
• Hike in revenue demand and reduction of field size, coupled
with the oppression of officials, resulted in widespread
peasant unrest among the Moplahs of Malabar
• The second Moplah uprising occurred after the Moplahs
came to be organised by the Congress and the Khilafat
supporters during the Non-cooperation Movement
Tribal Revolts
Causes – Mainland Tribal Revolts
• The land settlements of the British affected the joint
ownership tradition among the tribals and disrupted their
social fabric
• The tribals lost their land, and there was an influx of non-
tribals to these areas
• Shifting cultivation in forests was curbed
• Setting up reserved forests and restricting timber use and
grazing
• Exploitation by the police, traders and money-lenders
Tribal Revolts
Causes – Mainland Tribal Revolts
• Some general laws were also abhorred for their intrusive
nature as the tribals had their own customs and traditions
• Christian missionaries came to these regions and their
efforts interfered with the traditional customs of the tribals
Tribal Revolts
Causes – Tribes of the north-eastern frontier
• The tribes which shared tribal and cultural links with
countries across the border did not concern themselves
much with the nationalist struggle.
• Their revolts were often in favour of political autonomy
within the Indian Union or complete independence
• These movements were not forest-based or agrarian revolts
as these tribals were generally in control of land and forest
area
• Frontier tribal revolts under the British continued for a longer
time than the non-frontier tribal movements
Characteristics of Tribal Revolts

• Tribal identity or ethnic ties lay behind the solidarity shown

by these groups. Not all ‘outsiders’ were, however, seen as
enemies
• the violence was directed towards the money-lenders and
traders who were seen as extensions of the colonial
government
• A common cause was the resentment against the imposition
of laws by the ‘foreign government’
• Many uprisings were led by messiah-like figures who
encouraged their people to revolt
Characteristics of Tribal Revolts
• The tribal uprisings were doomed from the beginning,
given the outdated arms they fought with as against the
modern weapons and techniques used by their opponents.
Important Tribal Movements of Mainland
• Most tribal movements were concentrated in central India,
the west-central region and the south.
Ho and Munda Uprisings (1820-1837)
• The Raja of Parahat organised his Ho tribals to revolt against
the occupation of Singhbhum (now in Jharkhand).
• The revolt continued till 1827 when the Ho tribals were
forced to submit. .
Ho and Munda Uprisings (1820-1837)
• In 1899-1900, the Mundas in the region south of
Ranchi rose under Birsa Munda.
• The Ulgulan was one of the most significant tribal uprisings
in the period 1860-1920.
• The rebellion which began as a religious movement gathered
political force to fight against introduction of feudal,
zamindari tenures, and exploitation by money-lenders and
forest contractors.
• The Mundas claimed Chhotanagpur as their area in 1879
BIRSA MUNDA
• Declared himself Bhagwan(God)
• God had appointed him to save his people from trouble/ free
from slavery of DIKUS (Outsiders)
• His movement was aimed at reforming Tribal society
• He used traditional symbol and language to rouse people,
urging them to destroy “RAVANA’’(Dikus and Europeans) and
establish kingdom under his leadership.
The Santhal Rebellion (1855-56)
• Santhals, an agricultural people - Rajmahal hills (Bihar)
• Against the zamindars and money-lenders
• The rebellion turned into an anti-British movement.
• Under Sidhu and Kanhu, two brothers, the Santhals
proclaimed an end to Company rule, and declared the area
between Bhagalpur and Rajmahal as autonomous – Santhal
Pargana .
Sepoy Mutinies - Causes
• Discrimination in payment and promotions
• Mistreatment of the sepoys by the British officials
• Refusal of the government to pay foreign service allowance
while fighting in remote regions
• Religious objections of the high caste Hindu sepoys to Lord
Canning’s General Service Enlistment Act (1856) ordering all
recruits to be ready for service both within and outside India.
• Further, the sepoys shared all the discontent and
grievances—social, religious and economic—that afflicted
the civilian population.
Sepoy Mutinies - Causes
• The upper caste sepoys had found their religious beliefs in
conflict with their service conditions.
• For example, in 1806, the replacement of the turban by a
leather cockade caused a mutiny at Vellore .
• All these mutinies did not spread beyond their locality and
were ruthlessly crushed by the British Indian government
Weaknesses of People’s Uprisings
• localised and occurred at different times in different regions
- mostly arose out of local grievances
• The leadership was semi-feudal in character, backward
looking, traditional in outlook and their resistance did not
offer alternatives to the existing social set-up
• These rebellions were centuries-old in form and ideological /
cultural content
• The methods and arms used by the fighters in these uprisings
were practically obsolete → Absence of Nationalism
THE REVOLT OF 1857
Major Causes
1. Economic Causes
➢ Peasantry - new and a highly unpopular revenue settlement
➢ Annexation of Indian states by the Company cut off their
major source of patronage—the native rulers and the nobles
➢ British policy discouraged Indian handicrafts and promoted
British goods
➢ Misery to the artisans and handicrafts people
➢ Destruction of Indian handicrafts was not accompanied by
the development of modern industries.
Major Causes
1. Economic Causes
➢ High tariff duties on Indian-made goods
➢ Import of British goods into India attracted low tariffs
➢ By mid-nineteenth century, exports of cotton and silk
textiles from India practically came to an end.
➢ Free trade—one way, that is—and refusal to impose
protective duties against machine-made goods from Britain
simply killed Indian manufacture
➢ Zamindars, the traditional landed aristocracy → loss of status
for them in the villages
Major Causes
2. Political Causes
➢ Policies as of ‘Effective Control’, ‘Subsidiary Alliance’ and
‘Doctrine of Lapse – caused suspicion in the minds of almost
all the ruling princes in India
➢ The right of succession was denied to Hindu princes
➢ Prince Faqiruddin’s death in 1856, Lord Canning announced
that the next prince on succession would have to renounce
the regal title and the ancestral Mughal palaces
Major Causes
3. Administrative Causes
➢ Rampant corruption in the Company’s administration
➢ The character of British rule imparted a foreign and alien look
to it in the eyes of Indians
Major Causes
4. Socio-Religious Causes
➢ Racial overtones and a superiority complex
➢ The activities of Christian missionaries
➢ The attempts at socio-religious reform such as abolition of
sati, support to widow-marriage and women’s education
➢ Government’s decision to tax mosque and temple lands and
making laws such as the Religious Disabilities Act, 1856,
which modified Hindu customs, for instance, declaring that a
change of religion did not debar a son from inheriting the
property of his ‘heathen’ father.
Major Causes
5. Influence of Outside Events
➢ the First Afghan War (1838-42), Punjab Wars (1845-49), and
the Crimean Wars (1854-56).
➢ The British were seen to be not so strong and it was felt that
they could be defeated.
Major Causes
6. Discontent Among Sepoys
➢ Restrictions on wearing caste and sectarian marks
➢ In 1856, Lord Canning’s government passed the General
Service Enlistment Act
➢ A more immediate cause of the sepoys’ dissatisfaction was
the order that they would not be given the foreign service
allowance (bhatta) when serving in Sindh or in Punjab
➢ The annexation of Awadh (1856)
➢ The sepoy was a ‘peasant in uniform’
The Spark
➢ The introduction of the Enfield rifle
➢ The greased wrapping paper of the cartridge of the new rifle
had to be bitten off before loading and the grease was
reportedly made of beef and pig fat. The cow was sacred to
the Hindus while the pig was taboo for the Muslims
➢ The revolt began at Meerut on May 10,1857 → Punjab in
the north and the Narmada in the south to Bihar in the east
and Rajputana in the west
➢ The explosion at Meerut. On April 24, ninety men of the 3rd
Native Cavalry refused to accept the greased cartridges.
➢ On May 9, eighty-five of them were dismissed, sentenced to
10 years’ imprisonment.
➢ This sparked off a general mutiny among the Indian soldiers
stationed at Meerut.
➢ May 10, they released their imprisoned comrades, killed their
officers → They set off for Delhi
➢ Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed the Emperor of India.
➢ Traditional symbol of India’s political unity
➢ Civilians Join - rebellion of the civil population, particularly in
the north-western provinces and Awadh
➢ It is the widespread participation in the revolt by the
peasantry, the artisans, shopkeepers, day labourers,
zamindars, religious mendicants, priests and civil
servants which gave it real strength as well as the character
of a popular revolt
➢ Destruction of the money-lenders’ account books and debt
records.
➢ They also attacked the British-established law courts,
revenue offices (tehsils), revenue records and police
stations
Storm Centres and Leaders of the Revolt
➢ General Bakht Khan – Delhi
➢ Nana Saheb - Kanpur
➢ Begum Hazrat Mahal – Lucknow
➢ Khan Bahadur – Bareilly
➢ Kunwar Singh – Bihar
➢ Maulvi Ahmadullah - Faizabad
➢ Rani Laxmibai – Jhansi – Joined by Tantia Tope
➢ Shah Mal- Baghpat
Suppression of the Revolt
➢ The British captured Delhi on September 20, 1857
➢ The emperor was exiled to Rangoon where he died in 1862
➢ By the end of 1859, British authority over India was fully re-
established
Why the Revolt Failed
1. All-India participation was absent
➢ Limited territorial spread
➢ The eastern, southern and western parts of India remained
more or less unaffected.
Why the Revolt Failed

2. All classes did not join

➢ Big zamindars acted as “break-waters to storm”
➢ Money-lenders and merchants saw their class interests
better protected under British patronage.
➢ Educated Indians viewed this revolt as backward looking,
supportive of the feudal order and as a reaction of traditional
conservative forces to modernity
➢ These people had high hopes that the British would usher in
an era of modernisation
Why the Revolt Failed
2. All classes did not join
➢ Most Indian rulers refused to join, and often gave active
help to the British.
➢ Rulers who did not participate included the Sindhia of
Gwalior, the Holkar of Indore, the rulers of Patiala, Sindh
and other Sikh chieftains and the Maharaja of Kashmir.
➢ Not more than one-fourth of the total area and not more
than one-tenth of the total population was affected
Why the Revolt Failed
3. Poor Arms and Equipment
4. Uncoordinated and Poorly Organised
5. No Unified Ideology
➢ The lack of unity among Indians was perhaps unavoidable
at this stage of Indian history.
➢ Modern nationalism was as yet unknown in India.
➢ Revolt of 1857 played an important role in bringing the Indian
people together
➢ Events of 1857 demonstrated that the people and politics of
India were not basically communal or sectarian before 1858
Nature of Revolt
➢ Mutiny – A collective disobedience of rules and regulations
within the armed forces
➢ Revolt – A Rebellion of people against established authority
and power.
Nature of Revolt
➢ V.D. Savarkar in his book, The Indian War of Independence,
1857 called the revolt the first war of Indian independence
➢ Jawaharlal Nehru considered the revolt of 1857 as essentially a
feudal uprising though there were some nationalistic
elements in it (Discovery of India)
➢ Stanley Wolpert - It was far more than a mutiny, ... yet much
less than a first war of independence.
Consequence
➢ Turning point in the history of India
➢ British Parliament, on August 2, 1858, passed an Act for the
Better Government of India.
➢ The Act declared Queen Victoria as the sovereign of British
India and provided for the appointment of a Secretary of State
for India (a member of the British cabinet).
➢ The direct responsibility for the administration of the country
was assumed by the British Crown and Company rule was
abolished.
Consequence
➢ The assumption of the Government of India by the
sovereign of Great Britain was announced by Lord Canning
at a durbar at Allahabad in the ‘Queen’s Proclamation’ issued
on November 1, 1858. (It was by this proclamation that the
governor-general acquired the additional title of ‘Viceroy’.)
➢ The era of annexations and expansion had ended and the
British promised to respect the dignity and rights of the native
princes
➢ The Indian states were henceforth to recognise the
paramountcy of the British Crown
Consequence
➢ The people of India were promised freedom of religion
without interference from British officials
➢ The proclamation also promised equal and impartial
protection under law to all Indians, besides equal opportunities
in government services irrespective of race or creed.
➢ It was also promised that old Indian rights, customs and
practices would be given due regard while framing and
administering the law.
Consequence
➢ The Army was thoroughly reorganised
➢ The number of Indian soldiers was drastically reduced even as
the number of European soldiers was increased.
➢ The concept of divide and rule was adopted with separate units
being created on the basis of caste/community/region.
➢ Recruits were to be drawn from the ‘martial’ races of Punjab,
Nepal, and north-western frontier who had proved loyal to the
British during the Revolt.
➢ Effort was made to keep the army away from civilian
population
Consequence
➢ The Army Amalgamation Scheme, 1861 moved the Company’s
European troops to the services of the Crown →White Mutiny
➢ All higher posts in the army and the artillery departments were
reserved for the Europeans
Consequence
➢ The era of reforms came to an end
➢ The conservative reaction in England made the British
Empire in India more autocratic; it began to deny the
aspirations of the educated Indians for sharing power
➢ The policy of divide and rule started in earnest after
the Revolt of 1857
➢ While British territorial conquest was at an end, a period of
systematic economic loot by the British began. The Indian
economy was fully exploited without fear
Consequence
➢ In accordance with Queen’s Proclamation of 1858, the
Indian Civil Service Act of 1861 was passed, which was to
give an impression that under the Queen all were equal,
irrespective of race or creed.
➢ (In reality, the detailed rules framed for the conduct of the civil
service examination had the effect of keeping the higher
services a close preserve of the colonisers.)
➢ Racial hatred and suspicion between the Indians and the
English was probably the worst legacy of the revolt.
Significance
➢ It showed up the glaring shortcomings in the Company’s
administration and its army, which they rectified promptly
➢ It brought out in the open grievances of people and the sepoys,
which were seen to be genuine
➢ The senseless atrocities committed by both sides shocked the
Indian intellectuals who were increasingly convinced that
violence was to be eschewed in any struggle for freedom
➢ Effect on Rising Nationalism
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