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THE OUTBREAK OF THE INDIAN MUTINY

29 June 1857

At the two great stations of Meerut and Delhi the whole of the native troops have broken out into mutiny and murder. From the former place they have fled or been expelled. The latter (where no European troops were quartered) remained, at the date of the latest accounts, completely in their possession.

I will endeavour to digest into a continuous narrative as much of the fragmentary intelligence that has been day by day rushing down from Agra as has been proved, or may be reasonably conjectured to be true.

At the commencement of this month the native force at Meerut consisted of the 3rd Light Cavalry and the 11th and 20th Regiments of Native Infantry. Among the men of the cavalry corps the question of the greased cartridges, which had previously been mooted at Barrackpore and other stations, was freely agitated. The result of the movement was that 85 men of the regiment refusing to handle the cartridges found themselves in the early days of the month tried by court-martial, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment with hard labour. On the 9th their sentences were read out on parade, and the offenders marched off to gaol. Up to this time disaffection had shown itself only through incendiary fires in the lines, hardly a night passing without one or more conflagrations. But on the 10th it appeared at once in all its unsuspected strength. Towards the evening of that day, while many of the Europeans were at church – for it was Sunday – the men of the two native infantry regiments, the 11th and 20th, as if by previous concert, assembled together in armed and tumultuous bodies upon the parade ground. Several officers hurried from their quarters to endeavour to pacify them. Colonel Finnis, of the 11th, was one of the first to arrive, and was the first victim of the outbreak. He was shot down while addressing a party of the 20th, which is said to have been the foremost regiment in the mutiny. Other officers fell with the Colonel or in the terrible moments that ensued, for the troopers of the 3rd Cavalry poured out of their quarters to join the insurgent infantry, and the whole body, now thoroughly committed to the wildest excesses, rushed through the native lines of the cantonment, slaying, burning, and destroying. Every house was fired, and every English man, woman, or child, that fell in the way of the mutineers was pitilessly massacred. Happily, however, many of the officers and their families – the great majority, I hope and believe had already escaped to the European lines, where they took refuge in the Artillery School of Instruction. Mr. Greathed, the Commissioner, and his wife were saved, it is said, by the fidelity of their servants, who assured the assassins that their master and mistress had left their house, though they were at the time concealed in it. The mutineers set fire to the bungalow and passed on. The names of the victims I am unable as yet to give with certainty or completeness.

In the 1850s, the increasingly large portion of India that lay under the sway of Britain was still ruled on its behalf, and anomalously, by the East India Company. Its hundreds of thousands of sepoys – the native soldiers of its army – had, however, grown increasingly resentful of reductions in their status and privileges.

They were also alarmed by rumours that the grease on cartridges of powder with which they had been issued was derived from beef and pork. For Hindus and Muslims, respectively, contact with these fats as they tore open the packets with their teeth was deeply offensive to their religious beliefs.

There had already been several incidents of mutiny elsewhere in the weeks before violence erupted at Meerut, which held one of the largest concentrations of troops in India. From there it spread to Delhi and to many other northern and central parts of the country. The rebellion, marked by acts of cruelty on both sides, was largely suppressed by the middle of the following year. Thereafter, the Company’s rule was replaced by that of the Crown.