The Decline of British Pre-eminence, 1855–1900

Abstract

The mutiny of the Indian army which broke out at Meerut on 10 May 1857 touched off the most traumatic experience of Britain’s imperial century. The events of 1857 were more than a purely military uprising without political significance, but much less than a national rebellion. They had two main elements: an army mutiny and a rural peasant revolt. Mutiny was the essential trigger, with peasants in the Bengal army the vital link between the mutiny and the rural uprising. In many ways it was a nebulous bundle of episodes, with no coordinating charismatic leaders (except locally, such as the Rani of Jhansi), and no overriding ideology (except where Muslims fought, though even then there was no jihad). Coherent strategies and clear objectives are equally difficult to identify. There was almost no millenarian strain (which is particularly surprising), and even the Muslim response was fragmented. The impetus behind the civil rebellion came largely from ‘a revolt of the hinterland’, the areas with ecological afflictions, and a late and limited exposure to modernity, well outside the main lines of communication and trade (for example, the Grand Trunk Road).