The History Blog: 1857 Indian War of Independence.

n

nnnn

I read a what’s up post recently which said that people in Hong Kong hated Indians. The reason was that Indians were the force that the British depended on to build their Empire. The post went on to talk about Indians firing on Indians at Jallianwallah Bagh and a lot of general negative comments on us. This was written by an Indian circulated widely with many agreeing to the hypothesis put forward.

nnnn

It set me off thinking why do we flagellate ourselves, the Jallianwala baug was a British atrocity, a failure of their administration, why should we take the blame. But then our so called “intellectuals’ are steeped in western thought processes, a linear one where you have right or left, black or white, hero or villain and nothing in between. This is not their fault as modern education in India still is influenced mostly by British ideas of the last century. We still, sadly, equate white with superiority, beauty and goodness.

nnnn

Indian thought was original and different, we recognised human frailty and thus our epics are full of “heroes’ with flaws and “villains” with greatness. The characters have goodness and a measure of evil in them and the struggle is within them as to what they will do.

nnnn

Our Indian epics are like the Sari, that simple yet complex piece of cloth, with multiple variations, richly layered, it conceals, and yet hints at the riches beneath, letting imagination run riot…and the core, difficult to get but always rewarding. Lol

nnnn

The characters believe totally in their cause and fight brothers, cousins, grandfathers for their beliefs. Then there is the belief in reincarnation, which is so positive a thought, unlike western ideas, here you get a second chance so you tend to treat a life a bit more causally whether its your own or others.

nnnn

We were never a homogenous entity, there were differences in culture, religion, language, our racial characteristics, all these played a role in our history.

nnnn

Humans are primates, tribal and territorial in nature and thus the need to belong to a group on a fundamental level. These differences led to us being loyal first to our local identity whether it was language, community religions et.al.

nnnn

Thus, when the revolt of 1857 happened it started in the Indo gangetic plain and was driven from there. Initially it was the Hindu Sepoys and later the Muslim too mainly of the Bengal army of the East India Company. There were a few attempts to fan the revolt in the south but these were mostly from the Muslim community and mostly civilians. The sepoys in the south did not join the revolt. The general population also did not join in the revolt.

nnnn

There were the princely states, the large powerful ones like Travancore, Mysore and others in support of the British. They did not think themselves as Indians but as a separate kingdom allied with another power.

nnnn

The Sikhs were also loyal the British as they had an animosity towards the Bihar and Bengal Sepoys who were part of the British Army which had inflicted a defeat on the Sikhs and brought about an end to the Sikh Empire. The Sikhs also resented that after their defeat these sepoys garrisoned the forts in Punjab and exploited the situation. The declaration of Bahadur Shah Zafar was another factor, the Sikhs did not want the Mughal rule, under which the Sikhs were tormented, to be revived.

nnnn

The Sepoys in revolt did not have a common cause or a single leader, it was more like a mob with little or no strategy on how to proceed. Thus, the revolt of 1857 was brought down due to a lack of support from the general population and frictions within.

nnnn

The Sikhs had earned their reputation as loyal to the crown and thus when Dyer went to Jallianwala Baug, he had Sikh and Gurkha Soldiers with him. These soldiers felt no empathy or identification with the people gathered there. As per the belief one has to be true to one’s salt… shades of Dronachrya and Bhishma…, these soldiers followed orders how ever unpalatable they were. So, if we accept that Drona and Bhishma were good people and not at fault, we need to accept these people too.

nnnn

Namaste till next time.

n