1857 uprising in India

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Overview

The uprising of 1857 and 1858 was the largest armed challenge to British rule in India before independence. It began as a mutiny of sepoys, Indian soldiers of the East India Company's Bengal Army, and spread into a wider revolt across north and central India. It ended in British victory, the end of the Mughal dynasty and of Company rule, and direct rule by the Crown. Its name remains disputed: mutiny, rebellion or first war of independence.

Context

By the 1850s the Company had conquered most of the subcontinent. Annexations, high taxation, changes to land rights and interference, real or feared, with religion had built resentment among soldiers, landholders, artisans and princes. The Bengal Army, largely recruited from high-caste groups in Awadh and the Gangetic plain, had grievances over pay, service overseas and status.