In the following year, the title of Viceroy was bestowed upon the Governor-General of India by Queen Victoria. A British cabinet member, the Secretary of State for India, and the Governor General looked after Indian affairs. India became a crown colony to be governed by the British Parliament directly. In response to the mutiny, the British Parliament passed an act, abolishing the East India Company. The British with their help managed to ward off the army of rebels near Delhi. After suffering major losses in Kanpur and Lucknow, the British sought the help of the loyal Sikh and Gurkha forces. Initially the British suffered heavy casualties as they were unable to respond to the uprising. Ninety thousand men from the Bengal Army joined the mutiny. Mangal Pandey is the most famous figure of this uprising who attacked the British regiment. This uprising came to be known as the Sepoy Mutiny or the Revolt of of 1857. Though he reluctantly agreed, the British defeated him and sent him into exile in Burma, where he died in 1862. These men marched on to Delhi and demanded that the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, take over as the ruler of India and the head of the rebels. The rest of the soldiers mutinied on May 19, 1857. Then later another 85 soldiers disobeyed orders to load their rifles. In 1857, three regiments of the army refused to use the ammunition for the Enfield rifles.

It was made up of either pig or cow fat, which violated the religious sentiments of the Muslim and Hindu soldiers. While loading the rifles, soldiers had to bite off the end of the cartridges. The use of animal grease on the cartridges of the newly introduced Enfield rifles was the last straw. Economic policies of the British had an adverse effect on the soldiers’ families back home. One of them being that the Hindu soldiers protested against the addition of Gurkha, Sikh and lower caste soldiers to their ranks. There were several causes which led to this. Soon, many rebellions followed in various parts of the country. During the British Raj, there was unrest and discontent amongst the people of India.

Sepoy mutiny definition for kids