In defence of religion

Voices and pictures from 1857, a moment when worlds hung in balance.

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, historian and journalist, has written often on 1857. In the first part of this enormous book (a foot and a half tall), he summarises the role and perspective of Indians in the events leading to, during and following the revolt "" including the fascinating effect of rumour, transmitted in a variety of strange ways. In the rest of the book, the large format is put to good use in displaying a selection of rare photographs and documents illustrating the course and especially the aftermath of the revolt. The visual material was put together by Pramod Kapoor. Mukherjee provides brief essays to accompany each set of illustrations. An extract from the book.

The British took nearly one year to restore their authority over the areas which had been affected by the rebellion of 1857. It is important to understand what held the rebellion together for such a long time and over such an extensive area.

An earlier section [of this book] argued that the mutinies and the revolt grew out of a desire to protect dharma. It was driven by a fear that the British were pursuing a deliberate policy to despoil caste and religion.

More than the reality, the perception of the people was crucial in this matter. The uprising drew its strength also from this same fear. The battle to overthrow British rule was fought out as a war of religion. Defence of religion was the rebellion's rallying cry.

This aspect of the uprising becomes clear from the ishtahars or proclamations that the rebel leadership issued to rally the people and to maintain the unity and the momentum of the revolt. If religion was one side of the proclamations, the other side was their virulent anti-British character.

One proclamation issued during the early phase of the revolt abused the British and their reigning monarch, Queen Victoria, and urged the people to fight the British in every possible way.

But it was the defence of religion which was the dominant theme of most proclamations. The rebels believed, without exception, that the British (in the words of one ishtahar) 'wish to deprive the Hindoos and Mahomedans of their religion and to make all the people embrace Christianity.'

He circulated a list of the 'real intentions' of the British and these were: (1) burning all the books of every other religion, (2) making eating and drinking with Europeans compulsory for Indians seeking employment, (3) destroying mosques and temples, (4) forbidding Maulavis and Brahmins to preach, (5) administering all law courts according to English law, (6) compelling all marriages to take place according to English customs under the supervision of English priests, (7) prohibiting all prescriptions made out by Hindu and Muslim physicians and substituting these with English medicine, (8) disallowing Hindu and Muslim fakirs from converting people without the permission of Christian missionaries, and (9) allowing only European doctors to assist Indian women during childbirth.

The most sensitive issues were deliberately picked out to instigate the people and to show that 'the real purpose of this war is to save religion.' In another version of the same proclamation, Feroze Shah saw himself as God's servant and his resistance to British rule as 'doing God's work.'

A party of prisoners was individually asked before their execution why they had fought and what was the object of the war. And each one of them replied: 'The slaughter of the English was required by our religion.'

A group of sepoys while retreating into Nepal offered an explanation for their actions and hoped this would act as a plea for mercy. They wrote

For a century ago the British arrived in Hindoostan and gradually entertained troops in their service, and became masters of every state. Our forefathers have always served them and we also entered their service.

By the mercy of God and with our assistance the British also conquered every place they liked, in which thousands of us, Hindoostani men were sacrificed, but we never made any excuses or pretences nor revolted...

But in the year 1857 the British issued an order that new cartridges and muskets which had arrived from England were to be issued in the former of which the fats of cows and pigs were mixed; and also the attah of wheat mixed with powdered human bones was to be eaten; and even distributed them in every Regiment of infantry, cavalry and artillery...

They gave these new cartridges to the sowars of the 3rd Light Cavalry, and ordered them to bite them; the troopers objected to it, and said that they would never bite them; for if they did, their religion and faith would be destroyed...

Upon this the British officers paraded the men of the three regiments and having prepared 1400 English soldiers, and other battalions of European troops and Horse Artillery, surrounded them, and placing 6 guns before each of the infantry regiments, loaded the guns with grape and made 84 new troopers prisoners and put them in jail with irons on them...

The reason, that the said sowars of the said Cantonment were put into jail, was that we should be frightened into biting the new cartridges; on this account we and all our countrymen having united together, have... fought with the British for the preservation of our faith... we have been compelled to make war for two years in order that our faith and religion may not be polluted. If the religion of a Hindoo or Mussalman is lost, what remains in the world.

The insurgents saw the revolt as a war of religion. This, much to the surprise of the British did not create any divisions. The authorities authorized an expenditure of Rs 50,000 to help raise the Hindu population of Bareilly against the Muslim rebels. But the attempt failed.

One reason for the absence of division on the basis of religion was the fact the revolt was seen as a war in which both Hindus and Muslims had equally to lose or gain. In the various proclamations Hindu-Muslim co-existence within the Mughal imperial framework was always emphasized. Bahadur Shah's proclamation declared:

I, who am the grandson of Abul Muzuffer Serajuddin Bahaudr [sic] Shah Ghazee, King of India, having in the course of circuit come here to extirpate the infidels... and to liberate and protect the poor helpless people now groaning under their iron rule, have by the aid of the Majahdeens, or religious fanatics, erected the standard of Mohammad, and persuaded the orthodox Hindoos who had been subject to my ancestors, and have been and are still accessories in the destruction of the English, to raise the standard of Mahavir.

DATELINE 1857
REVOLT AGAINST THE RAJ

Author Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Photo editor Pramod Kapoor
Publisher Roli Books
Pages 144
Price Rs 795