Sepoy Rebellion

Sepoy Rebellion

By: Raquel Hayner

The year is 1857; the British now control most of the Indian subcontinent. We're even trying to improve the Indians by influencing them to become more like us, the superior race. Yet, even after our efforts of trying to help them, these savage sepoys, or Indian soldiers, rebelled against the British not that long ago.

Supposedly, rumors have spread to the sepoys that we were going to give Indian soldiers new rifles whose cartridges are sealed with beef and pork fat. And to use the cartridges they would have to bite off the seal. Now since the Hindus believe that a cow is sacred, and since Muslims don't eat pork, they were both outraged by this ridiculous rumor. It's incredulous how they could believe such a senseless rumor.

A garrison commander was stunned to find 85 out of 90 sepoys refuse to accept the cartridges. To punish the sepoys for their wrong doing the British did the right thing and put them to jail. The next day, on May 10th, the sepoys rebelled. The sepoys marched to Delhi where they were joined with more Indian soldiers, and together they took over the city of Delhi.

The rebellion spread quickly to northern and central India. Fierce bloody battles occurred in the northern part of India. Both the British and the sepoys tried to slaughter each other's armies. There were many deaths because of this. The British government had to send more troops to help the East India Company regain control of the country. It took over a year for them to finally regain control India.

The rebellion spread quickly for multiple reasons. One reason is because of the vast amount of Indians who resent the British. They believe that in addition to controlling their lands; we were also giving them economic problems, which increased their feelings of resentment and nationalism. These feelings caused the Indians to have the desire to take action and fight back for their country and for their people.

Another reason the rebellion spread quickly is that these unorthodox Indians wouldn't let us help them. They didn't like how we've been trying to convert them to Christianity. The Indian people also believed that the British are constantly racist towards them.

During the rebellion the Muslim rebels demanded that the Muslim Mughal Empire be restored. When word of