A history of England

by Charles Oman

But some of the doings of Dalhousie in India itself, though they made little noise at the time, were fated to have grave consequences. He held strongly the doctrine that direct British administration was the best thing for natives, and took every opportunity of annexing vassal states where the ruling houses died out. This was much against the prejudices of the Hindoos, who always try to perpetuate their family by adoption when natural heirs fail. By refusing to allow of this custom Lord Dalhousie was able to annex the great Mahratta state of the Rajahs of Berar, the old opponents of Wellesley and Hastings. He also took over the smaller Mahratta states of Jhansi and Satara, and refused to allow the deposed peishwa, Bajee Rao, to pass on his title and pension to his adopted son, the Nana Sahib. There is no doubt that these acts gravely displeased pious Hindoos.

Dethronement of the King of Oude.

Moreover, in 1856, Dalhousie, more by the Company's wish than his own, completed his wide annexations by dethroning the King of Oude, the chief Moslem state of northern India, and the oldest of the vassals of the British. His abominable misgovernment and folly drew down his fate deservedly enough; but the seizure of Oude was not popular even among the subjects who were delivered from the tyrant's rule, and it created a feeling of distrust and resentment among all the surviving feudatories of the Company.

Lord Canning Governor-General.

Lord Dalhousie, broken down by hard work, returned to England to die, soon after the annexation of Oude. He was succeeded by Lord Canning, the son of the great Tory prime minister of 1827. Scarcely had Canning gathered up the reins of power when the terrible sepoy mutiny of 1857 broke out.

The native army in India.

A power which undertakes to hold down a vast empire by a great mercenary army raised from among the peoples of the land, is always exposed to the danger of military rebellion. The army has no other incentives than its pay, its habit of disciplined obedience, and its loyalty to its officers, to keep it true to its foreign masters. If the soldiery realize their power, and are ready to unite with each other for a common end, they may aspire to cast out their employers and rule for their own benefit. Mutinies of single regiments were not unfrequent episodes in the history of the Indian army, but hitherto no general revolt had occurred.

In 1857 the proportion of British to native troops in India was abnormally low. The regiments withdrawn for the Crimean war had never been replaced, and small expeditions to Persia and China [69] were absorbing many more. In the whole peninsula the European stood to the sepoy troops in the ratio of only one to six—at present one to three is considered the least that is safe. Moreover, the spirit of many of the native troops was very bad. They had been so flattered and pampered by the government that they believed themselves to be the masters of the situation, and despised the few white regiments scattered among them.

Outbreak of the mutiny.

The army was arrogant and discontented; the old ruling families of the lately annexed states were intriguing and conspiring all over northern India. A widely spread prophecy that the rule of the British was only to last for a hundred years, dating from Plassey and the annexation of Bengal, was disturbing the minds of the masses, when a trivial incident let loose the elements of discord. The government was introducing among the native troops the use of rifles, in place of the old musket. The new weapons required greased cartridges, which were being duly issued, when some mischievous incendiary spread among the Bengal sepoys the rumour that they were being defiled. The cartridges, it was said, were lubricated with the grease of pigs and cattle, in order that the Hindoos might lose their caste by touching the flesh of the sacred cow, and the Mussulmans might be polluted by the contamination of the unholy swine. When all had become unclean, it was said, the government intended to make Christians of them. This foolish rumour sufficed to set the army in a flame. Two regiments which mutinied near Calcutta were easily disbanded; but a formidable and successful revolt of the sepoy brigade at Meerut, near Delhi (May 10, 1857), was the signal for the outbreak of well-nigh the whole Bengal army.