India Under British Rule from the Foundation of the East India Company

by James Talboys Wheeler

Inaction.

For a long time nothing was known at the European barracks of the mutiny and murder that was going on in the sepoy cantonment. When the news arrived of the outbreak, there was much delay and confusion. The Rifles were paraded for church, and time was lost in serving out arms and cartridges. The Dragoons were put through a roll-call, and then lost their way amongst the houses and gardens between the European barracks and the sepoy lines. When the lines were reached, the sepoys had gone off to Delhi, and darkness was setting in. Had the Dragoons galloped after the sepoys, the mutiny might have been crushed, and there would have been no revolt at Delhi.

Heedlessness.

But the military authorities at Meerut were unequal to the crisis. Nothing was thought of but the safety of the station. The Rifles and Dragoons were kept at Meerut to guard the treasury and barracks, whilst the sepoy mutineers were pushing on to Delhi to set up the old king—a Mohammedan prince, in whom the Hindu sepoys had no interest or concern. Messages, however, were sent to Brigadier Graves, who commanded the Delhi station, to tell him what had taken place at Meerut, but no Europeans whatever were sent to help him in the terrible extremity which awaited him.

Escape to Delhi.

§10. All night the sepoy mutineers were running to Delhi; anxious only to escape from the vengeance of the Europeans. When and where they first began to cherish wild hopes of restoring the Mohammedan régime, and setting up the last representative of the Great Mogul, as the sovereign and Padishah of Hindustan, is a mystery to this day. One thing only is certain; the Hindu sepoys, who composed four-fifths of the mass of mutineers, could have had no sympathy in the revolt of the Mohammedans, beyond providing for their own immediate safety against the wrath of the Europeans.

Mohammedan rule at Delhi.

Delhi, however, had been the capital of the Mohammedans of India when the Caliphs were still reigning at Bagdad; and Mohammedan Sultans and Padishahs had ruled Hindustan for centuries before the rise of British power. In 1857 the relics of Mohammedan dominion were still lingering at Delhi under the shadow of British supremacy. The last representative of the once famous Great Mogul was still living in the imperial palace at Delhi, a pensioner of the British government, but bearing the empty title of "king." The ruins in the neighbourhood of Delhi are monuments of the triumphs of Islam and the Koran, raised by warriors from Cabul and Bokhara, who were reverenced as Ghazis—as destroyers of idols and idolaters. Indeed, the pilgrim who still wanders amongst the palaces, mosques, mausoleums, towers, domes, archways, terraces, and gardens of Delhi, and the country round, may yet recall the days when the Hindus were a conquered people, and the Mohammedans were their oppressors and persecutors.

Sepoy garrison at Delhi.

In May, 1857, British power at Delhi was represented by three regiments of sepoy infantry, and a sepoy battery of artillery, under the command of Brigadier Graves. There were no European troops at Delhi, except the regimental officers and sergeants attached to each corps, and nine Europeans who had charge of the British magazine in the heart of the city, with a host of Asiatic subordinates. None of the sepoys had as yet shown any sign of disaffection, but it will appear hereafter that they had all caught the contagion of mutiny, but kept their secret until the moment for action arrived.