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

by James Talboys Wheeler

Conclusion.

§19. Here ends the story of the siege and relief of Lucknow. In 1858 Oudh was conquered, the rebellion was crushed, peace and order were restored, and a compromise with the talukdars was effected on the battle-field. The reconciliation of the people of Oudh with British rule and supremacy will be noted in a future chapter.

Causes of the revolt in Oudh.

Greased cartridges were the cause of the sepoy mutinies of 1857, but they were not the cause of the revolt in Oudh; and yet it was impossible for the British government to postpone the deposition of the king of Oudh or the annexation of the kingdom.

Unheeded warnings.

Oudh had been drifting into anarchy ever since it had been taken under British protection. Every Governor-General from Lord Wellesley to Lord Dalhousie had denounced the administration of Oudh as tyrannical, oppressive, and corrupt. Every ruler of Oudh had been threatened in turn; but as the Resident was warned not to interfere beyond tendering advice, repeated threats were as unheeded as the old cry of "wolf." Sir James Outram, the Bayard of India, and last British Resident at Lucknow, summed up his views in the following words:—"I have always been the upholder of native states as long as they retained a spark of vitality, and we could recognise them without infringing our treaties or our suzerain power. It is, therefore, most painful for me to have to acknowledge that if we persist in maintaining this feeble and corrupt dynasty, we shall be sacrificing the interests of ten millions of individuals whom we are bound by treaty to protect by ensuring them a good government, capable of defending the life and property of its subjects."

Feudatory states: mutinous contingents.

The feudatory states of India which owe allegiance to the British government displayed no sympathies with the Bengal sepoy, or with their mutinies against greased cartridges. Some may have trimmed and wavered, and were prepared to join the winning side. Contingent and subsidiary forces caught the infatuation against greased cartridges, and revolted against their British officers, and joined the mutineers. The Gwalior contingent revolted, but Sindia remained loyal. Holkar's troops revolted at Indore, and murdered every European they could find; and this could scarcely have been a rebellion against greased cartridges.[33] But after the lapse of a generation any suspicions of disloyalty that may linger in the minds of those who are familiar with the history of the time, may be dropped in oblivion.