11/25/2023 0 Comments Mutiny of 1857![]() It is considered haram (“sinful”) for Muslims to put anything derived from a pig in their mouths, just as it is unacceptable for Hindus to ingest cow fat. When rumors spread among the Indian troops at Meerut that the cartridges and bullets were greased with pork and beef fat, they were outraged. ![]() Whenever the grease round the bullet appears to be melted away or otherwise removed from the cartridge, the sides of the bullet should be wetted in the mouth before putting it into the barrel the saliva will serve the purpose of grease for the time being. The adjutant-general’s official 1856 Instruction of Musketry specified: The rifleman was required to bite off the cartridge’s paper end, pour the powder down the barrel, seat and ram home the bullet, add a percussion cap, bring the hammer to full cock and fire.ĭuring manufacture the cartridges were coated with beeswax and tallow to protect the powder from the elements, and the bullets were greased to ensure a proper seal in the barrel. Each of the weapon’s paper cartridges contained a precise amount of powder and a. The offense for which they had been court-martialed was disobedience-they had refused to load their rifles.įor more than 150 years historians have maintained that India’s first revolt against British rule broke out at least in part over a gun-to be precise, the muzzle-loading Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-musket. The disgraced soldiers, weeping and begging for mercy, were then marched away to imprisonment at hard labor. On the fourth side of the square 85 sepoys of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry-Muslims and Hindus, many of them veterans with long years of service-stood at attention as their uniform jackets were stripped from them. ![]() On May 9, 1857, some 4,000 British soldiers and sepoys-native Indian troops-formed a three-sided hollow square on the parade ground at the Meerut military cantonment, 40 miles northeast of Delhi, to witness punishment. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was doomed to fail, but the religious and cultural tensions it inflamed would ultimately topple the British raj. Dodging a Bullet: The Indian Rebellion Close
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |