*THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1857*
The War of Independence is an important landmark in the history of Sub-Continent. This War
was fought in 1857 by Indians against the British in order to get rid of their domination. It is
also given names as Indian Rebellion, Indian Mutiny as well as Indian Revolt. The main
causes of the War were political, social, economical, military and religious. A single event
can never become the cause of a general uprising. Same was the case of the uprising of 1857.
After becoming in power the English started a well organised campaign to malign the history,
culture and history of the people of subcontinent. Which compelled them for uprising, for
example;
MILITARY: The East Indian company officials didn't felt any hesitation in injuring the
religious sentiments of the soldiers. Indian soldiers were not allowed to use the tilak and to
cover their heads with safa while xat parade. There was a huge difference between the
salaries and living standards of the Indian soldiers and English soldiers. The Indian soldiers
had no chance of promotion. An Indian who was even to sacrifice his life for the British
company could never think of attaining a higher rank. Such policies embittered the
sentiments of the local soldiers.
RELIGIOUS CAUSES: The east India company had arrived in India for the purpose of
trade and commerce but along with trade it always regarded the propagation of Christianity as
its first and foremost duty. The preaching of Christianity was a part of the official
responsibilities of the company. The company officials were keen to see all the Indian united
under the banner of Christianity.
During peace times when the soldiers had nothing to do, the company officials tried different
methods to attract them towards Christianity. During their stay in this country they not only
propagated their religion but also criticized the religion of the local people. The company's
officials invited their subordinates to their houses and forced them to listen to the sermons of
the priests.
The orphans were admitted into orphanages where they were forcefully converted to
Christianity. These incidents open the eyes of the local people. They were convinced that the
company was bent upon converting them to Christianity. In 1850, the company passed a law
stating that the change of religion would have no impacts on inheritance. Sir Syed Ahmad
Khan believe that this very intervention in religious affairs was the most important cause of
the uprising of 1857.
POLITICAL CAUSES: The then governor general of India lord Dalhousie further
aggravated the situations by issuing a decree stating that after the death of Bahadur Shah
Zafar his heirs would have to vacate the red fort and would not be allowed to use the title of
emperor for themselves, such measures generated an immense amount of sympathy among
the masses for their titular emperor.
ECONOMIC Exploitation: The economic exploitation of the Indians at the hands of the
company is a unique phenomenon in the whole human history. All the key posts were
reserved for the English. The doors of all high posts were barred for Indians. The officials of
the company did not come to India with the intention of a permanent residence here. The
moment they were retired or left the job due to some other reasons, they would transfer all
their assets immediately to England. Thus slowly but surely the wealth of India began to be
transferred to England. The company deliberately destroyed native industries. In order to ruin
the local industries, the British government imposed high taxes on the Indian manufactured
high quality clothes. The native carpet makers were decreased to abandon their profession
and in many cases they had their thumbs cut-off.
IMMEDIATE CAUSE: In early January 1857, a Brahman sepoy of the British regiment
was walking with his check post to prepare his food, with a vessel in his hand full of water.
On the way he was asked by a low caste to let him drink from his vessel. The Brahman
refused. The low caste called him quickly that you think much of your caste, but wait a little
the Sahib-log will make you bite cartridges soaked in pork and cow fat and then where will
your caste be? This rumour spread everywhere in the twinkling of an eye. Most people
believe that the cartridge question was the immediate cause of the war.
THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR: In April 1857, some soldiers stationed at Meerut
contentment refused to use these cartridges. The company sentenced them to ten years of
imprisonment. The remaining soldiers of the regiment then also joined the rebellion and by
may 1857 the common people also joined in. Government building were set a blaze and
telephone wires were cut-off. The mutinous soldier marched towards Delhi and on reaching
there on may 11, declared their support for Bahadur Shah Zafar. It was indeed a religious
and national war. The cartridge affair was only a spark which found its way into this
ammunition depot. The people in most of northern and north-western parts of India had risen
in revolt against the English domination. However the company successfully put down the
rebellion with the help of Sikhs, Gurkhas and other loyalist factions.
CAUSES OF FAILURE:
The war of independence could not succeed to achieve its objectives due to the following
reasons.
CHANGE IN THE PLAN:
The revolutionaries had planned to start the war of independence through out the country on
may 31, 1857. But it was started prematurely due to the cartridge incident. If the proposed
plan had worked, the company would have found it very difficult to control the whole
country.
THE TREACHERY OF SIKHS AND GURKHAS:
Besides keeping away from the war the Sikhs and Gurkhas provided every possible assistance
to the English army. They gave financial and military assistance to the English masters. If the
Sikhs and Gurkhas had not helped the British, it would have been impossible for them to
capture India.
ABSENCE OF AN ACTIVE AND EFFICIENT LEADER:
The freedom fighters were not fighting under a single commander. No doubt, they had given
their support and loyalty to Bahadur Shah Zafar, but it could not be expected from any one of
them to play the role of an experienced commander to lead and guide the people. While
whole of the British army was highly organised, trained, disciplined and experienced. Etc.
RESULTS:
The war of independence would surely be remembered in the history as the first and direct
challenge to the British rule in India on an extensive scale. The war of independence
produced far-reaching implications for the history of India. It gave the final blow to the
nominal rule of the Mughals, and India came under the direct control of the Great Britain. A
secretary of state for India was appointed to manage the Indian affairs.
After the war came to an end the British made it no secret to wipe out the Muslims. The
memory of this war kept alive the hatred for the English in the hearts of the Indians. After the
failure in the war of independence, the Muslim of India entered in the new phase of history.
*IDELOGICAL RATIONALE WITH SPECIAL REFERANCE TO SIR SEYYED
AHMED KHAN*
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a prominent political figure. He was a famous Muslim thinker of
the 19th century. The War of Independence of 1857 wreaked havoc on the Muslims. The
British believed that the real culprits in the revolt against Britain were Muslims. Therefore,
they subjected them to cruel attitudes, punishments and ruthless revenge. The British had
always considered Muslims as their opponents because they had ousted them from power.
With the uprising of 1857, this feeling intensified and every effort was made to suppress the
Muslims forever. As a result of these efforts, the Mughal rule came to an end and the
subcontinent came under the direct rule of the British.
After removing the Muslim rulers from the throne, the new rulers (British) implemented a
new education policy with many changes. The policy banned Arabic, Persian and religious
education in schools and made English the official language. This created a negative attitude
among Muslims towards everything Western and boycotted its use. If the boycott had lasted
for a long time, it would have been disastrous for Muslim society. Seeing this atmosphere of
despair, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wished to bring the Muslims on the path of progress. His
main interest was the intellectual development of Muslims through Western education. So he
started a very difficult but great struggle to fulfil this desire. The struggle for motivating the
Muslims to learn Western education, to create an atmosphere of mutual understanding
between the British government and the Muslims and to persuade Muslims to abstain from
agitational politics.
For this purpose he wrote a book entitled "Causes for the Indian Revolt" in which he proved
that there were many factors that led to the 1857's uprising and that Muslims alone should not
be blame for this. He wrote another book entitled "Loyal Muhammadan of India" in which he
mentioned the various deeds, loyalties and sacrifices of the Muslims for the British. He wrote
another book, Tabin al-Kalam, in which he described the similarities between the Qur'an and
the Bible (Islam and Christianity). He also set up the "British Indian Association" through
which he conveyed the demands and grievances of Indian Muslims to the British Parliament.
These works restored confidence of the British in the Muslims to a large extent.
Then, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan focused on the upliftment of educational part of the Muslims
and used Islam as a tool for achieving this goal of conversion of their minds. He told the
Muslims that without obtaining modern education, they could not compete with the Hindus
and other communities. He pleaded that there was no harm in accepting western sciences and
in learning English language. He issued a magazine named "Tahzib-ul-Ikhlaq" which
projected adoptable European manners. He wrote an interpretation on the Holy Quran. In this
important work, Syed Ahmed Khan interpreted Islam on logical and scientific basis. When
william Muir a British officer wrote a book on the life of our Holy Prophet (S.A.W.W) then
Sir Seyyed replied through his book ‘’Khutbat e Ahmadiah’’ and defended the Holy Prophet
(S.A.W.W.) through strong arguments. In this connection he wrote a pamphlet ‘’Ahkam e
taham e ahle kitab’’ and constructed orphanages etc. At last Sir Syed Ahmed Khan succeeded
in creating an atmosphere of mutual understanding between the Muslims and the British
government and also in motivating the Indian Muslims to learn Western education.
*Establishment of All India Muslim League*
After the creation of the Indian national Congress and its time as a ‘representative’ party for
the people of the Indian sub-continent, there was felt a need to reassess its claims at unbiased
representation. From the very start of its existence the Congress had shown clear its interest
to safeguard the rights of Hindus, alone. Some of the Congress leaders adopted a
revolutionary policy to establish Hindu Raj in the sub-continent under the guise of a national
movement. The prediction of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Soon proved to be fact that, “Hindus and
Muslims are two different nations who have different ideologies.” The Muslims of India were
greatly disappointed by the anti-Muslim stance that the Congress seemed to have adopted.
The events following the partition of Bengal and Urdu-Hindu controversy strengthened the
desire of the Muslims to organize themselves politically as separate community. The birth of
All India Muslim League at Dacca on 30th December 1906 came as an expression of that
desire.
Following are the reasons for the establishment of Muslim league.
1. Indifferent Attitude of the Congress towards Muslims: All India National Congress
was a pre-dominantly Hindu body. Its interests were always at odds ends to those of the
Muslims. By 1906, Muslim leaders were convinced that they must have their own party
which may speak for the community on all important occasions.
2. Urdu-Hindi Controversy: The Urdu-Hindu controversy began with the demand of
Hindus to replace Urdu by Hindi as official language in Deva Nagri Script. Sir Anthony
Macdonal, the then Governor of UP ousted Urdu from public offices. Congress clearly sided
with Hindi and supported the movement against Urdu and there was no other political party
to support Urdu. Thus, the need of formation of a Muslim political party was felt severely.
3. The Success of Simla Deputation: Minto offered fullest sympathy to the Muslim
demands. The success of Deputation compelled the Muslims to have a separate political
association of their own.
4. To Save Muslim Entity: The belief uttered by sir Syed Ahmed Khan that the Muslims
were somehow a separate entity. The Muslims did not believe that Hindus and Muslims
formed one nation. They were different by religion, history, languages and civilization. It
became essential for Muslims to establish a political party of their own etc.
A resolution to form the All India Muslim League was passed by Nawab Salimullah Khan
and was seconded by Hakim Ajmal Khan, Maulana Muhammad Ali and Moulana Zafar Ali.
The resolution was passed by All India Educational Conference on 30th December 1906. A
committee was formed to prepare its draft constitution. Sir Agha Khan was appointed as
President and Syed Hassan Balgrami was appointed as secretary, while Nawab Mohsim-
ulMulk and Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk were made joint secretaries with six Vice- Presidents. In
this way Muslim league was established and become the sole representative of Muslims.
Knowing the circumstances which led to the formation of Muslim league was not difficult to
make out what it aimed to. However, the Muslim league laid the following points as its
objectives.
1. To create among Muslims the feelings of loyalty towards British Government and to
remove misconception and suspicious.
2. To Safeguard the political rights of the Muslims and to bring them into the notice of
the Government.
3. To prevent among the Muslims, the rise of prejudicial feelings against the other
communities of India.
The first session of all India Muslim league was held at Karachi on 29th December, 1907 and
was presided over by Adamji Peer Bhai.
It was being felt from the beginning that the All India Muslim League would not achieve
considerable success without winning the British Public opinion to its side. Therefore, Syed
Ameer Ali organized the branch of Muslim league at London. The inaugural meeting was
held on 6th May 1908, at London Caxton Hall. It was participated by the Muslim and those
British people who favoured their view point.
There come into being a political body which was to play a decisive role in the destiny of the
Muslim peoples of the Indian sub-continent. The day the Muslim delegation won recognition
of the demand of separate electorate, the course of the Muslim freedom struggle was charted.
It was the beginning of the growth of Muslim national consciousness. It farmed visible
institutional expression in the form of Muslim League which after a forty (40) years struggle
was to achieve for the Muslims the culmination of their national aspiration, Muslim League
became a mass movement of the Muslims and succeeded in achieving Pakistan in 1947.
Actually the new breed of leadership like Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was
instrumental in its metamorphosis.
After the acceptance of the demand of separate representation in the Minto Morely reforms, it
was common sense to have political party to fight elections for Muslim representation.
Whatever may have been the effects of Muslim league, but it made clear that the interests of
Muslims must be regarded completely separate from those of the Hindus. Any fusion of both
the communities in future was not possible. It steered the ship of Muslim destiny safely
through of Political chaos and turmoil to the safer harbour of Pakistan.
*Separate Electorate System*
Separate electorate system refers to the separate vote system and separate reservation for the
Muslims. This was the strong demand of the Muslims of India from the British crown
because under joint franchise, Muslims could not get seats in the provincial as well as in the
central legislative councils. Under the act of 1892 in UP, where Muslims were only 14% of
population, they didn't secure even a single seat by join franchise. On the other side Indian
National Congress was dominated by the Hindus. Therefore, Muslims worked together for
the acceptance of their demand of separate electorate.
The partition of Bengal made the Muslims happy and developed while it was unbearable for
the Hindus for they didn't want the prosperity of the Muslims. They pressurised the British
crown by launching Swadeshi movement for the purpose to annulled the mentioned partition
of Bengal.
Their achieve success in their struggle and the partition was annulled. Muslim thought that
the Hindus could no longer be faithful to them and therefore they started demanding separate
electorate. In 1905, Muslim were encouraged for this demand, when liberal party won the
general elections assured Indians of introducing constitutional reforms in India to mitigate the
chaos prevalent after the partition of Bengal.
In this regard the Muslims made a delegation consisted of 35 Muslim leaders in the
leadership of Sir Agha Khan. That delegation met viceroy ''Lord Minto'' with help of Mr.
Archbold, who was the principal of Aligarh college on 1st October, 1906 at shimla. Muslims
presented their demands before viceroy. Their most important demand was the ''separate
electorate''. Other demands were, representations of Muslims in all services and councils, aid
for establishing Muslim university at Aligarh. The viceroy showed sympathy to all the
demands of the Muslims and promised to take their demands in his consideration. It was a
success for the Muslims for they advanced one step in getting the adequate share in the
political activities of the British India. Later on, they established the political platform for the
Muslims on all India level. The name of the platform was kept as the All India Muslim
League. It was formed on 30rh December, 1906 at Decca for the protection of Muslim rights
and for showing loyalty towards the British crown.
After the formation of the Muslim league, extremist Hindus made ''hindu mahasabha''
organisation to eliminate the Muslims from the Indian society. The political turmoil and
unrest increased in the society. Then British government realised the anxiety of Muslims and
decided to bring constitutional reforms for the acceptance of separate electorate for the
Muslims. In this regard the viceroy lord Minto and the secretary of state for India lord Morley
worked together and prepared a bill which was approved by British parliament. It was
enforced in1909 and came to be known as Minto Morley reforms. Through these reforms the
most crucial demand of the separate electorate for the Muslims was accepted. In addition to
the separate electorate, local were made in majority in provincial legislative councils and
elected members could raise questions from the British government for their policies.
The acceptance of separate electorate for the Muslims under these reforms was the crowning
success of the Muslims. Further right of separate electorate for the Muslims were also
accepted by the Hindus in lucknow pact(1916). Now the Muslims had constitutional
recognition and share in government at both levels. In montage-chelmsford reforms in 1919
this right was also kept intact. Indeed this was a landmark in the political history of the Indian
Muslims. Which leads to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.
*Lucknow Pact (1916)*
Lucknow pact refers to an agreement between Indian National Congress and the All Indian
Muslim league. Initially the Muslim League showed loyalty towards the government. But
when some threatening incidents took place, it change its policy and constitution in 1913. It
demanded for self rule in India with the collaboration of the Hindus.
Italian attack on Tripoli created hatred among Muslims for the British. The Muslims started
anti-Italian rallies in different cities of India. After Italian attack, European Balkan states
attacked on Turkey. It also made the Muslims against the British crown in India. The
Muslims gave many funds to the Turkish relief camps. Annulment of the Bengal also
contributed greatly to the changing of the constitution of All India Muslim League.
Moreover, Kanpur Mosque tragedy also made the Muslim feel that British government could
never be their well wisher. In Kanpur in 1913, Lt. Governor ordered the police to use
coercive force to the Muslims for destructing the mosque in order to proceed road
construction project. It was showing disrespect for the Muslim nation. 133 Muslims got
martyred in that tragedy.
Due to all these incidents, Muslim League changed its principle of loyalty towards the British
crown. It started to come closer to the Indian National Congress for collective demand of self
government in India. Negotiations between two parties continued for a long period of time.
That time Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the part of both Muslim League and
Congress. He worked very hard for Hindu-Muslim unity. Hence, he was given title of "The
Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity" by Sarojini Naidu. With his untiring efforts both parties
held their meetings simultaneously in Bombay in 1915. In these meetings, reforms committee
was setup. It proposed scheme and presented it in Lucknow meetings of both parties. At last a
pact was made between them in Lucknow meeting of 1916.
Both parties gave concessions to each other. After this pact, Hindus opened the doors of
temples for the Muslims and the Muslims opened the doors of mosques for the Hindus. On
the spirit of this pact Hindus also supported Indian Muslims in Khilafat Movement against
the British Empire. The main features of this pact were the following.
1. There should be self government in India.
2. There shall be separate electorate for all the communities until they ask for joint franchise.
3. Muslim would have one third (1/3rd) representation in Imperial Legislative Council.
4. Term of Legislative Council should be five years.
5. Weight-age system should be adopted in which minority would be given representation
more than their population.
6. No any bill would be passed if 3/4 of any community opposed it.
7. Judiciary would be separated from the executive.
Unfortunately, some Muslims and Hindus criticised this pact. The Sikhs and Hindus of UP
and Punjab opposed it because of the separate electorate for the Muslims. The Muslims who
were the followers of Sir Syed School of Thought opposed it, saying that both nations could
never live together. The Bengali Muslims condemned it because of minority weight-age
principle. Some Muslims were saying that acceptance of separate electorate by Hindus was
not a success because it was already accepted by the British government. Muslim press also
condemned this pact.
It is concluded that the Lucknow pact was the fruitful result of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's
continuous struggle for Hindu Muslim unity. Both parties considered it a victory. Initially, it
proved a binding force against the government bit it could not remain longer and again an
environment of communal differences emerged in sub-continent.
