Q. Critically examine the significance of the Revolt of 1857 with special reference to Bihar. [56-59 BPSC/2016]

Q. Critically examine the significance of the Revolt of 1857 with special reference to Bihar. [56-59 BPSC/2016]
Ans: 

The revolt of 1857 shook the British empire in India to it’s very foundations. It was cumulative effect of British expansionist policies, economic exploitation and administrative innovations which over the years had adversely affected the position of all sections of society- Zamindar, peasants, traders,, artisans, Pandits, Moulvis.
Though the movement was suppressed by 1859, it is still considered as a watershed in Indian as well as Bihar’s history. It led to far-reaching changes in the system of administration and the policies of the British government.

The significance of the Revolt of 1857:

• For the British rule:
  • the Revolt of 1857 proved useful in that it showed up the glaring shortcomings in the Company’s administration and its army, which they tried to rectify promptly. These defects would never have been revealed to the world if the Revolt had not happened.
  • It led to end of rule of the East India Company and the direct responsibility for the administration of the country was assumed by the British crown.
  • Even before peace was fully restored in India, the British parliament passed on 2 August 1858 an Act for the Better Government of India, declaring Queen Victoria as the sovereign of British India and providing for the appointment of a Secretary of State for India who would be a member of the cabinet.
  • The act was to come into effect on 1 November, 1858 with issuing the Queen’s Proclamation. On this day, the assumption of the Government of India by the sovereign of Great Britain was announced by Lord Canning at a durbar at Allahabad.
    • The Queen’s proclamation promised freedom of religion without interference from British officials and proposed to govern Indians according to their established traditions and customs.
    • Now, the governor-general acquired the additional title of ‘Viceroy’.
  • Bernard Cohn has summarised what this constitutional change meant for the status of British rule in India: “In conceptual terms, the British, who had started their rule as ‘outsiders’, became ‘insiders’ by vesting in their monarch the sovereignty of India.’
  • The proclamation provided for the ordering of the relationship between the monarch and her representatives in India, their Indian subjects and the princes, all of them being neatly fitted into an elaborate imperial hierarchy.
    • The era of annexations and expansion ended and the British promised the dignity and rights of the native princes.
    • The Indian states were henceforth to recognise the paramountcy of the British Crown and were to be treated as parts of a single charge.
  • This new mood, which Thomas Metcalf has called the “conservative brand of liberalism“, rested upon the “solid support of the conservative and aristocratic classes and upon the principle of complete noninterference in the traditional structure of Indian society“.
    • What is more important, the earlier reformist zeal of a self-confident Victorian liberalism now evidently took a back seat, as many believed now that Indians were beyond reform.
    • Thus the era of reforms came to an end.
  • This conservative reaction evidently made the empire more autocratic and denied the aspirations of the educated Indians for sharing power. This, therefore, also made the empire more vulnerable, as from this frustration of the educated middle classes arose modern nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century.
  • The Army, which was at the forefront of the outbreak, was thoroughly reorganised and British military policy came to be dominated by the idea of “division and counterpoise”.
    • The British could no longer depend on Indian loyalty, so the number of Indian soldiers was drastically reduced even as the number of European soldiers was increased.
    • The concept of divide and rule was adopted with separate units being created on the basis of caste/community/region.
    • Recruits were to be drawn from the ‘martial’ races of Punjab, Nepal, and north-western frontier who had proved loyal to the British during the Revolt.
    • Effort was made to keep the army away from civilian population
    • The Army Amalgamation Scheme, 1861 moved the Company’s European troops to the services of the Crown.
    • Further, the European troops in India were constantly revamped by periodical visits to England, sometimes termed as the ‘linked-battalion’ scheme.
    • All Indian artillery units, except a few mountain batteries, were made defunct.
    • All higher posts in the army and the artillery departments were reserved for the Europeans.
• For the Indians, the 1857 Revolt had a major influence on the course of the struggle for freedom.
  • It brought out in the open grievances of people and the sepoys, which were seen to be genuine. However, it was also obvious that the primitive arms which the Indians possessed were no match for the advanced weapons of the British.
  • The Queens proclamation also promised equal and impartial protection under law to all Indians, besides equal opportunities in government services irrespective of race or creed.
    • It was also promised that old Indian rights, customs and practices would be given due regard while framing and administering the law.
  • Furthermore, the senseless atrocities committed by both sides shocked the Indian intellectuals who were increasingly convinced that violence was to be eschewed in any struggle for freedom.
    • The educated middle class, which was a growing section, did not believe in violence and preferred an orderly approach.
  • But the Revolt of 1857 did establish local traditions of resistance to British rule which were to be of help in the course of the national struggle for freedom.
  • The sepoys were charged with a serious breach of trust and this in general made all the Indians suspect in the eyes of the British, both in India and at home.
  • The stories of sepoy atrociries raised the clamour for punishment and retribution and if the saner elements like Viceroy Lord Canning tried to restrain this hysteria, he soon earned the derisive epithet of “Clemency Canning” from his own countrymen and requests were sent to the Queen for his recall. Although this madness subsided gradually, it left a lasting imprint on British-Indian relations in the subsequent period.
  • Racial segregarion from now on became firmly entrenched, as Indians were regarded not only different, but also racially inferior.
    • Racial hatred and suspicion between the Indian and the English was aggravated.
    • The newspapers and journals in Britain picturised the Indians as subhuman creatures, who could be kept in check only by superior force.
    • The proponents of imperialism in India dubbed the entire Indian population as unworthy of trust and subjected them to insults and contempt.
  • There was complete Hindu-Muslim unity during the revolt. This led to starting of the policy of divide and rule after the Revolt of 1857.
    • The British used one class/community against another unscrupulously. Thus, socially, there was irremediable deterioration.
  • While British territorial conquest was at an end, a period of systematic economic loot by the British began. The Indian economy was fully exploited without fear.
  • In accordance with Queen’s Proclamation of 1858, the Indian Civil Service Act of 1861 was passed, which was to give an impression that under the Queen all were equal, irrespective of race or creed.
    • In reality, the detailed rules framed for the conduct of the civil service examination had the effect of keeping the higher services a close preserve of the colonisers.

Thus, the complete structure of the Indian government was remodeled and based on the notion of a master race—justifying the philosophy of the ‘Whiteman’s burden’. This widened the gulf between the rulers and the ruled. The memories of the revolt as well as the new nature of British rule, both contributed in the rise of nationalism in later 19th century. Thus, in a way the 1857 revolt created the background of the national freedom struggle of which Bihar was an inseparable part.