Vellore Mutiny
Encyclopedia
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
by India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n sepoy
Sepoy
A sepoy was formerly the designation given to an Indian soldier in the service of a European power. In the modern Indian Army, Pakistan Army and Bangladesh Army it remains in use for the rank of private soldier.-Etymology and Historical usage:...
s against the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, predating the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
by half a century. The revolt, which took place in the South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
n town of Vellore
Vellore
Vellore It is considered one of the oldest cities in South India and lies on the banks of the Palar river on the site of Vellore Fort. The city lies between Chennai and Bangalore and the Temple towns of Thiruvannamalai and Tirupati...
, was rather brief, lasting only one full day but brutal, as mutineers broke into the Vellore fort
Vellore Fort
Vellore Fort is a large 16th-century fort situated in Vellore city near Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The Fort was at one point of time the headquarters of the Vijayanagara Empire...
and killed or injured 200 British troops, before they were subdued by reinforcements from nearby Arcot.
Causes
The reasons for the mutiny revolved mainly around resentment against changes in the sepoy dress code in November 1805. Hindus were prohibited from wearing religious marks on their foreheads and Muslims were required to shave their beard and trim their moustache. In addition General Sir John Craddock, Commander-in-Chief of the Madras ArmyMadras Army
The Madras Army was the army of the Presidency of Madras, one of the three presidencies of the British India within the British Empire.The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company until the Government of India Act 1858 transferred all three...
ordered the wearing of a round hat (resembling that associated with both Europeans and Indian Christians) with a leather cockade in place of the existing turban, a measure which offended both Hindu and Muslim sepoys and went contrary to an earlier warning by a Military Board that sepoy uniform changes should be "given every consideration which a subject of that delicate and important nature required".
These apparently minor changes, intended to improve the "soldierly appearance" of the men, created strong resentment among the soldiers. In May 1806, some soldiers who protested the new rules were sent to Fort St. George (Madras then, now Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
). Two soldiers — a Hindu and a Muslim — were given 90 lashes each and their services terminated. Nineteen soldiers were punished with 50 lashes each and forced to seek pardon from the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
.
In addition to the military grievances listed above, the rebellion was also instigated by the sons of the defeated Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...
, confined at Vellore since 1799. Tipu's wives and sons, together with numerous retainers, were pensioners of the East India Company and lived in a palace within the large complex comprising the Vellore Fort. One of Tipu Sultan's daughters was to be married on 9 July 1806, and the plotters of the uprising gathered at the fort under the pretext of attending the wedding. The objectives of the civilian conspirators remain obscure but by seizing and holding the fort they may have hoped to encourage a general rising through the territory of the former Mysore Sultanate
Outbreak
The garrison of the Vellore Fort in July 1806 comprised four companies of British infantry from H.M. 69th Regiment and three battalions of Madras infantryTwo hours after midnight, on 10 July, the sepoys in the fort shot down the European sentries and killed fourteen of their own officers and 115 men of the 69th Regiment, most of the latter as they slept in their barracks. The rebels seized control by dawn, and raised the flag of the Mysore Sultanate over the fort. Tipu's second son Fateh Hyder was declared King.
However a British officer escaped and alerted the garrison in Arcot. Nine hours after the outbreak of the mutiny a relief force comprising the British 19th Light Dragoons
19th Light Dragoons
The 19th Light Dragoons was a cavalry regiment of the British Army created in 1781 for service in British India. The regiment served in India until 1806, and in North America during the War of 1812, and was disbanded in Britain in 1821.-Formation:...
, galloper guns and a squadron of Madras cavalry, rode from Arcot to Vellore, covering sixteen miles in about two hours. It was led by by Sir Rollo Gillespie
Rollo Gillespie
-Early life:Robert Rollo Gillespie grew up in County Down, in what was then the Kingdom of Ireland, after turning down the opportunity of going to Cambridge university he joined the 3rd Irish Horse as a Cornet. In 1786 he was involved in a duel in which he killed the opposing duellist. Fleeing to...
- one of the most capable and energetic officers in India at that time - who reportedly left Arcot within a quarter of an hour of the alarm being raised. Gillespie dashed ahead of the main force with a single troop of about twenty men.
Arriving at Vellore Gillespie found the surviving Europeans, about sixty men of the 69th, commanded by NCOs and two assistant surgeons, still clinging to the ramparts but out of ammunition. Unable to gain entry through the defended gate, Gillespie climbed the wall with the aid of a rope and a sergeant's sash which was lowered to him; and to gain time led the 69th in a bayonet-charge along the ramparts. When the rest of the 19th arrived, Gillespie had them blow in the gates with their galloper guns, and made a second charge with the 69th to clear a space inside the gate to permit the cavalry to deploy. The 19th and the Madras Cavalry then charged and slaughtered any sepoy who stood in their way. About 100 sepoys who had sought refuge in the palace were brought out, and by Gillespie's order, placed against a wall and shot dead. John Blakiston, the engineer who had blown in the gates, recalled: "Even this appalling sight I could look upon, I may almost say, with composure. It was an act of summary justice, and in every respect a most proper one; yet, at this distance of time, I find it a difficult matter to approve the deed, or to account for the feeling under which I then viewed it.".
The harsh retribution meted out to the sepoys snuffed out the unrest at a stroke and provided the history of the British in India with one of its true epics; for as Gillespie admitted, with a delay of even five minutes, all would have been lost. In all nearly 350 of the rebels were killed, and another 350 injured before the fighting had stopped. Some accounts have it that 800 rebels died.
Aftermath
After formal trial six mutineers were blown away from guns, five shot by firing squad, eight hanged and five transported. The three Madras battalions involved in the mutiny (the 1st/1st Madras Native Infantry, the 2nd/1st MNI and the 2nd/23rd MNI) were all disbanded. The senior British officers responsible for the offensive dress regulations were recalled to England and the orders themselves cancelled.After the incident the incarcerated royals were transferred to Calcutta. The Governor of Madras, William Bentinck
Lord William Bentinck
Lieutenant-General Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck GCB, GCH, PC , known as Lord William Bentinck, was a British soldier and statesman...
, was recalled, and the controversial interference with social and religious customs of the sepoys was abolished, as was flogging.
There are some parallels between the Vellore Mutiny and that of the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
, although the latter was on a much larger scale. The events of 1857 (which involved the Bengal Army and did not affect the Madras Army) caused the British crown to take over Company lands in India with the Government of India Act 1858
Government of India Act 1858
The Government of India Act 1858 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on August 2, 1858. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the British East India Company and the transference of its functions to the British Crown...
which saw the total dissolution of the East India Company.
External links
- More about Madras Army and Vellore mutiny
- Colonial British perspective on the Sepoy Mutiny at Vellore Fort
- Memorial to H. M. 69th Regiment, who defended Vellore Fort during the uprising, at Church of South India Cemetery, Vellore
- Tamils dispute India mutiny date
