Page 217 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1994 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

A Woman Warrior Fights
the British

Lakshmi Bai stands as a heroine of India for her
stirring leadership against the British in the late recruited Indians of many communities and castes, the
1850s. Raised by her widowed father, Lakshmi Bengal army, which was also the largest, increasingly
Bai learned sword-fighting and shooting as a recruited Brahmans (that is, people of the highest-status
youth. She married the Maharaja of Jhansi (a varna) of the Gangetic heartland. The EIC ensured that
principality in northern India), but was widowed sepoy wages were regularly paid, in contrast to the rather
at age eighteen. Although Lakshmi Bai and an haphazard arrangements obtained in the Indian polities.
adopted son were the Maharaja’s rightful heirs This increased the incentive for Indians to become EIC
according to Hindu law (meaning the child could sepoys. The EIC state financed its land forces by resort-
take the throne with Lakshmi Bai ruling in his ing to military fiscalism: It used its army to accrue terri-
stead), the British refused to accept them as such tory, the revenue from which was used to finance its army.
and ordered Lakshmi Bai to leave Jhansi. Resist-
ing the British dictum, Lakshmi Bai gathered a The Uprising of 1857–1858
volunteer army, training women as well as men By the mid-nineteenth century, sepoy units were com-
for warfare. When the British attacked in 1858, manded by British officers, with a subordinate Indian
Lakshmi Bai and her army fought back for two officer class acting as a crucial liaison between the British
weeks. Just before her army’s defeat, Lakshmi Bai officer and the Indian private soldiers, but effectively
donned men’s clothing and strapped her son to barred from higher command. In 1857 the Bengal
her back to go into battle. Holding the reins of Army’s Hindu and Muslim sepoys rose up against their
her horse between her teeth, she used both her British officers. The mutiny was sparked by the fears of
hands for sword-fighting. Athough Lakshmi Bai the sepoys that the British were conspiring to make them
and her forces had to leave Jhansi in defeat, she transgress their religion through the introduction of new
met up with other rebel forces at a fortress some weaponry lubricated with animal fat forbidden by reli-
one hundred miles away.After several more days gious law to both Hindus and Muslims. But the military
of fighting, however, Lakshmi Bai died in battle. mutiny quickly became a generalized revolt against the
She continues to be remembered—through story, EIC. Cantonment (garrison) towns such as Lucknow
song, and even a commemorative stamp—as a and Kanpur became centers of revolt, as did the old
symbol of Indian resistance to British rule. imperial city of Delhi, where sepoys gathered with vague
ideas of restoring the Mughal empire. The heavily out-
Marcy Ross
numbered British were caught completely off guard. Had
the mutinous sepoys attacked Calcutta, the capital of
British India, they might have won. As it was, the British
were formidable foes who adopted Western tactics and were able to rally, relying on Punjabi sepoys and on rein-
weaponry.To fight them, the EIC tapped into the military forcements that arrived by sea.That quelling the uprising
labor market to vastly increase the size of their land took a full two years speaks to its seriousness and to the
forces. By 1796 these numbered 57,000 sepoys, bol- military prowess of the Indian leaders such as Rani
stered by an additional 13,000 British troops; by 1856 (Queen) Lakshmi Bai (1835–1858) of Jhansi, and Tantia
there were 226,352 sepoys and 38,502 British troops. Topi (c. 1819–1859).
These were distributed amongst the three “presidency” After the “Mutiny,” as the British termed it, the British
armies, of Bengal, Bombay (now Mumbai), and Madras. Crown took over the Indian empire and its army. Mea-
These armies only cooperated during wartime; otherwise sures were undertaken to prevent another mutiny. The
they were fairly autonomous.This autonomy extended to ratio of British to Indian troops was set at one to three,
recruitment. While the Bombay and Madras armies and recruitment, even in the Bombay and Madras armies,