First War of Independence

The 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence passed last week in Pakistan almost unnoticed, while in India the event was commemorated with great enthusiasm under high-profile official patronage. On May 7, 1857 the Muslim and Hindu sepoys jointly staged a fierce revolt against the local British command at Meerut cantonment, then the biggest colonial military base in undivided India.
After subduing the colonial force the sepoys moved to Delhi and on May 11 restored the sovereignty of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor. In no time, similar rebellions against the British erupted in a number of other cities. But the revolt could not be sustained, and within a matter of four months it died down in the face of superior weaponry of the occupation army; of course, aided by some native elements. The British sought bloody revenge. Within the next 12 months hundreds of thousands were massacred, including the king's three sons.
The frail, octogenarian Bahadur Shah Zafar was tried and banished to Burma where he died five years later. British historians have always described this biggest-ever challenge to the colonial empire as 'sepoys' mutiny,' but for the people of the Subcontinent the event was rightly the First War of Independence. For about hundred years, since the Battle of Plassey in 1757, resentment had been simmering against the East India Company raj for a number of reasons.
Not only that the 'Company Bahadur' under the garb of an export enterprise had siphoned away the Subcontinent's all material wealth, its officials had also undertaken the evangelistic task of converting local population to Christianity. The Company had also set before it the mission to grab lands in the princely states by enacting what was called the 'Doctrine of Lapse' under which it took over millions of acres.
As the greed for land sharpened over the years, governor-general Lord Dalhousie did not hesitate to ask the Shah to vacate the Red Fort, and a few years later the next governor-general Lord Canning contended that the Shah's successor would not use the title of King. But what brought the resentment to the tipping point was the newly introduced Enfield Rifle musket, because its cartridge, said to contain fats of cow and pig, had to be bitten by mouth for firing, which was unacceptable to both the Muslims and Hindus.
The 1857 uprising was quintessentially a people's revolt against foreign occupation. It was not aimed at seeking restoration of small princely states but the glory and power of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the king who symbolised the entire Subcontinent.
Naturally, as the rebellious forces roamed the streets in Delhi their slogan was "Khalq Khuda Ki, Mulk Badshah Ka, Hukum Subedar Sepoy Bahadur Ka". In other words, the rebel forces were seeking restoration of the Moghul rule in India, inspired by teachers of hundreds of 'madressas' which had become the breeding ground for nationalism. Most of the teachers were killed by the British in the days following the collapse of the revolt, or the First War of Independence. That the Pakistanis forgot to commemorate the martyrs of the 1857 war is a most unfortunate episode. That war was our war. We should not forget that the people who do not know their past have no future.