Why did the events of 1857 happen?

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Why did the events of 1857 happen?

• As part of this assessment enquiry you should
• Pursue historically valid enquiries including
  some you have framed yourself, and create
  relevant, structured and evidentially supported
  accounts in response.
• Understand how different types of historical
  sources are used rigorously to make historical
  claims and discern how and why contrasting
  arguments and interpretations of the past have
  been constructed.

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The Sepoy Rebellion, 1857
Small landowners and peasants couldnt afford to pay the high taxes that the British were imposing on them. Christian missionaries made Indians suspicious that the British were going to force Christianity on them
The British challenged the Indian customs and beliefs, eg. Sati Indian princes and nobles lost power when the British took over their territories. They resented the British rulers
Britain wanted to impose a Western (British) style of education to India, with a focus on the English language The sepoys heard a rumour that the Lee Enfield Rifle was greased with animal fat, which abhorrent to many Indian religions
Can you sort these causes of rebellion under the
headings, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CULTURAL
and RELGIOUS?
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(No Transcript)
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Jhansi Ki Rani (The Queen of Jhansi)

• Rani was the widow of the King of Jhansi
• The Queens husband passed away and she was left
  penniless due to a British law called the
  Doctrine of Lapse
• The Rani lost everything including her clothes
  and jewels.
• She appealed to the British for help, but they
  refused
• She became bitter towards the British and joined
  forces with rebels against the British empire
• She remained a figure-head of resistance for many
  years
• Indian school children have to learn this poem by
  heart and often recite it in class!
• Doctrine of Lapse, introduced by Lord Dalhousie,
  said that any territories with no legitimate heir
  (i.e. son), the land would be passed on to the
  East India Company alternatively if the EIC
  deemed the heir to be inappropriate (ie. Anti
  British), the Doctrine of Lapse would apply too

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Jhansi Ki Rani (The Queen of Jhansi)

• Over 3 pages draw 18 boxes 6 to a page
• Eg
• Read the poem of Jhansi Ki Rani. Summarise each
  verse in to a box
• (You can do this in writing or in pictures, or a
  combination of both)
• What does it tell you about
• the status of women in India under British Rule?
• Indian attitudes to British rule

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Mangal Pandey

• A sepoy working under the British East India
  Company, Mangal Pandey's name got etched into the
  pages of the Indian history after he attacked his
  senior British officers in an incident, which is
  today remembered as the sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or
  the India's First War of Independence. The reason
  behind this was the rumour that the cartridges
  used by Indian sepoys were greased with the fat
  of cow and pig.

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Mangal Pandey film

• This is an Indian film, produced in 2005.
• Some of the funding for the film was from British
  sources
• As you watch clips what does the film tell you
  about
• Indian attitudes to the British?
• British attitudes to the Indians?
• Attitudes to British and Indian women?
• Political, economic, social, cultural and
  religious differences between the Indians and the
  British?

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Massacre of the British officers and their wives
at Jhansi, 1858
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British officers and their wives trying to escape
from Cawnpore, 1858
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A historians view

• While it is true that large numbers of European
  men, women and children were murdered with great
  brutality by the mutineers, it is equally evident
  that some of the stories of torture, rape and
  bestiality were either grossly exaggerated or
  totally untrue. Indeed, regarding the treatment
  of white women by their Pandi captors, it has not
  been possible to discover a single proven case of
  rape.
• However, the British relief forces felt that
  every Indian male capable of carrying arms was
  guilty of such crimes. Hundreds were killed in
  the fays following the capture of Delhi, either
  by shooting or slow strangulation.
• R. Perkins, The Kashmir Gate, 1983

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Assessment task

• 1. Why did the events of 1857 happen? Was it
  Religious, Political/ Power, Social or Economic
  reasons or a mix? Refer to the sources
• 2. How should the events of 1857 be remembered?
  Mutiny, revolt or revolution?
• 3. How significant were the events of 1857?
• 4. Why did people from the UK disagree with the
  Mangal Pandey films getting UK funding?

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Now draw out this diagram, complete it then sum
it up in a concluding paragraph.