Uprisings and revolts against British rule in India

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Execution of two rebels ( Felice Beato , 1858)

This list of uprisings and revolts against British rule in India contains the most important such events. Between 1763 and 1856 alone, 40 major and over 100 minor uprisings and rebellions are said to have occurred, and armed forces were used to suppress them.

The triggering factor in almost all cases was the heavy tax burden or its ruthless collection. In the first decades of the rule of the British East India Company, for example, tax revenue in the area of permanent settlement doubled compared to the time of the Mughal Empire , but the burden on the peasants increased sevenfold. The British also introduced private land ownership (rather than communal) for the first time, which led to the emergence of a parasitic class of absent landowners.

Even during the famines in large parts of the country, which were frequent due to the absence of the monsoons (caused by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation ), taxes continued to be collected and defaulting farmers were foreclosed from their land, as is the case with the ruling liberal ideology of free trade was also practiced in Ireland from 1845–1848 . During the early year of such a drought, rebellions rose.

Many uprisings, especially of the tribals ("ethnic groups": Adivasi , today: Scheduled Tribes ), were also triggered by the destruction of traditional ways of life (for example semi-nomadic way of life , which requires intensive forest use).

The uprisings can be divided into five groups, whereby individual uprisings fit into several categories:

  1. restorative rebellions : attempted to drive out by the British (mostly before 1857)
  2. religious movements : often with messianic or doomsday prophecies
  3. "Social bandits" : wanted to improve the living conditions of the people (often in the sense of communist ideals without such being known)
  4. (Mass) uprisings : against individual grievances
  5. “Terrorist retaliation”: often spontaneous outbreaks

Note: This list does not include rebellions that took place in the outskirts of British India (e.g. Ceylon or Oman ; for events in the border region with Afghanistan, see Military Campaigns in Northwest British India ). Also not listed are uprisings that took place outside the geographical area of ​​the Indian subcontinent, even if their suppression was often (partly) paid for by the Indian finance minister (for example the Mahdi or the Boxer rebellion ), nor are colonial wars for conquest.

Restorative rebellions until 1856

  • Members of the Kallar caste of Madura 1710–1784. They remained active as "bandits" from the mountains around Madura until the 20th century. Individual villages protected themselves from cattle theft by hiring (and bribing ) a kala family as guardians ( kavalgar ). This system existed in Thanjavur at least until 1953.
  • Dhal revolt of the Rajas of Dhalbhum , Jagannath Dhal, 1769–1774. First uprisings in the Jharkhand region , which the British invaded from Singhbhum Manbhum in 1767 . Attempts at pacification under the command of Lt. Rook and Charles Mogan were unsuccessful. The East Indian Company accepted to reinstate Jagannath Dhal as ruler, provided that he paid an annual tribute (which increased over the years; from 1800: Rs 4267).
  • Chuar uprisings of Midnapore (West Bengal), 1766-1772, 1795-1816 (focus in 1799, about 1,500 rebels Durjan Singh controlled 30 villages); again in 1832 in the Manbhum region (today Purulia and Bihar district)
  • Raja Chait Singh with the support of Hindu and Muslim landowners ( zamindar ) in Oudh , 1778–1781. The surviving zamindars, whose forts had been destroyed, were forcibly turned into bandits. The following looting and the rigorous collection of taxes was the cause of the 1784 famine.
  • Raja Vizieram Rauze in Vizagapatam , 1794. The Raja was killed in battle. In the region there were further uprisings under Birabhadra Rauze (1830) and Jagannath Rauze (1832-1834).
  • Wazir Ali Khan , the deposed Nawab of Oudh in Benares and Gorakhpur in 1799
  • Maratha Dhundia Wagh († September 9, 1800 in Kongal ) in Mysore , 1799–1800. The British commander was the aspiring Arthur Wellesley .
  • Pazhassi (or "Pyche") Raja in North Malabar , 1796–1805. The Raja fell in battle on November 30, 1805.
  • Poligars (former military commanders) in Bellary , Anantapur , Cuddapah and Kurnool , 1803-5
  • Poligars from Tinnevelly , 1801
  • Rebellion of the Raja of Cuttack (Orissa) Mukunda Deva II. 1804, led by his counselor Jayi Rajguru, who was executed for it.
  • Poligars in North Arcot , 1803-5
  • Sepoy uprising at Vellore , 1806
  • Diwan Velu Thampi († 1809; was still publicly hanged after his death as a deterrent) from Travancore , who controlled a professionally led army of 30,000 men, plus an even larger number of irregulars, mostly farmers; 1808-9.
  • Heirs of Desai von Kittur led by Rani Chinnava (1778–1829), who had lost their rule under the Doctrine of Lapse , in 1824. Since 2007 the Rani has been honored with a memorial in front of the parliament in New Delhi.
  • the deposed Gopal Singh von Bundelkhand , 1802–1812. The raja was reinstated in office in 1812.
  • 1817 Uprising of the commanders of several forts in Aligarh , which had been under British rule since 1803.
  • Paika (militiamen) of the deposed Raja of Cuttack ( Kurdah , Orissa ) and Khonds , under the leadership of Bakshi Jagabandhu , also because of changes in land ownership, the salt monopoly and the abolition of the cowrie shell as a means of payment. The Paika were practically completely destroyed as a class. 1817-1818
  • Members of the Baniya caste from Gujarat , hence Gujars, in Sindh , 1824

Messianic uprisings until 1856

What these rebellions have in common is that they had charismatic leaders who were often ascribed supernatural powers. The establishment of a just state of God was often propagated. These movements arose among Hindus, Muslims and tribals alike . Such uprisings were more common in eastern India and after famine.

  • 1827–1831: Muslims from the Maulvis sect , mostly disenfranchised land tenants, led by Titu Miyan, in the areas around Barasat , Nadia , Faridpur , Jessore and Calcutta ; taxes were collected from Hindu landowners; the leader ended up in Alipur prison , which has remained the most important prison for rebels to this day and which has been a center of abuse and prisoner massacres over the decades
  • 1824–1833: Muslim Pagal Panthis , converts from the Garo and Hajong peoples , under Tipu Shah in northern Mymensingh
  • Muslim Faraizis in Bogra and Faridpur (1838-1851); under the leadership of Dudu Miyan, a parallel administrative structure emerged
  • 1855–1856: Santal uprising (hool)

Tribals

Throughout the 19th century there were hundreds of smaller uprisings by the tribals ( indigenous tribes , today Scheduled Tribes ), who suffered particularly from being integrated into the colonial economic system, through the introduction of private property in land and forests, and the often violent tax collection. The "police actions" usually ended with massacres, displacement or destroyed villages.

  • 1818–1831: the Bhil of Khandesh
  • 18 ??: Revolt of the Ho in the area of Singhbhum against the prince Jagannath Singh , who exploited his people and relied on the British
  • 1820: the Mer of Merwara
  • 1820–1837: parts of the Kol people, especially the tribes of the Ho and Mundas in Chotanagpur (= Chota Nagpur); Focus 1831–1832; they were massacred in their thousands, but this did not prevent further riots
  • 1829–1858: the Khasi in what was then Assam (now Meghalaya )
  • 1832: Revolt of the Bhumij and Chuar farmers against excessive taxation by the Zamindars ; the leader Ganga Narayan, who also received support from the Ho and Kol tribes , was killed in a skirmish with the Thakur of Kharswan
  • 1846: the Khond in Orissa
  • 1852, 1857, 1872: the Garo in what was then Assam (now Meghalaya)
  • In 1859–1881 the Sardari Movement in Chotanagpur again led to revolts of the Munda under various Sardars
  • 1860–1862: the Jaintia / Syteng in what was then Assam (now Meghalaya)

Santal Pargana

There were numerous uprisings in the Santal Pargana of Bihar:

  • 1772–1782: Pahariaya Movement, led by Rani Sarweshwari
  • 1783–1785: Tilka uprising of the Santal under the leadership of Tilka Manjhi (* 1850), who waged a guerrilla war from the Sultanganj Mountains; he shot Augustin Cleveland, the British commander, with an arrow; after his capture he was tied to a tree in Bhagalpur
  • 1855–1856: Santal uprising (hool) , led by the brothers Sido and Kanhu; around 30,000 insurgents and around 10,000 armed with bows and arrows marched on Calcutta; Dead: 5 Europeans, 500 sepoys and an estimated 15,000 rebels and civilians
  • 1870–1874: Kharwar Movement , led by Bhagirath Manjhi , it grew out of essentially the same reasons as the failed uprising of 1855/56

"Social bandits"

  • Thuggee , 1650–1850 in north and central India
  • Sannyasi rebellion 1763–1800 in Bengal. The porters were religious leaders (Hindu sannyasi and Muslim fakirs), discharged soldiers and zamindars
  • Under the leadership of the deposed General Narasimha Reddi and his followers, there was a rebellion in Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) 1846–1847,
  • After the people of the Lodhas of Midnapore were expelled from their ancestral land in the 19th century, they became a "criminal caste"

Revolts against certain grievances until 1856

Most of these mass uprisings began with demonstrations or boycotts by tenants or small farmers against perceived abuses (mostly excessive taxes) and, in the absence of remedial action, developed into violent rebellions that were often put down in a few weeks. They were common even after 1857.

  • 1783 in Rangpur and Dinajpur, Bengal : the tax farmer Debisingh's demands were excessive. His henchmen whipped defaulting peasants or put them in chains until the collectively taxed village had paid. On January 18, a mob stormed Tepah prison. The police fired into the crowd. In the following fight, the tax collector Gaurmohan was caught. After a petition failed to achieve a reduction in taxes and "justice", two tax collectors were killed. An "army" gathered that roamed the districts and plundered empires. British troops put down the uprising in five weeks. A village chief was hanged. The tax situation did not change.
  • 1799 in Bishnupur and Birbhum (Eastern India)
  • Jats from Haryana , 1809
  • In Mysore, 1830-1831
  • Khandesh, 1852

1857 to 1859

Execution of insurgents

Northwest border from 1849

1859 to 1947

year designation region Leader (carrying class) course
1859-1862 Indigo riots Bengal Peasants, land tenants see main article. (Further uprisings 1905-08 in the Motihari - Bettiah region . Abolition of the exploitative Tinkanthia system by Gandhi's Champaran campaign 1917/18.)
1867-1870 Hindu Naikda Gujarat spiritual leader: Joria Bhagat Mainly police posts were attacked while trying to establish a state of God ( dharma-raj ). The real rebellion was organized by Rupsing Gobar, who founded a "Naikda Kingdom" and levied taxes.
1873-1885 Pabna initiative Bengal see main article
March 1879 - November 1880
1886 		Malabar coast Koya - and Konda - Hill People Among their chiefs ( muttardars ) protest against extortionate officials and new regulations on forest use. Small uprisings in the region had already occurred in 1840, 1845, 1858, 1861-2. The area of ​​the uprising covered about 5000 mi². It took six infantry regiments to suppress it. The rebels in 1886 called themselves Rama Dandu (Rama's army). One of the leaders was Rajana Anantayya (S 46).
May – Sept. 1875 Deccan riots 33 villages in 6 taluks in the districts of Poona and Ahmadnagar wealthier farmers Farmers who became wealthy during the cotton boom, who saw their incomes dwindle again in the context of the global economic crisis (1873) and who were faced with excessive tax demands (p. 50). The three-week uprising was also supported by ordinary people such as hairdressers, water carriers, etc. Tens of thousands gathered on marketplaces and swore not to comply with the demands of moneylenders and to burn their documents. The advancing troops collected collective fines. As a result, after the region was completely devastated by a famine followed by cholera in 1876–1878, the Deccan Agriculturalists' Relief Act of 1879 eased the farmer's lot somewhat.
1882 Cachar (Assam) Govindgiri Attacks on whites led by Sambhudan, who led his followers to believe that he could use his magic to protect them from bullets.
1890-1891 Manipur campaign Manipur The Raja of the Manipur Protectorate was overthrown in September 1890 during a palace revolution. The British sent 400 Gurkhas under Lieutenant Colonel Charles McDowal Skene against the rebels in March 1891 , but were severely harassed by them in the capital Imphal . Skene, along with the Chief Commissioner for Assam, James Wallace Quinton, and the Political Agent for Manipur, Frank St. Clair Grimwood, were murdered in the palace after an unsuccessful attempt at negotiations, as were the Assistant Secretary of the Chief Commissioner , William Henry Cossins, and the Gurkha officer Walter Simpson and the Gurkha horn player who accompanied her, Gunna Ram. During the retreat of the Gurkhas through the jungle to Assam, the widow Ethel St. Clair Grimwood cared for the wounded and brought in her local knowledge; for this she was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria . In April three columns with a total of 4,000 men advanced against Imphal and defeated the Manipuris in smaller skirmishes. The army commander was captured and sentenced to death. A 6-year-old was installed on the throne, who ruled as a British puppet (S 242).
1899-1900 Ulgulan of the Munda south of Ranchi Members of the Munda tribe, led by Birsa Munda (born November 15, 1875 - † June 9, 1900) The climax and end point of a 30-year struggle against the destruction of indigenous culture, caused by the abolition of commons ( khuntkatti ), the introduction of compulsory labor ( beth begari ), tax farmers and usurers. Birsa, who was influenced by both Hinduism and Lutherans, but returned to the religion of his tribe, received the divine commission for liberation in a vision in 1895. By 1899 he had thousands of followers who were summoned to murder tax farmers, Rajas and Christians at Christmas 1899. Churches and Hindu temples were preferably burned down. 6000 followed him, losing on January 9, 1900 at Sail Rakab Hill . Birsa was caught in February and died in prison in June. 350 Mundas were tried, three executed and 44 exiled. The Chotanagpur Tenancy Act 1908 prohibited compulsory labor and secured certain communal land holdings (S 47)
1900 Konda tribe Vizagapatam Agency Korra Mallaya claimed to be enlightened and a reincarnation of one of the five Pandava brothers; his son should be a rebirth of Krishna . He collected 4-5000 followers, which he armed with bamboo. His magic should turn the sticks into guns. The result was predictable: 11 insurgents were shot, 60 brought to justice, and two of them were hanged.
1910 Bhumkal Lal Kalendra Singh et al. a. Bastar see main article
1900-1912 Bhil tribe Banswara Govindgiri The trigger was the great famine from 1899/1900, in which only 12% of the usual harvest was brought in in the region and which followed a similar one in 1896/97. Govindgiri gathered his troops in the Mangar Mountains and raided wealthy landowners on the plains. The superiority of British artillery eventually brought him to his knees.
1917-1919 Kuki uprising
1921-1922 Moplah uprising Taluks Ernad and Valluvanad (Malabar Coast) fanatical Muslims of the Moplah tribe see main article

(There had already been 22 minor revolts in 1836–1896.)

Burma

Struggle for independence

According to the Satyagraha doctrine established by the Mohandas Gandhi , the struggle for independence should be non-violent ( campaign of non-cooperation ). However, there were also violent actions, often when the colonial rulers fired in peaceful crowds. The most important:

Key figures:

year designation region Leader (carrying class) course
1914 Tana Bhagat -Movement Jatra Oraon to Ranchi The Vishnu Bhagat sect was started by Bhiku Bhagat, it was in a way a continuation of Birsa’s ideas. It was under the leadership of Jatra Bhagat (* 1888) and was directed against the consumption of alcohol, meat and participation in dances. The principle of nonviolence was followed and, with Siddhu Bhagat as leader, they took part in the Gandhian non-cooperation from 1921 onwards. Delegates were represented at the annual sessions of the Congress in 1922 and 1923.
Apr 13, 1919 Amritsar massacre see main article
14.-21. Apr. 1919 Peshawar At the same time as the protests in Amritsar, there were protests in Peshawar. The RAF bombed the city's bazaars in the days that followed. The number of deaths is unknown, but in this almost forgotten massacre it was probably higher than in Amritsar at 4–5,000.
Apr. 1930 Chittagong uprising Chittagong District ( Bengal ) Surya Sen and middle-class Hindu youth see main article (About 70 revolutionaries proclaimed a "provisional revolutionary national government" on the night of April 18, 1930 (Good Friday).)
April – May 1930 Mutiny in Peshawar Peshawar The arrest of social reformer Badshah Khan on April 23 led to a demonstration in the Kissakhani bazaar. A three-hour attack on the crowd by infantry and armored vehicles officially resulted in 30 deaths, independent sources estimate the number at 200–250. A platoon of the Gwalior Rifles, commanded by Chandra Singh Garhwali, refused to give orders to fire into the unarmed crowd. After they were threatened with a court martial, they mutinied and defected to the Pathan Volunteers ( Khudai Khidmatgar ). British and mixed race fled the place, which was now controlled by the Congress Volunteers . After 12 days, a large British contingent moved in on May 4th and carried out bloody repression.
1930s to 1942 Hur rebellion Sindh Province fanatical Muslims: Farqui Hurs At the height of their terror campaign, the Hur murdered around 600 people a month, mostly Hindus. The British passed the Hur Act, which allowed security forces to shoot any Hurs they encountered without warning. On May 16, 1942, they destroyed the Karachi-Lahore train. Three battalions were deployed against them who had completed their mission after their captain , Sibghatullah Shah Rashidi, aka Pir Pagaro, was captured. He was hanged on March 17, 1943 (S 373).
1946 Royal Indian Navy mutiny HMIS Talwar (Bombay 2/18); HMIS Hindustan (Karachi February 19)
78 more ships and 20 naval posts 		Sailors, later street battles and a general strike. On the following days also in Karachi and Madras . Small solidarity actions across the country, including Bahrain , Aden and Andamans .

See also

literature

  • Suranjan Chatterjee: New Reflections on the Sannyasi, Fakir and Peasants War. In: Economic and Political Weekly. Volume 19, No. 4, January 1984, pp. PE2 – PE13.
  • AR Desai (Ed.): Peasant Struggles in India. Delhi 1979.
  • Kaushalya Devi Dublish: Revolutionaries and Their Activities in Northern India. Delhi 1982.
  • Stephen Fuchs: Rebellious Prophets: A Study of Messianic Movements in Indian Religions. Bombay 1965 (also as: Messianic Movements in Primitive India. In: Asian Folklore Studies. Volume 24, No. 1, 1965, pp. 11-62).
  • Kathleen Gough: Indian Peasant Uprisings. In: Economic and Political Weekly. Volume 9, No. 32/34, special issue August 1974.
  • Philip J. Haythornthwaite: The Colonial Wars Source Book. London 1995, ISBN 1-85409-196-4 .
  • Ranajit Guha: Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India. Delhi 1983.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gough (1974), p. 1391 mentions 77 peasant uprisings of class struggle alone, of which 30 had more than 10,000 participants and 12 had several hundred thousand insurgents.
  2. ↑ Gough (1974), pp. 1393/1394.
  3. ↑ 12 alone in the period from 1770 to 1857; the truly catastrophic ones by 1910 claimed an estimated 20 million deaths; 1943: 3.5 million deaths in Bengal alone. Gough (1974), p. 1393.
  4. ↑ After several years of drought, the population was too weak to rebel. see. Davis, Mike; Late Victorian Holocausts; London 2001; ISBN 1-85984-739-0 , therein on tax collection: S 50-7, 148, 153
  5. ↑ cf. Fuchs (1965), who performs almost 50.
  6. ↑ cf. W. Francis; Madras District Gazetteers, Madura; Madras Government Press, 1906, pp. 88-91.
  7. ↑ Gough (1974), p. 1401.
  8. ↑ cf. Man, Michael; Bengal in upheaval: The emergence of the British colonial state 1754–1793; S 226-30
  9. ↑ today also: Vishakhapatnam (17 ° 42 'N, 83 ° 18' E)
  10. ↑ Davis, John Francis (1795-1890); Vice Ali Khan; or, The massacre of Benares: a chapter in British Indian history .. (1871) ;
  11. ↑ capitulated in 1825, received a pension; † 1829. Biogr .: BC Ray; Bakshi Jagabandhu: The Path finder of Freedom Movement of India; Bhubaneswar 2001
  12. ^ Section essentially based on Fuchs (1965).
  13. ↑ cf. Frontier, Calcutta, December 4, 1971; Le Monde, Paris, November 30, 1971.
  14. ↑ a b c Chandra, Bipan et al .; India's Struggle for Independence; New Delhi 1989; ISBN 0-14-010781-9
  15. ↑ Chatterjee (1984)
  16. ↑ Novel: Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra ; Anand Math
  17. ↑ cf. Pabna Initiative , Deccan Riots (1875), Moplah Uprising (1921)
  18. ↑ Kling, Blair B .; The Blue Mutiny: the Indigo Disturbances in Bengal, 1859-1862; Philadelphia 1966
  19. ↑ a subgroup of the Bhil with fewer than 10,000 members at that time
  20. ↑ a b c Sarkar, Sumit; Modern India 1885–1947; New Delhi 1983; ISBN 0-333-90425-7
  21. ↑ cf. Arnold, David; Dacoity and Rural Crime in Madras, 1860-1940; in: Jnl of Peasant Stud., 1979 (Jan.)
  22. ↑ Ravinder Kumar, "The Deccan Riots of 1875," The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 24, no. 4 (Aug., 1965), pp. 613-635.
  23. ↑ Digby, Willam; The Famine Campaign in Southern India, 1876-1878; London 1900, vol. IS 148-50, 361f
  24. ^ Gough (1974), p. 1402.
  25. ↑ William Whrigt: Manipur Mischief: Rebellion, Scandal, and the Dark Side of the Raj, 1891 , Amberley Publishing 2018
  26. ↑ Garry Mead: Victoria's Cross: The Untold Story of Britain's Highest Award for Bravery , Atlantic Books 2015
  27. ↑ a b Clodfelter, Michael; Warfare and Armed Conflicts…; Jefferson NC ³2008
  28. ↑ cf. Singh, K. Suresh; Dust Storms and Hanging Mist: A Study of Birsa Munda and his Movement in Cota Nagpur (1874-1911); Calcutta 1966
  29. ↑ Thurston; Rangachari; Castes and Tribes of Southern India; Madras 1909, Vol. III, p. 353.
  30. ↑ Davis (2001), Table 5.1.
  31. ↑ Self-presentation: Banswara: History ( Memento of March 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) National Informatics Center, Banswara 2004.
  32. ↑ Gautam Bhadra; The Kuki (?) Uprising; in: Man in India, March 1975
  33. ↑ Haythornwright (Haythornthwaite)
  34. ↑ Sharma, Mallikarjuna I .; Easter Rebellion in India: the Chittagong Uprising; Hyderabad 1993
  35. ↑ Sharma (1993), p. 174.
  36. ↑ Sarkar (1983), pp. 286f.
  37. ↑ Chattopadhyay, Gautam; The Almost Revolution… February 1946; in: Essays in Honor of Professor SC Shankar, New Delhi 1976