Mutiny in Vellore
The mutiny in Vellore on 9/10 June 1806 was an Indian sepoy uprising against their British commanders in chief. It is considered one of the greatest mutinies before the Indian uprising of 1857 .
The city of Vellore in the south of India and its garrison belonged to the Madras presidency . Indian sepoys who served in the troops of the British East India Company were allowed to wear a uniform that largely corresponded to Indian clothing up to this point. In 1806 this should be changed. They should do without their forehead point and their traditional jewelry and wear a uniform that was more closely related to Europeans. The turbans were to be replaced by hats with leather cockades. Wearing such items was against the commandments of the Hindu faith. Muslim sepoys, on the other hand, should shave their beards and hair in the European manner. The order was the trigger for the mutiny of the Indian sepoys, in which 129 Europeans and loyal sepoys were shot. The mutineers largely took control of the Vellore fort. In part of it, however, remnants of the British garrison were able to hold their own. Some of the mutineers had hoped that the sons of Tipu Sultan , who were in the fort, would join the mutiny and thus cause a major uprising, but this did not happen. The British managed to get news of the mutiny to the neighboring garrison in Arcot , 18 miles away . The dragoon unit there set out under the command of Colonel Gillespie in a fast ride towards Vellore to suppress the mutiny. The dragoons managed to penetrate the fort, which was largely dominated by the rebels, where they ruthlessly attacked the mutineers. Summary executions then took place. The exact number of deaths has not been proven for certain. There were a few hundred. The change in uniform was reversed after the event.
literature
- Andrew Ward: Our bones are scattered - The Cawnpore massacres and the Indian mutiny of 1857 , John Murray Publishers, London 2004, ISBN 0-7195-6410-7
- Amelia Farrer, Lady Fancourt: An Account Of the Mutiny at Vellore, by the Lady of Sir John Fancourt, the Commandant, who was killed there July 9th, 1806 . In: The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, June 14, 1842, p. 2. (Eyewitness account of the wife of the commandant of the Fort of Vellore)
Individual evidence
- ^ A. Rangarajan: When the Vellore sepoys rebelled. The Hindu , August 6, 2006, accessed July 11, 2016 .
- ↑ PVV Murthi: 201st anniversary of Vellore mutiny against the British-observed. The Hindu , July 11, 2007, accessed July 11, 2016 .