2. Leaders and followers
• To fight the British,
leadership and
organization was required.
• The first step of the
sepoys was to rush to
Delhi and appeal to the
mughal emperor to accept
the leadership of the
revolt.
• Bhadur shah’s first
reaction was one of horror
and rejection.
BAHADUR SHAH
3. ROLE OF BAHADUR SHAH IN THE REVOLT OF 1857
On 11 May the regiments that had rebelled
at Meerut the previous day reached Delhi and asked
for a formal audience with Bahadur Shah that was
granted the next day. It was attended by several
excited sepoys who treated him familiarly or even
disrespectfully. Although Bahadur Shah was dismayed
by the looting and disorder, he gave his public support
to the rebellion. On 16 May, sepoys and palace
servants killed 52 Europeans who had been held
prisoner within the palace or who had been discovered
hiding in the city. The killings took place under a
peepul tree in front of the palace, despite Bahadur
Shah's protests. The avowed aim of the killers was to
implicate Bahadur Shah in the killings, making it
impossible for him to seek any compromise with the
British.
4. • Bahadur Shah issued the following decree,
(King's decree), on 12 May 1857:
• Whoever shows cowardice at this delicate
hour, or whoever in innocence will help the
cunning English, believing in their promises, he
would stand disillusioned very soon. He should
remember that the English will pay him for his
faithfulness to them in the same manner as
they have paid the rulers of Oudh. It is the
imperative duty of Hindus
and Mussalmans (Muslims) to join the revolt
against the English.
5. • They should work and be guided by their
leaders in their towns and should take
steps to restore order in the country. It is
the bounden duty of all people that they
should, as far as possible, copy out
this Firman and display it at all important
places in the towns. But before doing so,
they should get themselves armed and
declare war on the English.
6. TRACING THE SCENES ELESWHERE…
In awadh, where the displacment of the
popular nawab wajid ali shah and the
annexation of the state were still fresh in
the memory of the people, the populace in
lucknow celebrated the fall of the british
rule by hailing Birijs Qadr, the young son
on the Nawab, as their leader.
• Often the message of rebellion was
carried by ordinary men and women and in
places by religious men too.
7. In kanpur the sepoys and the
people of the Kunwar Singh one of the
leaders of the Indian
town gave Nana Sahib, the Rebellion of
successor to Peshwa 1857 belonged to a
royal Kshatriya (Rajput)
Baji Rap II , no choice save to house ofJagdispur. At
join the revolt as the age of 80 years,
during India’s First War
their leader. of Independence (1857),
he actively led a select
• In jhansi the rani was forced band of armed soldiers
by the popular against the troops under
the command of the East
pressure around her to India Company, he
assume the leadership defeated the British
twice, but lost most of
on the uprising. his battles.
• So was kunwar singh, a
local zamindar in arrah in
bihar.
10. • From meerut, there were reports
that a fakir had appeared riding
an elephant and that the sepoys
were visiting him frequently.
DID YOU
• In lucknow after the annexation KNOW?
of awadh, there were many Not
everywhere
religious leaders and self-styled were the
prophets who preached the leaders
destruction of British rule. people of
court- ranis,
• Local leaders emerged, urging rajas, nawabs
peasants, zamindar and tribal and taluqdars.
revolt.
