Main events of 1857 War of Independence
1. Revolution dated for 31st May, 1857 started on 29th March at the Barackpore Cantonment when the sepoys refused to break open the Enfield rifles cartridges with their bite as they were greased with the beef and pork fat. In the meantime Mangal Pandey shot dead the two British Officers. He was hanged to death on 8th April. On 9th May the sepoys at Merrut were arrested for refusing to break open the cartridges. Their fellow rebels got them freed, killed many officers, and then marched toward Delhi. On reaching Delhi they declared Bahadur Shah, the emperor of Delhi on 11th May.
2. Revolution took its wings and spread like fire. It was led by Nanasaheb and Tantia Tope in Kanpur, in Avadh by Begum Hazrat Mahal, in Jhansi by Rani Laxmi Bhai, in Bihar by Babu Kunwar Singh, in Assam by Diwan Maniram and Kanpareshwar Singh and in Orissa by Surender Shahi and Ujjawal Singh.
3. The then Governor General of India, Lord Canning got actively involved in suppressing the revolution. He called armies from Madras, Bombay, Burma and Sri Lanka and sought help from the Sikh fauz of Punjab and the Gorkha army of Nepal. The army commander, General Neel got liberated Benaras and Allahabad, from the rebels. Nana Saheb’s forces were defeated in Kanpur. The British, finally, capured Delhi and arrested Bahadur Shah, sent him to the Rangoon prison, and his two sons were mercilessly shot to death.
4. Tantia Tope and Laxmi Bai fought tooth and nail against the British army. A few disloyal sepoys opened the gates of Jhansi fort but she escaped from there and reached Kalapi where she was joined by Tantia Tope. Both invaded Gwalior. The British forces seized Gwalior, Rani in an attempt to flee from there, was captured by the enemy army and became martyr while fighting in the battle field. Tantia Tope too fell in the hands of the British and was hanged to death. Thus the brave Indian heroes-Mangal Pandey, Tantia Tope and Rani Laxmi Bai became martyrs of the first war of Independence, 1857.
