'The First War of Independence' in India against the British East India Company

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On May 10, 1857 AD, a major uprising occurred in India against the British. Although there was growing resentment over the years against the high-handed policies of the British, including replacement of Persian with English in order to severe the cultural bonds with Iran and Afghanistan, the incident that acted as the spark was the report that rifle cartridges were greased with pig and cow fat – the former unlawful for the Muslims and the latter sacred to the Hindus.
This made the native soldiers, called Sepoys in English, which is a corruption of the Persian word 'Sepahi', revolt against their British officers at Meerut. The incident soon escalated into open rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh, and the Delhi region.
Other parts of British-controlled India, such as Bengal, the Bombay Presidency, and the Madras Presidency, remained largely calm. In Punjab, the Sikhs backed the British by providing soldiers against fellow Indians. The large semi-independent states of Hyderabad-Deccan, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir, as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana, did not join the uprising.
In some areas, such as Oudh, the uprising took on the attributes of a patriotic revolt against British presence, since a year earlier the Naishapouri Iranian-origin dynasty of Wajid Ali Shah had been removed from power. The uprising, which the British called 'Mutiny' and which modern India calls 'The First War of Independence', ended a year later in June 1858, as the British resorted with untold atrocities. The prime casualty were the Muslims of northern India, including the last titular Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the figurehead of the uprising, who was exiled to Burma, but not before the British shot three of his sons in front of him, and later sadistically presented their decapitated heads, placed in trays as Nowrouz gift, for the aging father.
With this, the more than three hundred-year-rule of the Timurid Dynasty ended, and India was directly placed under the British crown with Queen Victoria declared as Empress.