Uttar Pradesh in the Revolt of 1857: Meerut, Lucknow and Jhansi

How did the revolt begin and spread from Meerut?

Meerut had become a major British military centre. According to the Meerut district administration, aggrieved Indian soldiers of the British Army began their fight on 10 May 1857, captured control of the city in one day and marched to the Red Fort in Delhi, the symbol of control over the whole of India.

On the way the soldiers were joined by common people shouting patriotic war cries. By the next morning the Red Fort had fallen into the hands of the freedom fighters. The spark that began at Meerut then spread over the country and took the form of a nationalistic struggle for independence.

The official district account adds that it took the British one year to put down the struggle, and that the First War of Indian Independence which began at Meerut kept inspiring patriots and paved the way for the organised national movement of the later nineteenth century.

1. Soldiers revolt at Meerut ↓
2. City captured in one day ↓
3. March to Delhi ↓
4. Red Fort taken next morning ↓
5. Spread across the country ↓
6. Suppressed after about one year

What was the role of Awadh, Lucknow and Jhansi?

The Kingdom of Awadh was formally annexed by the East India Company in 1856. The Lucknow district administration records that the summary settlement made after annexation was later wiped out by the Great Rising of 1857, which also destroyed all critical records.

Lucknow had become the capital of Awadh when Nawab Asaf-ud-daulah moved the capital there in 1775. The Nawabs built palaces, gateways, mosques and imambaras, and the district page says more than a hundred monuments from the period of Asaf-ud-Daulah and Saadat Ali Khan stand in the city, most now under the conservation of the Archaeological Survey of India.

For an answer, link the annexation of 1856 to the scale of the rising in Awadh the next year: an annexed court, a changed settlement of land and a city that had been a cultural capital.

The Jhansi district administration records that Raja Gangadhar Rao married Mannikarnika in 1842 and that she was given the name Lakshmi Bai. She led forces against the British in 1857 and sacrificed her life to the cause of Indian independence in 1858.

After the revolt the British government gave the Jhansi fort and city to Jiyaji Rao Scindia in 1861, and Jhansi became part of the Gwalior state. In 1886 the British took Jhansi back from Gwalior. In independent India, Jhansi was included in Uttar Pradesh and is today a divisional headquarters covering Jhansi, Lalitpur and Jalaun districts.

Key facts at a glance

No budget, Census or survey figure applies to a historical topic, so the table below lists only dated facts from official district records, each with its source.

Answer examples for GS-V and other papers

• Spark of the revolt: soldiers at Meerut began the fight on 10 May 1857 and reached the Red Fort in Delhi, as the Meerut district record states.
• Spread to the people: common people joined the soldiers on the march, so the revolt was not only a soldiers' mutiny.
• Annexation as a cause: Awadh was annexed in 1856, and the settlement that followed was swept away by the rising of 1857, as the Lucknow district record states.
• Women's leadership: Lakshmi Bai led forces in 1857 and gave her life in 1858 according to the Jhansi district record.
• Long memory: the 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence was marked in 2007, showing how the state and the country remember it.