Salutations to the Great Revolutionary of 1857 Indian Freedom Struggle Mangal Pandey on his Birth Anniversary !
Mangal Pandey was an Indian soldier who played a key part in events immediately preceding the outbreak of the
Indian rebellion of 1857. He was a
sepoy (sipahi) in the 34th
Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment of the
British East India Company.
While contemporary British opinion considered him a traitor and
mutineer, Pandey is widely regarded as a hero in modern India. In 1984,
the
Indian government issued a postage stamp to commemorate him. His life and actions have also been portrayed in several cinematic productions.
Early life
The 1857 incident
Photo of the
Enfield Rifle, the pending adoption of which caused unrest in the Bengal Army in early 1857
At
Barrackpore on the afternoon of 29 March 1857, Lieutenant Baugh,
Adjutant
of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI), was informed that several men
of his regiment were in an excited state. Further, it was reported to
him that one of them, Mangal Pandey, was pacing in front of the
regiment's guard room by the parade ground, armed with a loaded
musket,
calling upon the men to rebel and threatening to shoot the first
European that he set eyes on. Baugh immediately buckled on his sword,
placed loaded pistols in his holsters, mounted his horse, and galloped
to the lines. Pandey took position behind the station gun, which was in
front of the quarter-guard of the 34th, took aim at Baugh and fired. He
missed Baugh, but the bullet struck his horse in the flank, and horse
and rider were brought down. Baugh quickly disentangled himself and,
seizing one of his pistols, advanced towards Pandey and fired. He
missed. Before Baugh could draw his sword, Pandey attacked him with a
talwar
(a heavy Indian sword) and closing with the adjutant, slashed Baugh on
the shoulder and neck and brought him to the ground. It was then that
another sepoy,
Shaikh Paltu, intervened and tried to restrain Pandey even as he tried to reload his musket.
English
Sergeant-Major Hewson, had arrived on the parade ground, summoned by a native officer, before Baugh. He had ordered
Jemadar Ishwari Prasad, the Indian officer in command of the quarter-guard, to arrest Pandey. To this, the
jemadar stated that his NCOs had gone for help and that he could not take Pandey by himself.
In response Hewson ordered Ishwari Prasad to fall in the guard with
loaded weapons. In the meantime, Baugh had arrived on the field shouting
'Where is he? Where is he?' Hewson in reply called out to Baugh, 'Ride
to the right, sir, for your life. The sepoy will fire at you!' At that point Pandey fired.
Hewson had charged towards Pandey as he was fighting with Lieutenant
Baugh. While confronting Pandey, Hewson was knocked to the ground from
behind by a blow from Pandey's musket. The sound of the firing had
brought other sepoys from the barracks; they remained mute spectators.
At this juncture, Shaikh Paltu, while trying to defend the two
Englishmen called upon the other sepoys to assist him. Assailed by other
sepoys, who threw stones and shoes at his back, he called on the guard
to help him hold Pandey, but they threatened to shoot him if he did not
let go of the mutineer.
Some of the sepoys of the quarter-guard then advanced and struck at
the two prostrate officers. They then threatened Shaikh Paltu and
ordered him to release Pandey, whom he had been vainly trying to hold
back. However, Paltu continued to hold Pandey until Baugh and the
sergeant-major were able to get up. Himself wounded by now, Paltu was
obliged to loosen his grip. He backed away in one direction and Baugh
and Hewson in another, while being struck with the butt ends of the
guards' muskets.
In the meantime, a report of the incident had been carried to the
commanding officer General Hearsey, who then galloped to the ground with
his two officer sons. Taking in the scene, he rode up to the guard,
drew his pistol and ordered them to do their duty by seizing Mangal
Pandey. The General threatened to shoot the first man who disobeyed. The
men of the quarter-guard fell in and followed Hearsey towards Pandey.
Pandey then put the muzzle of the musket to his chest and discharged it
by pressing the trigger with his foot. He collapsed bleeding, with his
regimental jacket on fire, but not mortally wounded.
Pandey recovered and was brought to trial less than a week later.
When asked whether he had been under the influence of any substances, he
stated steadfastly that he had mutinied on his own accord and that no
other person had played any part in encouraging him. He was sentenced to
death by hanging, along with
Jemadar Ishwari Prasad, after three Sikh members of the quarter-guard testified that the latter had ordered them not to arrest Pandey.
Mangal Pandey's execution was scheduled for 18 April, but was carried
out ten days before that date. Jemadar Ishwari Prasad was executed by
hanging on 21 April.
Aftermath
A portrait showing 1857 Sepoy Mutiny
The 34th B.N.I. Regiment was disbanded "with disgrace" on 6 May as a
collective punishment, after an investigation by the government, for
failing to perform their duty in restraining a mutinous soldier and
their officer. This came after a period of six weeks while petitions for
leniency were examined in Calcutta. Sepoy Shaikh Paltu was promoted to
havildar
(sergeant) for his behavior on 29 March but was murdered in an isolated
part of the Barrackpore cantonment shortly before the regiment was
disbanded.
The Indian historian
Surendra Nath Sen
notes that the 34th B.N.I. had a good recent record and that the Court
of Enquiry had not found any evidence of a connection with unrest at
Berhampur
involving the 19th B.N.I. four weeks before (see below). However,
Mangal Pandey's actions and the failure of the armed and on-duty sepoys
of the quarter-guard to take action convinced the British military
authorities that the whole regiment was unreliable. It appeared that
Pandey had acted without first taking other sepoys into his confidence
but that antipathy towards their British officers within the regiment
had led most of those present to act as spectators rather than obey
orders.
Motivation
The personal motivation behind Pandey's behaviour remains confused.
During the incident itself he shouted to other sepoys: "come out - the
Europeans are here"; "from biting these cartridges we shall become
infidels" and "you sent me out here, why don't you follow me". At his
court-martial he stated that he had been taking
bhang and opium, and was not conscious of his actions on 29 March.
There were a wide range of factors causing apprehension and mistrust
in the Bengal Army immediately prior to the Barrackpore event. Pandey's
reference to cartridges is usually attributed to a new type of
bullet cartridge used in the
Enfield P-53 rifle
which was to be introduced in the Bengal Army that year. The cartridge
was thought to be greased with animal fat, primarily from cows and pigs,
which could not be consumed by
Hindus and
Muslims
respectively (the former a holy animal of the Hindus and the latter
being abhorrent to Muslims). The cartridges had to be bitten at one end
before use. The Indian troops in some regiments were of the opinion that
this was an intentional act of the British, with the aim of defiling
their religions.
Commandant Wheeler of the 34th BNI was known as a zealous Christian
preacher. The wife of Captain William Halliday of the 56th BNI had the
Bible printed in
Urdu and
Devanagari
and distributed among the sepoys, thus raising suspicions amongst them
that the British were intent on converting them to Christianity.
The 19th and 34th Bengal Native Infantry were stationed at
Lucknow during the time of annexation of
Oudh
in 1856 because of alleged misgovernment by the Nawab. The annexation
had negative implications for sepoys in the Bengal Army (a significant
portion of whom came from that princely state). Before the annexation,
these sepoys had the right to petition the British Resident at Lucknow
for justice — a significant privilege in the context of native courts.
As a result of the East India Company's action they lost that special
status, since Oudah no longer existed as a nominally independent
political entity.
The 19th B.N.I. is important because it was the regiment charged with
testing the new cartridges on 26 February 1857. However, right up to
the mutiny the new rifles had not been issued to them, and the
cartridges in the magazine of the regiment were as free of grease as
they had been through the preceding half century. The paper used in
wrapping the cartridges was of a different colour, arousing suspicions.
The non-commissioned officers of the regiment refused to accept the
cartridges on 26 February. This information was conveyed to the
commanding officer, Colonel Mitchell; he took it upon himself to try to
convince the sepoys that the cartridges were no different from those
they had been accustomed to and that they need not bite it. He concluded
his exhortation with an appeal to the native officers to uphold the
honour of the regiment and a threat to
court-martial
such sepoys as refused to accept the cartridge. However, the next
morning the sepoys of the regiment seized their bell of arms (weapons
store). The subsequent conciliatory behaviour of Mitchell convinced the
sepoys to return to their barracks
,
A Court of Enquiry was ordered which, after an investigation lasting
nearly a month, recommended the disbanding of the regiment. The same was
carried out on 31 March. The 19th BNI were allowed to retain their
uniforms and were provided by the Government with allowances to return
to their homes.
Consequences
The attack by and punishment of Pandey is widely seen as the opening
scene of what came to be known as the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Knowledge of his action was widespread amongst his fellow sepoys and is
assumed to have been one of the factors leading to the general series of
mutinies that broke out during the following months. Mangal Pandey
would prove to be influential for later figures in the Indian
Nationalist Movement like V.D. Savarkar, who viewed his motive as one of
the earliest manifestations of Indian Nationalism. Modern Indian
nationalists portray Pandey as the mastermind behind a conspiracy to
revolt against the British, although a recently published analysis of
events immediately preceding the outbreak concludes that "there is
little historical evidence to back up any of these revisionist
interpretations".
Film, stage and literature
The life of Pandey was the subject of a stage play titled
The Roti Rebellion,
which was written and directed by Supriya Karunakaran. The play was
organized by Sparsh, a theatre group, and presented in June 2005 at The
Moving Theatre at Andhra Saraswat Parishad,
Hyderabad,
Andhra Pradesh.
Samad Iqbal, a fictional descendant of Mangal Pandey, is a central character in
Zadie Smith's debut novel
White Teeth. Pandey is an important influence on Samad's life and is repeatedly referenced and investigated by the novel's characters.
English language
In the English language, Pandey is best remembered for the word his surname and his actions helped coin: pandy
— a traitor, particularly a rebellious sepoy of the Mutiny of 1857.
Once a colloquial term widely used by English speakers in India, the
word is now obsolete.
Commemoration
The Mangal Pandey cenotaph on Surendranath Banerjee road at Barrackpore Cantonment,
West Bengal.
The Government of India commemorated Pandey by issuing a postage
stamp bearing his image on 5 October 1984. The stamp and the
accompanying first-day cover were designed by Delhi-based artist C. R.
Pakrashi.
A park is named
Shaheed
Mangal Pandey Maha Udyan to commemorate the place where Pandey attacked
British officers and was hanged, at Barrackpore road in Barrackpore
sub-divisional town in
North 24 Parganas district.
Sources From Wikipedia
