E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesa British source, the deaths from famine in India between 1800 and 1825 wereone million; between 1825 and 1850, four hundred thousand; between 1850 and1875, five million; and between 1875 and 1900, fifteen million.Engineered by wit and violence, England's annexations in India in the latter partof the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth left manydisgruntled and dispossessed native rulers. British attempts to introduce lawand order and an equitable system of taxation further irritated Enumerablepersons nursing innumerable wounds. Widespread economic stringencyintensified the general unrest. Only a spark was needed to produce a flame.India had not yet become totally docile, nor had the British learned thetechnique, which they subsequently mastered, of firm yet smooth and barelyvisible administration.It was 1857, and a Hindu prophecy declared that on the centenary of the Battleof Plassey in 1757 British rule would perish. A war, officially called the Mutinyor the Sepoy Mutiny, broke out. The immediate impetus was the distributionamong Indian troops of British-made cartridges, greased with cow or pig fat,which had to be bitten off before being loaded into rifles. Since a Hindu mustnot touch cow fat and a Moslem must not touch pork the provocation wasperfect and Indian army units rebelled. But the British authorities admittedthat the Bengal Indian force was 'a brotherhood' closely identified with thehungry villages, and the same bond connected all sepoys in British uniform withthe ragged, hungry peasants.Numerous regiments rose; one seized Delhi. Moslems took the lead, but allcommunities assiduously annulled innovations introduced by the British. Railand telegraph lines were cut. Both sides committed numerous murders. Indiansoldiers killed their British officers, and at Banaras, 'rebels, suspects and evendisorderly boys,' says The Cambridge History of India, 'were executed byinfuriated officers and unofficial British residents who volunteered to serve ashangmen'. Much blood also flowed in pitched battles and sieges.The mutiny was unplanned, uncoordinated, leaderless and hopeless. Inevitably,after many months, the British, aided by loyal Indians, suppressed it. With thewww.mkgandhi.org Page 189