By 1856, sepoys outnumbered European troops in the EIC at a ratio of 10 to 1. 12 Soon, the sepoys outnumbered the British soldiers in India – a pattern that continued until India’s independence in 1947. The British army was made up of three territorial divisions, and based in Madras, Bombay and Bengal. Subsequently, the British also established sepoy regiments in Madras and Bombay. 10 The British believed that these men made better soldiers because of their taller stature. 9 Till 1858, the recruits in the Bengal Native Infantry were primarily from Bengal, Punjab and other northwestern regions in India.
8 The first sepoy regiment, the Bengal Native Infantry, was formed in 1757. 7Īfter this defeat, the British adopted the French model by raising their own sepoy companies and grouping them into battalions that were based in Bengal and Madras. 6 These sepoys, led by the French, defeated the untrained Indian soldiers in the British army and briefly captured Madras. The first battalion of sepoys was formed by the French in 1744. However, these Indian troops were not trained and were treated as irregular auxiliaries. The British East India Company (EIC) recruited Indians into their army for the first time in 1677. The units were called “native sepoys” up till 1885, after which the term "native" was dropped. The sepoys were trained and armed in the European manner, and were organised into battalions led by European officers. Sepoys were Indian soldiers recruited from the native population of India by the European colonial powers. 3 Apart from defending the island, the sepoys also helped to clear land for settlements and building batteries for defence. 2 They were one of the first Indians to arrive in the newly established trading port of Singapore. Sepoys played an important role in helping to maintain law and order in the new British settlements. The term “sepoy” is derived from the Persian word sipahi, which had been translated into the Urdu and Hindi languages as a generic term for soldier. Economic and Political Weekly, 42, 1734–1738.Sepoys were Indian soldiers employed within European military garrisons to provide the much-needed manpower for the defence of European colonies in Asia. Reactivating the past: Dalits and memories of 1857. The peasant armed: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 (C. Re-assessing writings on the Rebellion: Savarkar to Surendranath Sen. The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India: Exploring transgressions, contests and diversities. Spectre of violence: The 1857 Kanpur Massacres. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, Special South Asian Edition. 1857 or, can the Indian “mutiny” be fixed? Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Religious rhetoric in the Delhi uprising of 1857. Economic and Political Weekly, 42, 1692–1695.ĭalrymple, W. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Ĭhakrabarty, D. Modern South Asia: History, culture, political economy. New Delhi: Orient Longman.īose, S., & Jalal, A. Bates (Eds.), Mutiny at the margins: New perspectives on the Indian uprising of 1857, Vol. Sir George Grey and the 1857 Indian Rebellion: The unmaking and making of an imperial career. From Plassey to partition: A history of modern India.
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