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The salary of the sepoys employed by the East India Company, while not substantially greater than that paid by the rulers of Indian states, was usually paid regularly. Advances could be given and family allotments from pay due were permitted when the troops served abroad. There was a commissariat and regular rations were provided. Weapons ...
It is the year 1857, and a large part of the Indian subcontinent is under the control of the British East India Company.On 7 April, in Barrackpore in West Bengal, Mangal Pandey (), a sepoy (soldier of Indian origin) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry of the company's army, is being led to his execution by hanging for fomenting a mutiny against company rule.
The desertions of Indian sepoys made the British defence of Fort William ineffective and it fell to the siege of Bengali forces on 20 June 1756. The British officers and merchants based in Kolkata were rounded up by the forces loyal to Siraj ud-Daulah and forced into a dungeon known as the "Black Hole".
Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, "blowing from a gun" was a method the British used to execute rebels [6] as well as for Indian sepoys who were found guilty of desertion. [7] Using the methods previously practised by the Mughals, the British began implementing blowing from guns in the latter half of the 18th century. [8]
Mangal Pandey (died 8 April 1857) was an Indian soldier who played a key role in the events that led to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which resulted in the dissolution of the East India Company and the beginning of the British Raj through the Government of India Act 1858.
The entrenchment was fortified, and the Indian sepoys were asked to collect their pay one by one, so as to avoid an armed mob. [4] The Indian soldiers considered the fortification, and the artillery being primed, as a threat. On the night of 2 June 1857, a British officer named Lieutenant Cox fired on his Indian guard while drunk.
At Meerut, a large military cantonment, 2,357 Indian sepoys and 2,038 British soldiers were stationed along with 12 British-manned guns. The station held one of the largest concentrations of British troops in India and this was later to be cited as evidence that the original rising was a spontaneous outbreak rather than a pre-planned plot.
These changes, intended to improve the "soldierly appearance" of the men, created strong resentment among the Indian soldiers. In May 1806 some sepoys who protested the new rules were sent to Fort Saint George (Madras then, now Chennai). Two of them – a Hindu and a Muslim – were given 90 lashes each and dismissed from the army.