Vellore, not far from Chennai, is known today as an education hub which is dotted with technical and medical colleges. Thousands of students along with their parents descend on this town every year in the hope of improving their future in a country obsessed with formal degree education. We associate the place with institutions like the Christian Medical College & Hospital getting admission is much sought-after but difficult. However, very few know that Vellore has a history intimately connected to an event which is sometimes called the dress rehearsal of the Great Mutiny of 1857.
Sadly, the Vellore Mutiny is not remembered in Indian schools today. Growing up, no one taught me that it was one of the bloodiest affairs the Indian Army witnessed almost 50 years before the ghadar of 1857. The number of sepoys killed in this mutiny was around 350, of which 100 were summarily shot on commander Colonel Robert Rollo Gillespie’s orders.
The British lost 115 men, many of whom were surprised and overpowered in sleep during the early hours of July 10, 1806, by the mutineers of the three battalions of the Madras Native Infantry stationed in the fort.
It appears that the celebrations occasioned by the marriage of one of Tipu Sultan’s daughters gave cover to the preparations for the mutiny which was set in motion on July 9, 1806. Despite the loud rumblings of disaffection heard in some Madras Army Native Infantry Battalions since November 1805, the British were taken by complete surprise by the scale and violence of the incidents on July 10, 1806.
The residents of Vellore remember the mutiny with some pride. The town even has a memorial dedicated to the mutineers of 1806 – an Indian mutiny memorial of sorts.
On July 10, 1806, the Vellore Fort became the site of a violent uprising launched by the Indian troops of three Madras Army Native Infantry Battalions. The Vellore Mutiny claimed the lives of hundreds of British and Indian troops. The mutineers would have wiped out the entire British garrison if timely help had not arrived from Arcot to save the handful of troopers, who held out on a section of the ramparts, against the overwhelming odds.
The mutiny was put down, by a force commanded by the young and dashing Gillespie and his fast-moving gallopers, in a matter of hours. Numerous mutineers who were taken prisoners were then lined up against a wall and executed, while several were blown to smithereens by cannons to strike fear in the hearts of potential mutineers. Many were transported. The rebel units were disbanded and abolished.
This big mutiny was spurred by the reformist zeal of the Madras Army commander in chief who the passed the orders in 1805, forcing Hindu sepoys to give up their caste marks and trim their whiskers and, for Muslims to trim their beards. This ‘reformist’ interference in their religious observances was deeply resented by the sepoys.
In addition, new uniforms, including a much-disliked hat with a leather strap, were introduced to make the sepoys look smarter. Wearing the hat meant abandoning the turban, which was a source of pride for Indian troops. Such hats were worn by the British and Indian Christian converts in those days – the symbolic import of wearing them was not lost upon the caste-conscious and deeply religious Indian sepoys. Indians, in any case, disliked the idea of leather touching their skin, it was a religious taboo.
The troops of the Madras army had fought in the long and arduous campaigns against Tipu Sultan (1798-99) and the Marathas (1803-05) during which a host of service grievances had accumulated in the rank and file.
After Tipu’s defeat and death, the English unwittingly imprisoned some of his sons and relatives in the Vellore Fort under a strong English escort cum garrison. These prisoners became a catalyst in the mutiny. Therefore, upon commencing the violence on July 10, the mutineers hoisted the Mysore flag of Sultan Tipu on the fort expecting the mutiny to engulf more units of the Madras Army. The mutineers and their civilian supporters failed to inspire a larger revolt in the areas around Vellore. Despite enjoying overwhelming numerical superiority in the fort, they also failed to liquidate the British garrison.
It was clear that the descendants of Tipu Sultan were involved in the conspiracy which underlined this event. Consequently, they were shunted to Calcutta and served their time in ultimate obscurity after the mutiny.
The commander in chief of the Madras Army was held responsible for enforcing unpopular orders on the sepoys and was removed in disgrace. The dress regulations of 1805 had been withdrawn earlier after the protesting sepoys had been punished.
In the event, this punishment failed to pre-empt the mutiny.
However, the governor of Madras at the time was the great utilitarian reformer William Bentinck whose good connections ensured an appointment as the governor-general of India in future. So much for British standards of accountability!
It must be remembered that the Vellore mutiny occurred seven years before 1813- when the British missionaries gained legal access to India by The Charter Act of 1813, which sowed the seeds for the uprising of 1857.
In my view, Maya Gupta’s book on the Vellore Mutiny is the best text on the subject. It is written in simple language and based on meticulous research.
Given the religious, caste, service and political ramifications of the Vellore Mutiny – one must think carefully and decide whether it can be called a dress rehearsal for the cataclysmic 1857.
We must also consider whether the Vellore mutineers and the descendants of Tipu Sultan involved in the mutiny were freedom fighters.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, hundreds of acts of insubordination occurred in the three Presidency Armies of the English East India Company and on each occasion, the insurgents were awarded strict punishments, ranging from lashings, displacement to executions, and which became increasingly exemplary as time passed.
In those days, the official belief in deterrent punishment was strong although this belief was repeatedly undone by historical events.
After the Vellore Mutiny, service grievances began to balloon in the Bengal Army and this led to the non-violent Barrackpore Mutiny of 1824 which was once again put down with great, and possibly needless bloodshed, by the British.
Anirudh Deshpande, Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, Delhi University.