Hinduism: Details about 'Mangal Pandey'
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home
|
Mangal Pandey (d. 8 April 1857) also known as Shaheed Mangal Pandey (Shaheed means martyr in Arabic and Hindustani), was a sepoy (soldier) in the forces of the British East India Company. He is primarily known for attacking his British superior in an incident that sparked what is known to the British as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and to Indians as the First War of Indian Independence. Pandey was born in village Nagwa in district Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. He joined the British East India Company forces, and was part of 5th Company of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment.
IncidentAt Barrackpore (now Barrackpur), near Calcutta on March 29, 1857, Pandey attacked and injured his British sergeant on the parade ground, and wounded an adjutant with a sword after shooting at him, but instead hitting the adjutant's horse. When General John Hearsay ordered a jemadar to arrest him, the jemadar refused, as did the rest of the company. Mangal then turned the gun against himself, and used his foot to try to pull the trigger to shoot himself. He failed, was captured and along with the jemadar hanged on April 8. His execution was scheduled for April 18, but he was summarily executed 10 days prior to the date. The whole regiment was dismissed as a collective punishment, because it was felt that they would harbour feelings against their superiors after this incident. The other sepoys thought this was a harsh punishment. MotivationThe primary motivation behind Mangal's behaviour is attributed to a new type of bullet cartridge used in the Lee-Enfield P-53 rifle introduced in the Bengal Army that year. The cartridge was rumoured to be greased with animal fat (primarily pig and cow fat, which are not consumed by either Hindus or Muslims, the primary religions in the Bengal Army) . The cartidges had to be bitten to remove the cover, and that was abhorrent to the soldiers . The general feeling was that this was intentional on the part of the British, to defile their religions. Commandant Wheler of the 34th BNI was known as a zealous Christian preacher, and this may also have impacted the Company's behaviour. The wife of Captain William Halliday of 56th BNI had the Bible printed in Urdu and Nagri and distributed among the sepoys, thus convincing them that the British were intent on converting them to Christianity . Also, the 19th and 34th Bengal Native Infantry were stationed at Lucknow during the time of annexation of the Kingdom of Awadh (anglicised to Oudh) under the Doctrine of Lapse on February 7, 1856. The annexation of that kingdom had another implication for sepoys in the Bengal Army (a significant portion of whom came from that kingdom). Before the annexation these sepoys had the right to petition the British Resident at the Awadh in Lucknow for justice - a significant privilege in the context of native courts. As a result of the annexation they lost that right, since the kingdom no longer existed. Thus, it was quite natural that sepoys were affected by the general discontent which was aroused with the annexation. In February 1857, both these regiments were situated in Barrakpur. The 19th Regiment is important because it was the regiment charged with testing the new cartridges on February 26, 1857. The sepoys in that regiment refused, when ordered to fire . The Enfield Rifle & CartridgeThe P-53 was officially known as the Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket. Introduced in the British Army by the War Department during 1854 in the Crimean War, they proved very effective at a range of 50 to 300 yards. It was introduced in the Bengal Army by the East India Company in early-1857. The rifle used a Metford-Pritchitt cartridge that required the use of a heavy paper tube containing 2 1/2 drams (68 grains) of musket powder and a 530-grain, pure lead bullet. As the bullet incorporated no annular grease rings like the French and American minié ball bullets introduced in 1847, it was wrapped with a strip of greased paper to facilitate loading. The cartridge itself was covered with a thin mixture of beeswax and mutton tallow for waterproofing. To load his rifle, the sepoy had to first bite off the rear of the cartridge to pour the powder down the barrel. He then inverted the tube (the projectile was placed in the cartridge base up), pushed the end-portion into the muzzle to the approximate depth of the bullet and tore off the remaining paper. The bullet could then be easily rammed on top of the charge. The Commander-in-Chief, General George Anson reacted to this crisis by saying, "I'll never give in to their beastly prejudices," and despite the pleas of his junior officers, he did not compromise. The British did attempt later to reduce the discontent by allowing the sepoys to use their own grease made of ghee (clarified butter), but the suspicion had set in. ConsequencesThe attack by, and punishment of, Pandey is widely seen as the triggering event of what is known as the 'First War of Independence'. A Different ViewIn a book titled Mangal Pandey: Brave Martyr or Accidental Hero?, Rudrangshu Mukherjee analyses whether Pandey was a "brave martyr" as considered by many, or an ordinary soldier who attacked his officer under intoxication. Though this version provides an interesting aspect to the legend of Mangal Pandey, it must be noted that this book relies heavily on the British records of the 1857 Rebellion. The British underplayed the event as just a sepoy mutiny and did not attach any importance to Mangal Pandey. This was perhaps in order to assuage the nationalist feeling that was gaining ground among general populace during that time. It is therefore understandable that the records written by the British describing the event and Mangal Pandey conformed to their viewpoint. In the novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Mangal Pandey is the great grandfather of the fictional character Samad. MovieA film based on his life and times titled Mangal Pandey: The Rising starring Indian actor, Aamir Khan with Toby Stephens, Rani Mukerji and Amisha Patel, produced by Bobby Bedi and directed by Ketan Mehta was released in August 2005. This was India's most Grand and epic movie to date, and had a historic opening week at the box office. At the time of release, it created controversy for apparently misrepresenting the character of Mangal Pandey, which led to small scale rioting in the rural hinterland of Northern India. This however was not true, and the Director of the movie submitted evidence to the Delhi High Court on the matter. References
Additional readings
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||