Lesson video

Hello, and welcome back to history, of the Oak National Academy.

My name is Mr. Arscott, and hopefully you recognise me, because it's our second lesson, looking at the British Empire in India.

And we're going to be returning, to our inquiry question, which is a bit of a mouthful, I'll have a go at saying it.

Why does it matter what we call the 1857 conflict in India? Now, last lesson would have looked a bit about, what the 1857 conflict was.

And instead, we're going to delve into the detail, and find out exactly what happened.

If today, you're going to need a piece of paper and a pen.

And I want you to get those things, clear any possible distractions, I'm about to pause the video while you're doing that.

And once you're ready, I want you to write down, today's title, the events of 1857.

Once you've done all of that we're ready to begin, and I'll get my head out the way.

Now we're going to start by doing, a quick true or false exercise.

So what I'm going to ask you to do, is on the margin of this paper write in the letters A to D.

And then next to the letters, I'm going to ask you, to write either true or false.

Now, in order to make your decision you're going to need to read, through the four sentences on the board, and then write it.

So I'm going to ask you to pause the video now, once you've read through them and write true or false, and unpause the video when you're done.

Welcome back.

Let's see what you got right.

So for A, well done if you wrote false, it's not true that the rule is Mughal Empire were Hindu.

In fact, the rule of the Mughal Empire were Muslims. B, well done if you put false it's not true, that the East India Company controlled India, before the Mughal Empire.

In fact, the East India Company controlled India, after the Mughal Empire, And for C, sepoys were Indian soldiers, who served in the East India Company army.

And for D, word and good if you wrote true, after the 1857 conflict, the British government took control of India, right.

Now before we get into looking at the events of 1857, which kind of briefly remind us, of our big picture timeline.

So in 1600, this company called the East India Company, was created, and it started trading, between Britain and India.

Now in the early stages, India was controlled, by an empire called the Mughal Empire.

Now during the 18th century, the company gradually took more, and more control of India, that included, starting to tax the people who lived in certain areas, and having its own army, which is made up of, British officers and Indian soldiers known as sepoys.

But in 1857, this conflict erupted, we're going to find out about that conflict day, and after the conflict, the British took direct control, of India and stops the company they wanted control India, And that period is when there is the rage.

Now, before we start looking at the events, of 1857 we're going to think briefly, about our inquiry question.

Why does it matter what we call the 1857 conflict? Well, there's two big ways that we're going to think about, what we call the 1857 conflict today.

I think you could call it The Sepoy Mutiny.

And that's what some people at the time called it.

You could potentially see it as The Indian Uprising.

And we're going to be considering, these two different names for it in today's lesson.

Now, what would these two names imply? Let's have a bit of a think about it.

Now, if we call it The Sepoy Mutiny, then what we're suggesting is that the conflict, was about the military and the army.

So it might have had a cause related to the army.

It's mainly going to affect the armed forces, and the rebellion isn't only going to be limited, it's going to be fairly small scale, and it's not going to involve the entire population.

If however, we call it The Indian Uprising, then we're implying that the conflict, might have had a cause that was bigger, than just the military.

We're going to be implying that it affected ordinary people, as well as the armed forces, and we're going to be implying, that it is more of a large scale rebellion.

Now, I want you to be thinking about this, as we're finding out about the story, and think which name is more appropriate.

And at the end of the lesson, you'll need a bit of writing, to think about which name you think is the most appropriate.

Now, before we do that, I want you to make sure, you got these key terms in your notes, because they can be really important as we go on.

So the definition for mutiny and uprising in here, I'm going to ask you to pause the video, watch it, copy them out now.

Okay, welcome back.

All right, let's find out about what actually happened.

Now, before 1857 concerns is thought to be raised, about how the East India Company was ruling, the parts of India it controlled.

Now, because the East India Company was actually controlling some parts of the land, instead of collecting taxes, from people that lived there, and use this taxes to pay for its army.

Now, as a result, people that lived in these areas, expected the East India Company to act like a government, that looked after its people.

But in 1770, the East India Company did something, which suggested that the company didn't care that much, about the people that lived in those areas.

In an area called Bengal in 1770, there was a famine, which killed a 1/3 of the people that live there.

A famine is a time when there are extreme food shortages.

And because the company did not do enough, to try to stop the famine or provide for them food, it seemed that the company didn't really care, about the people that lived there.

Now as we move into the 1800s, the company got criticised because it then started to get, too involved in how Indians, were living their lives.

Now, one particular area of concern was around religion.

And India had lots of ancient religions and people followed, lots of different religions.

So there are Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, all living in India, and previous governments of India, or previous governments of different parts, of India had respected the different religions, that people followed.

Now in the 1800s, the company was seemed, to be trying to push Christianity, by some Indians.

So it seemed to be trying to spread Christianity.

And some Indians became very concerned, that the company was trying to change, the ancient religions of India.

Now, a final area of concern came from a group of people, that you might have expected to support, the East India Company, And this is from the wealthy noble class of people.

So the people that traditionally would have ruled India, and worked with the East India Company, to control different areas.

Now, the woman you can see on the right, is called Lakshmibai.

And she's a really interesting case of someone, who benefited from East India, the company rule, she was able to rule alongside them, but also had concerns, about how they ruled.

Now, one particular concern was that the East India Company, refused to give her adopted son the right to inherit, the lands and the kingdom that she lived in.

And this is seen as the East India Company, interfering in traditional Indian ways of living.

So on the surface before 1857 there were all these concerns, about how the East India Company was ruling India.

Now, the sepoys also had concerns, about how the East India Company was ruling India, or at least some sepoys did.

Now, the sepoys were the well trained and well respected, Indian soldiers that fought for the East India Company army.

As we can see the numbers on the left, there is huge number of sepoys and without them, the East India Company would not have been able, to rule India.

So there are 40,000 British troops in India, but there are 230,000 sepoys who worked with them.

And normally the British troops were the officers, and the sepoys served under them.

Now, on the whole, the sepoys were very loyal, to the British troops, and they helped them to win the wars, and fight the battles which allowed, the East India Company to control India.

But some sepoys had concerns, about what the East India Company was doing in the 1850s.

And these concerns raised two issues, one was religion, and the other was the conditions, that the sepoys, were kept in.

Now, sepoys wanted to be well respected, and they therefore thought that the East India Company, should be paying them well, and ensuring, that they had their rights protected.

Now, some of these related to religion, and sepoys were very, very sensitive, about anything which might be affecting, their religious status.

Now, this photo can tell us quite a lot about, why the sepoys had concerns in the 1850s.

This is a photograph of an Enfield rifle, and in the 1850s, it's one of the most effective guns on the market.

And because it's actually good gun, the East India Company, wants to give it to the sepoy armies, so they could help them control India.

However, in 1857, when the guns were issued sepoy armies, rumours start to spread about them.

And one of the crucial rumours spread about the cartridges, that were necessary to load the rifles and the rumour said, that the cartridges were covered In animal fat, and the fat came from cows and pigs.

Now this matters a lot because it Hinduism, cows are seen as sacred animals by some people.

And in Islam, there are rules about eating pork.

So both Muslims and Hindus who served in sepoy armies, felt uncomfortable about biting into the cartridges, because they worried it might offend their religion, or their status within their religious communities.

Right, let's check we understand that, well, how do you go answering this question? Why did the new Enfield rifles cause concern, for some sepoys? Then ask you to pause the video, read through the four options, then unpause it when you've made your choice.

Welcome back.

Well done.

If you chose option four, rumours spread, that the cartridges contained cow and pig fat so Hindu, and Muslim soldiers did not want to bite them.

Those rumours led to the outbreak the conflict, in a town could Meerut.

And Meerut can be seen, in this pink bit, that I've highlighted in India, and you can see it's up there in the north.

Now, some of the other major areas, or some of the major cities in India include Delhi, which is the old capital city of the Mughal Empire, and some of the areas which had the most East India Company, control with Mumbai, Madras and Calcutta.

Now, what happened in Meerut was that a group of sepoys, refused to obey orders, because they did not want to bite, into the cartridges from the Enfield rifles.

Now, because they were refusing to obey orders, the officers in charge decides to arrest them, and 85 sepoys were arrested and taken, to the local jail in Meerut.

Now, the next day, there were then protests by local people, that lived in Meerut, 'cause they thought, this was an unfair way to treat the sepoys, who've been loyal servants of the East India Company army.

And some of the other sepoys thought this was too harsh, by the officers and so they decided to take part, in a rebellion and the ended up having a fight, with the officers, shooting many of them, and then breaking into the prison, to release the 85 sepoys who are arrested.

Now, what then ended up happening was that, there was a large scale fight between the British soldiers, and the sepoys, we can see a artist's impression of that, in this picture here.

And it ended up with the British, fort in Meerut being destroyed completely.

Now, having done this, the sepoys then thought, well what should we do next? And what happened was that the sepoys who rebelled, against the British and destroy the British fort, decided to march on Delhi, we can see that New Delhi, is relatively close to Meerut, so they marched south to Delhi.

Now, they did this because, Delhi was the ancient capital city, which contained the descendant of the last Mughal emperors.

They also did it because Delhi was relatively undefended, compared to other major cities in India at the time.

And they thought they might be able to use it as a place, to defend themselves against the British.

Now, once they got to Delhi, they found the descendant, of the Mughal emperors and they declared him, the new emperor of all of India.

And when that happened, the rebellion spread, to other parts of North and Central India, and other sepoys decided to participate, and other civilians so like non-soldiers, also decides to rise up against the authorities, in the East India Company.

Now, we can see another image illustrating this, on the screen now, and this shows sepoy soldiers, who were on horseback and they're charging at British troops who are on the ground.

You see we have a British soldier there and the sepoys, are killing those British troops and this is a picture, of an artist's impression, of something that happened in Delhi.

Now, as the rebellion spread, the British became very worried, that they would lose control.

And so British troops were sent to India, in order to help them fight.

But there are also lots and lots of loyal sepoy regiments, already based in India, as the British troops, and the loyal sepoy regiments decide to start marching, on the areas that the rebels had taken control of.

This painting on the right shows British women, saying goodbye to the soldiers as they went, and they looked so sad, and so shocked because the rumours that they were hearing, in Britain were of terrible atrocities being carried out.

Rumours were being spread of things like, the sepoys killing women and children, who lived in India.

While promising people safety, and then merging them straight afterwards.

So there was a concern that Britain might not be able, to take back control of India.

Now in order to take back control, the British, and the loyal sepoys used extreme violence.

And as we saw in the last lesson, the British did eventually take back control, but it did it by using extreme violence.

And methods of execution, which might terrify Indians, into not rebelling in the future.

Now, when the British took back the key cities like Delhi, they killed people indiscriminately.

What we mean by that is they didn't check, whether people were innocent or guilty first, they just executed people, to send the message that the British were back in control.

That's quite a complicated story so far, so I just wanted to make sure we've got it really clear, in our minds first of all.

So what I'm going to ask you to do, is use the four sentences on the right, and I want you to try to put them in the correct order.

So write them out in your note in the correct order, and then I want you to unpause the video, when you're done and we'll check if, you've got it in the correct order.

Welcome back.

Well, let's see if you managed to get it right.

So the first event was rumours spread, about the new Enfield rifles, then 85 sepoys, were arrested in Meerut.

Then having destroyed the fort in Meerut, the British fort, the rebel sepoys decide to take Delhi, and then eventually British troops and loyal sepoys, were able to crush the rebellion.

Now, that's a slight simplification, about everything that happened.

And what actually happened across the whole of India, was very different different regions, different, very different things happened.

This is, as I said, a complex conflict.

in different regions in India, different things happened, some regions of India stay completely peaceful, and supported the British, other regions, became very violent and rebelled against the British.

Now, we'll look more at this map which is in the right, in our next lesson to get a better idea of it.

It's important that you know at this point, that across India, different things happened, in different places.

Different religions acted in different ways.

so people that follow different religions acted in ways, and people of different wealth levels, acted in different ways too.

So the conflict is very complex, and complicated.

Now, in order to find out more about why the conflict, was so complicated, I'm going to return to Lakshmibai, who we met earlier.

Now, Lakshmibai was the queen of an area called Jhansi.

Now she'd ruled with the East India Company, before the conflict.

And when the conflict started, she wanted Jhansi, to remain loyal to Britain.

Now, earlier on in the conflict, rebel sepoys, approached Jhansi 'cause they knew, that British troops would be there.

And they demanded of Lakshmibai, that the British troops were passed over.

Now she resisted but eventually, the rebels managed to get a hold, of the British troops and they carried out a massacre, where the British troops were all killed, including women and children.

Now, after of this took place, Lakshmibai made sure, that Jhansi remains neutral, so she tried to avoid, troops from Jhansi fighting for either British, or the rebels, she wanted to get out of the conflict.

Now, oddly, when the British returned the area, in order to try to regain control, Lakshmibai, rather than submitting to the British, and saying she's loyal to Britain, declared that Jhansi was independent.

And she told the people of Jhansi to fight, against the British.

And the British then carried out a siege, where they tried to break into Jhansi.

Eventually they succeeded, but Lakshmibai escaped, and then she joined a rebel army, to fight against the British.

Now she eventually was killed in 1858.

Now that story quite nicely illustrates, quite how complicated conflict could be.

Sometimes people would be loyal to Britain at one point, and then end up as rebels at a later point.

Right, you're now in a really good position, to have a go at trying to answer, some comprehension questions.

So, I'm going to read this questions first, so they're as clear as possible.

And then what you're going to have to do, is pause the video, go to the next page, and then read through, the worksheet slides then have a go, answering comprehension questions.

Once you complete that, return to the video, and we'll go through the answers.

Firstly, I'll read through them.

What religion did many Indians fear the East India Company, was trying to spread? Two, why did some sepoys feel uncomfortable, about using the new Enfield rifles? Three, where did the rebel sepoys go, after destroying the British fort in Meerut? Four, how the British attempt to regain control, of northern India? And five, why is it difficult to describe Lakshmibai, of Jhansi as a rebel? Right, so I'm going to ask you now to pause the video, go to the next page, read through the worksheet slides, and answer the questions and return to the video, when you're done.

Remember if you can answer the questions in full sentences I mean, even better, so please pause the video now.

Welcome back.

Let's find out what the answers are.

So question one what religion did many Indians fear, the East India Company was trying to spread? An acceptable answer could be Christianity.

A good answer in a full sentence would be many Indians, feared the East India Company was trying, to convert people to Christianity.

Now any point you feel that your answer, isn't completely right, then look for common language, and if you're seeing roughly similar things, you probably are on the right lines.

If you got it wrong, just pause the video and copy out my good answer, then you've got some really nice solid notes.

Okay, question two.

Why did some sepoys feel uncomfortable, about using the new Enfield rifles? Acceptable answer, rumours spread about cow and pig fat.

A good answer, some sepoys felt uncomfortable, about using the new Enfield rifles because the cartridges, were rumoured to contain cow and pig fat.

As many Hindus feel uncomfortable about eating beef, and there are Islamic rules against eating pork, some sepoys did not want to bite into the cartridges.

Question three.

Where did the rebel sepoys go after destroying, the British fort in Meerut? Acceptable answer, Delhi.

A good answer in a full sentence, after destroying the British fort in Meerut, the rebel sepoys went to Delhi.

After capturing Delhi, sepoys other regiments, started to mutiny and the rebellion spread.

Question four.

How did the British attempt to regain control, of northern India? Acceptable answer, use extreme violence.

Good answer in full sentences, using British troops and loyal sepoys, the British regained control in northern India, in 1857 and 1858.

The British used extreme violence, and executions without trial.

They did this to scare people from rebelling in the future.

And question five, a challenge question.

Why is it difficult to describe Lakshmibai of Jhansi, as a rebel? An acceptable answer is, she supported the British at first.

A good answer in full sentences, in the early stage of the conflict, Lakshmibai supported the British.

She then tried to keep Jhansi out of the conflict.

Later on, Lakshmibai decided to declare that Jhansi, was independent from Britain, and should fight with the rebels.

Okay, well done having a go at those questions, and hopefully you've been able to add to your answers, as we've gone through this.

Now we're now going to continue to our extension activity.

In what ways could the 1857 conflict, be described as a mutiny? So if you remember, when we started this, and we thought about different names for the conflict, we talked about how it could be referred to as a mutiny, or as an Indian uprising.

Now if we're going to call it a sepoy mutiny, we're focusing on the military aspects, we're focusing on how soldiers refuse to obey the orders, of their officers.

If we're calling it an uprising, we're talking about it, being a more large scale rebellion, which involved ordinary people.

So what I'm going to ask you to do, is to read through the six bullet points below.

And I want you to try to sort them between, which ones would be good bullet points to include, the evidence of the mutiny, and which ones would be good bullet points, to create the evidence for uprising.

So you might want to do this in your notes, by copying them out into two columns, or you might want to cut them out, and put a code next to them.

So I'm going to ask you to pause the video, once to do that now, then unpause it when you're done.

Welcome back.

Now, you might come up with something a bit like this.

So the first one, worry that Hindu and Muslim beliefs, were being disrespected.

Now that could be used as evidence for an uprising, because it's suggesting that there's big religious, or cultural reasons for the 1857.

Now the next one, sepoys refused to follow orders, to bite cartridges.

Well that could be good evidence for being a mutiny, 'cause it's about soldiers refusing to follow orders.

The next one, sepoys released imprisoned, sepoys from a jail in Meerut.

That again, is good evidence for a mutiny, because it's about what the actions of soldiers.

Next one, a descendant of the Mughals, was declared the new emperor of India.

So that's good evidence for general uprising, because it's suggesting that this is part, of a bigger political battle.

The idea of removing the East India Company, and replacing them with the Mughals.

The next one, sepoys refused to fight against rebel sepoys.

Well that could be evidence from mutiny, because it again, it's focusing on the actions of soldiers.

And civilian leaders like Lakshmibai led rebels, that could be good evidence for a general uprising, because it shows it's going beyond the military.

So now we need to have a go try to answer this question.

In what ways could the 1857 conflict, be described as a mutiny? Remember, a mutiny is referring to time, which soldiers refused to follow orders.

Now, I put a couple sentence starters below, that you could use for the begins of paragraphs, you don't have to use them, but they could be useful.

On the right hand side, I've got some key words, which you probably want to try to include, in order to push your writing even further forward, and producing this brilliant.

So I can actually have a go doing that now, you might pause the video, while you're doing it, then unpause it when you're done.

Okay, brilliant work today, we've really developed, and thinking really delved into the events of 1857.

Now, if you've had a go at the activity, I'm going to ask you to take a photo of that, and share that with your class teacher, so they can give you some feedback.

Again, well done for your hard work today.

And the final task for you to do is to stop the video, then have a go at the end of lesson quiz.