The 1857 Revolt is also referred to as the Sepoy Mutiny by the British. With reference to the role played by the soldiers, answer the following questions:

(i) The General Service Enlistment Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1856. According to this Act, Indian soldiers could be sent overseas on duty.

The soldiers were unhappy with it because, according to traditional belief, crossing the seas was a taboo, especially for a Brahmin. The Act did not take into account the religious sentiments of the Indian soldiers. The Brahmin soldiers saw in it a danger to their caste, and this led to a strong feeling of resentment among them.

(ii) In 1856, the British authorities decided to replace the old-fashioned musket, called the Brown Bess, with the new Enfield rifle. The loading process of the Enfield rifle involved bringing the cartridge to the mouth and biting off the top greased paper with the teeth.

In January 1857, a rumour spread in the Bengal regiments that the greased cartridge contained the fat of the cow and the pig. As the cow is sacred to the Hindus and the pig is a taboo for the Muslims, the sepoys were convinced that the introduction of the greased cartridges was a deliberate move to defile Hindu and Muslim religions. Both Hindu and Muslim soldiers refused to use these cartridges and staged an uprising when they were forced to use them. Thus, it became the immediate cause of the Revolt.

(iii) Four changes made in the Indian army after the Revolt were:

1. The strength of European troops in India was increased and the ratio of European to Indian troops was fixed at 1:2 in the Bengal army and 2:5 in the Madras and Bombay armies. The general principle adopted was that the number of Indian sepoys should not exceed twice that of the European troops.
2. European troops were kept in key geographical and military positions.
3. Sophisticated weapons and ammunition were never placed under the charge of Indians, and all Indian artillery units, with the exception of a few mountain units, were disbanded.
4. Newspapers, journals and nationalist publications were prevented from reaching the soldiers, so as to keep the Indian army separated from the life of the rest of the population.