White mutiny

According to Indian historians, 1857 is known as the year of the first Indian Independence struggle. For Indians it was the first War of Independence, fought against the British to throw them out of India.

According to the British Archives :

The largest rebellion against British rule took place in 1857-58. It was known in Britain as the Indian Mutiny. This was because it began with a rebellion by Indian troops (sepoys) serving in the army of the British East India Company.

The 1857 war is extensively covered in the Indian school books. And every Indian knows it by heart.



Did you know that there is something similar to the "Indian Mutiny" ? It happened a full 25 years after the "Indian Mutiny" of 1857. It has been sighted as the most important event that triggered the Indian independence movement. It single handedly pushed the Indian social class of all colors to take a unified stand against British Rule.

In 1880, the British government appointed George Frederick Samuel Robinson, Earl de Grey and Marquess of Ripon, as Viceroy of British India. As soon as Viceroy Ripon arrived in India, and he set about initiating a major overhaul of the Indian covenanted civil service. During those years, even though Indians were very much part of the civil service, they were not permitted to conduct trials of white defendents in criminal cases. Ripon promptly set about drafting a legislation under which suitably qualified Indians would be allowed to try defendants regardless of the colour of their skin. The legislation was called the Ilbert bill, drafted by Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, Law member of the Viceroy's council.

Promptly, it kicked up a huge backlash.

The British in India would have nothing to do with anything like this.

The atmosphere became charged up with a volley of inflammatory speeches.

"Under these circumstances is it any wonder that we should protest - if we would say that these men are not fit to rule over us, that they cannot judge us, that we will not be judged by them ?"

"Truly and verily the jackass kicketh at the lion. Show him as you value your liberties, show him that the lion is not dead; he sleepeth, and in God's name, let him dread the awakening."

Viceroy Ripon's reasoning was straight-forward and simple. Was India to be ruled.."for the benefit of the Indian people of all races, classes and creeds or in the sole interest of a small body of Europeans ? "

His reasoning rang no bell nor did the protests die down.

Letters to the editors of leading dailies abounded.

Wrote one to the Englishman -

"One's wife may be walked off for an imaginery offence and...what would more please our fellow subjects - than to bully and disgrace a wretched European woman ?...The higher her husband's station and the greater respectability, the greater the delight of her torturer."

Wrote another to the Madras Mail -

"Are our wives to be torn from our homes on false pretenses to be tried by men who do not respect women, and do not understand us, and in many cases hate us ?...Fancy, I ask you Britishers, her being taken before half-clad native, to be tried and perhaps, convicted..."

Loved by Indians but hated by his own countrymen, the Viceroy finally caved in.

But the damage had already been done. The attitude of the English and the contempt with which the natives were treated by them was now in the open. The blunt and no holds barred backlash had brought in the open what until then was a delicately balanced relationship between the races.

This single act on the part of the British had done irrepairable damage to the foundations and future of the British Raj in India. From now on there was no turning back.

The Indian Mirror said -

"For the first time in modern history, Hindus, Mohammedans, Sikhs, Rajputs, Bengalis, Madrasis, Bombayites, Punjabis, and Purbiahs have united to join a constitutional combination. Whole races and classes, who never before took any interest in the affairs of their country, are taking it now with a zeal and earnestness which more than atone for their former apathy."

Unknowingly the British had lit the fire that caught on to the hearts and minds of the Indians to form the Indian National Consciousness.

Sicked with the backlash and its fallout, an Englishman with the Indian Civil Service, sought to defuse the native anger and discontent. Two years after this incident, he called a meeting of the natives so that it might help them to vent and channel their frustrations.

And thus, the Indian National Congress was born.

The first meeting was attended by stalwarts Motilal Nehru, Janakinath Bose, Dadabhai Naoroji, Ranade, Pherozeshah Mehta, K.T. Telang, Dinshaw Wacha among others in Bombay in the year 1885, the 28th of December.

Said Dadabhai Naoroji, Lahore, 1893 -

"... I am an Indian and owe duty to my work and all my countrymen. Whether I am a Hindu or a Mohammedan, a Parsi, a Christian, or of any other creed, I am above all an Indian. Our country is India and our nationality is Indian."

Allan Octavian Hume is the founder of Indian National Congress.