WAS THE INDIAN MUTINY CONSEQUENCE OF THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BRITISH INFORMATION SYSTEM?

Hint Ayaklanması İngiliz Sömürgecilik Tarihi’nde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Buisyanın birçok sebebleri vardır ancak orijinal tarihi kaynaklara dayalı olarakyapılan bu geniş çaplı araştırma isyanın asıl sebebinin İngiliz iletişim sistemininçöküşünden dolayı olduğunu göstermiştir. Bu araştırma aynı zamanda telegrafve tren hatlarının inşasının gecikmesi gibi isyanda rol oynayan diğer sebebleride değerlendirmiştir. Böylece İngiliz hükümeti Hindistan ve Büyük Britanyaarasındaki iletişim hattının yanısıra Hindistan içinde de kontrollü informasyonhattının öneminin farkına varmıştır. İki ülke arasındaki resmi iletişimdegöze çarpan bir ilerleme görülsede o dönemde kullanımda olan telegraf hattıyavaş ve güvenilmezdi. Otuz binin üzerinde Müslüman ve Hintlilerin de içindebulunduğu askerler hep birlikte İngiliz yönetimine karşı isyan ettiler. İsyanKuzey Hindistan’daki diğer bölgelere ve bu bölgelerde yaşayan prenses veköylüleri de içine alacak şekilde yayıldı. Eğer İngiliz yönetimi isyan öncesiyeterli ve düzenli bilgiye sahip olsaydı, isyan çıkmayabilirdi ki İmparatorluğunaskeri birliği bu tür isyanları önleyebilecek bir güce sahibti.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Hindistan İsyanı, İngiliz Yönetimi, İnformasyon Sistemi, Sömürgecilik

WAS THE INDIAN MUTINY CONSEQUENCE OF THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BRITISH INFORMATION SYSTEM?

The Indian Mutiny has an important place in British Colonial History. There were various causes of this rebellion but this research, which was based on the original historical documents, showed that the main reason was the breakdown of the British Information System. This study also considered other aspects which played role in the mutiny such as delay in construction of telegraphic system and railways. Thus, the British government realised that a controlled information line in Indian as well as between India and Great Britain was vital. There was some improvement in governmental communications between the two countries but existence of the electric telegraph line was still slow and unreliable. Over thirty thousand soldiers including Muslims and Hindus rebelled together against the British authority. It spread out to other regions in Northern India involving princes and peasants. If the British authorities had sufficient and accurate information before the revolt occurred, this would not happen as the Empire’s military power was strong enough to prevent such incident

Keywords:

Indian Mutiny, British Rule, Information System, Colonisation,

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The other main centres of the rebellion were Allahabad, Mainpuru, Fatehgarh,
Bareilly, Agra, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, and Delhi.
“A telegraphic despatch received at Bombay from Meerut states that the 3d Bengal
cavalry were in open Mutiny. Several officers and men had been killed and wounded” The
Times, 8 June Monday 1857, p.9.
First Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881), statesman and man of letters. see for
more information: STEPHEN, Leslie (Sir) and LEE, Sidney (Sir). (1917), The
Dictionary of National Biography, vol. V, Oxford University Press, p.1006.
The Time’s Correspondent shared also same idea as Disraeli. He said, “The
Mutiny is not instigated by any religious feeling. Every mutiny that has ever occurred in
India has been apparently created by one of two causes a reduction of pay or an outrage on
caste prejudice. The reason for that fact is simple enough. No other cause would ever induce
three Sepoys to act together. They have no patriotism, for during 600 years they have had
no country. They have no sense of a common interest in the common weal…” The Times,
June Monday 1857, p.12.
According to him there was lack of understanding between ruler and ruled
and the British had failed to use Hindu-Muslim differences to ensure the loyalty
of the army.
Evidence to this, Sir George Digby Barker saying in his letter: “You may as well
direct my letters to me at Benares to be forwarded, but at present all postal communication
is cut off beyond Allahabad. The telegraph has been cut by these murderous hounds and
made into slings to fire at us”, Barker, Sir George Digby (General), Letters from
Persia ~ India 1857-1858, (edited by Lady Barker), G. Bell and Sons ltd., London
, p.46.
JAMES, Lawrance. (1997), Raj The Making and Unmaking of British India, Little
Brown and Company (UK), London, p.5.
Bayly , C. A. (Christopher Alan). (1997), An Empire of Information : Political
Intelligence and Social Communication in North India, 1780-1880, Cambridge University
Press, p.46.
Ibid., p.366.
Ibid., p.369.
Ibid., p.369.
Ibid., p.165.
Ibid., p.165.
BAIRD, J. G. A. (1911), Private Letters of the Marques of Dalhousie, William
Blackwood and Sons, Edingurgh and London, p.119.
He said that “In November last we began to lay the electric telegraph. Five
days ago I received a message from Agra, 800 miles distant, transmitted in 1 hour
and 50 minutes! And I have a few minutes ago read the heads of intelligence of
your mail of 24th February by way of Bombay. In short time we shall complete
the line to Bombay, and thus in a few months we shall reduced the period of communication with England from thirty-five to twenty-six days….We have
already so improved communications that our last letter from Umerapoora was
only nineteen days old. BAIRD, J.G.A. (1911), Private Letters of the Marques of
Dalhousie, William Blackwood and Sons, Edingurgh and London, p.293. (Government
House, March 30th 1854)
Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates: 3rd series, vol. CXLIV, 3 February 1857-21
March 1857), 2366.
Ibid., 2427.
BEKTAS, Yakup (2000), “The Sultan’s Messenger: Cultural Constructions
of Ottoman Telegraphy, 1847-1880”, Technology and Culture 41.4, pp.669-696,
p.679.
Ibid., p.677.
In the present report, it is indeed hard to describe how useful the telegraph has
proved to the Punjab administration during the crisis of 1857!… It were superfluous to
mention the immense advantages which the Telegraph gave us over enemies. Suffice it to
note the instance at Lahore, when the Authorities were warned by the telegraph of the
Delhi disaster, disarmed the sepoys before they could obtain information by post. If there
had been a telegraph, an outbreak at Lahore might possibly not have been averted at that
moment. PRO 30/12/22, Supplement to the Overland Friend of India, General Report on
the Administration of the Punjab Territories, For the Years 1856-57 & 1857-58, Jan 22
, Section VI/Electric Telegraph/70, p.12.
HOSKINS, H.L. (1966), British Routes to India, London, p.91.
Barker, Sir George Digby (General). (1915), Letters from Persia ~ India
-1858, (edited by Lady Barker), G. Bell and Sons ltd., London, p.40.
TAYLOR, P.J.O. (1996), A Companion to the ‘Indian Mutiny’ of 1857, Oxford
University press, Oxford, p.91-92.
PRO 30/12/22, Supplement to the Overland Friend of India, General Report
on the Administration of the Punjab Territories, For the Years 1856-57 & 1857-58,
Jan 22 1859, Section IV/Railroads/61, p.11.
TAYLOR, P.J.O. (1996), A Companion to the ‘Indian Mutiny’ of 1857, Oxford
University press, Oxford, p.279, please also see for similar comment; MACMunn, Sir
George (Lieut-General). (1931), The Indian Mutiny in Perspective, London, p.22.
Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates: 3rd series, vol. CXLIV, 3 February 1857-21
March 1857), 934.
PRO 30/12/22, Supplement to the Overland Friend of India, General Report
on the Administration of the Punjab Territories, For the Years 1856-57 & 1857-58,
January 22, 1859, Section IV, Part I-Roads, 55, p.10.
TAYLOR, P.J.O. (1996), A Companion to the ‘Indian Mutiny’ of 1857, Oxford
University press, Oxford, p.91.
Bayly , C. A. (Christopher Alan). (1997), An Empire of Information: Political
Intelligence and Social Communication in North India, 1780-1880, Cambridge University
Press, p.372.
PRO 30/12/22, Extracts of a letter from the Secret Committee of the Court
of Directors of the East India Company to the Governor General of India in Council, dated 19th April 1858, relating to that “Proclamation” / 7th May 1858, p.4.
The Proclamations is addressed to the Chiefs and Inhabitants of Oudh.
The Delhi Gazette, Saturday, August 7, 1858, The founding; Ahmud Ally Khan’s
defence was a complete failure, he merely asserts that he has never been faithful to the
British Government, denies the correspondence with the king. See for more details about
the charges which were made against the Nawab, PRO 30/12/22.
PRO 30/29/23/10, Letter from Muttra, 9th June/320/321.
Bayly , C. A. (Christopher Alan). (1997), An Empire of Information: Political
Intelligence and Social Communication in North India, 1780-1880, Cambridge University
Press , 1997, p.336.
PRO 30/12/22, Her Majesty’s Proclamation Gazette, Governor-General’s
Camp Extraordinary, Published by authority, Allahabad, Monday, 1st November
, p.17. Under the heading of “The Right Honourable the Governor-General has
received the commands of Her Majesty the Queen to make known the following gracious
Proclamation of Her Majesty to the Princes, the Chiefs, and the People of India”.
TAYLOR, P.J.O. (1996), A Companion to the ‘Indian Mutiny’ of 1857, Oxford
University press, Oxford, p.91.
JAMES, Lawrence. (1997), Raj The Making and Unmaking of British India,
Little, Brown and Company (UK), London, p.240.
The Times, 15 June Monday 1857 (the Bengal Mutinies), p.12.
PALMER, J.A.B. (1966), The Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut in 1857, Cambridge
University press, p.26.
Ibid., p.129.
Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates: 3rd series, vol.CXLVI, 19th of June 1857 to
th of July 1857), 512-513.
Ibid., 512-513.
The Times, 10 June 1857, (Parliamentary Debates). The Earl of Ellenborough
“you must have looked with apprehension at similar appearances of mutiny in the Madras
and Bombay armies; but that which has most alarmed me, and which gives a more serious
character to all these appearances of insubordination is that which has only come to our
knowledge within the last few hours… I can not but think that there must have been some
strange misrepresentation and exaggeration in the accounts which we have received from
India… When the 19th Regiment was disbanded at Barrackpore there was a passage in
a long official paper emanating from the Governor General in Council, and read to the
soldiery, which was to the effect that no one could pretend that the Government had at
any time endeavoured to interfere with the religion of the people; but I can not find that
any notification has been made, as it should have been, at the quarters of every regiment
and throughout the country… I see no trace of there have been any general notification to
that effect. It has been left entirely to the officers at the different stations to make any such
notification as they should think fit under the circumstances… And what should the course
of the Governor General have been? Ought he not with his own hand in three sentences to
have communicated to the whole country… I am convinced that if the Governor General
had pursued that course we should have heard no more of the incendiary fires, nor of the
open mutiny at Meerut. But that course was not taken…”
Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates: 3rd series, vol. CXLVI, 19th of June 1857 to
th of July 1857), 512-513.
Ibid., 514.
Gower, Granville (2nd Earl Granville), 1815-1891, politician. He was born
to diplomacy (his father was British Ambassador in Paris in the 1830s). Look for
further information; GARDINER, Juliet (edit.). (2000), The History Today Who’s
Who in British History, London, p.363.
Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates: 3rd series, vol. CXLVI, 19th of June 1857
to 17th of July 1857), 520.
Sir Hugh Rose, He came from a line of politicians and diplomats, but was
commissioned into the 92nd Highlanders in 1821. On the outbreak of the Mutiny
he volunteered for service and was appointed to the Poona division. His campaign
had done was to destroy the organised rebel armies and to occupy their bases.
ROBSON, Brian (Edit.). (2000), Sir Hugh Rose and the Central India
Campaign, 1858, published by Alan Sutton for the Army Records Society, Stroud, p.20.
PRO 30/12/22, Letter / Calcutta, 22 September 1857, Mackey~Co.
PRO 30/12/22, The Indian Resolutions, Monday April 26 (The House of
Commons)-Resolutions to be proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on
the 30th of April, no: 11.
PRO 30/29/23/10, Granville Papers, p.609.
Bayly , C. A. (Christopher Alan). (1997), An Empire of Information: Political
Intelligence and Social Communication in North India, 1780-1880, Cambridge University
Press, p.97.