The Vellore Mutiny on 10 July 1806 was the first instance of a large-scale and violent mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company, predating the Indian Rebellion of 1857 by half a century. The revolt, which took place in the South Indian town of Vellore, was rather brief, lasting only one full day but brutal, as mutineers broke into the Vellore fort and killed or injured 200 British troops, before they were subdued by reinforcements from nearby Arcot.
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The reasons for the mutiny revolved mainly around resentment against changes in the sepoy dress code in November 1805. Hindus were prohibited from wearing religious marks on their foreheads and Muslims were required to shave their beard and trim their moustache. In addition General Sir John Craddock, Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army ordered the wearing of a round hat (resembling that associated with both Europeans and Indian Christians) with a leather cockade in place of the existing turban, a measure which offended both Hindu and Muslim sepoys and went contrary to an earlier warning by a Military Board that sepoy uniform changes should be "given every consideration which a subject of that delicate and important nature required".[1]
These apparently minor changes, intended to improve the "soldierly appearance" of the men, created strong resentment among the soldiers. In May 1806, some soldiers who protested the new rules were sent to Fort St. George (Madras then, now Chennai). Two soldiers — a Hindu and a Muslim — were given 90 lashes each and their services terminated. Nineteen soldiers were punished with 50 lashes each and forced to seek pardon from the East India Company.[2][3]
In addition to the military grievances listed above, the rebellion was also instigated by the sons of the defeated Tipu Sultan, confined at Vellore since 1799. Tipu's wives and sons, together with numerous retainers, were pensioners of the East India Company and lived in a palace within the large complex comprising the Vellore Fort. One of Tipu Sultan's daughters was to be married on 9 July 1806, and the plotters of the uprising gathered at the fort under the pretext of attending the wedding. The objectives of the civilian conspirators remain obscure but by seizing and holding the fort they may have hoped to encourage a general rising through the territory of the former Mysore Sultanate[4]
The garrison of the Vellore Fort in July 1806 comprised four companies of British infantry from H.M. 69th Regiment and three battalions of Madras infantry
Two hours after midnight, on 10 July, the sepoys in the fort shot down the European sentries and killed fourteen of their own officers and 115 men of the 69th Regiment, most of the latter as they slept in their barracks. The rebels seized control by dawn, and raised the flag of the Mysore Sultanate over the fort. Tipu's second son Fateh Hyder was declared King.
However a British officer escaped and alerted the garrison in Arcot. Nine hours after the outbreak of the mutiny a relief force comprising the British 19th Light Dragoons, galloper guns and a squadron of Madras cavalry, rode from Arcot to Vellore, covering sixteen miles in about two hours. It was led by Sir Rollo Gillespie - one of the most capable and energetic officers in India at that time - who reportedly left Arcot within a quarter of an hour of the alarm being raised. Gillespie dashed ahead of the main force with a single troop of about twenty men.[5]
Arriving at Vellore Gillespie found the surviving Europeans, about sixty men of the 69th, commanded by NCOs and two assistant surgeons, still clinging to the ramparts but out of ammunition. Unable to gain entry through the defended gate, Gillespie climbed the wall with the aid of a rope and a sergeant's sash which was lowered to him; and to gain time led the 69th in a bayonet-charge along the ramparts. When the rest of the 19th arrived, Gillespie had them blow in the gates with their galloper guns, and made a second charge with the 69th to clear a space inside the gate to permit the cavalry to deploy. The 19th and the Madras Cavalry then charged and slaughtered any sepoy who stood in their way. About 100 sepoys who had sought refuge in the palace were brought out, and by Gillespie's order, placed against a wall and shot dead. John Blakiston, the engineer who had blown in the gates, recalled: "Even this appalling sight I could look upon, I may almost say, with composure. It was an act of summary justice, and in every respect a most proper one; yet, at this distance of time, I find it a difficult matter to approve the deed, or to account for the feeling under which I then viewed it.".[6]
The harsh retribution meted out to the sepoys snuffed out the unrest at a stroke and provided the history of the British in India with one of its true epics; for as Gillespie admitted, with a delay of even five minutes, all would have been lost. In all nearly 350 of the rebels were killed, and another 350 injured before the fighting had stopped. Some accounts have it that 800 rebels died.
After formal trial six mutineers were blown away from guns, five shot by firing squad, eight hanged and five transported. The three Madras battalions involved in the mutiny (the 1st/1st Madras Native Infantry, the 2nd/1st MNI and the 2nd/23rd MNI) were all disbanded. The senior British officers responsible for the offensive dress regulations were recalled to England and the orders themselves cancelled.
After the incident the incarcerated royals were transferred to Calcutta. The Governor of Madras, William Bentinck, was recalled, and the controversial interference with social and religious customs of the sepoys was abolished, as was flogging. [7][8]
There are some parallels between the Vellore Mutiny and that of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, although the latter was on a much larger scale. The events of 1857 (which involved the Bengal Army and did not affect the Madras Army) caused the British crown to take over Company lands in India with the Government of India Act 1858 which saw the total dissolution of the East India Company.
