Not much is known about the Vellore uprisings against the British which took place in 1806. Other than British records which present the colonial perspective of the uprising, there are few reliable local records of this important milestone in the struggle of our people against colonial rule. Amaresh Mishra’s magnum opus, “War of Civilisations: India AD 1857, The Long Revolution” gives a well-researched rendering of the events that swiftly followed one another in the grim days of 1806.
Not much is known about the Vellore uprisings against the British which took place in 1806. Other than British records which present the colonial perspective of the uprising, there are few reliable local records of this important milestone in the struggle of our people against colonial rule. Amaresh Mishra’s magnum opus, “War of Civilisations: India AD 1857, The Long Revolution” gives a well-researched rendering of the events that swiftly followed one another in the grim days of 1806.
The Vellore fort: The revolt of 1806 is now thought to have anticipated the 1857 uprising.
Looting was an organized activity among the East India Company officers. Lord Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, was in the Seringapatnam battle where Tipu Sultan was defeated. In keeping with the times, he laid down the share of every officer and sepoy from the loot that was organized after Tipu was killed. The defeat of Hyder Ali and the death of Tipu, accompanied by the most widespread looting of Seringapatnam, rankled Indians at all levels. After Tipu Sultan was killed, his two sons were held in British custody in Vellore Fort.
Contrary to British propaganda, during the Anglo-Mysore wars, Hindu Madras army sepoys were not willing East India Company employees. They sympathized actively with Tipu. Things came to a head when in June 1806, Hindu and Muslim grievances coalesced. In 1806, the British administration decreed that soldiers can no longer wear caste marks, and would have to wear headdress like the British. Muslims were also required to shave their beard and trim their mustache.
In this way, right in 1806, the British adopted 1857-style defiling of the religious. This led the sons of Tipu, who were prisoners in their own palace at Vellore, to raise a revolt. There were other reasons also for the resentment. Changes in pay and refusal of permission to keep families, the use of soldiers for menial duties, were among them.
Acting cautiously, the Commander-in-Chief, Sir John Craddock, advised Bentick, Governor of Madras, to cancel the offending orders. But the latter refused. The troops, seething under the orders perceived as unjust and affecting their religious practices, and angry at inconsiderate officers, decided to march to Vellore and free Tipu Sultan’s sons.
Three companies of the 1st, 2nd and 23rd Madras Army Infantry garrisoned the Vellore fort which boasted a long and pro-Hyder Ali history. The Fort is believed to have been built around the 17th century.
In 1806, four companies of the 69th Foot, the Vellore based European regiment, ensured that English soldiers outnumbered Indians. Tipu Sultan’s sons and revolutionaries, probably initial Walliullahites, planned their move deftly. One of Tipu Sultan’s daughters was to be married on July 9 1806. The plotters of the uprising gathered at the Fort under the pretext of attending the wedding. Two hours after midnight, on July 10, the sepoys surrounded the Fort and killed most of the British. 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.
But, by defying to pillage the Fort, they allowed the surviving British to congregate on the ramparts. An officer who was outside the Fort when the rising began, went to the nearest military post, Arcot, the station of the 19th Light Dragoons and some Madras Native Cavalry.
The timing was crucial. Madras men did not expect a swift British response. Yet, with amazing courage they fought on. The initial attempts of the British were repulsed. But when the rest of the 19th Cavalry arrived, the British troops blew open the gates of the Fort with their galloper guns. They then charged and slaughtered any sepoy who stood in their way. No mercy was shown. About 100 sepoys who had sought refuge in the palace were dragged out, placed against a wall and blasted with canister shot until all were dead. John Blakiston, the engineer who had blown in the gates, recalled that although such punishment was revolting to all civilized beliefs, “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”. Such was the nature of combat in India where the “civilized” conventions of European warfare did not apply! This snuffed out the unrest at a stroke.
Nearly 350 Madras Army soldiers were killed and shot. Many were court-martialled and sent to life imprisonment. Summary punishment of blowing up nearly a hundred soldiers by tying them to guns had a devastating impact in the Madras Army. On the other hand, Governor Bentick was recalled. New rules prohibiting tampering with soldiers’ religious and social customs were issued. The flogging of soldiers, which was common, was abolished.
Learning from the experience, the British started their infamous social engineering. They organized the army on caste and religious lines. They discouraged the Hindu middle castes from enlisting in the army. By 1857, the Madras army was not what it was during the Vellore uprising.