Miscellaneous - Religion   

dated May 11, 1957: Centenary of 1857

India began celebrating on May 9 the centenary of the first armed uprising of 1857 against the expanding sway of the East India Company and the British over this country. On May 9, 1857, the court-martialling of 85 sepoys of a regiment at Meerut for refusing to touch, on religious grounds, the greased cartridges supplied to them and their sentence to ten years' RI touched off a revolt among the armed forces. On May 10, three regiments at Meerut revolted, freed the imprisoned sepoys and started a march to Delhi. The revolt soon assumed the proportions of a countrywide uprising and the British hold on the country tottered everywhere for over a year. It was on June 17, 1858 that Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi fell in the heroic defence of Gwalior, and Tantia Topi, commander of the revolutionary forces, fled. That broke the back of the revolt. It was, however, not before April 1859 that the last battle was fought, Tantia Topi was captured and hanged and the rebellion suppressed.

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