When Vellore made history
R. KRITHIKA
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Not many people know that 50 years before the first war of independence, Indian sepoys stationed at Vellore revolted against the British.
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In the early hours of July 10, 1806, Indian sepoys from three battalions and four companies attacked the European barracks stationed in the Vellore Fort.
PHOTO: S. S. KUMAR
IN 1806: A brief but brutal revolt.
The first instance of a rebellion against British rule was not the 1857 Revolt, as is commonly assumed. About 50 years earlier was a brief but brutal revolt in the South Indian town of Vellore.
In the early hours of July 10, 1806, Indian sepoys from three battalions of the 23rd Regiment and four companies of the 69th Foot attacked the European barracks stationed in the Vellore Fort. By the time the day was advanced, about 15 officers and 100 English soldiers had been killed.
Royal prisoners
The reasons for the revolt were similar to that of the one that was to come later — interference in the religious and cultural lives of the Indian soldiers.
There was also the added presence of Tipu Sultan's sons who were under "house arrest" at Vellore Fort after the death of the Tiger of Mysore. However, though the sepoys looked to them for leadership, the princes vacillated and hesitated. By then, the rebellion had lost its direction. Some soldiers began looting the houses of Europeans and that also failed to reinforce their position. The surviving members of the British gathered in the ramparts of the fort and held off the sepoys. An officer who was outside the fort when the uprising began went to Arcot, the nearest military station, for help. At Arcot, Sir Rollo Gillespie, who was in command of the 19th Light Dragoons, set off with a relief force of 20 men. At Vellore, he found about 60 men of the 69th still holding on the ramparts though they had run out of ammunition.
Since the gates were defended, Gillespie could not enter but he climbed the wall and led the survivors in a bayonet charge to gain time. When the rest of the dragoons arrived, the gates of the fort were blown in and the mutineers hunted down and killed.
The British paid little heed to the causes behind this rebellion. This cost them dear in 1859 when the same mistake of ignoring "native" sentiments saw practically the whole of North India go up in flames.
Insensitive measures
In November 1805, Sir John Cradick, commander in chief of the Madras Army, ordered that the round hat replace turbans as the head dress. He also ordered the removal of beards, caste markings and jewellery, thereby earning the wrath of the sepoys. Similar to the "greased Enfield cartridges of 1857" was the rumour in 1806 that the salt sold in public was mixed with pig's blood. Just as the last Mughal emperor, a pensioner of the British, was the rallying point for the soldiers in 1857 it was the sons of Tipu Sultan in 1806.
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