5 C. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 (the "First War of Independence")

Causes (the four-fold list): political (Dalhousie's annexations, the Mughal's pension-threat — "the descendants of Bahadur Shah will not be kings"); economic (the land settlements' pressure, de-industrialisation's artisans, the drain); religious-social (the reforms' missionaries, the greasedcartridge rumour — cow and pig fat on the Enfield's paper cartridges: the spark for sepoy armies already uneasy — the General Service Enlistment Act's overseas-service outrage); military (the sepoy's grievances — pay, promotion, the high-caste soldier's status). The course (thenarrative's landmarks):Meerut (May 1857 — the 3rd Cavalry's refusal and the outbreak) → Delhi (Bahadur Shah II proclaimed — the last Mughal as reluctant figurehead; the city's four-month siege and fall) → Kanpur (Nana Saheb's massacre and retribution) → Lucknow (the residency's defence — the epic of both sides) → Jhansi (Rani Laxmibai — the warrior queen, dying in battle) → the Ganges plain's guerillas (Tantia Tope) → suppression by 1858 — the reprisals' cruelty (the blow-from-guns) remembered for generations. The consequences — the constitutionalsettlement (the law student's centrepiece): the Government of India Act 1858 — the Company abolished, the Crown's direct rule (the Secretary of State in London; the Viceroy in Calcutta); the Queen's Proclamation (1858 — religious tolerance pledged, princes' treaties honoured, the "equal and impartial" law promise — the Raj's Magna Carta in rhetoric); the army reorganised (the martial-races recruitment formula); the Mughal…