THE REVOLT IN HINDUSTAN

1857-59
 

CHAPTER I

THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLT, AND OF THE
OUTBREAK OF THE SIPAHI MUTINY

WHEN, in February 1856, the retiring Governor-
General, Lord Dalhousie, discussed Indian
affairs in Calcutta with his successor, Lord Canning,
the new Governor-General could not have foreseen,
and Lord Dalhousie, who lacked imagination, had no
apprehension, that within fifteen months our supremacy
over 150 millions of Natives would be endangered.
In his mind the only apparent possible source of future
trouble was in remote Persia; for the advice of Sir
John Low, a companion-in-arms of Sir John Malcolm,
and the one old soldier among the Calcutta councillors
who was conversant with Sipahi and Native life, had
been for years generally, though courteously, dis¬
regarded. This being so, no account had been taken
of the existing political disaffection in Bundelkhand,
Oudh, Rohilkhand, and the Narbada provinces, or of
the skill of astute Hindus in fomenting insubordination
in the army.