Before the Sepoys: Earlier Uprisings Against Colonial Rule

People's Resistance Against British Before 1857

The popular imagination places 1857 as the starting point of organised resistance to British rule. However, the decades between the Battle of Plassey (1757) and the Great Revolt represent a continuous, if fragmented, arc of Indian resistance. The East India Company's expansion was not a peaceful administrative exercise — it was accompanied by systematic disruption of existing economic structures, land systems, cultural hierarchies, and political sovereignties. The resistance to this disruption came from virtually every section of Indian society: peasants, artisans, tribal communities, deposed rulers, landlords, religious figures, and soldiers.

Bipan Chandra categorises this resistance into three broad forms: civil rebellions, tribal uprisings, and peasant movements. Military revolts (by Indians in Company service) are also included for a complete picture.

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Economic Causes

• Colonial land revenue settlements: Heavy taxation, rigid revenue collection, eviction of peasants, and encroachment on tribal lands.
• Destruction of handicraft industries: British manufactured goods flooded Indian markets; heavy export duties devastated Indian handloom and artisan industries, pushing workers onto an already pressured agricultural sector.
• Exploitative rural intermediaries: Growth of money-lenders, revenue farmers, and merchant-traders who worked as instruments of colonial extraction.

Political and Administrative Causes

• Rapid changes in economy and administration under Company rule displaced existing elites — zamindars, poligars, and chieftains lost authority and revenue rights.
• Company courts and laws protected government collaborators (landlords, merchants, money-lenders) rather than the common people.
• Deposed or reduced rulers, their retainers, and former bureaucratic elites had personal scores to settle.

Cultural and Religious Causes

• The priestly classes — Hindu pundits, Muslim maulvis — were economically dependent on the traditional landed elite. Their fall directly hurt religious establishments.
• The alien character of British rule and its contempt for native customs wounded collective pride.
• Restrictions on customary practices, especially in tribal regions, caused acute resentment.

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Civil uprisings were generally led by dispossessed native rulers, ex-zamindars, poligars, religious leaders, or their descendants. Mass support came from rack-rented peasants, unemployed artisans, and demobilised soldiers. These uprisings were backward-looking — seeking restoration of old orders — and were localised in both cause and consequence.

Key Uprisings (Chronological)

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Peasant uprisings were protests against evictions, rent increases, and moneylender exploitation. Unlike civil rebellions, these were led by the peasants themselves with local leaders.

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Wahabi Movement

• Founded by Syed Ahmed of Rai Bareilly, inspired by Abdul Wahab of Saudi Arabia and Shah Waliullah of Delhi.
• Sought to purify Islam from Western influence and restore pure Islamic practice.
• Organised with Khalifas (spiritual vice-regents); base at Sithana (north-western tribal belt); main Indian centre at Patna.
• Initially declared jihad against Sikh kingdom of Punjab; after 1849 annexation of Punjab, redirected against the British.
• Series of British military operations in 1860s and sedition trials weakened the movement; sporadic resistance continued into the 1880s–90s.

Kuka Movement

• Founded in 1840 by Bhagat Jawahar Mal (Sian Saheb) in western Punjab; major leader: Baba Ram Singh (founded Namdhari Sikh sect).
• After British annexation of Punjab, transformed from religious purification to political campaign.
• Tenets: abolish caste discrimination, ban meat/alcohol/drugs, allow inter-caste marriage, widow remarriage, women out of seclusion.
• Political: restore Sikh rule; advocate Swadeshi and non-cooperation (pre-dating these concepts in the national movement by decades).
• British crushed the movement between 1863–1872; Ram Singh deported to Rangoon in 1872.

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Tribal movements were the most frequent, militant, and violent of all resistance movements. They can be divided into mainland tribal revolts and north-eastern frontier tribal revolts.

Causes (Mainland Tribal Revolts)

• British land settlements destroyed joint ownership traditions and disrupted social fabric.
• Extension of settled agriculture displaced tribals from their lands; influx of non-tribals (dikus).
• Restrictions on shifting cultivation and forest use; establishment of reserved forests.
• Exploitation by police, traders, and money-lenders — all outsiders.
• Christian missionaries seen as representatives of alien rule.

Differences: North-Eastern Frontier vs Mainland Tribal Revolts

• Frontier tribes shared cultural links across international borders and sought political autonomy or independence rather than joining the nationalist mainstream.
• These were not forest-based or agrarian revolts — tribes were generally in control of their lands.
• Frontier revolts lasted longer than non-frontier movements.
• De-sanskritisation movements (e.g., Meiteis) also emerged in the north-east.

Important Mainland Tribal Movements

Characteristics Common to Tribal Uprisings

• Ethnic/tribal identity provided solidarity; violence directed at money-lenders and traders, not all outsiders.
• Led by messiah-like figures who promised an end to outsider exploitation.
• Doomed by outdated weapons vs modern British military technology.
• Common grievance: foreign-imposed laws destroying traditional socio-economic frameworks.

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• These uprisings demonstrate that resistance to British rule was continuous and widespread, not episodic.
• The Paika Rebellion (1817) secured large remissions of arrears, reduced assessments, and a new settlement — showing that persistent resistance could yield concessions.
• The Wahabi and Kuka movements prefigured later nationalist strategies of Swadeshi and non-cooperation.
• Peasant participation in 1857 was most active in western UP; after 1857, peasants were punished with additional cess in some regions while landed classes were rewarded — deepening agrarian inequality.
• Collectively, these uprisings fed into the reservoir of anti-British sentiment that culminated in 1857.

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• GS Paper I — Modern India/Nationalism: These uprisings are the pre-history of the national movement; they show that resistance to colonialism was not an elite-led urban phenomenon but a broad-based popular reaction.
• Colonialism and its discontents: The economic causes — deindustrialisation, land revenue, forest restrictions — directly link to UPSC themes of colonial economic exploitation.
• Social change and continuity: Civil uprisings were backward-looking (restoration of old order); peasant and tribal movements were forward-looking (occupancy rights, forest access) — a contrast relevant to questions on the nature of Indian resistance.
• Ideological precursors: The Kuka Movement's Swadeshi call and non-cooperation predate Gandhi by nearly 70 years — relevant to questions on the genealogy of nationalist ideas.
• Wahabi Movement ↔ Religious reform ↔ Anti-colonial resistance: Links to questions on the role of religion in Indian nationalism.
• Tribal movements ↔ Forest rights ↔ Modern tribal legislation (FRA 2006): Historical dispossession connects to contemporary policy debates.

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1. Sanyasi Revolt vs Fakir Rebellion: These are the SAME uprising — different names used for different communities involved. Majnum Shah was a Fakir leader; Bhawani Pathak and Debi Chaudhurani were Sanyasis.
2. Anandamath authorship: Based on Sanyasi Revolt, not the Wahabi movement or 1857. Written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
3. Kerala Simham: This refers to Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja — not a movement but a person. Do not confuse with Kottayam as a present-day district; here it refers to Cotiote in Malabar.
4. Paika Rebellion (1817) vs Palamau Uprising (1800): Different uprisings — Paikas were Odisha's traditional militia (Khurda), while Bhukhan Singh's Palamau revolt was by a Chero chief in Jharkhand.
5. Wahabi Movement — jihad target shifted: Initially declared against Sikh kingdom, not British. Became anti-British only after Punjab's annexation in 1849. A common trap question.
6. Kuka Movement founder: Founded by Bhagat Jawahar Mal (Sian Saheb) in 1840, NOT Baba Ram Singh. Ram Singh was the major subsequent leader. Questions often test this distinction.
7. Kundara Proclamation: Associated with Velu Thampi's revolt in Travancore (1808–09), not with Kattabomman or Pazhassi Raja.
8. Titu Mir vs Faraizis: Titu Mir led the Narkelberia/Wahabi-linked peasant uprising in West Bengal. The Faraizis were separately founded by Haji Shariat-Allah — different organisation, different region (Eastern Bengal), though both anti-zamindar and eventually anti-British.
9. Moplah Uprisings — two phases: 22 uprisings between 1836–54 (pre-1857); and a second major phase during the Non-Cooperation/Khilafat movement (1921). Do not conflate them.
10. Poligars: A South Indian term for holders of territory (palayam) under Nayaka rulers — not zamindars. Their revolt had TWO phases: 1795–1801 (Kattabomman + Oomathurai) and 1803–05 (North Arcot poligars over kaval fees).
11. : The term 'Chuar' is considered derogatory by some historians who prefer 'Revolt of the Jungle Mahal' — a point sometimes tested in Statement-based questions.

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• People's resistance = Civil rebellions + Tribal uprisings + Peasant movements + Military revolts (Bipan Chandra's framework)
• First armed peasant uprising against British = Narkelberia (Titu Mir), West Bengal
• Novel based on Sanyasi Revolt = Anandamath by Bankim Chandra
• Kattabomman hanged; fort of Panjalankurichi razed; name expunged from district records
• Kerala Simham = Pazhassi Raja; died 1805 at Mavila Todu
• Kundara Proclamation = Velu Thampi, Travancore, 1808
• Paika Rebellion 1817 = Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar, Khurda, Odisha
• Wahabi base = Sithana (NW tribal belt); Indian centre = Patna
• Kuka Movement = 1840, Bhagat Jawahar Mal; Baba Ram Singh; Namdhari Sikhs; Swadeshi/non-cooperation precursor
• Kol Mutiny 1831 = Buddho Bhagat, Chhotanagpur
• Ahom Revolt 1828 = Gomdhar Konwar; British broke promise to withdraw after Burma War
• Surat Salt Agitation 1844 = govt forced to roll back salt duty hike
• Poligars = South Indian palayam holders; 'kaval' = ancient Tamil hereditary village police institution