This was the midnight of 10 July 1806 at the fort of Vellore where the army of the English East India Company was residing and the family of Tipu Sultan was kept after he was killed in 1799. A European sentry called upon Corporal Piercy at half past two O’clock to report that a few shots had been fired at the 69th barracks. Before Piercy could take any action, a large number of Indian sepoys of the army attacked them and killed all Europeans there where he survived because they believed him to be dead.
The event was called “insurrection at Vellore” and in later literature, “Vellore Mutiny”. Out of 372 Englishmen stationed there at least 128 were killed and several others wounded before Colonel Gillespie arrived from Arcot and recaptured the fort by afternoon of 10 July. More than 500 Indians were slaughtered, an action justified by Colonel A. Keene. He said, “the action of Gillespie at Vellore teaches us also how to stamp out such mutiny when it is accompanied, as were both risings of the Indian soldiery, by cold-blooded, dastardly murder. His drastic measures that awful morning in July, 1806, were as necessary as was the blowing up of houses by dynamite the other day in San Francisco: in each case the end in view was to stop a general conflagration.”
What people miss is the point that almost half a century later sepoys of the English East India Company rose up in revolt at Meerut. The similarity does not end here. Vellore was not a singular event and similar mutinies happened in Hyderabad at the same time, though at a smaller scale. The later investigations found out that armies of Marathas, Nizams and others were also ready to join once Vellore was captured.
Like 1857, the sepoys were prepared for revolt by faqirs, sufis, sanyasis and sadhus. Perumal Chinnian writes, “the Southern conspiracy was supported by Fakirs and other religious mendicants. In fact the conspiracy was established in all the army stations by them.”
The last Mughal Emperor was proclaimed the leader in 1857 and played an important role in the planning. In 1806, Moizuddin, Mohiuddin (heir apparent of Tipu Sultan) and Fatah Haider (the eldest son of Tipu who had fought wars against the British as well), sons of Tipu Sultan were proclaimed leaders. The revolt was fought under the flag of Tipu Sultan.
At Vellore as well as in 1857, the immediate reason was tampering with Hindu and Muslim religious beliefs. Sepoys joined hands together against a foreign rule to save religion.
Colonel A. Keene writes, “In the mutinies of Vellore and the greater one of 1857, two points of similarity stand out prominently. In each is the unreasoning fear of an attack on the institutions of religion and of caste; for the greased cartridges in the latter mutiny had as much to do with the outbreak as had the new head-dress in 1806, and the presence of the remnants of the Moghul Dynasty at Delhi acted in 1857 precisely as had the presence of Tippu’s family at Vellore in 1806.”
In 1806, Sir J. F. Cradock, the Commander- in-Chief, ordered the Indian sepoys to wear a new kind of headgear, remove tilaks, beards, and other marks to denote castes. The Indian sepoys took offence and declared disobedience. At least 21 were tried, given punishment of lashes and paraded on roads. The punishment was handed out on 2 July 1806.
This was the much needed trigger for the Indian leadership. The wife of a serving English officer at Vellore wrote in a letter to her family, “Nine of the ringleaders, as they were called, were brought down to Madras and here passed publicly through the streets in irons, destined to receive the most dreadful military punishment…… The nine men in irons awaiting a most severe punishment, was made use of by the sons of Tippoo, who have been kept prisoners in the Palace at Vellore since the taking of Seringapatam, and served to ripen a design that had been long formed. A conspiracy was formed by the Sepoys to murder all the Europeans and take possession of that Fort.”
Indians led by fakirs and sanyasis were planning to regain the reverses suffered after the death of Tipu Sultan.
In one of my earlier articles I have argued, “Marathas led by Holkars planned a revolt from within the English East India Company Army. Holkars, Scindias, a brother of Nizam of Hyderabad and sons of Tipu Sultan plotted a mutiny of Indian sepoys in the English army after which armies of Holkars would come down at South India to kill English.
“Thousands of Fakirs were sent to Bangalore, Vellore, Bellary, Nandi Hills, Chennai and other English cantonment cities. They organised puppet shows near cantonments themed around the struggle of England and France where France emerged victorious. Fakirs also sang songs and told stories praising the valour of Tipu. A propaganda was also undertaken to convince Hindus and Muslims that the English were trying to convert them into Christianity. Muslim Fakirs were not alone, Saints of Lingayat caste also participated in this campaign.
“Abdullah Khan and Peerzada, both close associates of Tipu, were important leaders of Fakirs in Bangalore and Vellore. In Vellore, Rustam Ali was identified as one of the important men who incited the sepoys against the English. Nabi Shah, one of the spiritual guides of Tipu, organised Muharram where songs were sung in praise of Tipu and those helping the English were denounced. On 10 June 1806, sepoys at Vellore mutinied. It was premature and other centres did not rise up in revolt. Sons of Tipu were proclaimed the leaders of the revolt.
Shaikh Adam, a Fakir, distinguished himself as the leader of revolutionaries at Vellore. The revolutionaries killed several English but the mutiny was suppressed. Fakirs could not be caught and they kept planning uprisings at other cantonments. They started singing songs in praise of martyrs at Vellore. In August, September, October and November the fire had spread to places like Hyderabad, Chennai and Nandi Hills. Aleem Ali Shah and Noor Khalil Shah were leading Fakirs at Bellary.”
Charles Macfarlane noted, “It is also stated that placards were fixed up within the mosques and Hindu temples, where Europeans never entered, to excite a general spirit of revolt among the whole native population of Madras.”
Colonel Marriott testified, “The sepoys went away shortly afterwards, and were heard to call out “Come out, Nawab, come out, Nawab, there is no fear.” This was supposed to be addressed to Futteh Hyder, the eldest of the four Mysore Princes.”
The enquiry commission set up under Major General Pater said, “Accommodations were here provided for them nearly resembling a palace in magnificence, and an establishment allowed them on a very extensive scale of liberality. Their followers had emigrated in great numbers to Vellore, and husbands for the Princesses were allowed to come from different parts of the country. These persons naturally brought along with them their former attachments and prejudices, and the interests of Seringapatam were transplanted with its inhabitants to the Carnatic. Speaking the same language, and following the same religion, connections were easily formed, and amongst men who were not much occupied with engagements of trade or business, schemes of power and ambition would naturally occur to those who had been born to enjoy them…. That the late innovations as to the dress and appearance of the sepoys was the leading cause of the mutiny, and the other was the residence of the family of the late Tippoo Sultan at Vellore.”
The Commander-in-Chief believed that the dress was a mere pretext and the actual reason was Tipu Sultan’s family.
Keene wrote, “… sepoys called on the princes to place themselves at their head; Tippu’s own flag, green stripes on a red field, was nailed to the flagstaff. Prince Muizuddin ordered his horse to be saddled, and told off a party of sepoys to go and seize the principal hill fort ; when that was captured and the dead body of Colonel Marriott, paymaster of stipends, brought before him, he promised he would mount his horse and ride through the native town proclaiming the restoration of the Mahommedan power.”
The Court of Directors ruled in their findings, “…. the captive sons of the late Tippoo Sultan, with their adherents and abettors, took occasion, from the dissatisfaction of the sepoys, to instigate them to insurrection and revolt, with the view of effecting their own liberation, and the restoration of the Mahomedan power.”
Out of the retainers of the sons of Tipu, one was sentenced to death, two to transportation for life, one to imprisonment for life, one to imprisonment for ten years, and three were acquitted. The princes themselves were sent to Kolkata.
Colonel Harcourt reported, “… six of the convicted mutineers were blown away from guns, five were shot with musketry and eight were hung. The two men that were acquitted are released, and those sentenced to be discharged from the service, and to be transported, remain in confinement.”
For some reasons best known to historians Indians don’t know much about Vellore Mutiny and whatever we are told is never related to Tipu Sultan, Marthas, Fakirs, Sanyasis, Hindu Muslim Unity and 1857.
(The views expressed are personal)
