How the mutinies began

The mutiny did not erupt all at once. It began with a precise, pre-arranged signal — in many garrisons, the firing of the evening gun or the sounding of the bugle. This was the cue for sepoys to act in unison.

Once the signal was given, the sepoys moved with clear purpose. Their first targets were always the same: they seized the bell of arms (the storeroom where weapons were kept) and plundered the treasury. With arms and money secured, they then attacked all symbols of British authority — the jail, the treasury, the telegraph office, the record room, and British bungalows. Every record was burned. The aim was to destroy the entire apparatus of colonial control.

At this stage, the target was specific: everything and everybody connected with the white man. Proclamations in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian were put up in the cities, calling upon both Hindus and Muslims to unite, rise, and exterminate the firangis (foreigners). The term firangi — of Persian origin, possibly derived from 'Frank' (from which France gets its name) — was used in Urdu and Hindi, often in a derogatory sense, to designate the British.

When peasants and townspeople began joining the revolt, the targets of attack widened dramatically. In major towns like Lucknow, Kanpur, and Bareilly, money-lenders and the rich also became objects of rebel wrath. Peasants saw them not only as oppressors in their own right but also as allies of the British. In most places, their houses were looted and destroyed. The mutiny in the sepoy ranks had quickly become a full-fledged rebellion. There was now a general defiance of all kinds of authority and hierarchy — not just British rule, but the entire social order that supported it.

In the months of May and June 1857, the British had no answer to the actions of the rebels. Individual Britons could only try to save their own lives and the lives of their families. As one British officer noted, British rule "collapsed like a house made of cards."

Source 1: Ordinary life in extraordinary times

Reports from the Delhi Urdu Akhbar (14 June 1857) give us a vivid picture of how normal life broke down in the cities during the revolt:

• Vegetables like spinach, pumpkin, and brinjal disappeared from the bazaars. Potatoes and yam, when available at all, were stale and rotten — stored from before by farsighted vegetable growers. …