Mangal Pandey - Biography

INTRODUCTION

Mangal Pandey was an Indian soldier serving under British orders in The East India Company’s 34^th Bengal Native Infantry regiment. He is known for inspiring the Indian mutiny, an immediately preceding event of the Indian rebellion of 1857. He was known to be very ambitious and joined the British army as a stepping stone to better things. He worked as a sepoy for eight years until 1857.

Early Life

Mangal Pandey was born into a high-caste Brahman family that believed in strong Hindu culture and was landowning. He was born on July 19, 1827, in Nagwa, Ballia district of present-day Uttar Pradesh, earlier Ceded and Conquered Provinces of the East India Company. Pandey joined the British East India Company army in 1849, whereas some records suggest that he was recruited by a brigade that happened to march past him when he was in Akbarpur. He was commissioned as a soldier in the sixth company of the thirty-fourth Bengal Native Infantry, a Brahmin majority infantry.

Mangal had two sisters who died in the famine of 1830, and his father, Divakar Pandey, was a peasant. He was progressive by nature and had a social mind; he completed his primary and secondary education and joined the army. Later, he was filled with disenchantment with the army, which changed his life. He joined the army at the young age of twenty-two, and his selection as sepoy stands many confrontations in terms of facts. Some sources cite it as a random one, and others otherwise.

Life in Army

Pandey, an ambitious man, joined the army and saw it as a stepping stone toward his bright future. He joined the British army in 1849 and served as a sincere soldier but later developed dissatisfaction over the functionality of the government then. The beginning of the discontent was the introduction of the new Enfield rifle, in the rifle for loading it the soldiers were supposed to bite off the ends of the lubricated cartridges, therein it was communicated that the grease used for lubrication of cartridges, cow’s and pig’s lard was taken in use which was notorious and against the beliefs of both Hindus and Muslims. Although it was never proven whether or not the grease contained any of this material, this led to the highest degree of dissatisfaction and a super reason for the mutiny; moreover, the perception about cartridges was harmful added to this malcontent. What more was that the British did not pay enough attention to this issue which made it more favorable to the cause of the mutiny.

Many reasons were getting bold enough to become a potential fire to furry; the British policies were far more oppressive and proved to be an injustice to Indians. The introduction of the doctrine of lapse, designed by Lord Dalhousie in the 1840s, was a law prohibiting the Hindu-ruled states from continuing their legacy without a natural heir; this was an attempt to bring princely states under British control. The increasing pace of westernization in Indian states under the company’s rule confronted old Indian civilization aristocracy. Missionaries started challenging the religious beliefs of the natives for their conduct and attempting to replace them. The humanitarian movements aimed to bring changes went too far and colluded with the religious structures other than the real objective of bringing changes in the political structure.

Mutiny

The incident occurred in late march of 1857 when Mangal Pandey, a sepoy, was reported to attack British officers in Barrackpore at the military garrison. He was arrested and executed for the same in April month ten days before the actual date of execution, in fear of rebellion on a large scale. On 29 march 1857, he armed a loaded musket and stood by the parade ground in front of the infantry guard room side. He motivated other Indian soldiers to support his take against the British army. With several other men supporting him, they decided to kill the first British officer seen on the site. Before that, Lieutenant Baugh was informed that some of the sepoys were in an energetic state, and according to the reports, he was high on narcotic ‘bhang.’ When Lieutenant Baugh heard of this report, he instantly took arms and horse to reach the situation site to bring the order of control.

Pandey already took his stand behind the station gun, which was located at the front side of the quarter-guard of the thirty-fourth. With his weapon, he started to aim at the Lieutenant; then he opened fire upon him; although it missed the aim, Baugh’s house got shot in the flank, and both the rider and the horse fell on the ground. Lieutenant quickly helped himself, grabbed the pistol, reverted aiming at Pandey, and fired but missed. Baugh attempted with his sword, but before him, Pandey managed to launch a strike against him using his ‘Talwar’, a heavy iron or steel blade known as an Indian sword, and succeeded in damaging his shoulder along with neck, which made the official fall on the ground. Pandey picked up his gun to shoot him to death, but an intervention by his fellow, Shaikh Paltu, made him fail.

In the course of the events, Hewson, the Sergeant-Major, was at the parade ground on request from a native officer and ordered the Indian officer, the commander of the quarter-guard, to take Pandey under custody. He cited his people’s absence and inability to counter Pandey single-handedly. Then he was ordered to follow up with the guards with loaded arms. In a moment, Baugh arrived at the place, shouting to find Mangal. In response, Hewson guided him to turn on the right side with the horse as soldiers could fire at him; he followed, and Pandey fired at the Lieutenant. Hewson ran at Pandey as he shot Baugh but was knocked down on the ground by a heavy blow from Pandey’s musket. The tough struggles and sound of shooting made all the other sepoys come at the from their barracks, but that brought no change to the ongoing situation; instead, they all remained silent spectators. Shaikh Paltu, in order to protect the British officers, asked the sepoys standing to assist him. But he got no support. Instead, he called the guards to help him to restrain Pandey but was, in return, warned to be shot if he did not let him go free. The incident was taking long enough to be heard by another officer, and the same happened; the commanding officer General Hearsey got a report of the whole incident taking place and took two sons of another officer and reached the place; without any delay, he ordered the guards to follow their duties, or they would be shot. Later he realized the intentions and declared to shoot the first man who did not follow up on the orders; he drew his pistol and raised it to the guards giving them the final warning. The guards of the quarter-guard fell for his threat and followed the officer against Pandey. Mangal realized the changing situation. He placed the gun towards his chest while shooting with the foot. He started to bleed and collapsed at the site, although he was not mortally wounded with his regimental jacket on.

He was then arrested and was made to recover. Later was brought to trial for the crime in less than a week when he was asked about why he committed the crime or if he was under any narcotics, to which he replied with full responsibility that it was his intention to call upon a mutiny against his accord and none other sepoy had anything to do with his attempt whether in encouraging or helping him with the conduct. He was sentenced for mutiny against accord by hanging till death, and the day for his execution was finalized to be on the eighteenth of April. Still, he was executed secretly and before the actual date. He was hung to death on the eighth of April in fear of another mutiny. Later in the investigation, it was found by the testimony of three-quarter guards that Jemadar Ishwari Prasad ordered them not to arrest Pandey. So, he was also executed by hanging to death on the twenty-first of April.

Consequences:

After the incident, the British officials in order to prevent any further mutiny and also to set an example for others disbanded the thirty-fourth regiment of the East India Company with disgrace. On the sixth of May, after investigation by the government, they found the misconduct by other sepoys also. After a thorough investigation, the investigators reported that Pandey did the mutiny without taking other fellow sepoys in confidence. Still, the regiment was disbanded because it was believed that every other person was equally involved in the incident as per the evaluation of the conduct. The major savior for others was Mangal’s attempt to fire and kill failed. The on-duty guard’s action towards the situation made authorities believe that the whole regiment was unreliable.

Analysis:

The reasons for the mutiny are not yet clear and concrete, and eventually, many speculations are drawn out of the reports and talks based on comprehension level. There are incidents that state that this mutiny was not just a coincidence. When at the site, Mangal came out; he shouted out for other fellow sepoys and asked them to help him as the British officials were there and to. Later, at a court-martial, he stated that he was under the influence of bhang and opium and was not acting in his full consciousness. The statement made the reality in a dilemma.

Although it is still believed that the introduction of the bullet cartridge, which was for use in the P-53 Enfield rifle, was the root cause of the incident at Barrackpore. When the bullet cartridge was used, the sepoys felt that it was greased with animal fats and animals such as cows and pigs and that these were not to be consumed by any people of the Hindus or Muslim community as they are holy animals of the religions. The process involved in its use was the biggest problem, as they had to tear the cartridges before use. The major problem was with the Indian soldiers, as they believed that the act was done intentionally by the Britishers to insult their religion, which was no surprise as the western practices by officials were taken as an offense and insult to the native culture and traditions by Indian people. It was also recorded that the colonel, S. Wheeler, who was assigned to the thirty-fourth Bengal Native Infantry was a fundamentalist and took zeal in celebrating Christianism. His wife got the Bible printed in different languages, such as Urdu and Hindi, which was distributed among sepoys, a cause for suspicion among sepoys and native people on their intentions of trying to pursue their conversion to the Christian religion.

Right after the incident of mutiny, no new rifles were assigned to the sepoys, and an attempt to convince them of no use of animal fat use in the bullet cartridge was made by Colonel William Mitchell. The colonel received information about the refusal of bullet cartridges by non-commissioned officers on twenty-six February as they suspected that those were not free of animal fat grease. The main reason for this large-scale suspicion was the different colored papers used in wrapping the cartridges. Still, it was conveyed that that was not the truth, and the cartridges remained as free from animal fats as they were the preceding half-century.

Later after a month-long inquiry, the nineteenth Bengal Native Infantry was ordered to be disbanded, which was ultimately done on the predecided date on thirty-one of March. Also, the colonels of the Bengal Native Infantry, the 19^th, and 34^th, were dismissed and declared incapable of taking charge of any other regiments. The sepoys were provided with allowances by the authorities to return home and also were allowed to take with them their uniforms and item belongings.

On the other side, this attempt at revolt was widely recognized as the marking of the beginning of the first Indian revolutionary movement, followed by many more mutinies all over the place. In modern times Mangal Pandey is appreciated as the mastermind of the revolt movements.

Recognitions

An Indian film on the life of Mangal Pandey entitled “Mangal Pandey: The Rising,” directed by Ketan Mehta, was released in Indian theaters on 12^th AUGUST 2005. His life being an inspiration to all was a major subject for stage plays such as “The Roti Rebellion”. A fictional character, Samad Iqbal, is believed to be a descendant of Mangal Pandey, the main character in the novel White Teeth.

This warrior is a hero to all the people of India. The government of India issued a postage stamp in Pandey’s commemoration bearing his image on 5^th October 1984, designed by C.R. Pakrashi, a Delhi-based artist. The place where Mangal Pandey attacked the British official and got executed was named Shaheed Mangal Pandey Maha Udyan, a park set up at Barrackpore.