Mangal Pandey: Difference between revisions

| birth_date        =  

| occupation        = Soldier  

|module = {{Infobox military person |embed = yes |embed_title = Military Career |allegiance = {{flag|East India Company}}|branch = [[Bengal Army]] |serviceyears = 1849 — 1857 |rank = [[Sepoy]]

Mangal Pandey was born in [[Nagwa]], a village of upper [[Ballia district]], [[Ceded and Conquered Provinces]] (now in [[Uttar Pradesh]]), to a [[Hindu]] [[Brahmin]] family.<ref>D'Souza, Shanthie Mariet. "Mangal Pandey". Encyclopædia Britannica, 15 Jul. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mangal-Pandey. Accessed 2 October 2021.</ref>

Mangal Pandey had joined the [[Bengal Army]] in 1849. In March 1857, he was a private soldier (sepoy) in the 5th [[Company (military unit)|Company]] of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry.<ref name="Saul David page 69">[[#David|David]], p. 69</ref>

On the afternoon of 29 March 1857, Lieutenant Baugh, [[Adjutant]] of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry, then stationed at [[Barrackpore]] was informed that several men of his regiment were in an excited state. Further, it was reported to him that one of them, Mangal Pandey, was pacing in front of the regiment's guard room by the parade ground, armed with a loaded [[musket]], calling upon the men to rebel and threatening to shoot the first European that he set eyes on. Testimony at a subsequent enquiry recorded that Pandey, unsettled by unrest amongst the sepoys and intoxicated by the narcotic [[bhang]], had seized his weapons and run to the quarter-guard building upon learning that a detachment of British soldiers was disembarking from a steamer near the cantonment.<ref>[[#Wagner|Wagner]], p. 82</ref>

Baugh immediately armed himself and galloped on his horse to the lines. Pandey took position behind the station gun, which was in front of the quarter-guard of the 34th, took aim at Baugh and fired. He missed Baugh, but the bullet struck his horse in the flank bringing both the horse and its rider down. Baugh quickly disentangled himself and, seizing one of his pistols, advanced towards Pandey and fired. He missed. Before Baugh could draw his sword, Pandey attacked him with a ''[[talwar]]'' (a heavy Indian sword) and closing with the adjutant, slashed Baugh on the shoulder and neck and brought him to the ground. It was then that another sepoy, [[Shaikh Paltu]], intervened and tried to restrain Pandey even as he tried to reload his musket.<ref name="Saul David page 70">[[#David|David]], p. 70</ref>

A British [[Sergeant-Major]] named Hewson had arrived on the parade ground, summoned by a native officer, before Baugh. He had ordered [[Jemadar]] Ishwari Prasad, the Indian officer in command of the quarter-guard, to arrest Pandey. To this, the ''jemadar'' stated that his NCOs had gone for help and that he could not take Pandey by himself.<ref name="Saul David page 69">[[#David|David]], p. 69</ref> In response Hewson ordered Ishwari Prasad to fall in the guard with loaded weapons. In the meantime, Baugh had arrived on the field shouting 'Where is he? Where is he?' Hewson in reply called out to Baugh, 'Ride to the right, sir, for your life. The sepoy will fire at you!'<ref name="Hibbert">{{cite book|author=Christopher Hibbert|title=The Great Mutiny: India, 1857|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QyoKAQAAIAAJ|year=1980|publisher=Penguin Books|pages=68–70|isbn=9780140047523}}</ref> At that point Pandey fired.

Mangal Pandey's execution took place on 8 April.<ref>Forrest 1893</ref> Jemadar Ishwari Prasad was executed by hanging on 21 April.<ref name="Hibbert"/>

The 34th B.N.I. Regiment was disbanded "with disgrace" on 6 May as a collective punishment, after an investigation by the government, for failing to perform their duty in restraining a mutinous soldier and their officer. That came after a period of six weeks while petitions for leniency were examined in Calcutta. Sepoy Shaikh Paltu was promoted to [[havildar]] (sergeant) for his behavior on 29 March but he was murdered in an isolated part of the Barrackpore cantonment shortly before the regiment was disbanded.<ref>[[#Wagner|Wagner]], p. 97</ref>

The Indian historian Surendra Nath Sen notes that the 34th B.N.I. had a good recent record and that the Court of Enquiry had not found any evidence of a connection with unrest at [[Berhampore]] involving the 19th B.N.I. four weeks before (see below). However, Mangal Pandey's actions and the failure of the armed and on-duty sepoys of the quarter-guard to take action convinced the British military authorities that the whole regiment was unreliable. It appeared that Pandey had acted without first taking other sepoys into his confidence but that antipathy towards their British officers within the regiment had led most of those present to act as spectators, rather than obey orders.<ref name="Durendra Nath Sen page 50">[[#Sen|Sen]], p. 50</ref>

The 19th and 34th Bengal Native Infantry were stationed at [[Lucknow]] during the time of the annexation of [[Oudh]] in 1856 because of alleged misgovernment by the Nawab. The annexation had negative implications for sepoys in the Bengal Army (a significant portion of whom came from that princely state). Before the annexation, these sepoys had the right to petition the British Resident at Lucknow for justice — a significant privilege in the context of native courts. As a result of the East India Company's action, they lost that special status, since Oudh no longer existed as a nominally independent political entity.<ref>{{cite book| author=Philip Mason| title=A Matter of Honour| date=1974| isbn=0-333-41837-9| page=295}}</ref>

The 19th B.N.I. is important because it was the regiment charged with testing the new cartridges on 26 February 1857. However, right up to the mutiny the new rifles had not been issued to them, and the cartridges in the magazine of the regiment were as free of grease as they had been through the preceding half-century. The paper used in wrapping the cartridges was of a different colour, arousing suspicions. The non-commissioned officers of the regiment refused to accept the cartridges on 26 February. This information was conveyed to the commanding officer, Colonel William Mitchell; he took it upon himself to try to convince the sepoys that the cartridges were no different from those they had been accustomed to and that they need not bite it. He concluded his exhortation with an appeal to the native officers to uphold the honour of the regiment and a threat to [[court-martial]] such sepoys as refused to accept the cartridge. However, the next morning the sepoys of the regiment seized their bell of arms (weapons store). The subsequent conciliatory behaviour of Mitchell convinced the sepoys to return to their barracks.<ref name="Surendra Nath Sen page 48">[[#Sen|Sen]], p. 48</ref>

A Court of Enquiry was ordered which, after an investigation which lasted nearly a month, recommended the disbanding of the 19th B.N.I. The same was carried out on 31 March. The 19th B.N.I. were allowed to retain items of uniform and were provided by the government with allowances to return to their homes. Both Colonel Mitchell of the 19th B.N.I. and (subsequent to the incident of 29 March) Colonel Wheeler of Pandey's 34th B.N.I. were declared unsuited to take charge of any new regiments raised to replace the disbanded units.<ref>[[#Wagner|Wagner]], p. 96</ref>

The attack by and punishment of Pandey is widely seen as the opening scene of what came to be known as the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Knowledge of his action was widespread amongst his fellow sepoys and is assumed to have been one of the factors leading to the general series of mutinies that broke out during the following months. Mangal Pandey would prove to be influential for later figures in the Indian Nationalist Movement like V.D. Savarkar, who viewed his motive as one of the earliest manifestations of Indian Nationalism. Modern Indian nationalists portray Pandey as the mastermind behind a conspiracy to revolt against the British, although a recently published analysis of events immediately preceding the outbreak concludes that "there is little historical evidence to back up any of these revisionist interpretations".<ref>[[#Wagner|Wagner]], p. 245</ref>

The Government of India commemorated Pandey by issuing a postage stamp bearing his image on 5 October 1984. The stamp and the accompanying first-day cover were designed by Delhi-based artist C. R. Pakrashi.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indianpost.com/viewstamp.php/Alpha/M/MANGAL%20PANDEY |title=Mangal Pandey |publisher=India Post |access-date=10 April 2017}}</ref>

A park named ''Shaheed Mangal Pandey Maha Udyan'' has been set up at [[Barrackpore]] to commemorate the place where Pandey attacked British officers and was subsequently hanged.<ref name="kmcgov.in">[https://www.kmcgov.in/KMCPortal/jsp/KMCAmusementPark.jsp#a12 Mangal Pandey Park, Amusement Parks / Auditoriums / Clubs], kmcgov.in</ref>

*{{cite book| author=David, Saul | title=The Indian Mutiny| date=2002| isbn=0-141-00554-8| ref=David}}

*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.43239/page/n5|ref=Sen|author=Sen, Surendra Nath |title=Eighteen fifty-seven|year=1957|publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India}}

*{{cite book|first=Kim A. |last=Wagner|ref=Wagner|title=The Great Fear of 1857. Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising|year=2014|isbn=978-93-81406-34-2}}

*{{cite book|first=George |last=Forrest |authorlink=George William Forrest |title=Selections from the letters, despatches and other state papers preserved in the Military Department of the Government of India, 1857-58

| date=1893}}

* Amin, Agha H.,  ''The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857-59: Reinterpreted'', 1998, Strategicus and Tacticus