Discuss the significance of unity between Hindus and Muslims during the Revolt of 1857.

Or

Give examples to show that the Revolt of 1857 was a united struggle of the Hindus and the Muslims.

(i) From the medievel period i.e., from the time of foreign invasion, then the Mughal invasion and after the establishment of the Mughal Empire in India, the Hindus and Muslims began to live together. The Indian way of life, art, architecture, literature, language, music, culture, etc. began to influence on the Islamic culture, music, art, architecture, etc. and began to influence on the Indian art and architecture etc. Moreover the Muslims settled in India and they had become one with the Indians as a result both the Hindus and the Muslims had common way of life. One cannot depart from the other. That is why, when the problem arose for their survival they both began to fight together to remove the yoke of foreign rule i.e., the British rule. The Hindus never felt the Mughal rule as a foreign rule because the Mughals did not differentiate themselves from the Indians as the way the English did with the Indians.

(ii) The Hindu-Muslim unity played an important role in the Revolt of 1857. The Hindu as well as the Muslim soldiers had enrolled in the British army. They both had faced the common problem i.e., the greased cartridges. These cartridges were to be bitten before they were loaded into the rifles. These cartridges were greased with the fat of cows and pigs, which hurt the religious feelings of the Hindus and the Muslims, so they protested against them. Now the Hindu and the Muslim soldiers had one common enemy i.e., the British. It brought both the Hindu and Muslim sepoys together. So they declared Bahadur Shah as their leader and marched together from Meerut to Delhi.

(iii) Similarly, Rani Lakshmi Bai was escorted by the Afghan nobles. Maulvi Ahmadullah led the revolt in Faizabad and whenever the Muslims succeeded in raising the revolt, they showed full respect to the religious sentiments of their Hindu brothers and they stopped the slaughter of cows. This kind of Hindu-Muslim unity and cooperation lasted longer till the British decided to divide them with their policy of ‘divide and rule’ as they found it would be difficult for them to continue their rule if the Hindus and the Muslims are united.

(iv) For a long time the Hindus and the Muslims were fed up with the attitudes of the English. After the famine of 1837 the poor and the hungry people, the servants of the Company and the sepoys were compelled to convert into Christianity. Laws were passed to suppress sati and infanticide which affected the religious sentiments of the Hindus. At the same time the last Mughal ruler was deprived of his title, and his wife and children were not given the pension which was promised by the English which infuriated the Muslims.

(v) Moreover the Hindu and the Muslim soldiers were discriminated against in their salaries and promotion comparatively with the Englisn sepoys. The Hindu and the Muslim soldiers were regarded inferior to the European soldiers. So we can come to a easy conclusion that the sentimental unity in the social, moral and military spheres and their common sufferings in the hands of the British brought unity among the Hindus and the Muslims.