Started at Barrackpur under the leadership of
Mangal Pandey on 29 March 1857
and soon spread to Meerut , Delhi
and other parts of India .
It created serious tension throughout Bangladesh .
The resistance in Chittagong and Dhaka
and skirmishes at Sylhet, Jessore, Rangpur, Pabna and Dinajpur had left Bangladesh
in a state of alert and excitement. On 18
November 1857 the Native Infantry of Chittagong rose in open
rebellion and released all prisoners from the jail. They seized arms and
ammunition, ransacked the treasury, set the Magazine House on fire and preceded
towards Tippera.
The offensive of the sepoys of Chittagong
had an important bearing upon the company's defensive posture at Dhaka .
Being apprehensive of a further uprising of the sepoys, the authorities sent
three companies of the 54th Regiment and one hundred seamen to Dhaka .
Simultaneously a Naval Brigade was sent to Jessore, Rangpur, Dinajpur and some
other districts of Bangladesh .
Organised local volunteers consisting mostly of European residents took special
measures for the protection of Dhaka . The situation
became tense when the Naval Brigade arrived at Dhaka to
disarm the sepoys stationed there. On 22 November the sepoys stationed at lalbagh resisted the process of disarming. In the
skirmish that followed several sepoys were killed and arrested while many of
them fled towards Mymensingh. Most of the fugitives were, however, arrested and
put up for summary trial by a hurriedly constituted Court Martial. Of the
accused sepoys 11 were sentenced to death and the rest were sentenced to life
imprisonment. The judgement was executed rather hurriedly.
Tension and excitement persisted in different
parts of Bangladesh ,
especially in the districts of Sylhet, Mymensingh, Dinajpur and Jessore.
Several skirmishes occurred between the fugitive sepoys and European soldiers
in Sylhet and some other places resulting in loss of lives on both sides.
Summary trials by local Judges of the captured and disarmed sepoys took place in
Sylhet and Jessore. Hanging and deportation were common features of these
summary trials.
The role and reaction of various classes of
people of Bangladesh
during the sepoy revolt present a gloomy picture. The landed aristocracy was
decidedly opposed to the sepoys and some of them rendered logistic support to
the company authorities by supplying carts, carriages and elephants; informing
the movements of the fleeing sepoys and finally organising local volunteer
corps to resist the sepoys. The government acknowledged such services of the
landed aristocracy with thanks and subsequently awarded them titles of Nawab,
Khan Bahadur, Khan Shaheb, Rai Bahadur, Rai Shaheb etc and rewarded them with
all sorts of worldly gains. Following the role displayed by the landed
aristocracy, the middle class too sided with the company's government. The
common people and the peasantry as a whole were apathetic and remained
untouched by the sepoy revolt, though they suffered much from the concomitant
artificial price hike.
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন