Question

Imagine you were present when the rulers of Indian states met at a common place before the Uprising of 1857. Each ruler voiced his grievance against the British. Make a list of the grievances of each of the rulers.

Answer 1

The grievances of each ruler are summarised below:

1. The Nawab of Awadh was enraged by the humiliating manner in which he was dethroned, and Awadh was annexed, allegedly for supposed misrule. This happened despite him being the first to form a subsidiary alliance, in which he paid the British to defend the kingdom of Awadh.
2. The Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and his wife Zeenat Mahal were enraged by the British proclamation that his successors could not use the Red Fort as a palace and were forbidden from using imperial titles in their names.
3. The rulers of Jhansi, Satara, Jaitpur, Sambalpur, Udaipur, and Nagpur were upset because the British acquired their territories under the Doctrine of Lapse.
4. Nana Saheb, Baji Rao II’s adoptive son, was refused the annuity paid by the British. He was compelled to live in Kanpur, distant from his family’s home in Poona.
5. The Nawabs of Carnatic and Tanjore were displeased when their regal titles were taken.
6. The Nizam of Hyderabad, the ruler of Mysore, the Raja of Tanjore, Sindhia, the Rajput rulers of Jodhpur, Jaipur, Macheri, Bundi, and the ruler of Bharatpur had formed a subsidiary alliance with the British. They were now wary of the British and dissatisfied with losing their freedom.