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The White Mutiny was the unrest that occurred at the dissolution in 1858-59 of the "European Forces" of the East India Company in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
There was another incident which occurred in India in 1766, the Monghyr Mutiny: a "White mutiny" among British brigadiers, on occasion of their reduced military allowances, which was suppressed by Robert Clive. [1]
Until 1861 there were two separate military forces under British control operating in India. One comprised those units of the British Army serving tours of duty in India and known as the "Queen's" army; the other were the units of the East India Company (EIC). The Company's troops were a mixture of "European" regiments of Britons recruited specifically for service in India and "Native" regiments recruiting from the locality with British officers.
The Queen's Army was the sovereign crown's military force. The British Army officer class was characterized by Officers who had "Purchased commission" and then risen by further purchase, seniority or battlefield commission. The positions of officers of the European regiments were not bought by purchase but advancement was normally by seniority. In both armies promotion could be accelerated by losses or transfers on active service.
Units of the EIC received batta – extra allowances of pay to cover various expenditures relating to operations out of the home territories while British Army units did not. However, officers of the British Army were senior to those of the same rank in the EIC.
The dissimilarities in the physical makeup of these two forces led to many cultural differences in how they operated and how they viewed each other. These cultural differences led to deep misunderstandings between the two forces.
The Government of India Act 1858 transferred units of the East India Company to the control of the British Crown.
In the negotiations of the terms for the transfer there were several issues. One was that the Governor General, Canning, did not give the "European Forces" notice of their transfer to the "Queen's Army".[ citation needed ] Another was a result of Canning's legalistic interpretation of the laws surrounding the transfer. A third was in the misunderstanding that stemmed from cultural differences between the two forces. This was aggravated by influential articles printed by British periodicals of the time that wrongly painted the European Force as undisciplined, unhealthy, and mutinous in nature.
The laws were quite clear and the legality of the transfer was well established, but because both the British government and the Government of India ignored the views of those it was to affect, the officers and men of the European Forces were alienated to the point of open mutiny. Aggravating the condition was the still unsettled Indian rebellion of 1857. The White mutiny of the European Forces was seen as a potential undermining of the already rocky British rule in India with a potential of inciting renewed rebellion among the "still excited population throughout India".
Soldiers of the 1st Bengal European Light Cavalry performed "only guard and barrack duties" and "refused to turn out for parade, and mutinous language was used." [2]
The White mutiny was highly successful in meeting its aims. The demands of the European Forces officers and men were centralized around a demand for either an enlistment bonus/bounty or release from their obligations. In this aim they were highly successful, achieving a promise of free and clear release with free passage home. Events that had occurred at some of the installations, including open rebellion and physical violence both on the part of the men and the officers of the European Forces, were such that there was little possibility of the European Forces being generally accepted into the Queen's Army. Ultimately 10,116 men opted to return home, of whom only 2,809 re-enlisted. [3]
Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among members of the military against an internal force, but it can also sometimes mean any type of rebellion against any force. Mutiny does not necessarily need to refer to a military force and can describe a political, economic, or power structure in which there is a change of power.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The names of the rebellion are contested, as it can variously be described as the Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Mutiny, the Great Rebellion, the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Insurrection, and the First War of Independence. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the Company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi. It then erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east. The rebellion posed a military threat to British power in that region, and was contained only with the rebels' defeat in Gwalior on 20 June 1858. On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, though they did not declare the hostilities to have formally ended until 8 July 1859.
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The 5th Bengal European Cavalry was a cavalry regiment of the East India Company, created in 1858 and disbanded in 1859.
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The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire.
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The Vellore mutiny, or Vellore Revolution, occurred on 10 July 1806 and was the first instance of a large-scale and violent mutiny by Indian sepoys against the East India Company, predating the Indian Rebellion of 1857 by half a century. The revolt, which took place in the Indian city of Vellore, lasted one full day, during which mutineers seized the Vellore Fort and killed or wounded 200 British troops. The mutiny was subdued by cavalry and artillery from Arcot. Total deaths amongst the mutineers were approximately 350; with summary executions of about 100 during the suppression of the outbreak, followed by the formal court-martial of smaller numbers.
During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 a column of troops led by the commander of the 24th Regiment of Foot was sent to disarm Bengal Native Infantry units believed to be at risk of mutiny in Rawalpindi and Jhelum. At Rawalpindi, the 58th Bengal Native Infantry were disarmed peacefully, however the two companies of the 14th Bengal Native Infantry resisted the attempt by force of arms. These two companies were quickly defeated by the British, loyal native troops and the local population. In Jhelum, also garrisoned by the 14th, the concurrently timed disarmament was much more violent. Thirty five British soldiers of the 24th Regiment of Foot were killed along with a number of Loyal Indian troops, by mutinous sepoys of the 14th Bengal Native Infantry. When the mutineers realised that they, with the exception of the Sikhs, were to be disarmed, they mutinied and made a vigorous defence against the force that had arrived from Rawalpindi to disarm them. The following night a significant number of mutineers managed slip away but most were subsequently arrested by the Kashmir authorities, into whose territory they had escaped.
The Monghyr Mutiny occurred among European officers of the East India Company stationed in Bengal in 1766. The mutiny arose after the East India Company's governor of Bengal, Robert Clive, implemented an order to reduce the batta field allowance paid to its army officers. The batta had been doubled while the troops were in the service of the Nawab of Bengal Mir Jafar. Clive's order came into effect on 1 January 1766 and brought the allowances into line with those paid by the company in the rest of India. At this time the company army in Bengal was divided into three brigades under the command of Sir Robert Fletcher, Richard Smith and Robert Barker.
[Clive] reduced military allowances or batta and quelled with characteristic vigour a 'White mutiny' organized by one of the brigadiers.