Q6
“The relationship of the Indian sepoys with their superior white officers underwent a significant change in the 1840s and 1850s.” Explain.
Solution
1. Certainly, the relationship of the sepoys with their superior white officers underwent a significant change in the years preceding the uprising of 1857.
2. In the 1820s, white officers made it a point to keep cordial relations with the sepoys. They would participate in their leisure activities—they wrestled with them, fenced with them and went out hawking with them.
3. Several white officers could speak and understand Hindustani language fluently. They were also familiar with the local customs and culture.
4. In the 1840s, this fabric of friendly relationship began to change very fast. The white officers the sepoys as their racial inferiors, riding roughshod over their sensibilities.
5. Abuse and physical violence became common. In this way, the distance between sepoys and officers became wider. Trust was replaced by doubt. The event of the greased cartridges was a classic example of this increasing suspicion.
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