Move over Meerut, first mutiny was in AP

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Sept: It was in the month of October exactly 226 years ago in 1780 that the country’s first sepoy mutiny occurred which was known to very few in this country. The period between the acquisition of the northern circars and the introduction of permanent settlement witnessed a series of uprisings and disturbances. The sepoys of the armies of the East India Company also rose in rebellion on two occasions, protesting against the coercive, inconsiderate attitude of the latter. “There were only three sepoy mutinies prior to the famous revolt of 1857. The first occurred in Vizagpatam on October 3, 1780, the second at Vellore in Tamil Nadu in 1806 and the third at Gorakhpur in 1824 and later at Meerut on May 10, 1857. But the country’s first sepoy mutiny occurred here in Vizag 226 years ago. And Shaik Mohammed, the Subedar of the brigadiers was the chief mutineer. Unfortunately, people know only about Mangal Pandey, Laxmi Bai of Jhansi. But very few know about the great martyr Shaik Mohammed who not only first raised voice against the British but killed some of their cadets and officers” said the Joint Secretary and Editorial Board member of the Andhra Pradesh History Congress and noted historian in the state Dr Kolluru Suryanayana. The oppression and maltreatment meted out to the sepoys by Englishmen, coupled with the patriotic fervour that made the sepoys at Vizagpatam revolt against the English in 1780.The native sepoys who were enlisted for local service only were also very often dispersed all over the district for revenue collection. But whenever such campaigns were undertaken they were not paid any extra allowance, besides being treated scruffily by English officers. This was the root-cause of discontent among the sepoys posted at Vizagapatam and it reached to the peak with the information that they have to embark on Sartine frigate to Madras in order to meet the impending threat from Hyder Ali of Mysore in the Carnatic. This order exasperated the native sepoys in general and the Muslim soldiers in particular who regarded it an offence against their religion to fight against Hyder Ali of their won faith. Thus when the order was made known a deep spirit of disaffection was prevailing among the native sepoys of the district and the persistence with the proposal inflamed their anti British feelings and provoked them to immediate rebellion. The war with Hyder Ali in the Carnatic weakened the English to a large extent and to reinforce their army the then Governor of Madras, John Whitehall, addressed a letter on September 14, 1780, to the then chief of Vizagapatam and Masulipatam settlements, James Henry Casamajor, to keep in readiness for embarkation the sepoy grenadiers. The sepoys of Masulipatam obeyed the order without a murmur, but at Vizagapatam the English were in for a shock.The Sartine frigate was sent to Vizagpatam for the specific purpose of bringing grenadier companies of sepoys under the command of Lysaught. The sepoys were in fact ready for embarkation with all their arms, accouterments etc. and even paraded for the purpose on October 3. Officers of all companies had dined at the house of the chief and all of them went down to witness the embarkation. Suddenly just before 3pm they all refused to go on board Sartine. When the officers insisted that their order should be obeyed, the sepoys leveled their pieces and indiscriminately fired on their English officers and at all the English they could see. As a result, Lt Crisps, Kingsford Venner, a cadet, and Robert Rutherford, the paymaster, died on the spot. Charles Maxtone received wounds in the head and got off and seriously injured Captain Lane was assisted by some his sepoys in getting off mind imaginable, but were soon alarmed by an uncommon noise from the docks around 3 p.m.Seeing the fury of the rebels the British panicked and ran haphazard with a few like Lt. Brown, Ellis and Collins swimming the entire stretch of the backwaters to Sartine and others hiding themselves in different parts of the town.It did not end with the killing of a few officers. The rebels were determined to liberate the district from the East India Company and join the forces of Hyder Ali to drive the British away from the country. They took Casamajor and several other civil servants into captivity and freed a French spy who was confined to prison for some time.Shaik Mohammad, subedar of the grenadiers and the chief initiator of the mutiny, assumed control of the rebels. After holding Casamajor captive for 24 hours, Mohammad questioned the chief to disclose the details of the Company's property and, thereafter, went on a looting spree. It is believed that even the locals joined the mutineers. The Company's cash amounting to Rs.21, 999 fell into their hands.By this time, almost all the sepoys present in the garrison joined the uprising, and seeing this the English were totally deranged. The revolt left them a shambles; they were without men or money and neither did they get any support from the local like-minded zamindars.On the morning of October 4, the mutineers marched out of the town with the chief and the other captured men in tow to join the forces of Hyder Ali. But at the behest of Gajapathi Narain Deo, they freed them, and that was their mistake. Casamajor returned directly to Sartine and ordered Capt. Ensign Butler to gather the sepoys loyal to the Company and with the help of the crew and weapons on board to go after the rebels. He also instructed the neigbouring zamindars, fed on the English bread, not to support the cause of the rebels and join the Company's forces in subduing them. This made the rebels alter their course as they were not allowed by the zamindars to pass through their territories. The mutineers were ambushed and mercilessly slaughtered by Butler's men in the gorge of Gudderallywanka on the night of October 8. A few, including Mohammad, escaped only to be caught and brutally executed a few months later.Though the revolt was a short-lived one, it was certainly the first potential shock to the British administration after the acquisition of northern Circars. Casamajor himself later admitted in a testimony: "The revolt of the grenadiers was in all respects an event that might have led to dangerous consequences. It had annihilated our power and influence in a great measure. At any rate we received such a shock that we felt ourselves degraded as a Government."The incident has as many as 25 references. It was referred in the ‘History of the Madras Army’ by WJ Wilson and the letters between John White Hall-Casamajor-Brown- on October 4, 9 and which were in the Military Department Consultation of the then British army. There are no remnants of this mutiny except for the grave of Kingsford Venner in the Old Town cemetery. This mutiny was also reported in Hickey's “Bengal Gazette", India's first newspaper, a couple of days later. The Founder President of the “Shahide Watan Ashfaqullah Khan memorial Trust” of the city Mohammed Fasiuddin who was working to infuse the patriotism, national integrity among the youth in the country says that it was unfortunate situation that the neighbouring state Tamil Nadu government had celebrated the centenary of the Sepoy Revolt at Vellore, but the AP government did not even tried to bring such an incident into light which is pride of the nation. “Its our ill-fate that the government did not give much importance for such a prideful incident. The Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who was not allowed to get mortal remains of Shyamji Krishna Varma, a freedom fighter, from Geneva at last brought the remains to Gujarat. These are the incidents of national importance. We demand the State to construct a memorial monument to the incident and celebrate the incident every year” said Faisuddin.