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Failure of War of Independence

Lack of unity was the primary reason for the failure of the Indian War of Independence according to the document. There were several factors that contributed to this lack of unity: 1) Rebels had no common purpose and fought for personal interests rather than a shared cause, 2) Hindus and Sikhs saw it as an attempt to restore Muslim rule and did not support the rebels, and 3) not all regions like Punjab and Sindh supported the rebellion weakening the rebel forces. Additional factors that strengthened the British were some princely rulers supporting the British to maintain their power and the British adopting a conciliatory policy that caused rebel leaders to abandon the fight.

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424 views2 pages

Failure of War of Independence

Lack of unity was the primary reason for the failure of the Indian War of Independence according to the document. There were several factors that contributed to this lack of unity: 1) Rebels had no common purpose and fought for personal interests rather than a shared cause, 2) Hindus and Sikhs saw it as an attempt to restore Muslim rule and did not support the rebels, and 3) not all regions like Punjab and Sindh supported the rebellion weakening the rebel forces. Additional factors that strengthened the British were some princely rulers supporting the British to maintain their power and the British adopting a conciliatory policy that caused rebel leaders to abandon the fight.

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pinkiepie
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Failure of War of Independence

"Lack of unity was the only reason for the failure of war of Independence". Do you
agree or disagree? Explain your answer.

Firstly, the rebels had no common purpose. Everyone was fighting for personal
interests and nobody took part in the revolt unless personally harmed e.g. Nana
Sahib was only interested to get the doctrine of lapse reversed and was ready to
come to terms if his demand was accepted. As a result, there wasn't always a
common cause to fight from the Indians which weakened their unity and made them
more vulnerable to their defeat.

Secondly, the Hindus and Sikhs saw the war as an attempt by Muslims to restore the
Mughal Empire. Since they didn’t want to be ruled by the Muslims, they did not
support them. Consequently, the rebel force wasn’t strong enough to compete
against the British, and was thus defeated.

Thirdly, Punjab and Sindh had been conquered by the British through troops from
Bengal and Central India. So, when these troops rebelled against the British in 1857,
the Punjabis and Sindhis did not support them. This further reduced the number of
rebels which made it difficult for them to fight against mighty British.

Some of the Princely rulers, in-order to maintain their power, supported the British.
This can be explained by the fact that in order to restore his power, the ruler of
Kashmir sent 2000 troops to help the British. This strengthened the British forces
further and contributed to their success.

Lord Canning adopted a conciliatory policy towards the rebels. He allowed many
concessions for them e.g. the rebels who would give up their arms would not be
punished. Therefore, the war failed in its objectives as many leaders left the battle
field to join the table for negotiations with the Government.

Due to the war, there has been great deal of Vandalism. Due to this, the local
population was harmed and became angry with the rebels. As a result, they stopped
supporting the rebels which weakened their strength. Now they sided the British
who stood for the law and order. As a result the British were further strengthened.

Furthermore, Bahadur Shah II, who was considered as main leader of the rebels,
showed incompetence during the war situation. He was aged and was more
interested in poetry and neglected affairs of the combat. Thus this sort of poor
administration led to inefficient control and thus turned out to be a worse
nightmare.

Also the British, due to industrial revolution, had efficient war equipment and
modern technology. On the other hand the Indians used outdated and traditional
weapons against the British. Thus the WOI failed as the Indians were no match for
the mighty British.

The British being the super power of that time had well trained soldiers who were
led by outstanding generals e.g. Edward, Neil. They made clever strategies to defeat
the opposition like Dutch, Portuguese and French and ousted them from the
Subcontinent. Their superiority could not be matched by scattered, demoralized and
untrained Indians and hence they were easily defeated by the British.

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