The revolt of 1857 was more spontaneous than planned. Do you agree with this statement? Justify.

There are certain evidences which indicate that the 1857 was planned. These included:

1. Use / distribution of chapattis or red lotus flower to the participants
2. The contact between Azimullah Khan, Maulwi Ahmadullah Shah, Mohammad Fazli.
3. The campaign of Kanpur was a combined campaign Of Shahzada Firoz, Nana Sahib and Kunwar Singh.
4. In madras the slogan was raised “long live the Sultan of Delhi”. The Mughal king Bahadur Shah II was appointed as the leader without any ambiguity.

However, there were no coordination amongst the leaders for example the Rani of Jhansi was fighting alone and there were no reinforcement for her; there were no planning in the sequence of revolt. In fact, it seems that there was no possibility of planning at the initial phase of the revolt. If there would have been any planning, that would have been visible in the latter half of the revolt. It may be called spontaneous planning and that is why it failed also. It lacked initial plan, programme, refunds and organization and above all, a leader. At the same time there were little awareness amongst the people and understanding of the British rule was beyond the reach of common people.

Topics: GS-I: Modern Indian History & Freedom Struggle