The country side had turned into a pressure cooker of anger and anytime it could explode. The rumour of cow and pig fat in the cartridge caps had spread through all the army garrisons and cantonments. The sepoys were extremely agitated over it. Their minds had become tinder boxes.
Then, Major Mathews of Barrackpore garrison received an anonymous letter—
‘Major sir,
We the Hindustani sepoys of the company’s army are always ready to lay down our lives to defend its empire here. With similar loyalty we protect our faith, customs and the traditions.
The Company Government is desecrating our religion by making us use the cartridges capped with a paper greased with beef and pork fat. The cow is revered like mother by Hindus and the Muslims consider pork the most sinful thing.
We earnestly request you with folded hands not to force us to use these new cartridges. We want to continue to serve the Company loyally otherwise. But we won’t make any compromise on the fat issue.
We beg to your goodself to protect our religious beliefs like we had defended the interests of the company by fighting and laying down lives for its sake. We should not be forced to fight for our own faith.
We hope that you will understand our problem and help us protect our religion to save us from the condemnation by our own people.
Hoping for justice from you
Hindustani Sepoys
The letter was unsigned and the sender preferred to call himself by a collective name. The letter angered the Major. He knew about the fat-in-cartridge issue. But he had not imagined that the minor issue would be blown out to such a proportion.
He crumpled the letter in his fist and then crushed it by his boot.
The commanders of several other garrisons in Bengal received the similar anonymous letters.
On 26 February, 1857 a company of Barrackpore Infantry Regiment was ordered to march to an another nearyby garrison at Bahrampur where 19 Infantry Regiment was stationed. The soldiers of the two regiments interacted. The new arrivals were surprised to find that the sepoys of the resident regiment were extremely agitated over the fat issue. They were in rebellious mood.
One of the resident sepoys asked the new arrivals, “Do you know what is going on here?”
“What?” the new comers asked.
“We have come to know that these British officers are conspiring to convert us into Christians.”
“How?”
“They are giving us cartridges laced with cow and pig fat to defile our dharma. Then, we shall have no option but to become Christians, when our people throw us out of our own religions. That is their secret plan.”
“But we won’t let is happen. We must defend our dharma with whatever it takes.”
“We are ready even to lay down our lives in defence of our dharmas. Our dharma is more dear to us than our own lives. We shall not tolerate its desecration,” a sepoy declared.
Zamadar Ishwari Prasad spoke, “We must take a united stand. Individual acts will only invite dismissals or court-martials. The white bosses must know that we are all in it.”
“We will do anything for dharma. We are ready to rise like one man. Zamadar Saheb must tell us how we can show our protest unitedly.”
At last Ishwari Prasad spoke, “Comrades! You have put a heavy responsibility on my shoulders. I can’t let you down. We must take minimum risk but deliver the message with maximum effect. Do you understand me?”
“Yes. What you say makes sense,’’ a sepoy spoke for all of the rest. The Zamadar nodded his head.
“We must not resort to hooliganism and uncontrolled emotionalism. The fact is that we are employees of Company Bahadur. It is our bounden duty to obey the orders of the Company’s officers. But at the same time we can’t afford to lose our dharma or accept any outrage of it. We shall all without exception refuse to handle these cartridges whatever the pressure, even if it means dismissal. Don’t abuse any white superior and no physical violence. Let us hope the officers understand our dilemma.”
All the sepoys accepted the proposal.
27 February, 1857—19 Infantry Regiment sepoys and those of Barrackpore company were scheduled for a routine parade. The sepoys were lined up. The white officer ordered the sepoys to receive the new cartridges for loading into their guns. A soldier came with a trayfuls of cartridges sealed in wax papers which looked too oily.
Zamadar Ishwari Prasad stepped forward and spoke to the drill officer, “Sir, we can not touch these cartridges.”
“What?” the officer barked angrily. He stared at the Zamadar. Such a kind of defiance had never witnessed by that officer. He was a bit confused.
Ishwari Prasad explained, “Sir, all of us have come to know that the wrapper encasing those cartridges is treated with cow or pig fat to make them oily. Cow is the most sacred animal for Hindus. She is like mother. For us touching anything with cow fat is like eating one’s own mother’s flesh. Similarly for our Muslim brethren the pig products are worse than human excreta. How would they touch these cartridges? We just can’t afford to take any risk with our own religion, sir.’’
The officer happened to be sympathetic to the native sentiments. He spoke, “Alright, carry on with the parade routine with unloaded guns. I will talk later to the commanding officer about the cartridges.”
The drill went on without any mishap.
