Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising against the rule of the British East India Company, which by then functioned as a sovereign power, including its own military forces, on behalf of the British Crown. It began on 10 May 1857 when sepoys, Indian soldiers in East India Company service, mutinied at Meerut, roughly forty miles northeast of Delhi, and the revolt then widened into broader civilian uprisings concentrated in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with further outbreaks in the north and east. On the rebel side stood the Mughal Empire, mutinous sepoys, the state of Oudh, forces under Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and other principalities, against British and East India Company forces supported by Nepal, Sikh princes and several Indian states. The British put the rebellion down only after defeating the rebels at Gwalior on 20 June 1858, and it ended in a British victory: some princely states were annexed into British India while others kept a measure of autonomy.