The East India Company had established its
control over almost all parts of India by the middle of the 19th century. There
were numerous risings in the first hundred years of British rule in India. They
were, however, local and isolated in character. Some of them were led by the
nobility who were refusing to accept the changing patterns of the time and
wanted the past to be restored. But the risings developed a tradition of
resistance offoreign rule, culminating in the 1857 revolt.
The Revolt of 1857, which was called a Sepoy
Mutiny by British historians and their imitators in India but described as "the
First War of Indian Independence" by many Indian historians, shook the British
authority in India from its very foundations.