Bengal L a k s h a d w e e p I s l a n d s (India) A n d a m a n a n d N i c o b a r I s l a n d s (India) Anti-Colonial Movements and the Birth of Nationalism Emperor Bahadur Shah II to become their leader. After much hesitation he accepted the offer and was proclaimed as the Shahenshah-e- Hindustan (the Emperor of Hindustan). Soon the rebels captured the north-western province and Awadh. As the news of the fall of Delhi reached the Ganges valley, cantonment after cantonment mutinied till, by the beginning of June, British rule in North India, except in Punjab and Bengal, had disappeared.
Civil Rebellion The mutiny was equally supported by an aggrieved rural society of north India. Sepoys working in the British army were in fact peasants in uniform. They were equally affected by the restructuring of the revenue administration. The sepoy revolt and the subsequent civil rebellion in various parts of India had a deep-rooted connection with rural mass.
The first civil rebellion broke out in parts of the North-Western provinces and Oudh. These were the two regions from which the sepoys were predominately recruited. A large number of Zamindars and Taluqdars were also attracted to the rebellions as they had lost their various privileges under the British government. The taluqdar–peasant collective was a common effort to recover what they had lost.
Similarly, artisans and handicrafts persons were equally affected by the dethroning of rulers of many Indian states, who were a major source of patronage. The dumping of British manufactures had ruined the Indian handicrafts and thrown thousands of weavers out of employment. Collective anger against the British took the form of a people’s revolt. Prominent Fighters against the British The mutiny provided a platform to aggrieved kings, nawabs, queens, and zamindars to express the anti-British anger.
Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the last Peshwa Baji Rao II, provided leadership in the Kanpur region. He had been