VP Naidu pays tribute to freedom fighters on 163rd anniversary of 1857 Uprising

On the occasion of the 163rd anniversary of India's First War of Independence in 1857, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday paid his tributes to freedom fighters who fought against the British colonial rule. On May 10, 1857, Indian soldiers in the East India Company shot their British officers and marched to Delhi after the hanging of Mangal Pandey a month earlier. The event sparked months-long fight against the British in North Indian cities like Meerut, Kanpur, Lucknow, Aligarh, Agra, Delhi, and Jhansi.

Taking to Twitter, VP Naidu wrote: "On the 163rd anniversary of the First War of Independence in 1857, let' us pay tribute to all those brave sons and daughters of Mother India who waged a heroic war against the British rule. Their acts of valour & patriotism have become part of our folklore & continue to inspire us. It was not sepoy mutiny as portrayed by British but struggle for independence. (sic)"

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First War of Independence

The Indian Rebellion of 1857, popularly called as the country's First War of Independence was a major, but ultimately unsuccessful, an uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which had expanded its territorial control over large swathes of India by either invasions or coercions of princely states.

The rebellion, which sparked in Meerut on May 10, 1857, quickly spread to other parts of north and central India in a matter of weeks. Thousands of Indian troops from the Company's ranks joined the rebels and attempted to overthrow control of British officials in major towns. The seizure of Delhi provided a focus and set the pattern for the whole mutiny.

However, due to logistical and organisational superiority of the British colonial officers, the rebellion was crushed by June 1858, after bloody exchanges and battles. What followed was the abolishment of the Company rule in India and the transfer of control to the British Crown (government) in the following years.

(PTI Photo)

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