The following were the main events of the revolt of 1857 C.E. :

(1) Mangal Pandey, a soldier of Barrackpore battalion, opposed to use the cow-and-pig-fat greased cartridge of the new Enfield Rifle. As a result the revolt began earlier than the fixed date. So he was arrested, tried and sentenced to death. This disrupted the planning and the objectives of the revolt could not be achieved.

(2) Indian soldiers reached Delhi from Merath (Meerut) on 11th May and captured Delhi with the help of Indian soldiers present there. They then convinced the 80-year- old Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar to accept the leadership of the revolt. This infused new life in the revolt and many Indian regions joined it.

(3) Kanpur joined the revolt on 4th June, 1857 and Nanasaheb Peshwa was asked to assume leadership. However, because of acute food shortage due to the 22-day long seige they had to surrender to the British.

(4) Patna and Jagdishpur were the main centres of the revolt in Bihar under the leadership of 70-year-old landlord Kunwarsingh. While fighting bravely with the British, he was shot in the arm. To stop the poison from spreading to his body, he chopped off his arm from’- the elbow. He succeeded in freeing Jagdishpur from the’ British before he died.

(5) Laxmibai, the Queen of Jhansi, was a great warrior. When the British refused to accept her adopted son as the heir to the throne and tried to annex Jhansi, she joined the revolt. She had also prepared an army of women to fight against the British. Even British officials appreciated her valour by saying that she was one of the greatest women leaders of the 1857 revolt.

(6) Tatya Tope was Nanasaheb Peshwa’s army commander at Kanpur. As commander, he successfully freed Kanpur. During the next two years he played a significant role in the revolt.

(7) Soldiers from Bareli, Banaras, Allahabad, Agra, Azamgadh and Gorakhpur in the North; Ajmer, Nasirabad and Abu from the Rajputana and Gwalior, Mandsore, Indore and Dhar from Central India, Satara, Kolhapur, Sawantwadi, Nargadh, Dharwad, etc. in the South-joined the revolt.

(8) The 7th battalion of the British army joined the ^ revolt in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in June 1857. However, it was halted almost immediately.