The events of 1857 conjure up different views for different people.
For the British it was a simply mutiny of some native sepoys. The mutiny was joined by some disgruntled petty rajas/ranis- Tantia Tope, Rani of Jhansi. It was put down and the rule of law was established.
To Indian nationalist it was a war of independence to overthrow the yoke of the British.
Some have tried to characterize it as a religious war. The evidence for that is quite scanty.
What did it mean to the Jats?
Dilip Singh Ahlawat in his book “ Jat Viron ka Ithihass” has pretty much a full cahpetr on the causes of this war, and what it meant to the Jats.
For one, the loss of the war, meant severe retaliation by the British. It also meant the dismemberment of the Sarv Khap of Haryana, and the banning of meetings of the Sarvv Khap Panchayat. The Sarv Khap was broken up, part being given to Punjab, part of Rajasthan, Delhi was carved out, and part to the province of Agra, which was merged into the United provinces of Agra and Oudh, now called Uttar Pradesh.
I had translated Dilip Singh Ahlawat’s chapter, and it is on the files section in the Jathistory group,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/files/
1857 war of Independence.
And also as a series of posts on the same website.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JatHistory/message/1126 to 1155
Readers may wish to form their own opinions.
Ravi Chaudhary