The Sepoy rising and British rule in India

In May 1857 the sepoys—Indian soldiers in the service of the East India Company—rise at Meerut, take Delhi and proclaim the last Mughal emperor of India. The occasion was cartridges said to be greased with cow and pig fat, an offence to Hindu and Muslim alike; the cause was a century of conquest, taxation and contempt. The rising spreads over the north of the country and is put down by 1858, with cruelty on both sides. The Company is abolished: India is henceforth ruled by the crown, and in 1877 Queen Victoria will take the title of Empress of India. So begins the British Raj, and so too the Indian movement for independence, which in ninety years will see the matter through.