White mutiny : the Bengal Europeans, 1825-75, a study in military social history

Abstract

In this thesis I seek to connect the military and social history of mid-Victorian Britain through a study of the East India Company's Bengal European regiments and their demise following the 'white mutiny' of 1859-60. I work from the contention that military and social history have been imperfectly integrated, and seek throughout to demonstrate the connections between the culture of the European force in itself, and their culture as the expression of aspects of the societies from which its members derived. The thesis is structured in four parts, based on concepts adapted from criticism of the work of E.P. Thompson. 'Culture' shows how the officers and men of the Bengal Europeans in the thirty years preceding the 1857 rebellion constituted a distinct community (the composition, values and expectations of which differed from those of the Queen's army) which was at the same time rooted in aspects of contemporary British society. 'Conflict' discusses how this community reacted to the Indian rebellion of 1857-58, and how its culture both determined its performance in battle and ensured its survival and expansion when an antagonistic Queen's army sought its suppression. 'Power1 examines in detail the soldiers' protest of 1859, demonstrating how the men acted in accordance with the force's culture, and how critical features of contemporary society - including 'populist' understandings of rights, occupational experience and ethnicity - shaped the outcome of the protest. Transformation' traces the effects of the protest, particularly the Bengal Europeans' incorporation into the Queen's army, and how officers and men accepted or resisted the suppression of their distinctive culture.