Sepoy Mutiny Echoes Muslim-Western Clash

March 14, 2002 -- Sometimes, it only takes a little bit of grease to really throw the fat into the fire.

When two cultures clash, misunderstandings over seemingly small things can flare into larger clashes or even violence. Late last month, detainees from the Afghan war went on a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when American guards ripped a bed sheet from a prisoner's head.

To the guards, the inmate was defying regulations and creating a security risk. To the prisoners, a Muslim was being denied his right to pray with a turban — albeit a makeshift one — covering his head.

In May of 1857, a misunderstanding over a piece of weaponry proved to be the last straw for Muslims and Hindus already smoldering with resentment against the British in India. The introduction of the Lee-Enfield rifle, seen by the British as just a nifty new piece of technology, sparked the Sepoy Rebellion — also known as the Indian mutiny or the First Indian War of Independence.

"The choice of technology wasn't the cause, but it certainly was the trigger," said Glynn Wood, professor of international policy studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. "The troops saw it as one more example of foreigners having no sensitivity to them."

‘Ritual Defilement’

To load the new rifle, soldiers had to first bite off the end of the cartridge. The cartridge was well greased — with a combination of beef and pork fat.

"It was offensive to both Hindus and Muslims," said Barbara Ramusack, head of the history department at the University of Cincinnati.

For Muslim sepoys — the term for a native soldier — serving in the British army, pork was unclean, forbidden by the Koran. The Hindus held the cow to be sacred, and saw anything that would entail tasting beef fat product as an attempt to break their caste.

To them, it was "ritual defilement," Ramusack said. "You had to bite off the end of the cartridge, and then it would bring pollution into your body."

The manufacturers of the rifle had no idea that their product would, with one fell swoop, offend followers of the two dominant religions on the Indian subcontinent. They also had no way of knowing that many Indians thought this was part of a British plot to destroy their faith — just as some Muslims today see some aspects of Western culture as a threat to Islam.

In the first half of the 19th century, there was a big push by evangelical Protestant missionaries to convert the "heathen" overseas. Indians saw the introduction of the greased cartridges as a wedge to alienate them from their own religions so that they would have no choice but to turn to Christianity, Ramusack said.

"It was the idea that you were being set up to be converted to Christianity," she said.

Too Late to Stop the Violence

The British eventually realized what a gaffe they had made and set about replacing the offending cartridges, but by then it was too late, Ramusack said. Word about the greased cartridges had already spread from army cantonment to cantonment.

In Meerut, 40 miles from Delhi, 85 sepoys flatly refused to use the new rifles. They were marched off in shackles for disobeying orders. When their colleagues tried to free them, things got nasty — and the sepoys began slaughtering not only British soldiers, but also civilians, including women and children.

From Meerut, the mutineers moved on to Delhi, declaring their intention of restoring the Muslim Mughal Empire to its former glory. Indian princes whose power had been curtailed by the British joined in the rebellion, as did oppressed peasants.

The violence swept across northern India. Before it was over, myriad atrocities had been committed on both sides, and thousands were dead.

Although there were many Indians who protected Britons, popular opinion in Britain focused on the savagery of attacks against women and children. The grisly massacre at Cawnpore — where surrendering British troops were set upon by Indian fighters and the women and children were taken to a house and then butchered — became a rallying cry for outraged Britons.

Shock and Revenge

British revenge was thorough. "They carried out what could be described as a pogrom," said Wood.

The insurgency spelled the end of the Mughal Empire. The Emperor Bahadur Shah II, an elderly gentleman more interested in poetry than politics, was shipped off to Rangoon in Burma (now Myanmar), where he died in exile. The British government decided to remove the East India Company as India's administrator and take direct control itself.

The uprising came as a great shock to Britain, says Ramusack.

"The British were taken unawares. They didn't realize there was this discontent and opposition brewing. They thought they were bringing modernization," she said.

"The British saw themselves as benevolent paternalists, but there was another side to what they were doing," she added. "They were very shocked that the Indians didn't appreciate what they were doing. They were very shocked by the attacks on women and children."

There are some parallels between the distrust of modern Western culture felt by some in the Muslim world.

"We see globalization as a good thing," said Ramusack. "But the impact is very uneven around the world. It does threaten people's economic situation and the way in which they identify themselves."

‘Both Sides Have a Moral Imperative’

Wood sees similarities between the "indignity" Indians felt at what they saw as the British trampling their culture and the anger many in the Muslim world feel over Westernization — and at local rulers who they believe are supported by the West.

"There's still the indignity that has to be explained," he said. "Much of it is resentment against the elites of the countries they are in. They can't speak out [against their rulers]. They're only allowed to speak if they're denouncing the West."

He points to the resentment over the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, home of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

"You start with the fact that you can't go to Mecca unless you're a Muslim," Wood said. "They don't care about nationality — black Muslims are as welcome as Arabs. But [Muslims feel] the holy places shouldn't be visited by polluters. The next thing you know, the royal family has invited Westerners in and they don't go home."

And the differences between the two cultures only exacerbate the situation. "The things that you and I would do as a matter of daily practice are aggravating to the Saudis."

For example, Saudi authorities are upset because the Pentagon decided U.S. servicewomen no longer have to swathe themselves in the abaya when venturing off base. An American service women challenged the original veil requirement.

Americans are surprised by resentment at their presence in Saudi Arabia, since U.S. troops were sent there, in part, to protect that country against Saddam Hussein's forces during the Gulf War.

"Both sides have a moral imperative to do what they do," said Wood.

Wood believes that many of the governments under which many Muslim nations now chafe will eventually fold. But he does not see tensions between the Muslim world and the West dissipating any time soon.

Westerners can develop a greater cultural sensitivity, and "the ways we handle trade issues and military issues are in our hands." But the conflict is a problem "that is not going to go away," he said.

And when something does occur to set off those tensions, Wood says, it could be something very trivial. "The trigger could be something like the sight of a female ankle, although the underlying causes are much deeper than that."