Who led the revolt of 1857 at Kanpur?

The correct answer is B, Meerut. On 10 May 1857 the sepoys of the garrison at Meerut refused the new cartridges, killed their European officers, released their imprisoned comrades and marched towards Delhi, which they reached on 12 May. That day is taken as the beginning of the revolt.

Option A is wrong because Barrackpore in Bengal was where Mangal Pandey attacked his officers in March 1857, an earlier incident treated as the spark rather than the outbreak; it is the commonest wrong answer here. Option C is wrong because Delhi was reached two days later, and it became the political centre of the revolt when Bahadur Shah II was proclaimed emperor. Option D is wrong because Kanpur rose later under Nana Saheb. Fix the sequence in mind: Barrackpore in March, Meerut on 10 May, Delhi on 12 May.

The correct answer is B, 34th Native Infantry. Mangal Pandey was a sepoy of this regiment stationed at Barrackpore near Calcutta. In March 1857 he attacked his officers rather than use the new greased cartridges; he was court martialled and hanged on 8 April 1857, and his regiment was disbanded.

Option A is wrong because the 19th Native Infantry at Berhampore had earlier refused the cartridges and was disbanded, but Mangal Pandey did not belong to it. Option C is wrong because the 3rd Light Cavalry was the Meerut regiment whose men began the revolt on 10 May 1857. Option D is wrong because the Awadh irregular units joined the rising later in the year. Examiners often pair these regiments with the wrong station, so remember Mangal Pandey with the 34th Native Infantry and Barrackpore together.

The correct answer is D, Sepoy Mutiny 1857. Begum Hazrat Mahal, a queen of the deposed ruler of Awadh, led the revolt at Lucknow in 1857 and had her young son Birjis Qadr proclaimed the ruler of Awadh. She held the city for months, rejected the terms the British offered her and withdrew to Nepal, where she died.

Option A is wrong because the Moplah Revolt of 1921 was a peasant rising in the Malabar region of present day Kerala, long after her time. Option B is wrong because the Paika Revolt of 1817 in Odisha was led by Bakshi Jagabandhu, four decades before 1857. Option C is wrong because there was no Gond revolt of 1941 of this kind; the Gond risings against the Company belong to the early nineteenth century. Her name always goes with Lucknow and Awadh in 1857.

The correct answer is A, Jagdishpur in Bihar. Kunwar Singh, a zamindar of Jagdishpur in the Shahabad region, was about eighty years old when he took up arms, fought the British at Arrah with his brother Amar Singh and carried the revolt into central India before returning to Bihar, where he died in 1858.

Option B is wrong because Rohilkhand, with Bareilly at its centre, was the country of Khan Bahadur Khan. Option C is wrong because Bundelkhand is the region of Jhansi and Rani Lakshmibai. Option D is wrong because Malwa, with Indore and Mhow, is associated with the Holkar state, whose ruler stayed with the British while some of his troops rose. Bihar questions on 1857 almost always turn on Jagdishpur and Arrah, so keep those two place names with Kunwar Singh.

The correct answer is B, the greased cartridges of the Enfield rifle. The new rifle needed a cartridge whose end had to be bitten open, and the sepoys believed the paper was greased with the fat of cows and pigs, which offended Hindus and Muslims alike. The refusal to use these cartridges led to the disbanding of regiments and then to the rising at Meerut.

Option A is wrong because the annexation of Awadh in 1856 was an important political cause but not the immediate one. Option C is wrong for the same reason: the Doctrine of Lapse of Lord Dalhousie created the grievances of Jhansi, Satara and Nagpur years earlier. Option D is wrong because the Vernacular Press Act belongs to 1878, two decades after the revolt, under Lord Lytton. Distinguish carefully between the long term causes and the immediate spark, since the question is set both ways.