First, while sepoys could gain rank in the armies of the British East India Company, they were also outranked by British officers. What that said, the Sepoy Rebellion was also spread by other issues that angered the Indian soldiers. As such, rumors of the grease in the rifles spread throughout the ranks of the Muslim and Hindu sepoy soldiers, which led to the outbreak of the rebellion. This is significant, because pork was considered repulsive to Muslims, while beef was considered repulsive to Hindus. However, the cartridges for the Enfield rifle, which was the standard issue rifle for sepoy soldiers, were greased with a combination of beef and pork fat. For instance, India had large populations of both Muslims and Hindus, which meant that these religious faiths were heavily represented among the sepoy soldiers. It saw Indian soldiers, called ‘sepoys’, protest the cartridges used in their rifles. As stated above, the Sepoy Rebellion first began on May 10th, 1857 and lasted until November 1st, 1858. In fact, the Sepoy Rebellion of 1858 is considered to be one of the earliest examples of Indian revolt against British rule in India and the starting point of the Indian Independence Movement. This time period mirrors the period of the British Raj, which is when the British government ruled over India as a colony of the British Empire. Historians consider the Indian Independence Movement to have occurred over a period of about 90 years from 1857 until 1947. The history of early British imperialism in India is significant because it helps explain the rise of the Indian Independence movements in the mid-1800s.
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