History is written by the victors — the Sepoy Mutiny

The great uprising of the Indian people against their colonial overlords, which started on 10 May 1857.

Let’s go.

It’s 1857 and India is under the rule of the British East India Company, a private company acting as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. Discontent is growing as the British increasingly dominate Indian life — economically, politically and culturally. The old aristocracy is crumbling and the firanghis (foreigners, especially a British or a white person) are employing a range of tactics to usurp control of the different states. This is real life Game of Thrones, Little Finger stuff. One such tactic is the Doctrine of Lapse, which allows the British to annex the land of Hindu rulers who have no natural heir, a practice that is abused in questionable ways.

But it’s the introduction of a new type of ammunition cartridge for the Enfield rifle that breaks the camel’s back. To load the rifles, the Sepoys — Indian infantrymen employed by the East India Company — have to bite off the ends of the lubricated paper cartridges to release the powder. But a foul rumour begins to stir: the cartridges are greased in pig and cow lard, massively insulting to both Hindus and Muslims.

“You will soon lose your caste, as ere long you will have to bite the cartridges covered with the fat of pigs and cows.”

~Says a lower-caste labourer that works at a cartridge depot to a Sepoy