‘A Most Inconvenient Warfare’: The Impact of Rebel-Dacoits on Rural Resistance and Colonial Security After the Indian ‘Mutiny’ of 1857

Abstract

The Indian ‘Mutiny’ of 1857 was an uprising composed of multiple conflicts, including local wars, communal violence and dacoity (banditry). Under the East India Company, landholders, villages and dacoits avoided state intrusion through local systems of mutually advantageous relationships. The unrest of 1857 presented new challenges for British rule as dacoits latched on to rebel governments, engaging in plunder, extortion and destroying colonial infrastructure. This investigation examines resistance beyond the conflict’s close in 1859, interrogating ‘Rebel-Dacoits’, hybrid bands of dacoits and former rebels, continuing bandit practices at a local level by creating rebel identities and harnessing ideology. Throughout the 1860s, colonial officials adapted policies and emergency measures to crush rebel-dacoits. Investigating rebel-dacoits extends Indian resistance narratives and provides insight into colonial rule in rural India.