The activities of the British Indian Association may justly be regarded as a pioneering effort towards the political awakening of India in the pre-1857 period. Two broad ideas one for a united stand by all Indians and the other for demanding political rights and administrative reforms worked simultaneously to produce a feeling of oneness.

        The freedom movement in India in the pre 1857 period was an expression of two contradictory ideas, one anti-British and the other pro-British. The latter related to the birth of nationalism and patriotism as a reaction to the devotion of the people to the principles of British administration and English education. The anti-British movement of this period was reflected in a series of political and civil commotions, which originated from hostile reactions against the British conquests. It gained momentum with the actual experience of the evils of British rule.

        It was, therefore, not clear to them if any help rendered to the British in their wars and conquests would go against the interests of their country. When, however, it was realized that the British had established their grip over India, they began to react in a different way.

This realization that they had been enslaved by a foreign race came gradually, first when the rule of the Company had expanded upto the Sutlej and Lord Hastings showed a tendency to disown the Mughal emperor, but more pointedly in 1835 when the Company felt strong enough to strike coins without the emperor’s name. During the same year, Persian was replaced by English as the language of the court. The cumulative effect of all these changes was a sense of awareness of the political subjugation of the country. It affected the minds not only of the civil population but also of the members of the armed forces.

The growing discontent of the people was further aggravated by two measures in particular, namely the Land Revenue Settlements of James Thomson and others and The Annexation Of Avadh by Dalhousie.

These actions made the union of civil rebellion and military revolt inevitable. The former measure created a class of dispossessed nobles and landlords and the dissolution of the kingdom of Avadh gave a rude shock to the Indian soldiers in the Bengal Army who were recruited mostly from that area.

The power of the Company had been rendered strong by the service of the sepoys and then utilized to overthrow their king. This created a rebellious mood which was so clearly in evidence in the feelings of the sepoys during the Revolt of 1857.