What are the immediate causes of war of independence?
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Immediate cause behind war
The revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. Before loading ho these rifles, the Sepoys had to bit off the paper on the cartridges. Both Hindu and Muslim Sepoys refused to use them. Canning tried to make amends for the error and the offending cartridges had been done. There was unrest in several places. In March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy in Barrakpore, had refused to use the cartridge and attacked his senior officers. He was hanged to death on 8 April. On 9th May,85 soldiers in Meerut refused to use the new rifle and were sentenced to ten years imprisonment.