Delhi Mutiny Tour

Revisiting Delhi of 1857

Delhi the capital of the Mughal Empire, was reduced to insignificance over the preceding century. The 82-year old Mughal Monarch Bahadur Shah II (Bahadur Shah Zafar) became the frail figurehead under which Indian rebel forces rallied.

Delhi was taken by Indian rebel troops in May 1857. From June to September 1857, British troops (with reinforcements from the Sikh, Gorkha, Pathan and other regiments) laid siege to Delhi and in a series of attacks, finally won back the city. On September 20th, Bahadur Shah surrendered. The very next day, Bahadur Shah’s sons and grandson were shot by Major Hodson, and the city was declared to be recaptured by the British East India Company. Brigadier John Nicholson, who played a leading role in the siege of Delhi, died of his wounds on September 22nd, one day after taking over of Delhi. Rudyard Kipling has immortalised his death in his famous work, ‘Kim’.

After the fall of Delhi, the Mutiny lost its leadership and broke up into disparate uprisings. It took the British nearly a year of fighting to subdue the uprisings and establish control. This was followed by a horrific programme of purges that became known as the “Devil’s Wind”. Thousands were executed without trial, including an entire village population, to ensure that the Mutiny would not be repeated. Finally in 1858, the East India Company was formally dissolved and its power over India was transferred to the Crown – the beginning of the Raj.

We take you on a very well-researched structural tour of Delhi visiting the places that were under siege and the ones that saw the horrific incidents finally leading to the recapture of the walled city of Delhi. On this exhaustive tour we visit : St James Church,  Nicholson’s Cemetery,  The Telegraph Memorial, Kashmere Gate,  The Mutiny Memorial,  Flagstaff Tower, The Magazine, The Khooni Darwaza (Bloody Gate). This tour is led by a Mutiny Specialist Guide and is a special interest subject based tour.