Military Revolt: – According to Sir John Seeley, the revolt of 1857 was completely unnational and selfish soldiers, which had no indigenous leadership and nor public cooperation. Sir John Lawrence has also described this as a military rebellion and the main reason for this is attributed to the fat cartridge. PE Roberts also considered it to be a pure military rebellion. VA Smith has written that, “It was a purely military mutiny, which was jointly the result of the indiscipline of the Indian soldiers and the folly of the British military officers.” Thus, almost all foreign historians consider it a military rebellion.

In 1957 AD, the first century of the revolution of 1857 AD was celebrated in independent India and on this occasion this revolution was reconsidered by the government and other researchers. Surendranath Sen has written in his book ‘Eighteen Fifty Seven’ 1857′, “The movement started like a military rebellion, but was not limited to the army only. The army also did not participate fully in the rebellion.” He has also written that it would be wrong to call this rebellion a mere military coup. Shashibhushan Choudhary also called it a revolt of the common people. Dr. R. C. Majumdar called it a military uprising, but he also said that it was supported by the masses in some areas.