<P> Mufti Nizamuddin, a renowned scholar of Lahore, issued a Fatwa against the British forces and called upon the local population to support the forces of Rao Tula Ram . Casualties were high at the subsequent engagement at Narnaul (Nasibpur). After the defeat of Rao Tula Ram on 16 November 1857, Mufti Nizamuddin was arrested, and his brother Mufti Yaqinuddin and brother - in - law Abdur Rahman (alias Nabi Baksh) were arrested in Tijara . They were taken to Delhi and hanged . Having lost the fight at Nasibpur, Rao Tula Ram and Pran Sukh Yadav requested arms from Russia, which had just been engaged against Britain in the Crimean War . </P> <P> The British were slow to strike back at first . It took time for troops stationed in Britain to make their way to India by sea, although some regiments moved overland through Persia from the Crimean War, and some regiments already en route for China were diverted to India . </P> <P> It took time to organise the European troops already in India into field forces, but eventually two columns left Meerut and Simla . They proceeded slowly towards Delhi and fought, killed, and hanged numerous Indians along the way . Two months after the first outbreak of rebellion at Meerut, the two forces met near Karnal . The combined force including two Gurkha units serving in the Bengal Army under contract from the Kingdom of Nepal, fought the main army of the rebels at Badli - ke - Serai and drove them back to Delhi . </P> <P> The Company established a base on the Delhi ridge to the north of the city and the Siege of Delhi began . The siege lasted roughly from 1 July to 21 September . However, the encirclement was hardly complete, and for much of the siege the Company forces were outnumbered and it often seemed that it was the Company forces and not Delhi that were under siege, as the rebels could easily receive resources and reinforcements . For several weeks, it seemed likely that disease, exhaustion and continuous sorties by rebels from Delhi would force the Company forces to withdraw, but the outbreaks of rebellion in the Punjab were forestalled or suppressed, allowing the Punjab Movable Column of British, Sikh and Pakhtun soldiers under John Nicholson to reinforce the besiegers on the Ridge on 14 August . On 30 August the rebels offered terms, which were refused . </P>

When was the first war of indian independence started