<P> The Indian Rebellion of 1857 had diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes . </P> <P> The sepoys, a generic term was used for native Indian soldiers of the Bengal army . The spark that led to a mutiny in several sepoy companies was the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February, 1857 . A rumour was spread that the cartridges were made from cow and pig fat . Loading the Enfield required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth . This would have insulted both Hindu and Muslim religious practices; cows were considered holy by Hindus while pigs were considered unclean by Muslims . Underlying grievances over British taxation and recent land annexations by the BEIC were ignited by the sepoy mutineers and within weeks dozens of units of the Indian army joined peasant armies in widespread rebellion . The old aristocracy, both Muslim and Hindu, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the East India Company, also rebelled against British rule . Another important discontent among the Indian rulers was that the british policies of conquest had created unrest among many indian rulers . The policies like the doctrine of lapse, Subsidiary Alliance deprived Indian rulers of their power . </P> <P> Some Indians were upset with what they saw as the draconian rule of the Company who had embarked on a project of territorial expansion and westernisation that was imposed without any regard for historical subtleties in Indian society . Furthermore, legal changes introduced by the British were accompanied by prohibitions on Indian religious customs and were seen as steps towards forced conversion to Christianity . As early as the Charter Act of 1813 Christian missionaries were encouraged to come to Bombay and Calcutta under BEIC control . The British Governor - General of India from 1848 to 1856 was Lord Dalhousie who passed the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 which allowed women to remarry, like Christian women . He also passed decrees allowing Hindus who had converted to Christianity to be able to inherit property, which had previously been denied by local practice . Author Pramod Nayar points out that by 1851 there were nineteen Protestant religious societies operating in India whose goal was the conversion of Indians to Christianity . Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion . </P>

Main reason behind the sepoy rebellion of 1857
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