ABSTRACT
Britain's 'little war' with Persia had ended, but the Second Opium War was in progress when the British empire was shaken by a crisis which overshadowed Middle and Far Eastern conflicts. A spirit of resentment and revolt had been rife in parts of India for some time; it was reflected in acts of indiscipline among the 'sepoys', the native Indian troops. This became open mutiny in May 1857, ostensibly because of a rumour affecting the religious sensibilities of both Hindu and Moslem soldiers. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would apparently have welcomed a long continuance of the insurrection which they described as not just a military mutiny but a 'national revolt'. Implicit in a number of Marx-Engels utterances is the view that British rule in India, however base and mercenary its motivation, however reactionary and oppressive its character, had in the past and would have in the future an essential role in the sub-continent's social and economic development.
