ENTER YOUR EMAIL ON THE RIGHT FOR YOUR DAILY DOSE OF DORSET
Its may be hard to imagine but these innocuous blighters were the catalyst for an event that shook the British Empire to its core and changed British India forever.
They are examples of pre-packed cartridges introduced in the 1850s as standard issue to Indian native troops. The powder in the cartridges was kept dry by coating them with pork or beef fat, the troops being
expected to bite off the ends before loading them. This was highly offensive to the religious sensibilities of Muslim and Hindu troops. Pork was considered unclean by the Muslims while cattle were sacred to the Hindu. It caused a simmering undercurrent of discontent and a a match to a tinder box of grievances that finally exploded into bloody rebellion; a rebellion remembered today as The Indian mutiny.
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