Views

The passions of the mutineers were centred on their grievances, not on larger ideals.

Percival Spear

The Mutiny became a Revolt and assumed a political character when the mutineers of Meerut placed themselves under the king of Delhi and a section of the landed aristocracy and civil population decided in his favour. What began as a fight for religion ended as a war of independence.

S.N. Sen

... had a single leader of ability arisen among them (the rebels), we must have been lost beyond redemption.

John Lawrence

The revolt of 1857 was a struggle of the soldier-peasant democratic combine against foreign imperialism as well as indigenous landlordism.

Marxist Interpretation

It was far more than a mutiny, ... yet much less than a first war of independence.