What do you understand by the term “Bell of arms”?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → A storeroom for weapons
In every army cantonment of 1857 the guns and bullets of the regiment were kept in one store, called the bell of arms. That is why the revolt began there: on 10 May 1857 at Meerut, the sepoys first captured the bell of arms, where the arms and ammunition were kept, and then attacked the British and their property. The same pattern was followed in cantonment after cantonment, since a mutiny needed weapons before anything else.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Revolt of 1857 and Its Representations Late in the afternoon of 10 May 1857, the sepoys in the cantonment of Meerut broke out in mutiny. It began in the lines of the native infantry, spread very swiftly to the cavalry and then to the city. The ordinary people of the town and surrounding villages joined the sepoys. The sepoys captured the bell of arms where the arms and ammunition were kept and proceeded to attack white people, and to ransack and burn their bungalows and property. Government buildings – the record office, jail, court, post office, treasury, etc. – were destroyed and plundered.… 1.1 How the mutinies began … The sepoys began their action with a signal: in many places it was the firing of the evening gun or the sounding of the bugle. They first seized the bell of arms and plundered the treasury. They then attacked government buildings – the jail, treasury, telegraph office, record room, bungalows – burning all records.…” |