Back in the days of the Sepoy Rebellion, the instigators spread the news (which may or may not have been true?) that the rifle cartridges handed out to the native troops were greased with a mixture of pork fat and beef tallow.
In those days rifle and musket "cartridges" were paper tubes filled with a pre-measured charge of black powder. Soldiers had to tear open the cartridge with their teeth, pour the powder down the barrel, drop in the rifle-ball (Sometimes packed in one end of the cartridge, and using the wrapping as a wad) and use the last bit of powder in the priming pan.
Since the native troops were a mixture of both Moslems and Hindus, this rumour scared and/or offended both. The British assurances to the contrary, coming after a refusal to discuss these concerns, were less than fully effective. Those troops that were uninterested in rebellion were not keen to take to the field against it at risk of polluting their souls, or else even switched sides in outrage at this apparent betrayal by their supposedly enlightened masters. |
