The East India Company: A History from Beginning to End (The East India Companies)

by Henry Freeman

Sepoys had been exempt from serving outside of India, but some changes to the duties of lower caste soldiers made higher caste sepoys fearful that they, too, would have to serve overseas eventually. The rebellion largely originated with higher-ranking sepoys, so these fears and rumors had a great impact.

These atrocities on the side of the rebels were widely reported in Britain, especially rape, and dissolved any sympathy that the British people might have felt toward the Indians and their plight.

(in fact, Karl Marx himself spoke out against some of the propagandized reports and questioned their validity).