First War of Independence of India in 1857 succeeds

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The problem with this POD is the title - as others have pointed out there was no "India" prior to the British, only a collection of Princely states. In fact I think it is true to say that the only state ever to control the whole of the sub-continent was the UK.

Congress and Gandhi could not have gained independence for as large a nation as present day India unless the Mutiny was defeated.
 
The problem with this POD is the title - as others have pointed out there was no "India" prior to the British, only a collection of Princely states. In fact I think it is true to say that the only state ever to control the whole of the sub-continent was the UK.

Congress and Gandhi could not have gained independence for as large a nation as present day India unless the Mutiny was defeated.

It is a silly idea of the British that they created India. It was their good fortune that at the time of their arrival, the Mughal Empire was past its prime and had entered its period of decadence. Several powers like the Mahrattas, the Sikhs, the Nawabs and the Sultans were fighting each other.
Even before the Mughals, starting from the Mauryas, several empires have rose and fell bringing large areas under their control. The concept of a common identity for the subcontinent always existed. The Indian people called the land as Bharatvarsh and themselves as Bharatvasi. Even when the political unity was absent, the cultural and civilizational unity continued.
 
It is a silly idea of the British that they created India. It was their good fortune that at the time of their arrival, the Mughal Empire was past its prime and had entered its period of decadence. Several powers like the Mahrattas, the Sikhs, the Nawabs and the Sultans were fighting each other.
Even before the Mughals, starting from the Mauryas, several empires have rose and fell bringing large areas under their control. The concept of a common identity for the subcontinent always existed. The Indian people called the land as Bharatvarsh and themselves as Bharatvasi. Even when the political unity was absent, the cultural and civilizational unity continued.

As a fellow Indian, I can appreciate the truth of this. The thing is, it actually was the political unity that was essential.
 
I think that is even oversimplifying it, seeing many of the players were local princes without strong views about the British but just weighing up which side to join based on their assessment of the situation.

This is important. A lot of Indians still wanted the British there at this point. They still had the reputation of fair outside dealers. The rapacious thieves characterization hadn't really taken hold yet.
 
For an earlier Independent India, this PoD is mostly hyperbole. Even IF, the mutiny succeeds, there is no cohesion of the people of Bharat, all it will do is most likely re-form the 18th century situation.
However I will attempt it:
If what is said by later historians is to be believed, the mutineers wanted the Mughal emperor as the head of state, and unless a very (and I mean VERY) politically savvy successor or prime minister shows up quickly, all lands outside the hindi belt will be gone within 10 years.
This would mean keeping the British and other foreign powers at an arms length, giving freedoms of power towards both the Hindus and the Sikhs, employing some form of universal education (aside from the Madrassas) to unite the people, preferably teaching a language such as Hindustani (the root language of both Hindi and Urdu), however what script it would be in causes even further questions. (I would go for the English script for a happy medium).
So a level of implementing both centralization AND decentralisation would give this re-established Mughal empire more time in this precarious situation, even then I assume by 1900 it would be gone. (However hopefully it's successor state would still hold most of the subcontinent together).
 
I'm not sure when the Second Opium War broke out, but if you could somehow delay the Second Opium War until the same year as the Indian First War of Independence, then Britain is forced to expend her resources fighting both the Indian revolutionaries and the Qing Chinese forces. Although the British may win in China, she'd be exahusted fighting the Indian revolutionaries.

Two problems with this. One, it already happened: as Lord Elgin wrote in his diary:

5 June [1857]. I received letters from Canning, imploring me to send troops to him from the number destined to China... I did what I could, and in concert with the general [Ashburnham] have sent instructions far and wide to turn the transports back, and give Canning the benefit of the troops for the moment.

Two, the commitment of troops when the British did end up fighting (1860) was not exactly large- c.14,000, which due to an administrative error was larger than the 10,000 they'd agreed with the French.

General Commanding: Lieutenant General Sir James Hope Grant
1st Division (Major General Sir John Michel)
-1st Brigade (Brigadier Charles Staveley)
--2/1st (Royal) Regiment
--31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment
--Ludhiana Sikhs
-2nd Brigade (Brigadier Sutton)
--1/2nd (Queen's Royal) Regiment
--2/60th (King's Royal Rifle Corps) Regiment
--15th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
-1st Battery, 4th Brigade Royal Artillery (Barry's)
-4th Battery, 13th Brigade Royal Artillery (Desborough's)
-No. 10 Company, Royal Engineers (Fisher's)
-Half of no. 8 Company, Royal Engineers

2nd Division (Major General Sir Robert Napier)
-3rd Brigade (Brigadier Jephson)
--1/3rd (East Kent) Regiment
--44th (East Essex) Regiment
--8th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
-4th Brigade (Brigadier Reeves)
--67th (South Hampshire) Regiment
--99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment
--19th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
-3rd Battery, 13th Brigade Royal Artillery (Govan's)
-7th Battery, 4th Brigade Royal Artillery (Sterling's/Moubray's)
-No. 23 Company Royal Engineers (Graham's)

Cavalry (Brigadier Pattle)
-1st (King's) Dragoon Guards
-11th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry
-19th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry
-2nd Battery, 4th Brigade Royal Artillery (Milward's)

Reserve
-4th Battery, 2nd Brigade Royal Artillery (Rotton's)
-Siege train and heavy artillery
-Madras Sappers
-1st Battalion, Military Train

To put it in perspective, there were 66 British and 12 Indian Army regiments in India in 1859, with 36 regular and 39 embodied militia regiments at home and 29 in the colonies (i.e., excluding India). In 1856, there had been nine regular and 113 embodied militia regiments at home, 25 regular regiments and 10 embodied militia in the colonies. Long story short, Britain wasn't at the end of its rope.
 
In order for the Mutiny to succeed, you need the Sikhs to rebel. IOTL, it was they who put down the Mutiny. If they rebel, India is lost.

Of course, India will become a bunch of independent states.
 
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