A History of Assam c23.5

c23.5

There was a large number of Hindustani sepoys in the 1st Assam Light Infantry, then stationed at Dibrugarh, as well as in a local artillery corps. There was also a considerable, though smaller, number of these upcountry men in the 2nd Assam Light Infantry which was quartered at Gauhāti. In September 1857 an uneasy feeling began to display itself among the men of the Dibrugarh regiment, owing to letters received by some of the Hindustani sepoys from Shāhābād, where many of them had been recruited; and some of them were found to have entered into a conspiracy with the Sāring Raja, a scion of the Ahom royal family who resided at Jorhat. Colonel Hannay, the Commandant, at once deprived the Hindustani members of the regiment of the opportunity for communication with each other, and for combination, by sending them to the small outlying outposts, while he concentrated in Dibrugarh the loyal Gurkhas and the