India 1857

This is one of a series of resources, produced using documents from our collections, by teachers taking our MA module.

This lesson sequence for key stage 5 students was written by Helen Hedges. Helen teaches in an 11-18 selective grammar school.

Overall enquiry question

How can we explain why so many Indian people decided to fight against the British in 1857?

understand that evidence strengthens an argument
be able to identify claims and supporting evidence, and analyse the relationship between claim and evidence
use provenance to understand the context in which a document was written, and use this to draw secure inferences
be able to make inferences about the actions, beliefs and aims of the Indian ‘mutineers’ based on a piece of primary evidence
understand that the level of certainty about a claim can change depending on the type of claim being made and the evidence available
use provenance to help build certainty about claims and understand how use of multiple sources can be used to increase and decrease certainty of claims
construct an argument about the motives of the Indian ‘mutineers’ based on claims from various sources of evidence
test a controversial statement based on evidence and claims from multiple sources