The historians have different views on the form of the revolt. The struggle which started from military dissatisfaction took the form of a national revolt and freedom struggle due to public support. This was the first joint blow against the British. It can be called to be the first freedom struggle.

Major Views on the Revolt: This was a sepoy mutiny – Robert John Lawrence, Ceile, Charles Rakes, Durgadas Bandyopadhyay, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan considered this revolt as sepoy mutiny. Undoubtedly, this revolt started in the form of a sepoy mutiny but as every section of the society participated in it, this cannot be regarded to be fully correct.

It was a Muslim reaction – According to Sir James Outram, W. Taylor, Mollison and Copeland, this revolt was a form of Muslim conspiracy in pretext of Hindu concerns. This was an effort of reestablishment of Muslim rule. But as the Hindus participated in this revolt in large number, this view also can not be regarded to be fully correct.

It was a public revolt – According to Sir J. Kaye, this revolt was a struggle of the black people against the white people. But there were many Indians in the British army, therefore saying so is also not correct, and the rapid pace with which this revolt spread made this clear that the revolt received massive support from the people.

Canning wrote that the revolt which had taken place against our rule in Awadh was extremely terrific. John Bruce Norton has called it as public revolt. Mollison has regarded it to be a joint effort to throw the British out of India.

It was peasant revolt – As the farmers played an important role in this revolt, some scholars have also addressed it as a peasant revolt. Along with the company government, farmers also revolted against the big talluqdars, but this cannot be considered as fully correct.

It was a national revolt – Benjamin Disraeli, Ashok Mehta, Veer Savarkar etc. called it as ‘national revolt. But the western historians consider the definition of nationalism in context of the nationalism of 20th century in Europe, therefore they do not regard it as a national revolt.

Dr Satya Rai has written that we should not implement European definitions in Indian context. Due to nationalistic feeling, people from all sections of the society ignored their mutual conflicts and without any discrimination, they made joint efforts to throw the British out India, which comes under the category of national struggle.

This revolt was the war of Indian Independence – Many scholars have regarded it as the first freedom struggle of India. Dr S. N. Sen, V. D. Savarkar, Pt Nehru, Dr Tarachand. Dr Vishveshwar Prasad S. B. Chaudhary considered that whatever be the actual form of this revolt, shortly, this revolt became a challenge to British rule in India and it received the credit of being the national freedom struggle against the British. So it was the freedom struggle of India.