The steps taken by the British to reform their army after the rebellion was suppressed were:
(i) The proportion of Indian sepoys was reduced and the proportion of European soldiers increased.
(ii) Indian sepoys recruited would mainly be from the Gurkhas, Sikhs and Pathans. Sepoys from Awadh, Bihar, Central India or South India were not being recruited.
(iii) Troops were no longer in the service of the East India Company. They would serve directly under the British Crown.

Bahadur Shah Zafar's support to the rebellion had a significant impact. Threatened by the expansion of British rule, many of the ruling families felt that if the Mughal emperor could rule again, they too would be able to rule their own territories once more, under Mughal authority. When people saw an alternative possibility which appealed to them, they felt inspired and enthused. It gave them the courage, hope and confidence to act.
Some examples of this effect are:
(i) Many troop regiments mutinied to join other troops at nodal points like Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow.
(ii) Nana Saheb proclaimed himselfPeshwa and a governor under the Mughal king.
(iii) Birjis Qadr, son of the deposed Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in Lucknow, acknowledged that he ruled under the Mughal king.
(iv) In Jhansi, Rani Lakshmibai joined the rebel sepoys and fought the British along with Tantia Tope, the general of Nana Saheb.

Major centres of Revolt of 1857 were: Meerut On 9th May 1857, 85 sepoys in Meerut were dismissed from service and sentenced to 10 years in jail as they refused to do the army drill using the new cartridge which was suspected of being coated with the fat of cows and pigs.
Delhi As news of the arrival of rebel sepoys of Meerut spread, the regiments stationed in Delhi rose-up in rebellion. Bahadur Shah Zafar was declared as the leader of the sepoys. The emperor wrote letters to all chiefs and rulers of the country to come forward and organise a confederacy of Indian states to fight the British.

The rebelled soldiers were determined to bring an end to the rule of the British in the country. They wanted Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar would rule the country instead of the British. Triumphant soldiers gathered around the walls of the Red Fort and demanded to meet the emperor.
At first, the emperor was not quite willing to challenge the British power, but the soldiers persisted and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader. The ageing emperor had to accept this demand. He was against the repressive policies of the British and wanted to end the British rule.

Important concerns in the minds of the people according to Vishnubhatt were:
(i) The British were determined to wipe out the religions of the Hindus and the Muslims.
(ii) They made a list of 84 rules and announced these.
The important concerns in the minds of the people according to Sitaram Pande were: (i) The seizing of Oudh was the main reason of sepoy's resentment.
(ii) The cartridges used for the new rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs and both Muslims and Hindus would be defiled by using it.

The revolt of 1857 had a popular character due to two reasons.
These are:
(i) The revolt was started by the Indian sepoys employed by the East India Company and continued by them all over North India. These sepoys were mostly ordinary people from peasant families in rural areas and so it was a popular uprising.
(ii) The leaders of the revolt were the local rulers and chieftains, most of whom were well-liked by the populace due to their treatment of the people under their control. Thus most of them, with a few exceptions, were popular rulers. All the above people disliked the British officials, whom they felt was interfering in their normal way of life. Due to this, the revolt developed a popular character.

The British did not need to justify the takeover of India to themselves, as it was part of their policy of colonialism.
To the outside world, they justified it by saying that they were civilising the natives, who were following uncivilised traditions and practices.
As part of their policy, they economically impoverished India by taking away products valued by them at throwaway prices or as taxes for governing the people.
This policy was not justified because India lost much of its resources to the British, resulting in the poverty which we see and feel even today. Further, there were many loopholes in the policy which could be used by individuals for their personal gain and enjoyment at the cost of the country.

The soldiers who mutinied in Meerut rushed to Delhi and forced the Mughal king to give his backing to the revolt.
His writing a letter to all the chiefs to revolt was significant, as troops mutinied and joined other troops at nodal points like Delhi, Kanpur and" Lucknow.
Seeing this, the people of the towns and villages revolted and rallied around local leaders, zamindars and chiefs who were prepared to establish their authority and fight the British.
These leaders included Nana Saheb (Kanpur), Rani Lakshmibai (Jhansi), Begum Hazrat Mahal and Birjis Oadr (Lucknow), Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah (Faizabad), Bakht Khan (Bareilly) and Kunwar Singh (Bihar), among others. The British troops were outnumbered and were defeated in a number of battles.