section_path: Significance and impact/1857 rebellion and the Independence movement
section_name: 1857 rebellion and the Independence movement
paragraph_text: 1857 rebellion and the Independence movement
  
  According to the colonial archives, the Prayagwal community associated with the Kumbh Mela were one of those who seeded and perpetuated the resistance and 1857 rebellion against the colonial rule. Prayagwals objected to and campaigned against the colonial government-supported Christian missionaries and officials who treated them and the pilgrims as "ignorant co-religionists" and those who aggressively tried to convert the Hindu pilgrims to a Christian sect. During the 1857 rebellion, Colonel Neill targeted the Kumbh Mela site and shelled the region where the Prayagwals lived, destroying it in what Maclean describes as a "notoriously brutal pacification of Allahabad". In response, the Prayagwals targeted and destroyed the local mission press and churches. Once the British had regained control of the region, the Prayagwals were persecuted by colonial officials. Some were convicted and hanged, while others for whom the government did not have proof enough to convict were persecuted. Large tracts of Kumbh Mela lands near the Ganga-Yamuna confluence were confiscated and annexed into the government cantonment. In the years after 1857, the Prayagwals and the Kumbh Mela pilgrim crowds carried flags with images alluding to the rebellion and the racial persecution. The British media reported these pilgrim assemblies and protests at the later Kumbh Mela as strangely "hostile" and with "disbelief." The Kumbh Mela continued to play an important role in the independence movement through 1947, as a place where the native people and politicians periodically gathered in large numbers. In 1906, the Sanatan Dharm Sabha met at the Prayag Kumbh Mela and resolved to start the Banaras Hindu University in Madan Mohan Malaviya's leadership. Kumbh Melas have also been one of the hubs for the Hindutva movement and politics. In 1964, the Vishva Hindu Parishad was founded at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela.
  
  According to the colonial archives, the Prayagwal community associated with the Kumbh Mela were one of those who seeded and perpetuated the resistance and 1857 rebellion against the colonial rule. Prayagwals objected to and campaigned against the colonial government-supported Christian missionaries and officials who treated them and the pilgrims as "ignorant co-religionists" and those who aggressively tried to convert the Hindu pilgrims to a Christian sect. During the 1857 rebellion, Colonel Neill targeted the Kumbh Mela site and shelled the region where the Prayagwals lived, destroying it in what Maclean describes as a "notoriously brutal pacification of Allahabad". In response, the Prayagwals targeted and destroyed the local mission press and churches. Once the British had regained control of the region, the Prayagwals were persecuted by colonial officials. Some were convicted and hanged, while others for whom the government did not have proof enough to convict were persecuted. Large tracts of Kumbh Mela lands near the Ganga-Yamuna confluence were confiscated and annexed into the government cantonment. In the years after 1857, the Prayagwals and the Kumbh Mela pilgrim crowds carried flags with images alluding to the rebellion and the racial persecution. The British media reported these pilgrim assemblies and protests at the later Kumbh Mela as strangely "hostile" and with "disbelief." The Kumbh Mela continued to play an important role in the independence movement through 1947, as a place where the native people and politicians periodically gathered in large numbers. In 1906, the Sanatan Dharm Sabha met at the Prayag Kumbh Mela and resolved to start the Banaras Hindu University in Madan Mohan Malaviya's leadership. Kumbh Melas have also been one of the hubs for the Hindutva movement and politics. In 1964, the Vishva Hindu Parishad was founded at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela.