1857 brought Hindu and Muslim reactionaries together as they got threatened by the "Goras" out to insult their religion and threaten their practices such as Shariat , untouchability and Sati. It was a holy war which united Hindus and Muslims for a moment and if British had lost - they would have started to slit each other's throats. The cruelty of these "freedom fighters" towards women and children was something unbelievable and rather shameful. It was less like 911 and more like Darfur. The net result of 1857 was that the crown took over the rule of India from East India Company and that began the period during which India started getting integrated and trappings of modern life were introduced. India of 1857 was a lot like Afghanistan of today - disunity , tribalism , religious extremism, no national army etc - and what we had in 1947 was a system given on platter by the British to Indians to take things forward.
