<P> After the outbreak of the mutiny in Meerut , the rebels very quickly reached Delhi and declared its 81 - year - old Mughal ruler , Bahadur Shah Zafar , as Emperor of Hindustan . Soon , they also captured large tracts of the North - Western Provinces and Awadh ( Oudh ) . The East India Company 's response came rapidly as well . With help from reinforcements , Kanpur was retaken by mid-July 1857 and Delhi by the end of September . Even so , it then took the remainder of 1857 and the better part of 1858 for the rebellion to be suppressed in Jhansi , Lucknow , and especially the Awadh countryside . Other regions of Company - controlled India -- the Bengal Presidency , the Bombay Presidency and the Madras Presidency -- remained largely calm . In the Punjab , the Sikhs crucially helped the British by providing both soldiers and support . The large princely states ( Hyderabad , Mysore , Travancore , and Kashmir ) , as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana , did not join the rebellion , serving the British , in the words of Governor - General Lord Canning , as `` breakwaters in a storm . '' </P>
<P> After the outbreak of the mutiny in Meerut , the rebels very quickly reached Delhi and declared its 81 - year - old Mughal ruler , Bahadur Shah Zafar , as Emperor of Hindustan . Soon , they also captured large tracts of the North - Western Provinces and Awadh ( Oudh ) . The East India Company 's response came rapidly as well . With help from reinforcements , Kanpur was retaken by mid-July 1857 and Delhi by the end of September . Even so , it then took the remainder of 1857 and the better part of 1858 for the rebellion to be suppressed in Jhansi , Lucknow , and especially the Awadh countryside . Other regions of Company - controlled India -- the Bengal Presidency , the Bombay Presidency and the Madras Presidency -- remained largely calm . In the Punjab , the Sikhs crucially helped the British by providing both soldiers and support . The large princely states ( Hyderabad , Mysore , Travancore , and Kashmir ) , as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana , did not join the rebellion , serving the British , in the words of Governor - General Lord Canning , as `` breakwaters in a storm . '' </P>
who was the governor general when the revolt of 1857 broke out
who was the governor general when the revolt of 1857 broke out
Lord Canning
Lord Canning