According to historians, the revolt by the Sepoys against their British masters in Meerut in May 1857 is considered to be the First War of Independence of India. Meerut also made news in the 1930s during the famous 'Meerut Conspiracy Trial'.

Meerut had always remained in the limelight in the fight against the colonial rulers. It was the town which sparked off the great revolt of 1857 when some of the Sepoys of the 3rd Cavalry regiment refused to use the greased cartridges. Their refusal to use the greased carvidges was regard­ed by the British authorities as an action of insubordination and was punished accordingly. On March 29,1857 the Sepoys at Barrackpore refused to use the greased cartridges and one Brahmin Sepoy  Mangal Pandey, attacked and fired at the Adjutant. He is described as the first martyr of India's Independence. At Meerut in May 1857, 85 Sepoys of the 3rd Cavalry regiment on their refusal to use the greased car­tridges were court - martialled and sen tenced to long terms of imprisonment. On l0th May, the Sepoys broke out in open rebellion, shot their officers, released their fellow Sepoys and headed towards Delhi. General Hewitt, the Officer Commanding at Meerut had 2,200 European soldiers at his disposal but did nothing to stem the rising tide.

The rebels seized Delhi on 12th May 1857. Lieutenant Willoughby, the officer-in-charge of the magazine at Delhi, offered some resistance, but was overcome. The palace and the city were occupied. Some European inhabitants of Delhi were shot dead. Bahadur Shah II was pro­claimed the Emperor of India.

The loss of Delhi was a serious loss of prestige to the English. Very soon the rebellion spread throughout Northern and Central India at Luc­know, Allahabad, Kanpur, Bareilly, Banaras, in parts of Bihar, Jhansi and other places. However, the most outstanding leader of the revolt was Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi, who had fought valiantly and died while fighting the British forces. Historians say although the rebellion was completely suppressed in July 1857, the momen­tum continued to serve as the main source of inspiration for people, who vigorously fought the British to free their motherland.

Meerut again made news in the late 1920s and early 1930s when the Meerut Conspiracy trail grabbed the attention of the entire nation. In India throughout 1928 and 1929 there was a strong wave of strikes, on the railroads, in iron­works and in the textile industry. 31 million working days lost in 1928, through industrial dis­putes. Trade Union numbers grew rapidly dur­ing this period. The British Government initiat­ed a committee headed by Sir Charles Fawcett to initiate action against the Communists. The arrests of prominent trade unionists and social­ists were part of the preparation for the issue of the report. The Meerut trial concerned 33 leaders (three of them Englishmen), most of them well known figures in the trade union and working class movement in India. After months of trail, most of them of sentenced to several years in prison, including Muzaffar Ahmed, S.A Dange, Philip Spratt, P.C Joshi, Samshul Huda and oth­ers. But after an appeal and nationwide protests, in July 1933, the sentences were reduced. Ahmed, Dange and Usmani received 3 years Rigorous Imprisonment, Spratt 2 years, nine others origi­nally 7-12 years had their sentences reduced to I year or less.