Most British officers in native regiments refused to believe that their own men could possibly be misled by such stupid, idle talk

From The Great Mutiny by Christopher Hibbert. Page 61.

Most British officers in native regiments refused to believe that their own men could possibly be misled by such stupid, idle talk. But there were a few who could not share the general confidence. Sir Charles Napier, who had resigned as Commander-in-Chief soon after the annexation of the Punjab in 1849, had been convinced that the sepoys of the Bengal Army were dangerously unsettled. The annexation had been a great blow to the sepoys from Oudh who were then in the Punjab because they had received extra pay while serving outside the Company's territories; but now that the Punjab belonged to the Company this extra pay was withheld. Some of it which they had already received was, in fact, declared repayable. Such had been the resentment at this unfair order that twenty-four battalions had seemed on the verge of refusing their pay altogether and one, the 66th, after ninety-five of the men had been tried for mutiny, had been disbanded, its number and colours being given to a regiment of Gurkhas. Worse than this, Sikhs from the Punjab had now been enlisted in native regiments, much to the disgust and anger of the sepoys of Oudh who not only considered Sikhs unclean and complained that they smelled horribly because of their habit of using curds to dress their long hair, but who also felt that their own special relationship with the East India Company was coming to an end. Having quarrelled with the Governor-General over the methods adopted to deal with the sepoys' complaints, Sir Charles Napier had resigned, protesting that the whole army was on the verge of mutiny, a view by which Dalhousie had professed himself utterly astonished and from which he recorded his 'entire dissent'.

This is one of the striking things to me in most the accounts I have read of the Great Mutiny. The confidence of the British regimental officers in the loyalty of their Indian soldiers. Even up to the point of death. And the reverse was often true as well. Accounts from Indian soldiers who were confident in their own loyalty right up until the point when they were swept up in the mutiny.