Book Summary of Men Without Hats: Dialogue, Discipline And Discontent In The Madras Army 186-187 ? The sepoy mutiny at Vellore in 186 was the last major threat to British rule in South India, but it ended scarcely eight hours after it began. The consequences of the revolt, however, lasted much longer. Determined to find the cause of this 'unexpected' mutiny, officials of the East India Company launched a sweeping enquiry, the first of its kind to be made regarding the Indian Army. As this new bureaucratic process of information gathering and procedure intruded upon the sepoys' traditional world of unrecorded negotiation and personal bonds, panic spread, causing near-minutinies, riots, and political witch-hunts at garrison towns across the Madras Presidency. \n