' Sepoy rebellion ' is a contested term. Some (right wing like Savarkar) consider it as the first attempt by Indians to liberate themselves. Other argues that it was limited to North India and even in North India some princely state sided with East India company. Going back to the question, Rebellion started with miscommunication and rumor. That company is using pig skin to make some armor. Many of the Indian soldiers refused to use those armor. Another important thing to remember was the lapse policy of company. Company made policy announcing that those state without any successor will merge into company rule. Many princely states were without any successor , and adopting a child wasn't an option cause company excluded that. Rani Laxmibai was one of them. So rebellion started to preserve religious sacredness and one's own sovereignty. Once the rebellion stated different people led it. In some places it was a religious leader, in another place it was King himself (like Awadh) . It was believed by Soldiers that once they reached the Delhi they will re store the Mughal authority and Bahadurshah Zafar 2 would support them. So they didn't identified with any identify but they had a common enemy , which was East India company. They were fighting for themselves and their to preserve their identity and re store an authority which was not alien to them.