Theme 10 – Rebels and the Raj

0. Introduction - The Revolt of 1857 and Its Representations.

§ On 10th May 1857, Sepoys in Meerut cantonment (military camp) broke out in mutiny.
§ It began in native infantry (foot soldiers).
§ Then it spread swiftly to cavalry (horseback soldiers) and then to the city.
§ The ordinary people of town and surrounding villages joined the sepoys.
§ The sepoys captured arms and ammunition.
§ Then proceeded to attacks white people and ransack their bungalows and properties.
§ Government buildings i.e.
1. Record of<ice
2. Jail
3. Court
4. Post of<ice
5. Treasury etc.
§ The telegraph lines to Delhi were cut.
§ By the end of the day, the Sepoys rode off towards Delhi.
§ The Sepoys arrived at the gates of Red Fort on 11th May 1857's morning.
§ The Sepoys gathered around the window of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah.
§ They told him about happening of Meerut and killing of Englishmen because they asked them to
bite bullets covered/coated with fats of cows and pigs.
§ Meanwhile another group of Sepoys also entered Delhi and the ordinary people of Delhi joined
them.
§ Europeans were killed in large numbers.
§ The rich of Delhi were attacked and looted. It was clear that the city of Delhi had gone out of the
hands of British control.
§ Soldiers gathered around emperor Bahadur shah and demanded his blessings.
§ He had no other option but to comply.
§ The revolt thus acquired a kind of legitimacy because it can now be carried on, on the name of
Mughal Emperor.
§ On 12th and 13th May, North India remained quiet.
§ But once the word spread that Delhi has fallen to the rebels and Bahadur Shah has blessed the
rebellion, events moved swiftly.
§ Cantonment after cantonment in the Gangetic valley and some to the west of Delhi rose in mutiny.

1. PATTERN OF THE REBELLION

§ If we put dates of mutinies at different place in chronological order then it appears that as the
news of mutiny travelled from one town to another, the Sepoys there took up arms.
§ The sequence of events in every cantonment followed a similar pattern.

1.1 How the mutinies began

§ The Sepoys began their action with a signal.
§ General signals used were.
o Firing of the evening gun.
o Sounding of bugle (a small trumpet).
§ Sequence of Action:
1. They <irst seized the Bell of Arms and plundered the treasury.
o Bell of arms is a storeroom in which weapons are kept.
2. Then they attacked the government buildings like jails, telegraph ofTice, record room etc.
§ Burning All Records:
§ Then everything and everybody connected with white men became a target.
§ Proclamations in Hindi, Urdu and Persian were put up in cities calling upon the population, both
Hindus and Muslims to:
 1. Unite
2. Rise
3. Exterminate Tirangis
§ When ordinary people began joining the revolt then the target of attack widened.
§ In major town like - Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly etc. moneylenders and the rich also became the
target of rebels.
§ Reason: Peasants not only saw them as oppressors but also as allies of British.
§ In most place their house was looted and destroyed.
§ The mutiny in the sepoys ranks quickly became a rebellion.
§ There was a general deTiance of all kinds of authority and hierarchy.
§ In the months of May and June, the British had no answer to the actions of rebels.
§ In words of one British ofTicer, "The British rule collapsed like a house of cards".
o 1600 – Established East India Company.
o 1613 – First factory established in Surat.
o Up till 1757 – Increased Trade.
o 1757 – Battle of Plassey which established complete military power in India.
o 1764 – Battle of Buxar
o Up till 1857 – the whole North India was under British Colonialism.
o But all this development collapsed with the mutiny.

1.2 Lines of Communication

§ Now, the pattern of the mutinies and evidence of planning raise certain crucial questions.
1. How were the plans made?
2. Who were the planners?
§ It is difTicult to answer these questions on the basis of the documents available.
§ But one incident gives us some clues regarding how these mutinies came to be so organized.
§ We will now look into it.
§ Incident:
1. Captain Hearsey of the Awadh Military Police had been given protection by his Indian
subordinates during the mutiny.
2. The 41st Native Infantry was stationed at same place, insisted that since they had killed all
their white ofTicers, So Military Police should also kill Hearsey or deliver him as prisoner to
41st.
3. The Military Police refused to do either.
4. It was decided that the matter will be decided by a panchayat composed of native of<icers
drawn from each regiment.
§ Charles Ball, who wrote one of the earliest histories of the uprising, noted that these types of
panchayats were a nightly occurrence in the Kanpur sepoy lines.
§ This fact suggests that some of the decisions were taken collectively.
§ And it is not difTicult to imagine them sitting together to decide their own future.
§ Reasons:
1. They shared common lifestyle i.e., they all lived in Sepoy lines.
2. Many of them came from same caste; and
3. Same region/Religion etc.
4. Thus, this can be concluded that the sepoys were makers of their own rebellion.

1.3 Leaders and followers

§ To Tight the British, leadership and organization were required.
§ For this sometimes the rebel turned to those who were leaders before the British conquest.
§ In one of the Tirst act, the Sepoys from Meerut turned to the old Mughal Emperor to accept the
leadership of revolt.
§ The <irst reaction of Bahadur Shah was of horror and rejection.
§ Only when some of the Sepoys moved into the Mughal court within Red Fort in deTiance of normal
court etiquette (polite/formal behavior) that the old Emperor realized that he had no option
except agreeing to be the nominal leader of the revolt/rebellion.
§ At other places also similar scenes were enacted.
1. In Kanpur, sepoys and the people of town gave Nana Saheb, the successor of Peshwa Bajirao
II, no choice but to join the revolt as their leader.
2. In Jhansi, The rani was forced by popular pressure around her to assume the leadership of the
uprising.
3. Same was the case with Kunwar Singh, the local Zamindar in Arrah, Bihar.
4. In Awadh, the memories of displacement of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and annexation of state by
British (in 1856) were still fresh.
5. The population of Lucknow celebrated the fall of British rule by hailing Birjis Qadr, the young
son of Nawab, their leader.
§ Not everywhere were the leaders - people of the court/nobles, i.e. Rajas, Ranis, Nawabs etc.
§ At many places local leaders emerged, urging people to revolt.
§ Example:
1. Shah Mal, mobilised the villagers of Pargana Barout, U.P.
2. Gonoo, A tribal cultivator of Singhbhum in Chotanagpur, became a rebel leader of the kol
tribals of the region.
3. At many places, religious people too joined revolt, preaching the destruction of British rule.

§ Two Rebels of 1857:

1. Rebel of Shah mal.
◦ Shah mal belonged to Pargana Barout in U.P.
◦ He belonged to clan of Jat cultivators.
◦ The land of the region was irrigated and fertile.
◦ People there saw the British land revenue system as oppressive.
◦ The revenue demand was high and collection inTlexible.
◦ Result: Cultivators were losing land to outsiders, to traders and moneylenders.
◦ Shah Mal mobilised the headmen and cultivators of chaurasi-des (84 villages).
◦ Moved from village to village at night, urging people to revolt against British.
◦ Here also like other places the revolt turned into a general rebellion against all forms and signs
of oppression and injustice.
◦ Cultivators plundered the houses of money lenders and traders.
◦ Displaced proprietors took possession of the lands they had lost.
◦ Shah Mal's men attacked government buildings, destroyed the bridges over the rivers, and dug
up metalled roads (strong) for two reasons:
1. To prevent government forces from coming into the area;
2. Because they were seen as the symbols of British rule.
◦ They also sent supplies to Sepoys who had mutinied in Delhi.
◦ They also stopped all ofTicial communication between British headquarters and Meerut.
◦ Locally acknowledged as Raja, Shah mal took over the bungalow of an English ofTicer, turned it
into "Hall of Justice".
◦ From here he settled disputes and dispensed judgements.
◦ He also set-up an amazingly effective intelligence network.
◦ For a period, the people of the area felt that Tirangi raj was over and their raj had come.
◦ Shah Mal was killed in a battle in July 1857.
2. Rebel of Maulvi Ahamadullah Shah.
◦ Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah was one of the many maulvis who played an important part in the
revolt of 1857.
◦ Educated in Hyderabad, he became a preacher when young. In 1856, he was seen moving from
village to village preaching jehad (religious war) against the British and urging people to rebel.
◦ He moved in a palanquin (a large box carried on two horizontal poles), with drum beaters in
front and followers at the rear.
 ◦ He was therefore popularly called Danka Shah - the maulvi with the drum (danka).
◦ British ofTicials panicked as thousands began following the maulvi and many Muslims began
seeing him as an inspired prophet.
◦ When he reached Lucknow in 1856, he was stopped by the police from preaching in the city.
◦ Subsequently, in 1857, he was jailed in Faizabad.
◦ When released, he was elected by the mutinous 22nd Native Infantry as their leader.
◦ He fought in the famous Battle of Chinhat in which the British forces under Henry Lawrence
were defeated.
◦ He came to be known for his courage and power.
◦ Many people in fact believed that he was invincible, had magical powers, and could not be
killed by the British.
◦ It was this belief that partly formed the basis of his authority.

1.4 Rumours and prophecies

§ Rumours and prophecies played a part in moving people into action.
§ We have already seen that the sepoys who came from Meerut to Delhi told Bahadur Shah about
bullets greased with fats of cows and pigs.
§ They were referring to cartridges of En<ield ri<les, which had just been given to them.
§ Though the British tried their level best to explain to them that the bullets are not greased with
such fats, and it is only a rumour, but it was of no use.
§ The rumours that the new cartridges were greased with fat of cows and pigs spread like wild<ire
across the sepoy lines of North India.
§ There was fear and suspicion that the British wanted to convert Indians to Christianity.
§ Panic spread fast.
§ Again, the efforts of British ofTicers to allay (diminish/put to rest) these fears turn of no use.
§ These fears brought the men into action.
§ The response to the call for action was also reinforced by the prophecy that British rules would
come to end on the centenary (100th anniversary) of the battle of Plassey on 23rd June 1857.
§ Greased cartridges were not the only rumour that was circulating in North India in beginning of
1857.
§ There was another rumour that British government has hatched a conspiracy to destroy the caste
and religion of Hindus and Muslims.
§ The rumour said that British had mixed bone dust into the Tlour that was being sold into market.
§ Result: People even refused to touch the atta.

Governor General Hardinge attempted to modernise the equipment of the army. The EnTield riTles
that were introduced initially used the greased cartridges the sepoys rebelled against.

1.5 Why did people believe in the rumours?

§ We cannot understand the power of rumours and prophecies in history by checking their accuracy.
§ But to understand their impact we have to understand the minds of people who believed in them,
i.e. their:
1. Fears and apprehensions (anxiety)
2. Faiths and
3. Convictions (belief/opinion).
§ Because rumours circulate only when they resonate with the deeper fears and suspicions of
people.
§ The rumours of 1857 made sense when seen in the context of policies that British pursued in late
1820s.
§ Under the leadership of Governor General Lord William Bentinck, British adopted policies aimed at
"Reforming" Indian society by introducing western education, western ideas and western
institutions.
§ English medium schools were set-up, along with colleges and universities that taught western
sciences and liberal arts.
§ The British established laws to abolish customs like Sati (1829) and to permit widow remarriage.
§ Besides the reforms, the British on the charges/allegations of misgovernance and refusal to
recognize adoption, annexed a lot of kingdoms and principalities like Awadh, Jhansi, Satara etc.
§ Once these territories were annexed then British here introduced.
1. Their own laws
2. Their own methods of land settlement
3. Their own method of land revenue collection
§ The combined impact of all these factors on people of India was profound.

2. AWADH IN REVOLT

2.1 “A cherry that will drop into our mouth one day”
§ In 1851 Governor General Lord Dalhousie described the kingdom of Awadh as "The cherry that
will drop into our mouth one day".
§ Five years later, in 1856, the kingdom was formally annexed (added/taken over) to the British
Empire.
§ This conquest happened in stages.
1. Subsidiary Alliance was imposed in Awadh in 1801.
2. By the terms of alliance, the Nawab had to:
o Disband his military force.
o Allow the British to position their troops within the kingdom; and
o Act in accordance with the advice of the British Resident who was now to be attached to the
court.
§ Deprived of his army, the Nawab was now dependent on the British to maintain law and order
within the kingdom.
§ He could now not even assert control over the rebellious chiefs and taluqdars.
§ In the meantime, the British became increasingly interested in acquiring the territory of Awadh.
§ Reason: They felt that the soil there was good for production of cotton and indigo.
§ Region's location was ideal for developing it into principal market of upper India.
§ Besides by early 1850s all major areas of India were conquered.
Ø Carnatic
Ø Maratha lands
Ø Punjab
Ø Bengal etc.
§ The take-over of Awadh in 1856 was expected to complete the process of territorial annexation
that had begun with the conquest of Bengal almost a century ago.

2.2 The life was gone out of the body

§ Though annexations done by Lord Dalhousie created disaffection in all areas but no where more
than in the kingdom of Awadh.
§ Here Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned and exiled to Calcutta.
§ Grounds of annexation was misgovernance.
§ The British wrongly assumed that Wajid Ali Shah was an unpopular ruler.
§ On the contrary, He was widely loved.
§ On being exiled many people followed him upto Kanpur.
§ The sense of grief was recorded by many contemporary writers.
§ One of them wrote- "the life was gone out of the body and body of this town has been left lifeless".
§ The emotional upheaval was aggravated by immediate material losses.
§ The removal of the Nawab led to:
1. Dissolution of the court and its culture.
2. Thus, a whole range of people, i.e. Musicians, painters, dancers, artisans, poets, cooks all lost
their livelihood.
 2.3 Firangi raj and the end of a world:
§ The chain of grievances in Awadh connected everyone.
→ Prince
→ Taluqdar
→ Peasant
→ Sepoys etc.
§ In different ways they came to identify Tirangi raj with the end of their world i.e. breakdown of
things they valued, loved and respected.
§ It was the combination of these whole complex of emotions and issues, along with traditions and
loyalties, that burst out in the revolt of 1857.
§ In Awadh, more than anywhere else, the revolt became an expression of popular resistance to an
alien order.
§ The annexation not just displaced the Nawab, it also dispossessed the taluqdars of the region.
§ The country-side of Awadh was dotted with the forts and estates of taluqdars, which they had
controlled for many generations had controlled land and power in the countryside.
§ Before the coming of the British, The taluqdars:
i. Maintained armed men
ii. Built forts; and
iii. Enjoyed a degree of autonomy
§ As long as they accepted the suzerainty (authority) of the Nawab and paid the revenue of their
taluqs.
§ The British were unwilling to tolerate their power and so with annexation of Awadh, they
i. Immediately disarmed taluqdars; and
ii. Destroyed their forts.
§ British land revenue policy further undermined their position and authority.
§ In 1856, after annexation, the Tirst British revenue settlement, known as Summary Settlement of
1856 was passed. It was based on the assumption that:
i. Taluqdars were interlopers (trespassers)with no permanent stakes in land; and
ii. They had established their hold over land through force and fraud.
§ The Summary Settlement proceeded to remove the taluqdars wherever possible.
§ Result: Villages held by taluqdars came down to 38% of total villages than the previous 67% of
pre-British time.
§ The taluqdars of southern Awadh were hardest hit and some of them lost more than half of the
number of villages they previously held.
§ British revenue ofTicers believed that by removing the taluqdars they would be able to settle land
with peasants, the actual owners of the soil.
§ Thus, this will:
Ø Reduce their level of exploitation; and
Ø Increase revenue returns for the state.
§ But this did not happen in practice.
§ Though revenue Tlows for the state increased, but the burden of revenue demand on the peasants
did not decline.
§ Reasons: Because of<icials soon discovered that large areas of Awadh were heavily over-
assessed.
§ The increase in revenue demand for some places was from 30% to 70%.
§ Thus, Neither Taluqdars nor peasants had any reasons to be happy with the annexation.
§ The dispossession of taluqdars meant the breakdown of an entire social order.
§ The ties of loyalty and patronage that had kept the peasant and taluqdar bound, during pre-
British time were disrupted.
§ How was this social order disrupted?
§ In pre-British times, the taluqdars were oppressors but many of them appeared to be generous
and like father <igures to peasants.
§ They collected various type of dues/taxes from peasant but were often considerate in times of
need.
§ But now under the British, peasant were directly exposed to:
Ø Over assessment of revenue; and
Ø In<lexible methods of collection.
§ Plus, no guarantee that at hard times/crop failure, the demand of state will be reduced, or
collection will be postponed.
§ Or at time of festivities, the peasant would get the loan and support that the taluqdar had earlier
provided.
§ Thus, due to these reasons in Awadh, during 1857, the Tighting was carried out by taluqdars and
their peasants.
§ Also, the grievances (injustice) of peasants were carried over into the Sepoy lines because a vast
majority of Sepoys were recruited from villages of Awadh.
§ Thus, by 1850s, besides their problems, the Sepoys had other reasons also for discontent.
§ Relationship between sepoys and their superior white ofTicers underwent signiTicant degradation
in the preceding years of 1857.
§ During 1820s, white ofTicers maintained friendly relationship with the sepoys.
§ But by 1840s, this began to change.
§ Racial abuse and physical violence became common.
§ Thus, distance between sepoys and ofTicers grew.
§ Trust was replaced with suspicion.
§ Episode of greased cartridge was a classic example of this.
§ It is important to remember that close links existed between the sepoys and rural world of
North India.
§ The majority of sepoys of the Bengal army were recruited from the villages of Awadh and Eastern
U.P.
§ Infact, Awadh was called - "The Nursery of Bengal army".
§ Thus, the changes that families of sepoys saw around them and the threats they perceived were
quickly transmitted to the sepoy lines.
§ Also, the fears of sepoys too were communicated back to the villages.
§ Some examples:
i. Greased cartridges
ii. Issue/complaints about leaves.
iii. Racial abuse.
§ Thus, the link between the sepoys and the rural world had important implications in the
course of the uprising.
§ When the Sepoys de<ied their superior ofTicers and took up arms, they were joined very swiftly
by their brethren (kin/relative) in the villages.
§ Everywhere peasants poured into the towns and joined the soldiers and ordinary people of the
towns in collective act of rebellion.

3. WHAT THE REBELS WANTED

§ As victors British recorded their own trials and tribulations and heroism, they dismissed rebels as
ungrateful and barbaric people.
§ Their repression (suppression/restraint) also meant silencing of their voice.
§ Thus, very few rebels had the opportunity of recording their version of events.
§ Plus, most of the Sepoys and ordinary men were not literate.
§ Thus, other than few proclamations and ishtahars (notiTications) we do not have much that gives
us the perspective of rebels.
§ Thus, the attempts to reconstruct history of 1857 inevitably depends upon what British wrote.
§ And those sources tell us about minds of ofTicials and very little about rebels.

3.1 The vision of unity

§ The rebel proclamations of 1857 repeatedly appealed to all sections of society, irrespective of their
caste-creed and religion.
§ The ishtahars harked back to the pre-British Hindu-Muslim past and gloriTied the coexistence of
different communities under Mughal empire.
§ We will see one such proclamation now.
The Azamgarh proclamation, 25th August 1857.
§ This is one of the main sources of our knowledge about what rebels wanted. It had many sections,
and each section addressed a prominent section of society.
§ The document appeals to both Hindus and Muslims to Tight against British.
§ We will now see its different sections.
§ Section 1st -
1. Addresses Zamindars.
2. Promises them absolute autonomy in their Zamindaris.
3. Light Jumas (taxes/revenue demand).
4. Honour and Dignity.
5. No conTiscation and auction of estates.
§ Section 2nd -
1. Was regarding merchants.
2. Monopoly of trade by British and practices that emerged out of it will be vanished.
3. Trade by land and water will be opened for natives of the land, without exception.
In return it demanded help from merchants and traders with men and money.
§ Section 3rd -
1. Regarding public servants.
2. Higher salaries.
3. Entitlement for higher posts in future.
In return it demanded to side with Badshahi government.
§ Section 4th -
1. Regarding artisans.
2. Employments in service of kings, Rajas and Rich; for native artisans.
3. Prosperity.
In return it demanded artisans to renounce the services of British.
§ Section 5th -
1. Regarding pandits, fakirs and other religious/learned persons.
2. Support against British for the sake of religion; and
3. Fight the ‘holy war’.

3.2 Against symbols of oppression

§ The proclamation completely rejected everything related with British rule/Tirangi raj (as they
called it).
§ They condemned the British for:
1. Annexations,
2. Treaties they had broken.
§ They said that the British could not be trusted.

3.3 The search for alternative power

§ Once British rule collapsed, the rebels in its place tried to establish some kinds of structure of
authority and administration in places like Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow etc.
§ Though it was short-lived, but it reTlects that rebel leadership wanted to restore the pre-British
world of 18" century.
§ The leaders went back to culture of the court.
§ Appointments were made for:
1. Collection of land revenue.
2. Payment of troops.
§ Orders were issued to stop loot and plunder.
§ Side-by-side plans were made to Tight battles against the British.
§ Chain of commands were laid down in the army.
§ In all this, the rebels harked back (to return/to remember) to 18th century Mughal world, the
world that had become symbol of all that had been lost.

4. Repression
§ From documents of 1857, it is clear that the British did not have easy time in putting down the
rebellion.
§ Before sending troops to reconquer North India, the British passed a series of laws to help them
crush insurgency (active revolt).
§ Whole of North India was put under martial law.
§ Not only military ofTicers but ordinary Britons too were given power to try and punish Indians
suspected of rebellion.
§ i.e. ordinary process of law and trial was suspended and it was put out that rebellion would have
one punishment - Death.
§ Armed with special laws and the reinforcements brought in from Britain, the British began task of
suppressing the revolt.
§ Like rebels, they too recognized the symbolic value of Delhi.
§ To retake Delhi, the British mounted a two-pronged attack.
Ø One force was moved from Calcutta into North.
Ø And other from Punjab, which was largely peaceful to reconquer Delhi.
§ Their attempt to recapture Delhi began in early June 1857, but the city was Tinally recaptured
in late September.
§ The <ighting was bitter and brutal, and casualties on both sides were heavy.
§ One reason for this was the fact that rebels from all over North India had come to Delhi to defend
the capital.
§ In Gangetic plain too the progress of British reconquest was slow.
Ø Forces had to reconquer the area village by village.
Ø People in and around countryside were entirely hostile.
Ø The British soon realized that they were not dealing with a mere mutiny but an uprising that
had huge popular support.
§ The entire area was brought under control only by March 1858, again after protracted
(extended) <ighting.
§ The British used military power on massive scale.
§ But this was not the only instrument they used.
§ In large parts of present day U.P. big landholders and peasants had offered united resistance.
§ The British tried to break this unity by promising big landholders to give back their estates.
§ Rebel landholders were dispossessed (deprived) and the loyals were rewarded.
§ Still many landholders died Tighting.

5. IMAGES OF THE REVOLT

§ One important record of mutiny is the pictorial images produced by the British and Indians.
Ø Paintings
Ø Pencil drawings
Ø Sketching
Ø Posters
Ø Cartoons etc.

5.1 Celebrating the saviours

§ British pictures offer a variety of images that were meant to provoke a range of different
emotions and reactions.
§ Some of these pics glorify the British heroes who saved the English and repressed the rebels.
§ "Relief of Lucknow", painted by Thomas Jones Barker in 1859, is an example of this type.
 Background of the Painting
§ When rebels besieged Lucknow, Henry Lawrence, Commissioner of Lucknow, collected the
English population and took refuge in heavily forti<ied Residency.
§ Lawrence was killed but the Residency continued to be defended under the command of
Colonel Inglis.
§ On 25 September James Outram and Henry Havelock arrived.
§ They cut through the rebel forces and reinforced the British garrisons (military unit).
§ 20 days later Colin Campbell, the new Commander of British forces in India, arrived with his
forces and rescued the besieged (surrounded) British garrison.
§ In British accounts the siege of Lucknow became a story of survival, heroic resistance, and
triumph of British power.
§ Barker's painting celebrates the moment of Campbell's entry.
§ At the centre of the canvas are the British heroes - Campbell, Outram and Havelock.
§ The gestures of the hands of those around lead the spectator's eyes towards the centre.
§ The heroes stand on a ground that is well-lit, with shadows in the foreground and the damaged
Residency in the background.
§ The dead and injured in the foreground are the testimony to the suffering during the siege.
§ Triumphant Tigures of horses in the middle ground, emphasise the fact that British power and
control had been re-established.
§ For the British public, such paintings were reassuring.
§ They created a sense that the time of trouble was past and the rebellion was over.
§ The British were the victors.

5.2 English women and the honour of Britain

§ Newspaper reports have a power over public imagination.
§ They shape feelings and attitudes to events.
§ Due to their reporting, the feelings in Britain were in<lamed particularly by tales of violence
against women and children.
§ Result: there were public demands in Britain for revenge and retribution. The British
government was asked to protect the honour of innocent women and ensure the safety of
helpless children.
§ It was painted by Joseph Noel Paton, two years after the mutiny.
§ Here we can see English women and children huddled in a circle looking helpless and innocent.
§ Seemingly waiting for the inevitable:
i. Dishonour
ii. Violence; and
iii. Death
§ "In Memoriam" does not show gory violence, it only suggests it.
§ It stirs up the spectator's imagination and seeks to provoke anger and fury.
§ It represents the rebels as violent and brutish, even though they are not shown in the picture.
§ In the background we can see British rescue forces arriving as saviours.
§ In another set of sketches and paintings, we see women in a different light.
§ They appear heroic, defending themselves.
§ Miss Wheeler in pic is shown standing Tirmly at the centre, defending her honour, single-handedly
killing rebels.
§ In all such pics, the rebels are demonised.

5.3 Vengeance and retribution

§ With the news of rebellion reaching England the waves of anger and shock spread.
§ Result: Demands of retribution grew louder.
§ Visual representations and news about the revolt by newspapers created an environment in
which violent repression and vengeance were seen as both:
i. Necessary; and
 ii. Just.
§ It was as if justice demanded that the challenge to British honour and power be met
ruthlessly.
§ Threatened by the rebellion, the British felt that they had to demonstrate their invincibility.
§ In one such pic we see an allegorical female Tigure of justice with a sword in one hand and a shield
in the other.
§ Her posture is aggressive.
§ Her face expresses show rage and the desire for revenge.
§ She is trampling sepoys under her feet, while a mass of Indian women with children cowers with
fear.
§ There were such innumerable other pictures and cartoons in the British press that sanctioned
brutal repression and violent reprisal.

5.4 The Performance of Terror

§ The urge for vengeance and retribution was expressed in the brutal way in which the rebels
were executed.
§ They were blown from guns; or
§ Hanged from the gallows (execution by hanging).
§ Images of these executions were widely circulated through popular journals.

5.5 No time for clemency (mercy)

§ At this time when the environment and mood on British side was for vengeance, the pleas for
moderation (restraint) were ridiculed.
§ Example: When Governor General Canning declared that a gesture of leniency and a show of
mercy would help in winning back the loyalty of the sepoys, he was mocked in the British
press.
§ In one of the cartoons published in a British comic satire Journal - Punch, Canning is shown as a
looming father Tigure, with his protective hand over the head of a Sepoy.
§ Though the Sepoy still stands with a sword and dagger in each of his hands, with blood dripping
from both.
§ Such images recur in a number of British pictures of the time.
§
§ 5.6 Nationalist imageries
§ Heroic poems were written about them.
§ Example: Jhansi ki Rani by Subhadra kumari chauhan.
§ In popular prints, Rani Lakshmi Bai is often presented in/portrayed in battle armour, with a
sword in hand, riding a horse - a symbol of determination to resist injustice and alien rule.
§ National movement in 20th century drew its inspiration from the events of 1857.
§ It was celebrated as the First War of Independence in which all sections of India came together
to <ight against imperial rule.
§ Art and literature along with writing of history had helped to keep memories of 1857 alive. The
leaders of the revolt were presented as heroic <igures leading the country into battle.

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