Rare images of a rebellion

The Revolt of 1857 has been one of the most discussed, debated and dissected events in the history of India. Described variously as the “Sepoy Mutiny”, the “Indian Mutiny”, the “Great Rebellion”, and “India’s First War of Independence”, the Revolt of 1857 has remained not just a burning topic in academia, but also a source of inspiration in literature, cinema, and art. As the British East India Company was ruthlessly expanding its territory, numerous uprisings and resistances began to crop up in the early and mid-19th century—from the uprising led by Syed Mir Nisar Ali (also known as Titumir) in Bengal in 1831, to the Moplah rebellion against the landlords and land policies of the Company in Kerala in the early 1850s. But it was the Revolt of 1857 that shook the British imperialists to the core, and haunted their colonial rule in India for the next 90 years.An extensive visual exhibition on the Revolt, presently being held at the Asiatic Society in Kolkata (till September 30), titled “1857: The First War of Independence—A Visual Journey”, curated by Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya, traces the entire course of the Mutiny pictorially, with some rarely-seen drawings, engravings, and photographs. The annotated engravings and line drawings from Charles Ball’s book The History of the Indian Mutiny (published 1858), and from other sources including Edward Gilliat’s Heroes of the Indian Mutiny (published 1914), John Cassell’s multi-volumed Illustrated History of England (published in the 1850s and 1860s), and the hand-coloured lithograph plates of Captain George Franklin Atkinson from his book Campaign in India (1857-58), provide an evocative journey down the historical timeline of the rebellion.

General Henry Havelock’s advance against forces loyal to Nana Sahib in mid-July 1857, as British forces pushed towards Kanpur. | Photo Credit: Jayanta Shaw From an illustration of the Enfield rifle and its cartridge greased with cow and pork fat, which became the immediate precipitating factor for the rebellion as it outraged the religious sentiments of both the Hindus and the Muslim sepoys, to the defining moments of the Revolt like the killing of Colonel John Finnis (the first senior British officer to be killed in the outbreak) on May 10 in Meerut, and the spread of the mutiny across central and northern India, the exhibition is a visual delight for not just history buffs.

The exhibition traces conflicts with the British prior to the Sepoy Mutiny, from the Battle of Plassey (1757) and Battle of Buxar (1764) to the Anglo-Mysore wars (1767–1799). | Photo Credit: Jayanta Shaw Incidents and characters are brought alive by the graphic details in the illustrations; be it General Henry Havelock’s advance against forces loyal to Nana Sahib in mid-July 1857, as the British pushed towards Kanpur (The History of the Indian Mutiny); or the storming of Delhi by the British forces in September. A famous steel engraving titled Outlying Picket of the Highland Brigade at Benares (The History of the Indian Mutiny) depicts soldiers at rest under a tree from which hang the bodies of seven rebels. A hand-coloured lithograph print of the Defence of the Arrah House presents the gun battle between the sepoys and a handful of British administrators, aided by a few Sikhs who were protecting a group of women and children hidden in the Arrah Bungalow. There are also poignant moments in the doomed rebellion, captured by the artists of the time, like the ageing Bahadur Shah II, the last emperor of Delhi, being captured by the British Intelligence officer, Captain William Hodson, who would also capture and shoot in cold blood the old emperor’s three sons.

The last emperor of Delhi being captured by British Intelligence officer Captain William Hodson. | Photo Credit: Jayanta Shaw The engravings, many of which were made soon after the Mutiny, capture the violence and brutality of events in graphic detail. One of the engravings titled Blowing the Mutinous Sepoys from the Guns, published in Ball’s The History of the Indian Mutiny, depicts the cruelty of the British in meting out justice after the mutiny was suppressed. It shows the captured sepoys being sent to their death by being blown to bits by cannon. The picture shows one of the sepoys being blown asunder amid the cannon smoke, while two more await the same fate as they are held with their backs to the mouth of the great guns. The British officer on horseback appears to have just ordered the execution to be carried out by gesturing with his sword. Three more captive soldiers are at the side, awaiting their turn at the cannon.Echoes at NamdhariThe British were to employ such barbaric methods of killing again 15 years later when 66 Namdhari Sikhs were executed without trial for a local uprising. Interestingly, the Russian painter and traveller Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) painted this event in 1884, titled Blowing from British Guns. When the painting was exhibited at that time, it was largely believed to be a depiction of the killing of the defeated sepoys after their defeat in the Mutiny.

Encounter between Lt Hills and a body of the Sepoy cavalry in which he killed four of the enemy and wounded several others, from The History of the Indian Mutiny by Charles Ball. | Photo Credit: Jayanta Shaw The exhibition follows the chronology of the Revolt from the issue of the annexation of Awadh in 1856, when the East India Company deposed the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, and the controversy over the Enfield cartridge and Mangal Pandey’s revolt, right till the complete suppression of the mutiny in July 1858. One particular engraving, which had found its way into the sixth volume of Cassell’s Illustrated History of England, depicts Major-General John Bennet Hearsey on horseback, and with a pistol in his hand, threatening to shoot sepoys if they did not move against Mangal Pandey, on March 29, 1857. Hearsey, who was around 64 at that time, had managed to get the reluctant sepoys to move against Pandey. The books, particularly Charles Ball’s The History of the Indian Mutiny, view the uprising from the British colonial perspective, and so naturally they are not at all sympathetic towards the sepoys’ stand. Ball, in fact, had referred to the rebels variously as “cowardly wretches” and “miserably inferior”. However, the engravings in his book do provide the only detailed pictorial representation of the events of the Mutiny.Through the camera’s eyeAlongside the engravings and paintings are also photographs taken around that period, that capture the aftermath of the Revolt. Some of the pictures convey the horror of war, like the one taken by the photographer Felice Beato, of the ruined interior of Secundra Bagh, with skeletons of the slain mutineers lying outside on the ground. Other pictures by Beato related to the Revolt are also on display, like the ruined buildings standing in deserted parts of towns that only recently witnessed harrowing violence, and the damaged house of Hindu Rao, which served as an important strategic stronghold for the British forces during the attack on Delhi.

Damaged houses after the revolt, captured by photographer Felice Beato in 1858. | Photo Credit: Jayanta Shaw Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya explained that the purpose of the exhibition was also to chart out the Independence movement in India, keeping the Revolt of 1857 as the central focus. “By revisiting the events of this great Revolt through documented paintings and lithographs, and photographs, this exhibition is a homage to the heroes of 1857 who successfully ignited nationalist aspirations among their fellow citizens, ultimately resulting in the independence of India,” said Bhattacharya. The exhibition presents a brief history of conflict with the British prior to the Sepoy Mutiny—the Battle of Plassey (1757), the Battle of Buxar (1764), and the Anglo-Mysore wars between the British and Hyder Ali, and then his son Tipu Sultan, between 1767 and 1799. The exhibition does not end with the end of the Mutiny either, but goes on to show how it inspired the nationalist movement till India’s independence.

The exhibition also shows how the Mutiny inspired the nationalist movement up to India’s independence. | Photo Credit: Jayanta Shaw It is an exhibition that not only reacquaints one with the events of the Revolt of 1857, but also whets the appetite for further studies on the subject.Also Read | Selves of the nationAlso Read | Lahore, 1947: The battles before the border was drawn