HistoryModern India: Rebels and the Raj

In the caption of the Punch cartoon on Canning, the Governor General…

In the caption of the Punch cartoon on Canning, the Governor General promises that the sepoy will be spared which punishment?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 1

The correct answer is Option (1) → Being blown from guns

Option (1) Being blown from guns — Correct. The caption has Canning say that the sepoy shall not be <strong>blown from guns</strong>. This was a common British punishment for rebels in 1857.

Option (2) Being hanged in public — Incorrect. Public hanging belongs to the Peshawar execution picture. The caption speaks only of guns.

Option (3) Being shot by a firing squad — Incorrect. The caption speaks of guns the sepoy would be blown from, which is a different punishment from a firing squad.

Option (4) Being flogged before his regiment — Incorrect. Flogging is absent from the caption. Canning promises only that the sepoy will escape being blown from guns.

NCERT (2026-27): “5.5 No time for clemency …
In one of the cartoons published in the pages of Punch, a British journal of comic satire, Canning is shown as a looming father figure, with his protective hand over the head of a sepoy who still holds an unsheathed sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, both dripping with blood (Fig.10.17) – an imagery that recurs in a number of British pictures of the time.”

“The caption at the bottom of the cartoon reads: “Governor General: ‘Well, then they shan’t blow him from nasty guns; but he must promise to be a good little sepoy’.””