A. Justice- Justice, Punch, 12 September 1857.
As waves of anger and shock spread in Britain, demands for retribution grew louder. Visual representations and news about the revolt created a milieu in which violent repression and vengeance were seen as both necessary and 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 image, we see an allegorical female figure of justice with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Her posture is aggressive; her face expresses rage and the desire for revenge. She is trampling sepoys under her feet while a mass of Indian women with children cower with fear.
D. Execution of Mutinous Sepoys- Illustrated London News, 3 October 1857.
Execution of mutinous sepoys in Peshawar, Illustrated London News, 3 October 1857 In this scene of execution 12 rebels hang in a row, with cannons all around them. What you see is not routine punishment: it is the performance of terror. For it to instil fear among people, punishment could not be discreetly meted out in enclosed spaces. It had to be theatrically performed in the open.
C. The Clemency of Canning- “The Clemency of Canning”, Punch, 24 October 1857.
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 – an imagery that recurs in a number of British pictures of the time.
B. In Memoriam- In Memoriam”, by Joseph Noel Paton, 1859.
In Memoriam” was painted by Joseph Noel Paton two years after the mutiny. One can see English women and children huddled in a circle, looking helpless and innocent, seemingly waiting for the inevitable – dishonour, violence and 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 remain invisible in the picture. In the background, you can see the British rescue forces arriving as saviours. |
