Read the passage and answer the questions:
Images of the Revolt of 1857
Newspaper reports have a power over public imagination; they shape feelings and attitudes to events. Inflamed particularly by tales of violence against women and children, 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. Artists expressed as well as shaped these sentiments through their visual representations of trauma and suffering.... "In Memoriam" was painted by Joseph Noel Paton two years after the mutiny. It does not show gory violence; it only suggests it. It stirs up the spectator's imagination, and seeks to provoke anger and fury. Miss Wheeler stands firmly at the centre, defending her honour, single-handedly killing the attacking rebels. 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....Art and literature, as much as the writing of history, have helped in keeping alive the memory of 1857. Rani of Jhansi was represented as a masculine figure chasing the enemy, slaying British soldiers and valiantly fighting till her last. Children in many parts of India grow up reading the lines of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan: "... Like a man she fought, she was the Rani of Jhansi". In popular prints Rani Lakshmi Bai is usually portrayed in battle armour, with a sword in hand and riding a horse - a symbol of the determination to resist injustice and alien rule.
In which sketch/painting, a figure stands firmly at the centre defending her honour, single-handedly killing the attacking rebels?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Miss Wheeler
Option (1) Relief of Lucknow — Incorrect. This painting by Thomas Jones Barker (1859) commemorates the British heroes who saved the English and repressed the rebels at Lucknow. It shows no woman fighting off rebels.
Option (2) In Memoriam — Incorrect. Joseph Noel Paton’s painting shows English women and children huddled in a circle, looking helpless and innocent, waiting for dishonour, violence and death. The rebels remain invisible in it, so no woman is shown killing them.
Option (3) Miss Wheeler — Correct. In another set of sketches and paintings women appear heroic, defending themselves against the rebels. In the sketch of Miss Wheeler defending herself against sepoys in Kanpur, she stands firmly at the centre, defending her honour, single-handedly killing the attacking rebels.
Option (4) Justice — Incorrect. This Punch image (1857) shows an allegorical female figure of justice with a sword and a shield, trampling sepoys under her feet. She stands for British revenge, not for a woman defending her own honour.
Note 1: This question is not properly framed, for these reasons:
- The printed passage leaves out the chapter’s sentence “In another set of sketches and paintings we see women in a different light”. So the line “Miss Wheeler stands firmly at the centre, defending her honour, single-handedly killing the attacking rebels” follows straight after the lines on ‘In Memoriam’, and seems to describe ‘In Memoriam’. Read from the passage alone, a student may pick Option (2).
- In the chapter, Miss Wheeler is a separate sketch (Fig. 10.12, “Miss Wheeler defending herself against sepoys in Kanpur”), from another set of pictures in which women appear heroic. ‘In Memoriam’ shows women huddled and helpless, not fighting.
- The question asks “In which sketch/painting”, but ‘Miss Wheeler’ is the person shown in the sketch, not a title like ‘In Memoriam’ or ‘Relief of Lucknow’.
The description in the question is the chapter’s description of the Miss Wheeler sketch, so Option (3) is the answer.
Note 2: This passage is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘Rebels and the Raj’, almost word for word, from the section on images of the revolt. Look at every picture of that section with its caption; five questions here turn on those paintings, cartoons and poems.
NCERT (2026-27): “5.2 English women and the honour of Britain … In another set of sketches and paintings we see women in a different light. They appear heroic, defending themselves against the attack of rebels. Miss Wheeler in Figure 10.12 stands firmly at the centre, defending her honour, single-handedly killing the attacking rebels. As in all such British representations, the rebels are demonised. Here, four burly males with swords and guns are shown attacking a woman. The woman’s struggle to save her honour and her life, in fact, is represented as having a deeper religious connotation: it is a battle to save the honour of Christianity. The book lying on the floor is the Bible.”
Fig. 10.12 Miss Wheeler defending herself against sepoys in Kanpur |
