Page 6 - #18120110101

• In Awadh, they tried to break unity between landlords and peasants by offering their land
back to landlords. Rebel landlords were dispossessed and loyals were rewarded.

Description of Revolt through Art and Literature:

• There are very few records on the rebels point of view. Most of the narratives of about
1857 revolt were obtained from official account.
• British officials obviously left their version in diaries, letters, autobiographies and official
histories and reports.
• The stories of the revolt that were published in British newspaper and magazines narrated
in detail about the violence of the mutineers and these stories inflamed public feelings and
provoked demand for retribution and revenge.
• Paintings, etchings, posters, cartoons, bazaar prints produced by British and Indian also
served as important record of revolt.
• Many pictures were drawn by the British painters to offer variety of images for different
events during the revolt. These images provoked a range of different emotions and
reactions.
• Painting like ‘Relief of Lucknow’ painted by Thomas Jones Barker in 1859 commemorate
the British heroes who saved the english and repressed the rebels.

The Honour of English Women:

• Newspaper reports shape the feelings and attitudes of events inflamed particularly by tale
of violence against women and children. There was public demands in Britain for revenge
and retribution.
• The British government w as asked to protect the honour of innocent women and ensure
7
safety of helpless children.
• Artists expressed as well as shaped these sentiments through their visual representations of
trauma and suffering.
• Painting ‘In Memoriam’ painted by Joseph Noel Paton in 1859 depicted the anxious
moment in which women and children huddled in a circle looking helpless and innocent,
seemingly waiting for the inevitable dishonour, violence and death. Painting stirs up the
imagination and seek to provoke anger and fury. These paintings represent rebels as
violent and brutish

Feeling of Revenge among Rebels:

• As news about severeness of revolt spread, there was great anger, shock and demand of
retribution, severe repression and grew louder.
• Threatened by the rebellion, the British felt that they had to demonstrate their invincibility.
There were innumerable pictures and cartoons in British press that sanctioned brutal
repression and violent reprisal.
• Rebels were executed publicly, blown from cannon or hanged from gallows. There were
mass execution. To instill a sense of fear among the people, most of these punishments
were given in public.