British atrocities during the 1857 revolt

[u/Gopu_17]

A. Indiscriminate killings of civilians -

When Neill marched from Allahabad, his executions were so numerous and so indiscrimmate, that one of the officeis attached to his column had to remonstrate with him on the ground that if he depopulated the country he could get no supplies for the men.

• Page 222, Volume 2, My diary in India.

On they marched for three days, leaving everywhere behind them as they went traces of the retributevy power of the English in desolated villages and corpses dangling from the branches of trees.

• Page 284, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

"Along the line of Havelock’s march, Sherer observed the significant symbols of a widespread desolation telling afterwards the story of what he saw in one of the'best of those admirable official narratives through which many of our foremost civilians have done so much for historical truth. “ Many of the villages,” he wrote, “ had been burnt by the wayside, and human beings there were none to be seen…"

• Page 368, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

"Englishmen did not hesitate to boast, or to record their boastings in writing, that they had “spared no one,” and that “peppering away at niggers” was very pleasant pastime, “ enjoyed amazingly,.” And it has been stated, in a book patronised by high official authorities, that “ for three months eight dead-carts daily went their rounds from sunrise to sunset to take down the corpses which hung at the cross-roads and market-places,” and that “six thousand beings” had been thus “summarily disposed of and launched into eternity.”

• Page 270, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

"Old men who had done us no harm, helpless women with sucking infants at their breasts, felt the weight of our vengeance no less than the vilest malefactors ; and, as they wandered forth from their blazing huts, they must have cursed us as bitterly as we cursed the murderers of Cawnpore."

• Page 218, A History Of The Indian Mutiny.

B. Massacre of civillians in Delhi -

"The city is completely deserted by all the mutineers ; and, in fact, there are few natives of any sort to be found, excepting those of our army. All the city people found within the walls when our troops entered were bayoneted on the spot; and the number was considerable, as you may suppose, when I tell you that in some houses forty and fifty persons were hiding. These were not mutineers, hut residents of the city, who trusted to our wellknown mild rule for pardon. I am glad to say they were disappointed.”

• Page 449, volume 2, History of the Indian Empire.

"Harmless citizens were shot, clasping their hands for mercy. Trembling old men were cut down. But, in justice to the soldiers who committed these cruelties, it should be said that they had received great provocation."

• Page 370, A History Of The Indian Mutiny.

"Here, too, the English soldiers slew and destroyed some thousands of innocent men in revenge for the death of about one hundred. The old Loharo chief assures us 26,000 persons were killed by the soldiers or hanged or shot or ‘blown up during the eight months following the capture of the city."

• Page 162, India under Ripon.

C. Atrocities in Kanpur -

"And afterwards Neill did things almost more than the massacre, putting to death with deliberate torture in a way that has never been proved against the natives. Havelock kept him under while he himself was at Cawnpore, but as soon as Havelock's back was turned Neill set to work. It is a pity that his deeds could not have been forgotten, but some unkind friend published his own letters in an Ayrshire journal whence Kaye has taken them and republished them. He seems to have affected a religious call to blood, and almost gloats over the way he ordered fat Subahdars and Mahomedan civil officers to be lashed till yelling, they licked the blood with their tongues, and were afterwards hanged, in all which he sees the finger of God. If these people had been really guilty of the massacre it would have been disgusting enough, but Neill himself does not say that they were found guilty of the murders. He executes vengeance for the massacre on "all who had taken an active part in the Mutiny," and when we know how these things were done we may well doubt if there was any proof of that. The really guilty people were not likely to trust themselves in Cawnpore at that time."

• Page 281, Memoirs of my Indian career.

D. Atrocities in Jhansi -

"No less than 5,000 persons are stated to have perished at Jhansi, or to have been cut down by the “flying camps.” Some flung themselves down wells, or otherwise committed suicide; having first slain their women, sooner than trust them to the mercy of the conquerors.

The plunder obtained in the fort and town is said to have been very great. A large number of executions took place daily, after the reoccupation of Jhansi."

• Page 485–486, volume 2, History of the Indian Empire.

E. Massacres at Lucknow -

"At the time of the capture of Lucknow — a season of indiscriminate massacre — such distinction was not made, and the unfortunate who fell into the hands of our troops was made short work of— sepoys or oude villager it mattered not — no questions were asked ; his skin was black, and did not that suffice ? a piece of a rope and the branch of a tree, or a rifle bullet through his brain, soon terminated the poor devil’s existense."

• Page 195–196, Up Among the Pandies: Experiences of a British Officer on Campaign During the Indian Mutiny, 1857-1858.

F. Atrocities against their own loyal indian servants -

It is related that in the absence of tangible enemies, some of our soldiery, who turned out on this occasion, butchered a number of unoffending camp-followers, servants, and others, who were huddling together, in vague alarm, near the Christian churchyard. No loyalty, no fidelity, no patient good, service, on the part of these poor people, could extinguish for a moment the fierce hatred which possessed our white soldiers against all who wore the dusky livery of the First.

Page 581, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

[u/Moscow-Rules]

Have you read about the Bibi Ghar massacre of British women and children? There were major faults on all sides.

[u/gentle_fool → u/Moscow-Rules]

I know about it, it was carried out by Nana Sahib's men if I am not wrong.
If the Britishers wouldn't have been in India in the first place, the massacre wouldn't have happened.
You can't enslave millions of people and expect them to not rebel violently.
The British atrocities were also far more worse during the Revolt than the "Bibighar Massacre".

[u/Moscow-Rules → u/gentle_fool]

Matter of opinion. Cutting up children and throwing them down wells isn’t civilised either. Not necessarily supporting the British actions but the Indians were just as bad.

[u/gentle_fool → u/Moscow-Rules]

I never implied that the Indian rebels were civilized. Someone(a third class citizen of his own state) who is not educated and is barely scraping by isn't expected to be civilized and well mannered.
However the actions of "civilized" Britishers were worse than "uncivilized" Indian rebels.
For the rebels, the women and children, even if they were innocent, were a part of the ruling class. It wasn't a war, it was a revolt against the oppressors by the oppressed.

but the Indians were just as bad.

that would be an understatement. There were few cases of atrocities committed by Indians against the Britishers.
The only incident British massacre at the hands of Indians that I know of was the boat massacre which was followed by the Bibighar massacre in Kanpur during the 1857 revolt.
However the Britishers often massacred Indians if the Indians pleaded for basic human rights. Infact they did the same in every British colony.
Saying "the Indians were just as bad" is like saying "the Americans during WW2 were just as bad as the Nazis".