The sepoys were generally under the command of British officers. Large numbers of native soldiers, known as sepoys, were employed by the company to maintain order and defend trading centers. A private company which first entered India to trade in the 1600s, the East India Company had eventually transformed into a diplomatic and military operation. In the illustration, a mutineer was depicted chained to the front of a British cannon, awaiting his imminent execution, as others were gathered to watch the grisly spectacle.īy the 1850s the East India Company controlled much of India.
One common punishment was to tie mutineers to the mouth of a cannon and then fire the cannon, completely obliterating the victim.Ī popular American illustrated magazine, "Ballou's Pictorial", published a full-page woodcut illustration showing the preparations for such an execution in its issue of October 3, 1857. The uprising was put down, but the methods employed by the British were so harsh that many in the western world were offended. The events of 1857 have been considered the first outbreak of an independence movement against British rule. In India, it has been viewed quite differently.
#Mutiny definition series#
In Britain and in the West, it was almost always portrayed as a series of unreasonable and bloodthirsty uprisings spurred by falsehoods about religious insensitivity. It is also known by other names: the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857.
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