Delhi, September 1857 - March 1858: A Microcosm of British Vengeance

Abstract

The Terror, brutally unleashed by the victorious, but vindictive British in Delhi , after its fall on 21 September 1857, was terrible, much more terrible in its spread, expanse, duration and decimation than the universally condemned Nadir Shah’s holocaust of 1739. For weeks, vengeance, ferocious vengeance, stalked and strutted about, relentlessly and inexorably, Delhi’s narrow lanes no less than its broad boulevards, tormenting and torturing princes and populace alike – decimating them to a slow, tortuous death by amputation, impalement and other devilish devices that fiends have ever conceived in their worst moments of barbarity. A city of 69,738 men and 68,239 women, besides children, was reduced to a hideous ruin. No one knows how many were killed, how many women plunged to their death, and how many succumbed wandering endlessly in search of a safe haven. Governor-General Canning speaks of ‘the hanging and shooting of 40,000 to 50,000 men’ while a British oriented account of 27,000 executions. In any case, Delhi was almost purged of all Muslims and they were not allowed to return for six months.