Art from the Past - An Image from the Revolt of the 1857

One essential tool to help understand historical thinking and factual knowledge is art. 

Art is used as evidence to learn about the culture and mentalities of people in the past.

Paintings are considered as important primary and secondary sources of information.

Primary sources are first-hand accounts by participants of a particular event or materials produced at the same historical time period. Secondary sources are works that discuss a subject, but which are written after the time that the event has occurred or works that explain or interpret primary sources. One important record of the revolt of 1857 is the pictorial images produced by the British and Indians which include paintings, pencil drawings, etchings, posters, cartoons, bazaar prints etc.

This drawing is a recreation of a sketch by J F Weedon made in early 1960s for a magazine and reproduced by the Direct Photo-Engineering Co. Limited. The theme of the artwork is similar to the famous painting ‘Relief of Lucknow’ by Thomas Jones Barker. This picture commemorates the ‘British heroes’ who saved the English and repressed the rebels during the Siege of Lucknow. Here, General James Outram is seen entering the defences of the Residency, Lucknow on 25^th September 1857 as the head of the Havelock Relieving Forces.

When Rebels besieged Lucknow, Henry Lawrence, the Commissioner of Lucknow, collected the Christian population, fortified the Residency and saved supplies for the siege. After Lawrence died, Colonel John Inglis took military command of the garrison and defended the Residency.
The Britishers, whose numbers constantly reduced by military action as well as disease, were able to repulse all attempts by rebels to overwhelm them. On 25^th September, James Outram and Henry Havelock arrived, cut through the rebel forces, and reinforced the military garrisons. Twenty days later, Colin Campbell, who became the new commander of British forces in India, came with forces and rescued the besieges British garrison.

Since the painting is from a British perspective, the British forces are shown in a positive light. The Residency Lucknow has been shown as under British control and the entry of James Outram and Havelock would ensure their victory. Since it showed that British power and control would be re-established, such paintings were reassuring to the British public. In British accounts, the Siege of Lucknow became a story of survival, heroic resistance and the ultimate triumph of British power.

But the Revolt of 1857 was actually the conscious beginning of the independence struggle against British rule in India. It is fascinating to see that art can convey various meanings from different perspectives.

Please do share your thoughts and opinions about the Revolt of 1857!