The Mutiny through monuments

Outside of history books and personal accounts, the saga of the bloody uprising of 1857 can be revisited through the buildings that bore the brunt of the revolt or came up as a result of it.

DELHI

One way of going back 160 years to that tumultuous time is through the 1857 Mutiny Trail, a three-hour 15-minute curated walk organised by India City Walks (www.indiacitywalks.com), where you discover the physical aftermath of India’s first war of independence. Among the significant sites that were part of the uprising and that are covered by such history walks, are:

Nicholson’s Grave

Close to the Kashmiri Gate Metro station lies the Nicholson Cemetery, the final resting place of hundreds of British residents of Delhi — men, women and children — who were killed during the Mutiny. The most prominent grave here is that of Brigadier-General John Nicholson, the formidable Irish army officer in the East India company who planned and led the storming of Delhi. Known to be unsparing in his punishments, he said for the rebelling soldier, “I would inflict the most excruciating tortures I could think of on them with a perfectly easy conscience.” Nicholson was fatally wounded during the attack to take Delhi over and died on 23 September 1857. The tombstone on his grave, which lies close to the entrance and is barricaded by an iron grill, says he was 35. He was, however, 34 at the time of his death.

Varun Shiv Kapur [CC BY 2.0] / Wikimedia Commons

Khooni Darwaza

The 15.5-metre-high monument, which sits bang in the middle of a busy street opposite the Ferozeshah Kotla ruins, was built in the 16th century during emperor Sher Shah Suri’s time. It was originally called the Kabuli Darwaza as caravans to Afghanistan used to pass through this gate. It acquired the name ‘Khooni Darwaza’ following some bloody events that took place here under the rule of Mughal emperor Jahangir and later his grandson, Aurangzeb.

The monument would live up to its name again in 1857. It is here that Bahadur Shah Zafar’s sons, Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan, and grandson, Mirza Abu Bekar, were murdered by Major Hodson. After convincing them to surrender, Hodson was bringing the princes from Humayun’s Tomb when he encountered a crowd of thousands of mutineers at Khooni Darwaza. Hodson ordered the three princes to get off the cart and to strip off their top garments. He then took a carbine from one of his troopers and shot them dead. Their naked bodies were ordered to be displayed in front of a police station.

Parth.rkt [CC BY-SA 3.0] / Wikimedia Commons

Flagstaff Tower

This one-room castellated tower, located at Kamla Nehru Ridge near the North Campus of Delhi University, was built around 1828 as a signal tower. It was to this tower that the Europeans and their families fled as the sepoys started hunting for and killing residents of the cantonment. Built on the highest point on the ridge, the Flagstaff Tower was where they sought refuge as they waited for help to arrive from Meerut.

Photo: Bhupesh Bhandari

Humayun’s Tomb

The first garden tomb in the Indian subcontinent was where the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, took refuge during the rebellion of 1857 along with his three sons. It is from here that Major William Hodson of Hodson’s Horse, would capture the emperor, promising him that his life would be spared.

British Magazine 

Located on Lothian’s Road, British Magazine stored arms and gunpowder. As the mutineers started capturing Delhi, some British officers who were defending the magazine blew it up to prevent the arms from falling into their hands. Acknowledging this as an act of bravery, the British built a memorial here in their honour. Post-Independence, the government of India added this inscription to the monument: “Persons described as rebels and mutineers in the above inscription were members of the army in service of the East India Company trying to overthrow the foreign government.”

Adjacent to the British Magazine is the Telegraph Memorial that was built to commemorate the services of the post-boys who risked their lives to warn British officials in Ambala to disarm their soldiers so that the rebellion wouldn’t spread further. Their warnings paid off as is recorded by the following inscription at the memorial: “The electric telegraph saved India.”

SJD96BVN [CC BY-SA 4.0] / Wikimedia Commons

Mutiny Memorial

Located near Bara Hindu Rao Hospital on Rani Jhansi Road, the Mutiny Memorial was built in 1863 in the memory of the officers and soldiers of the Delhi Field Force who were killed between 30 May and 20 September 1857. Built in the Gothic style, the octagonal tapering tower in red sandstone is located barely 200 metres from the Ashoka Pillar. The 33-metre high tower has a crucifix on the top and stands on a two-tiered platform. This was done to ensure that the monument was higher than any building in its proximity.

The monument, however, invited severe criticism, especially after Independence. And in 1972, the Indian government renamed it Ajitgarh (Place of the Unvanquished). A new plaque was added that said the “enemy” as defined by the British were in fact freedom fighters who had fought against the colonial rule. The names of these martyrs were also etched on slabs around the memorial.

MEERUT

St John's Church

The church, one of the oldest and largest Anglican churches in North India, was the scene of heavy fighting between Indian and the British forces. On 10 May 1857, which was a Sunday, as the congregation at St John’s Church began the prayers, a group of Indian sepoys, armed with swords and bayonets, stormed the church and killed several of the British officers gathered there. The graves of some of the soldiers who died on that fateful day can still be found in the cemetery by the church. The large pipe organ that used to accompany the congregation as it sang hymns still stands inside the church.

Kali Paltan Temple

The temple of Augarnath, which came to be called ‘Kali Paltan’ temple during British rule, played a distinctive role in India’s first war of independence. The temple was named so because of its proximity to the barracks of the Indian soldiers and not for any reference to Goddess Kali. The temple has a well where Indian soldiers would go to quench their thirst. After the British introduced the new cartridges, which Indian soldiers suspected had cow fat in them, the priest at the temple refused to allow them to drink water from the well. This is said to be a major trigger for the revolt. As the mutiny broke out, the temple also became a hiding place for the sepoys.

LUCKNOW

Dheeraj666 [CC BY-SA 4.0] / Wikimedia Commons

Musa Bagh

Located on the Lucknow-Hardoi highway, this Indo-European style monument was the base of the 7th Awadh Irregular Cavalry during the rebellion. When the soldiers of the cavalry refused to bite the cartridges, which they suspected were sealed with cow fat,  Brigadier-General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence ordered their arms to be confiscated. In the uprising that followed, Captain Wales of the British Regiment was fatally wounded. He died on March 21, 1858 and was buried within the premises of Musa Bagh Kothi.

Arpan Mahajan [CC BY-SA 4.0] / Wikimedia Commons

Dilkusha Kothi

Situated at the eastern end of Lucknow, this majestic structure built in 1805 in the English baroque style was the site of three fierce battles between Indian sepoys and British forces in 1857. The first was on November 14, 1857, when Colin Campbell, the commander-in-chief of the British army, captured it from the rebelling soldier. The second was when the sepoys took it back from the British. And the third one played out on March 3, 1858 when Campbell recaptured it and used it as a base for the final assault. Originally a three-storey structure, the kothi was severely damaged in the artillery shelling. Today, its ghostly ruins — a few towers and external walls — are all that stand surrounded by a lush garden.

Tony [CC BY-SA 4.0] / Wikimedia Commons

Residency

Also called the British Residency and Residency Complex, this was a group of buildings in a common precinct. During 1857, the Residency served as a refuge for 3,000-odd British inhabitants. Many of them were killed before the British troops, led by Sir Colin Campbell, overpowered the Indian forces on November 17, 1857. The Residency still has within its walls the graves of around 2,000 British soldiers who died here during the revolt. 

The Residency now has a museum as well as the tomb of Sadat Ali Khan, the first nawab of Awadh. The museum includes a model of the Residency, old photographs, lithographs, paintings, documents, period objects such as guns, swords, shields, musketing cannons, rank badges and medals. 

The gallery in the basement of the museum houses the artifacts recovered during the excavation in the southern portion of the Residency complex. These include a loaded revolver, porcelain wares, cannon balls and fragments of wine bottles.

KANPUR

Shivam Maini [CC BY-SA 4.0] / Wikimedia Commons

Kanpur Memorial Church

Earlier called the All Souls Cathedral, the church was built in 1875 in memory of the British who had lost their lives during the Siege of Cawnpore (now Kanpur). Situated on Albert Lane in Kanpur Cantonment, it is built in Lombardic Gothic style and has the Memorial Garden to its east. In the centre of the garden stands a carved figure of an angel — The Angel of the Resurrection — with crossed arms, holding two branches of palm fronds across its chest. This is said to be “the most iconic of all British sculptural works in India”. Originally, the sculpture was installed over the Bibighar well into which mutilated bodies of European men, women and children, some of them half dead, were thrown. It was later moved to the Memorial Garden near the All Souls Church.

Oskanpur [CC BY-SA 3.0] / Wikimedia Commons

SatiChaura Ghat

Also called Massacre Ghat, this was the site of the grimmest slaughter witnessed during the rebellion. Located on the banks of the Ganges, it had got its name after some women committed sati here. It earned the name of Massacre Ghat after June 27, 1857, when around 300 British men, women and children were slaughtered here while trying to escape in boats. Those who survived that day were later killed at the Bibighar Massacre. The rebellion was believed to be led by Nana Sahib of Peshwa and the ghat was later renamed Nana Rao Ghat.