In 1857, Indians did not rape English women

Saquib Salim

The Indians revolted against British imperialism in Meerut on May 10, 1857, triggering the First War of Indian National Independence. Hindus, Muslims, upper and lower castes, men and women, rich and poor, the ruling class and the ruled, and every Indian was part of the movement.

A piece of history

But at the end of the year, the British defeated the revolutionaries. They massacred Indians, burned villages and hanged people after calling them revolutionaries who behaved uncivilized during the war.

One of the main arguments of the Europeans was that English women were raped by the revolutionaries. Reports of brutal killings of small children and rapes were published to justify uncivilized violence against the revolutionaries.

Indian revolutionary women were burned, men were shot from the cannons, Hindus were forced to eat beef and Muslims were forced to eat pork before being killed. These excesses were justified by the fact that the revolutionaries raped European women.

Unfortunately, several Indians fell for the propaganda. Recently I saw a play in Delhi in which Bahadur Shah Zafar was shown repenting for the crimes committed against women by the revolutionaries in 1857. How shameful is it that after more than 75 years of independence, Indians still believe in this lie against their heroes?

Thomas C. Smyth wrote to Major GW Williams from Meerut on December 16, 1857: “I cannot find a single case in which it is proved that an offense was committed.” I now believe that no women were injured in Meerut .”

William Muir also found in his investigation that most reports were exaggerated. He wrote: “The statements appearing in the English newspapers about the atrocities committed by the rebels here and elsewhere are in many cases greatly exaggerated…It was also mentioned in an English newspaper that the Sirdhanah nuns had fled to a valley Thibet (Tibet)’ instead they were housed within the walls of the Rifle Hospital from June to early September.”

CB Sanders wrote to Muir in 1857: “I think there is no reason at all to believe that the European ladies and girls massacred either at Meerut or Delhi were injured or outraged before death put an end to their sufferings. I have taken great pains to ascertain whether there is any basis for the stories published in the public press relating to acts of violence inflicted on poor Miss Jennings and Miss Clifford, and I am fully satisfied that there is no reason at all to believe that they were in any way ill. treated before death.”

The English reporters, who of course presented an anti-Indian narrative, did not report any rapes. They reported on the killing of women during wartime, when people on both sides were caught up in a bloody war.

The revolutionaries were kinder to women and children. The British records reveal that when the English army reached Mirganj (Bareilly), they found that the entire station was destroyed but the church was intact. They also rescued women and children who were being held captive and not killed like European men.

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There is no denying that English women and children were not killed in this first war of Indian independence. But the reports of rape, brutality such as the chopping up of children and especially attacks on women were found by the British officers to be untrue. It is shameful that Indians still believe the propaganda of the colonial rulers.