Sepoy Rebellion (II) [15min]

In June 1857 the British garrison at Cawnpore (Kanpur) was besieged by mutineers led by Nana Sahib, who fooled the Cawnpore commander, General Sir Hugh Wheeler, into letting his guards in to protect the treasury. The sepoys rebelled, looted the treasury and laid siege to the garrison. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. (You may listen again online to the five most recent episodes of "Empire".)

For nearly three weeks the British hoped for a relief column from Lucknow. Nana Sahib is said to have heard that Sir Henry Havelock's rescue brigade was approaching and, on 25 June, offered the garrison safe passage down the Ganges to Allahabad. The British survivors boarded waiting boats and were then fired upon. Indian cavalrymen rode among the wounded and hacked them to death. One boat escaped with just four men.

The surviving women and children were imprisoned in a former house of a British officer's mistress. On 15 July they were murdered. To the end of the mutiny British troops would go into battle with fixed bayonets and the war cry, 'Cawnpore! Cawnpore!' and no thought of mercy.

Later, the Governor-General Charles Canning issued a declaration that any mutineer who had not committed murder could be spared execution. Canning (1812-1862) was a son of the George Canning who was briefly Prime Minister but most remembered for having fought a duel with Castlereagh over the failure of the Walcheren expedition. Briefly Canning was an MP but then through his mother became Viscount Canning in 1837, the year of Victoria's accession. For 15 years he remained in London as a minister until 1856, when he was sent to succeed Dalhousie as governor general of British India.

Canning earned the name Clemency Canning after The Times of London said of his statement:"There is so much heart in the document -- indeed it is all heart, for we cannot say we find anything else in it. We presume it must be called the Clemency of Canning". This nickname, Clemency Canning, was meant to denigrate him during the trying circumstances of the sepoy rebellion. Yet he was admired by Victoria and, in 1858, was appointed the first Viceroy of India.

During not much more than a year, the Sepoy Rebellion chalked a list of bloody sieges and battles, particularly Lucknow, Cawnpore, Dehli, Agra, Kunch and Gwalior. British and India leaders who might never have been noticed came to the fore: Havelock, Henry and John Lawrence, Colvin Nicholson, Outram, Campbell, Barnard, Whitlock, Rose, Bahudar Shah, the Nawab of Banda, Rao Sahib, Nana Sahib, the Rani of Jhansi and most of all, Tatya Tope.