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2 - ‘Forget Cawnpore!’

Commemorating the Mutiny, 1857–1877

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2022

Sebastian Raj Pender
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Focusing on commemoration over the course of the first twenty years which followed the uprising, this chapter argues that official commemoration was a direct and often conscious attempt to mollify the British population which anxiously anticipated further insurrection. With elevated levels of intercommunal antipathy characterising the post-conflict colonial relationship, this chapter shows how commemoration was designed to produce a conciliatory memory of the uprising consciously shaped to soothe tension and reassure the colonial community about the stability of British India. Responsible for a greatly sanitised memory of 1857, commemoration attempted to mould the conflict into a heroic narrative in which British and Indian soldiers fought side by side to win a magnificent victory in the name of empire. As this chapter further explores, however, despite the enormous ideological energy expended by the administration over this period, fears of further insurrection tied to memories of 1857 were never far from the surface during these practices of commemoration and could still erupt in ruthless outbursts of colonial violence even decades later.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • ‘Forget Cawnpore!’
  • Sebastian Raj Pender, University of Oxford
  • Book: The 1857 Indian Uprising and the Politics of Commemoration
  • Online publication: 21 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009052276.003
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  • ‘Forget Cawnpore!’
  • Sebastian Raj Pender, University of Oxford
  • Book: The 1857 Indian Uprising and the Politics of Commemoration
  • Online publication: 21 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009052276.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • ‘Forget Cawnpore!’
  • Sebastian Raj Pender, University of Oxford
  • Book: The 1857 Indian Uprising and the Politics of Commemoration
  • Online publication: 21 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009052276.003
Available formats
×