Crockery from the Awadh palace. Silver items and animals from Nana Saheb Peshwa’s Bithur palace. Ornaments and silk garments belonging to Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. These were among the items looted by the British during the uprising of 1857.
But looting, it seems from books written by British men and women who experienced the rebellion, was only what violent Indians did. Their accounts present a rather different framing of the marauding. Their descriptions of the plunder by the British suggest that they were heroes who were merely rectifying an unfortunate mistake.
Even as they expressed a fear of their belongings falling into Indian hands, British writers also describe indulging in the plunder and destruction of Indian property and cheering it on – despite a proclamation from the East India Company authorities forbidding this.
They did so with impunity, fearing neither social ostracisation nor judicial repercussions.
‘All we valued was lost to us…’
When the uprising began in Meerut on May 10, 1857, the looting was incidental since the focus of the sepoys of the East India Company was to punish their British officers.
But Delhi, where the sepoys went next, witnessed large-scale looting.
The British residents of the city fled their homes, taking with them what they could. Maria Germon in A Lady’s Diary...