Exhibition of paintings, etchings of 1857 uprising by ICHR
Twenty five paintings have been brought specially from the Victoria Albert Museum ,London,, reports Satyen Mohapatra.
Col Finnis the first British officer to be killed in Meerut on May 10,1857 by rebels, surrender of Bahadur Shah Zafar to the English Captain Hodson at Humayun’s Tomb on September 21,1857, Hodson’s shooting of the Mughal Princes, on September 22,1857, and other contemporary paintings and etchings and archival texts of British period dealing with the 1857 Uprising are being displayed by the Indian Council of Historical Research.
The exhibition put up at Red Fort on May 11,had earlier been put up at IIC. Twenty five paintings have been brought specially from the Victoria Albert Museum ,London, around 25 documents available at National Archives have been documented by ICHR and displayed.
The exhibition under the title “Representations of 1857 – Recovering the Indian Voice” tries to juxtapose different representation of 1857.The paintings/sketches made by the British largely giving the victor’s point of view and the surviving texts of proclamations,letters, depositions at trials of rebels giving the Indian perception, according to chairman of ICHR Sabyasachi Bhattacharya.
Some of the exhibits include fight in the lines at Delhi, fierce fighting near Bale-ke-Sarai near Najafgarh, Sepoys attack house of Hindu Rao, encounter of Lieutenant Hills with rebel cavalry at Subzi Mandi. British attack on Delhi Bank in Chandni Chowk,attack on European Bunglows at Meerut.
In the archival texts displayed there is one in which the Commander in chief of rebel forces in Delhi General Bakht Khan fearing that English may enter Delhi and asks officers and soldiers to fight with zeal.