Siege of Cawnpore - Literary References

Literary References

Many references to the event were made in later novels and films. Julian Rathbone describes the brutality of both British and Indian forces during the siege of Cawnpore in his novel The Mutiny. In the novel, the Indian nurse Lavanya rescues an English child, Stephen, during the Satichaura Ghat massacre. In Massacre at Cawnpore, V. A. Stuart describes the siege and the British defence through the eyes of the characters Sheridan, and his wife Emmy. George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman in the Great Game also contains lengthy scenes set in the entrenchment during the siege and also during the ensuing escape. Tom Williams' novel, Cawnpore, is also set against the background of the siege and massacre, which is seen from both the European and the Indian perspective.

The British press used it to describe the brutality involved in the public feeding of reptiles at the London zoological garden. In 1876, the Editor of the Animal World drew Dr. P L Sclater's attention to this and the press charged the Zoological Society of London with encouraging cruelty, "pandering to public brutality" while one writer in the Whitehall Review (April 27, 1878), protested against "the Cawnpore Massacre enacted diurnally," and headed his article, "Sepoyism at the Zoo."