"STATELY HORN MUSIC" "DONALD SUTHERLAND:" "In the spring of 1852," "Queen Victoria of England and her husband, Prince Albert, were on top of the world." "Victoria had survived the threat of revolution to emerge stronger and better loved than ever before." "The British would now embark on the greatest period of expansion in their history." "But their attempt to export Victorian values around the globe would provoke a clash of cultures and convictions that would shake the Queen and her empire to the core." "In the course ofVictoria's long reign, 16 million Britons would leave the mother country for a new life overseas." "Each of them, whether they were searching for fame or fortune," "Iove or adventure, would help to make the empire of Queen Victoria the widest and most powerful the world has ever seen." "There was the feeling that this island, though then very, very beautiful, peaceful, proud, rich - in all ways successful..." "SHIP HORN BLARES" "Nevertheless, it was cramped, it was small, it was drizzly." "And over there, you know, at the end of the shipping routes, there was somewhere warm and hot and exciting." "Temple bells rang and ships sailed over limitless seas and soldiers fought." "Itwas a marvellous vision for somebody growing up in this little island here." "SOMBRE HORN MUSIC" "But whatever their personal dreams and ambitions, these hopeful immigrants took with them a baggage of ideas and values, beliefs and prejudices, that would spread to the further corners of the earth..." "..and soak a significant part of it in blood." "Most of those leaving the mother country in the 1850s were heading for the Queen's self-governing dominions of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, or the former colonies of the United States." "Others were bound for the country that Victoria would one day describe as the most precious jewel in her crown" " India." "SITAR MUSIC" "India was the greatest overseas territory that any empire has ever possessed." "But it had been conquered not by the British army, but by a private trading company." "The East India Company had begun with a single warehouse on the west coast of India." "When its trade was threatened by European rivals or Indian rulers, the company went to war." "DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC" "It employed its own private army of native troops commanded by British and European officers." "They won battle after battle." "With each victory, thousands of new Indian recruits came over from the ranks of their defeated opponents." "They swore an oath to their new employer..." "INDIAN MAN: "To serve the honourable company faithfully and truly" ""against all their enemies" ""while I continue to receive their pay and eat their salt."" "That oath of loyalty was the most important single strand binding the British to India." "And the most vulnerable." "By the time ofVictoria, the East India Company, with its vast native army, controlled a swath of territory across India" "10 times the size of the British Isles and with five times the population." "The merchant adventurers had become conquerors, and to the victors went the spoils." "The hookah-smoking agents, or nabobs, of the East India Company became a byword for splendid living and riches beyond the dreams of their countrymen in England." "MORRIS:" "They were generally well-educated, , upper middle-class Englishmen, who went out partly to make money, as they nearly always did, but also to have fun and to have excitement and to have a bit of romance and to go somewhere where the horizons were wider" "and the opportunities were greater and the loot was better." "There was no improving intention." "They weren't bigoted at all, so many of them had Indian friends." "Some of them had Indian wives." "A lot of them had Indian mistresses and produced many Anglo-Indian children." "The Indian mistress - or bibi, as she was known - was an important, almost official, feature of company life." "Traditionally, she was installed in a house known as a bibi-ghar, where she lived in some luxury with her children and servants." "In its early days, the company had encouraged its white employees to take Indian wives, but the bibi had become the approved alternative." "Bibis steadied the men,it was argued, and rooted the company in Indian soil." "One officer wrote wistfully of the bibis..." "ENGLISHMAN: "They are so amusingly playful," ""so anxious to please a person"." ""One shrinks from the idea"" ""of encountering the whims" or yielding to the furies" ""of an Englishwoman."" "One Englishwoman in particular was not amused." "The high-spirited young woman who would become Queen of England at 18 had matured into a proud and sometimes priggish wife and mother." "She and Prince Albert believed in what would become known as... ..Victorian values - in particular, the sanctity of home and family and the supremacy of the Protestant religion." "They were values shared by most ofVictoria's British subjects, rich or poor." "Despite the squalor and poverty of their own cities, the Victorians began to see themselves as God's chosen people..." "..with a mission to spread the gospel to other lands." "All these things come together around this period, around, sort of, 1815 onwards, to develop a very new attitude within Britain - a feeling that they are the face of the future, really, and the desire to now..." "to impose this on others." "They feel they have a duty to do this, to civilise people, and this is known as the civilising mission." "And from this date onwards, really, there is a great change in the attitude of the British to the Indian people." "This feeling coincided with new inventions and initiatives that would bring the two worlds of England and India closer together, with horrific results for both." "In the days before the Suez Canal, the passage from England to India was around the southern tip of Africa - a journey of some 14,000 miles that could take up to six months by sailing ship." "But in 1837, the first year ofVictoria's reign, the East India Company employed a retired naval officer to find a faster route." "Thomas Waghorn was typical of the Victorians who would expand the British empire." "Part adventurer, part visionary, part man of business." "He proposed a short-cut to India - across Egypt and down the Red Sea." "Most people thought he was mad." "The overland journey across Egypt was plagued by bandits and the Red Sea was prone to sudden storms." "That made it hazardous for large sailing ships." "But Britain had pioneered the age of steam and Waghorn gambled that steamships could operate on the Red Sea without fear of wind or current." "As a coaling station he used the port of Aden, the first colony acquired in Victoria's reign." "Soon regular services were plying the Red Sea between Aden and Suez." "More traditional methods were employed to smooth the journey across Egypt- camels, carriages and hefty bribes to buy out the bandits." "Before long, Waghorn was running a thriving business." "But his short cut to the Orient would stir up unexpected trouble in India." "SOLEMN ORGAN MUSIC" "The long sea voyage around the Cape had deterred many Englishwomen from joining their menfolk in the Far East." "But Waghorn's short cut made the passage to India much easier for them." "In addition to the wives came thousands of young women who hoped to attract one of the company's eligible bachelors." "These women were to have a dramatic effect on the way of life enjoyed by the men who ran India." "HARDIMAN:" "With the coming of the women, there was an increasing tendency to establish separate enclaves for Europeans, known a cantonments, which were usually on the outskirts of cities." "In these places, the Europeans were able to live in their own houses." "They would socialise together." "They wouldn't even go into the town to do their shopping- they had their own cantonment shops so that they never had to go to the native bazaar." "So they were completely enclosed." "And in this situation, the European women had really very little contact with the outside world." "Their main contact with the Indians was with servants and these were people whom they commanded as inferiors." "They learnt some basic Hindi words, which were often the most insulting forms of address to people." "But they did this because this was the way you addressed your servants." "For another thing, of course, there was the sexual aspect of it." "They didn't want their menfolk to be associated with Indian women, understandably so, really." "But that meant that the gulf was driven through the relationship between Britons and Indians." "EXOTIC INDIAN MUSIC" "The amusingly playful bibi was pushed into the shadows - slowly, but not entirely, receding." "Now, instead of spending his off-duty hours in the bibi-ghar or with his men in the native quarters, the company officer was expected to retire to his bungalow and the bosom of his English family." "CRICKETS CHIRP" "It was a bosom that often quivered with righteous indignation at what was glimpsed of the world beyond the European compound." "The daughter of an English merchant in Lucknow complained bitterly..." "ENGLISHWOMAN: "The streets are never known to be swept"" ""and flies abound in such numbers" ""that sometimes the shops can only be opened at night."" ""Besides which, the place is infested with monkeys"" ""that unscrupulously walk offwith all they can lay their hands upon."" "Such women were scandalised by tales of the pleasures sampled by the native rulers in the privacy of the royal palaces..." "LIVELY INDIAN MUSIC" "..and by those more widely available in the naach houses of the native quarters." "It was not only English women who demanded change." "The same steamships from England brought out missionaries, who were determined to make India not only more civilised but more Christian." "DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC" "HARDIMAN:" "The missionaries who came were very intolerant of Indian religions- particularly Hinduism- which they saw as a religion of superstition, of dirt and squalor, but also of idol worship." "ENGLISHMAN:" ""We must unite to condemn"" ""the barbarous and obscene rites of Hindu superstition."" "The chairman of the East India Company, himself a fervent evangelist, suggested that the company might do more in India than just make money." "ENGLISHMAN: "We might diffuse among their inhabitants-"" ""long-sunken darkness, vice, misery-"" ""the light and benign influence of the truth."" "There were obviously some practices carried on in India which were, by any standards, reprehensible." "The most disturbing of these practices was the Hindu tradition of suttee - burning a widow alive on her dead husband's funeral pyre, ritually prepared by the priest with water, milk and honey." "When a delegation of Indian notables protested that suttee was a time-honoured custom of their people," "General Sir Charles Napier spoke for many of his countrymen." ""My people, too, have a custom." ""When men burn women alive, we hang them."" "HARDIMAN:" "We can justify the British attempts to root out these practices, but I don't think we can justify the way that they were made into symbols of Indian degeneracy." "They were contemptuous of Indian beliefs, uh, openly ridiculed Indian religions and customs, and behaved in a way which suggested to a lot of Indians that the momentum of change was quickening and that it was unstoppable." "Some Indians decided to make a stand." "They would fight-and die-to defend their religions and culture." "One of them was a young Muslim called Azimullah Khan." "He would prove to be one of Britain's most deadly enemies." "SOFT HUM OF PEOPLE TALKING" "Azimullah's dealings with the British began as a child, when he was brought by his mother to a Christian mission in the north of India." "REVERENT ORGAN MUSIC" "Famine was stalking the region and mother and child were starving." "The mission took them in." "Azimullah was educated in the mission school, where he learned to speak English and French." "But he had been born a Muslim and he resisted all attempts to convert him to Christianity." "When he left the mission, he took a job as kitmutgar, or butler, in the home of an English family." "He joined a great army of servants who catered to the needs of the British in India - from the relays of punkah wallahs, who fanned the air in the stifling bungalows, to the trusted ayahs, who looked after the children," "and to the lofty kitmutgars, who served at table." "Many remained faithful to their British families through a lifetime of service..." "..but others nursed a bitter, even murderous resentment against the sahibs and mem-sahibs whose whims they had to satisfy." "Such a man was Azimullah Khan." "In the 1850s, Azimullah joined the followers of an Indian nobleman with his own grievances against the British." "Nana Sahib was the leader of a once mighty Hindu nation, the Mahrattas, who had been defeated by the armies of the East India Company." "Nana's father had been paid an annual pension by the company to keep his family in princely style and to maintain a small army." "But when his father died, the pension died with him." "His enraged heir, Nana Sahib, decided to appeal to the directors of the East India Company in London." "And the man he chose to represent him was Azimullah Khan." "GRAND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC" "In 1853, Azimullah travelled to Britain, expecting to see the great source of power that had so impressed Muslim writers before him." "INDIAN MAN: "It cannot be without the will of that one supreme being"" ""that this small island,"" ""which seems on the globe like a mole on the body of man,"" ""should command the greater part of the world"" ""and keep the rest in awe."" "But Azimullah was astonished by the smoke and squalor of London." "Here was none of the wealth and dignity maintained by the British in India." "Instead, he saw the drunks ,and the whores, the beggars and the street urchins..." "..whole families trudging to factories and workshops." "In the engine room of empire, the smoke and the dirt blinded Azimullah to the power and the wealth." "When the East India Company rejected his appeal on behalf of Nana Sahib," "Azimullah was indignant." ""England will yet regret" ""the manner in which it has used my master"" "It seemed an empty threat, but fate would provide him with the opportunity and the weapon." "As Azimullah began his return journey, the British rushed headlong into the first major war ofVictoria's reign." "It was provoked by fears for the security of the overland link to India pioneered by Thomas Waghorn." "In the spring of 1854," "Russian armies were sweeping through the Balkans and the British public clamoured for action." "But the government was divided." "The Prime Minister wrote to the Queen..." ""No doubt it may be very agreeable to humiliate the Emperor of Russia"" ""but it is paying a little too dear for the pleasure"" ""to cover Europe with confusion, misery and blood"" "It was a view shared by Victoria's German-born husband, Prince Albert." "His opposition to war became widely known... ..and the public turned on him in fury." "Albert wrote to his brother..." ""The public has graciously selected me as its scapegoat"" ""to answer for its not yet having come to war"" "The English aristocracy had never accepted the Prince as one of their own." "They sneered at his dress- the open-necked collar and the thigh-length boots he wore to go hunting- not the English style at all." "A letter to the 'Times' wryly speculated on the reasons he was disliked by the upper classes." "MAN: "He does not gamble, does not use offensive language"" ""and does not keep an opera dancer"" "The Queen suggested another." ""It is that unbounded dislike in England offoreigners,"" ""which breaks out continually and is very painful"" "A damaging rumourwas circulated that Albert was secretly in the pay of the Russians." "Albert did not want war." "He felt that whatever was going to happen could be settled peaceably." "And when he tried to settle it peacefully, when he tried to get the nations to think in terms of a conference to end the war, he found that people saw him as pro-Russian." "And at one point there was a rumour spreading about London that Albert had been arrested as a spy." "And thousands of people went to the Tower of London to stare up and see where Albert was, peering out of a window, perhaps- a barred window in the Tower." "Of course, he wasn't there - this was nonsense - but it gives you an idea of how Albert was thought of at that time." "From somewhat more comfortable quarters in the royal palace of Windsor, the Prince wrote to friends in Germany..." ""We might fancy we are living in a mad house."" ""The stupidest trash is babbled to the public -"" ""so stupid you would not give it to the pigs to litter in"" "The madness against Albert passed, but not the fever for war." "In March 1854, a British fleet sailed for the Black Sea with 30,000 troops." "SUSPENSEFUL ADVENTURE MUSIC" "They joined French and Turkish forces in an attack on the Russian naval base of Sevastopol in the Crimea." "With the outbreak of hostilities," "Albert knew where his duty lay." "He embarked for France to review the troops assembled for dispatch to the Crimea and cement the shaky alliance with the French Emperor." "HORSES TROT" "Charles Dickens was on vacation in France when he saw the two men riding past at the head of a troop of cavalry." "Albert's diplomacy was a great success." "Dickens saw bonfires lit all along the coast to celebrate the alliance between Britain and France." "Dickens made his own contribution by lighting 120 candles in the window of his rented cottage on the cliffs above the English Channel." "But in the Crimea there was little to celebrate." "DISTANT GUNSHOTS" "It had been 40 years since the British army had fought a major war- it was ill-prepared and worse led." "EXPLOSIONS, GUNFIRE" "A British officer described the conditions..." ""The men stand day and night in trenches full ofwater" ""holding their muskets in their cramped and half-frozen hands," ""the rain soaking the only clothes they have in the world" ""which, once wet, will remain damp forever in this climate"" "MAN:" "The conditions of the troops were...was absolutely awful." "They had virtually no supplies, no medical backup at all, they were starving, they were running with lice, they had no tents, they lived in waterlogged trenches." "It was a small, ghastly pre-run, if you like, of the Great War." "Britain's allies were better equipped and better nourished." "A dragoon in the French army reported that the British were so desperate they would exchange their boots for something to eat." "FRENCHMAN:" ""We give them what we can."" ""It is pitiful to see such superb men"" ""asking permission to gorge themselves"" ""on the dregs in our mess tins"" "Dysentery and cholera swept the ranks." "And disease was followed by fatal blunders on the field of battle." "The Crimea witnessed the most memorable single fiasco in British military history- the charge of the Light Brigade." "The Light Brigade was the finest cavalry force in Europe, but it was commanded by George Brudenell, Earl of Cardigan, who treated war as just another aristocratic hobby, like fox hunting." "He was sent a written order to recover some British cannon that had been seized by the Russians to his right." "Cardigan read this and looked around, and the only guns he could see were the Russian guns directly to his front and other Russian guns on either flank." "So, um...being, as he was, a rather impetuous officer and not one over-endowed with brains, he decided to attack." "It makes a wonderful last line as he drew his sword " ""Here go the last of the Brudenells"" "Because he was in no doubt that if they went into that valley most of them weren't coming out." "It was a total shambles." "Cardigan led the Light Brigade into the wrong valley, a valley lined on three sides with Russian artillery." "The carnage was described by his men in flashes of horrific detail." ""We advanced at a gallop"" ""amid a fearful fire from front, left and right" ""of grape, shell and canister."" ""Horses and men fell thick and fast"" "ARTILLERY FIRE" ""Bleeding objects in one's path-"" ""sometimes a man, sometimes a horse"" "SOMBRE BUGLE MUSIC" "NEILLANDS:" "They were cut to pieces." "They did actually reach the Russian guns and killed the Russian gunners, and all around on the slopes people were watching aghast with their hands over their eyes." "Out of the 600 men who charged into the valley of death, barely half rode back alive." "30,000 troops had been sent to the Crimea." "Within a year, two-thirds were dead or wounded." "MELANCHOLY STRING MUSIC" "For the first time in the history of conflict, the suffering of the men and the failings of the generals were described in graphic detail to the public at home..." "..for the Crimea introduced the world's first war correspondent " "William Russell of the 'London Times'." ""The noblest army ever sent from these shores"" ""has been sacrificed to the grossest mismanagement."" ""Incompetence, lethargy and stupidity"" ""reign revel and riot in the camp before Sevastopol"" ""and in the hospitals of Scutari"" "HORSE HOOVES CLIP-CLOP" "Among the millions who read Russell's dispatches was the embittered Indian envoy Azimullah Khan." "As a result, he decided to make a detour on his way back to India to see for himself what was happening to the British Army in the Crimea." "He toured the hospitals, where a woman called Florence Nightingale was fighting to save the lives of the British wounded and bring some order to the chaos." "Even in the slums of London," "Azimullah had never seen the British brought so low." "It reinforced his belief that they were far from invincible." "He would soon put his convictions to the test." "On his return to India," "Azimullah faced an uncomfortable meeting with Nana Sahib." "He had failed to win back the prince's titles and pensions, and he had spent lavishly of his master's funds." "But Azimullah had rehearsed an argument that he hoped would save him from Nana Sahib's displeasure." "The British were finished, he claimed." "All they needed was a final push and then the disinherited ruler could take all thatwas due to him... ..and more." "He could exact a savage revenge for all the humiliations heaped upon him by the East India Company." "Over the next few months," "Azimullah's agents joined other dissident Indians in a campaign of rumour and subversion." "They fanned the smouldering resentment aroused by the evangelists who appeared to threaten the sacred beliefs of Hindu and Muslim alike." "They whispered that the British had been defeated in the Crimea and that a Russian Army was now advancing on India." "None of this was true." "It was the Russians who had been defeated." "But the rumour was widely believed." "The British agents of the East India Company were puzzled and alarmed." "As tensions rose, they tried to keep their fears from their families." "But their only security rested in the native troops of the East India Company" "Sikhs, Gurkhas, Pathans, Hindus and Muslims." "By the 1850s, their ranks had swollen to over 260,000... ..more than 10 times the number of British soldiers stationed in India, , and more than twice the size of the entire British army around the world." "Their loyalty was vital if the British were to remain in India." "And in the wake of the Crimean War, , the company made a seemingly trivial decision that would prove disastrous." "British instructors began to train their Indian troops to use a new rifle - the Lee-Enfield - with a cartridge that was greased with animal fat." "A rumour spread that the grease was made from a mixture of beef and pork, one forbidden to Hindus, the other to Muslims." "It triggered a revolt known to the British as the Indian Mutiny and to the Indians as the First War of Independence." "HARDIMAN:" "The immediate reason for the revolt was the belief amongst many of the Indian soldiers that they were being polluted deliberately by British with the cartridges, which had either beef or pork fat." "However, once it actually started, a whole range of grievances came to the fore, which were connected with the things that the British had been doing in the preceding 30 years." "INDIAN SITAR STRUMS" "The revolt began in the garrison town of Meerut in the far north, when 90 troopers refused to handle the new cartridges." "The soldiers were publicly stripped of their uniforms and sentenced to 10 years hard labour." "The next day was a Sunday- May 10, 1857." "As the British settled down after the church service, their slumbers were disturbed by the sound of gunfire." "Native troops had stormed the prison and released their 90 comrades." "Then, joined by a mob from the bazaar, they charged into the British quarter." "INTENSE MUSIC" "Barracks and bungalows were torched." "Men, women and children were slaughtered." "The great mutiny had begun." "SHOUTING, SCREAMING" "At first itwas confined to one area in the north." "The isolated British garrisons throughout India held their breath to see if the mutiny would spread." "So too did Nana Sahib." "Despite the urgings of Azimullah Khan and others, he held back until he knew how the British would react." "Just a few miles from his palace was the garrison town of Kanpur, a magnet for many of the young women who had left Britain in search of a husband." "One of them had been lent a piano by Nana Sahib, who was friendly with several of the British families in the garrison." "Sincerely or not, Nana Sahib assured them that he would protect British women and children with his personal army if local Indian troops joined the mutiny." "Throughout May, the peace held, and the British did their best to continue as usual." "Itwas the calm before the storm." "BRIGHT PIANO MUSIC FADES" "On June 4, 1857, the Indian troops attacked their British officers and set fire to their quarters." "The entire European community of 1,000 men, women and children fled to a half-built barrack block on the edge of the city, hastily fortified against attack." "Two days later, Nana Sahib joined the rebels with his own army and took personal command of the siege." "The makeshift fortress was raked by cannon and musket fire." "Azimullah mockingly called it... ."Fort Despair"." "RELENTLESS GUNFIRE" "On June 10, news of the revolt reached Britain, and 30,000 troops were sent to deal with the crisis." "But it would take several months for the slow-moving troop ships to reach India." "Meanwhile, at Kanpur and nearby Lucknow, the beleaguered British garrisons held out week after week under constant bombardment." "MORRIS:" "Several hundred women were besieged within makeshift defences." "It gradually whittled away, several of them having babies as it went along." "Disease coming in, of course." "Lack of food." "It was a most horrific experience." "One of the women, 18-year-old Amelia Horne, described the horrors in detail." ""Every shot that struck the barracks"" ""was followed by heart-rending shrieks of women and children"" ""who were either killed outright by the projectiles"" ""or crushed to death by falling beams, masonry and splinters."" ""Sometimes a whole family would be found lying dead side by side""" "The only source of water was a well swept by sniper fire." ""On one occasion,"" ""we were obliged to drink some water mixed with human blood"" ""from the wounds of a native nurse, or ayah,"" ""who, while standing nearby"" ""had both her legs carried away by the bursting of a shell"" "On June 12, the hospital block was set alight by shellfire, burning many of the wounded to death and destroying all the remaining medical supplies." ""No relief whatever could now be offered to the sick and wounded."" ""There was nothing now to soothe their dying moments."" ""The heat affected their wounds,"" ""and the flies settled on them and drove them crazy."" ""It was now that our skirts were in demand."" ""We tore every vestige to supply bandages for the wounded"" "On 25 June 1857, Nana Sahib offered a deal." "If the British would move out, he guaranteed safe conduct for the survivors to leave Kanpur by boat down the River Ganges." "They had no choice but to accept." "The point of departure was a Hindu temple where the faithful took their ritual baths." "A fleet of boats had been assembled with native crews to punt the survivors to safety." "Patched awnings protected them from the heat of the sun." "But as the Europeans climbed aboard, the boatmen leapt ashore, scattering burning embers from their cooking stoves." "Hundreds of native troops emerged from hiding and fired volley after volley into the burning boats." "Mounted troopers rode into the water, slashing down with their sabres." "GUNSHOTS, SCREAMS" "Over 500 men, women and children died in the massacre of Kanpur." "Just four men escaped downriver to tell the tale." "About 120 women and children who had survived the slaughter were rounded up on the river bank." "The captives were herded into a building where the Indian mistress of a British officer had once lived, known as a bibi-ghar." "But help was finally on the way." "STIRRING BAGPIPE MUSIC" "A scratch force of a thousand Scottish highlanders, a few English fusiliers and some loyal Sikhs, had been sent from other parts of India." "They marched down the Grand Trunk Road in the full heat of the Indian summer." "Nana Sahib set out to confront them, at the head of 5,000 rebels." "The new rifles played a key role picking the rebels off at long range." "The result was a victory for the British." "The survivors fled back to the city to warn their supporters." "INDIAN MAN: "The British are coming like mad beasts,"" ""caring for neither cannon nor musketry"" "At the bibi-ghar, the number of captives had risen to 180 women and children crowded into the three rooms and courtyard of the house." "They included the two young friends who, barely five weeks before, had been playing chamber music on Nana Sahib's piano." "Many of the prisoners were wounded, dying of cholera and other infections, or broken by heat and despair." "A few recorded their experiences on scraps of paper or scratched them on the walls with charcoal and broken bits of pottery." "They could hear the rumble of guns as the relief force neared the city." "But the faces that appeared at the windows were not those of British soldiers." "GUNFIRE" "WOMAN SCREAMS" "The mutineers fired two volleys into the crowded room." "But sickened by the slaughter, they refused to fire again." "Four butchers were recruited from the town." "It was a little before sunset when they entered the bibi-ghar." "They emerged an hour later." "At the sight of them, the remaining onlookers fled into the darkness." "In the morning, a party of volunteers arrived to clear the bodies." "They dragged them out of the building, stripped them of their blood-soaked clothing, and threw them down a nearby well." "Eyewitnesses reported that several women and children were still alive, but they were thrown in along with the mutilated corpses." "I think the attacks on women can be explained in terms of belief that the honour of a particular group was reposed in the women, and often when a group was conquered in war, women were attacked, raped, taken away into slavery, and so on." "And this was part of humiliating an enemy." "The streets of Kanpur were deserted as the relief force entered the city." "Thousands had fled before them." "Loyalists directed the advance guard to the bibi-ghar." "The first to open the door was a young officer in the 78th Highlanders." "He reported that the scene he saw was the most awful that the eye could behold." "He was wrong." "A few moments later, he found the well." "The news reached Britain a few weeks later." "When the details of the mutiny begin to appear in the British press, in the summer of 1857, there is horror and outrage." "Stories were coming back of the murder of European women and children, often in the most hideous circumstances." "And the sort of respect which the Victorians had for women and for children - this was outraged." "Victoria wrote to the wife of the Governor-General in Calcutta." ""Our thoughts are almost solely occupied with India."" ""My heart bleeds for the horrors"" ""that have been committed by people once so gentle"" ""on my poor country women and innocent little children."" ""It haunts me day and night"" "The massacres at Kanpur were not only the worst atrocity the British could imagine- they were regarded by the men who had conquered India as the most shameful reproach." "They had failed their women and children." "The darkness of the well at the bibi-ghar closed over them all." "Atrocities - well, that was actually war." "And when you have war, there are bound to be some excesses." "On both sides." "Yes." "Well, it started off with a bunch of people - soldiers - who had a simmering resentment against the British who were lording it over them." "So when they got the chance to get back at them, they maybe were quite excessive." "But, er... ..thereafter, the retributions were quite terrible." "Thousands of British reinforcements poured into the affected area." "Nana Sahib's palace was looted and levelled to the ground." "But Nana Sahib and his followers had fled to the mountains, and with them, Azimullah Khan." "They were hunted by the British for years, but never found." "Instead, the British turned on other targets for their revenge." "What had happened at Kanpur became the justification for brutal reprisals." "JAMES:" "You have people like Dickens saying, you know," ""We must retaliate with the fiercest measures"" "They could have saved their breath." "This was already happening in India." "Clergymen are talking in terms of," ""We need more massacres." "More must be killed"" "And it reached such a point that some observers thought that the British people were suddenly revealing a deep down savagery, which everyone thought had disappeared." "Captured mutineers were taken to the bibi-ghar and made to lick the congealed blood from a patch of floor." "Then they were strung up from the nearest tree." "But the noose did not satisfy the army's thirst for revenge." "Any rebel whom they captured, they would either kill on the spot or they would torture them or ritually pollute them by forcing, say, Muslims to eat pork or Hindus to eat beef, after which they would hang them from a tree, from a scaffold," "or blow them from guns." "This they did by attaching their arms to the large wheels of the guns of those days and their body in front of the barrel of the gun and just blowing them to pieces." "FUNEREAL ORGAN MUSIC" "Back in England, powerful voices were raised against the British descent into barbarity." "At Windsor Castle, the Queen and Prince Albert sank into a deep gloom." "The news from India seemed a mockery of Albert's hopes for the spread of civilised values through trade." "At his urging, the Queen wrote to the Governor-General in India." ""I should deeply deprecate any retribution"" ""on old men, women and children."" ""For, then, how could we expect any respect or esteem for us"" ""in the future?"" "REVERENT ORGAN MUSIC" "As a mood of grief and shame descended on Britain," "Victoria declared October 7 a national day of humiliation." ""So that we and our people may humble ourselves before Almighty God"" ""in order to obtain pardon for our sins," ," ""and send up prayers to the divine majesty"" ""for the restoration of tranquillity"" "But one thing would not be restored." "The British Government decided that a country the size of India could no longer be ruled by a private trading company." "Prince Albert helped draft the Royal Proclamation that assumed direct rule by the British Crown." "He insisted..." ""The document should breathe feelings"" ""of generosity, benevolence and religious toleration"" "The Queen agreed." "In the final version, she assured her Indian subjects..." ""The deep attachment which Her Majesty feels to her own religion,"" ""and the comfort and happiness"" ""which she derives from its consolations,"" ""will preclude her from any attempt"" ""to interfere with the native religions,"" ""and her servants will be directed to act scrupulously,"" ""in accordance with her directions."" ""May the Proclamation be the beginning of a new era."" ""And may it draw a veil over the sad and bloody past"" "As a symbol of her trust in her new subjects, from then on, on almost every occasion she appeared in public, two Indian attendants would be at her side." "But not the man who had been there since the early years of her reign- the man who had taught her how to rule an empire." "MELANCHOLY MUSIC" "In December 1861," "Prince Albert fell ill at Windsor Castle." "The Prime Minister was alarmed." "The Queen was not." ""The Prince has had a feverish cold these last few days,"" ""which disturbed his rest at night."" ""But Her Majesty has seen His Royal Highness similarly affected before,"" ""and hopes that in a few days it will pass off"" "But the Prince grew worse." "The doctors suspected that he had fallen victim to a killer disease lurking in the drains of the medieval castle - typhoid." "Victoria charted his decline in snatches of anguished prose." ""In an agony of despair about my dearest Albert,"" ""and crying much for, saw no improvement."" ""And my dearest Albert was so listless"" ""and took so little notice"" "She recorded the final scene in Albert's bedroom on December 14, 1861." ""I bent over him and said to him,"" ""It is your little wife."" ""I took his dear left hand, which was already cold,"" ""though the breathing was quite gentle,"" ""and I knelt down by him."" ""Two or three long but perfectly gentle breaths were drawn,"" ""the hand clasping mine,"" ""and all..."" ""..all was over"" "That single death in Windsor Castle was to change the course of Victoria's empire." "MOURNFUL MUSIC" "Captioned by:" "Juliet Attenborough Vivienne O'Callaghan Edited by:" "Peter Mathey"