Cawnpore

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5443/indmut4.htm

Fascinating the sort of thing you can find when you surf the internet. Little tidbits of history, revealing just how ugly things were in the past. I kind of wonder what the insurgents were thinking here. And then, the simple bloodthirstiness of the common folk.

The surviving men back at what later became known as the 'Massacre Ghat' were
immediately put to the sword. The women and children were led away to the
aptly named Bibi-Ghar ( the house of the women) a former residence of a
British officer's Indian mistress. On July 15th, a group of men, including
the town butchers, entered the Bibi-Ghar armed with knives and hatchets and
hacked all the women and children to pieces. Their bodies were thrown down a
well.

What good could they have thought would come of that?

The "civilized" Victorian Brits did come back, and regained control. Modern American sensibilities would be horrified at the British reaction.

The seeming treachery of Nana Sahib at the massacre ghat was nought when
measured against the unspeakable atrocities of the Bibi-Ghar. Vengeance was
required and even more stern-faced than the Old Testament judges of the Bible,
the British wanted more than just an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
When the British later pushed up the valley of the Ganges and Cawnpore once more
fell into their hands, they took their sepoy prisoners to the Bibi-Ghar and
forced them to lick the blood-encrusted floors clean. Then they were taken out
and hanged.

Those who do not learn from history...

On a side note, I was told by someone today that being an American stationed in Iraq is safer than being an American in a major metropolitan city. The numbers (completely unverified, but I am curious now) I was quoted was that at this point 3 in 100,000 deaths occur per month, which is lower than the death rate in a major American City (say New York or Los Angeles). I do want to check this out.