Frederick Cooper sent this back home to the Foreign Service in London from Lahore on August 1st, 1857. It’s a very long text. I’ve truncated it without changing its overall message. As it is also a tangent, I’ll put it as a summary. It is also a disturbing read
Summary
On the 30th of July, some 400 Sepoys from the 26th Native Infantry escaped from the prison camp at Mianmir, where by order of the Crown they had been assembled and disarmed to prevent them from possibly joining the Mohammedan rebels at Delhi. Being weakened and famished, the Sepoys were easily pursued to the banks of the Ravi, where some 150 of them were shot, mobbed backwards into the river, and drowned. […]
The sun was setting in golden splendour; and as the doomed men, with joined palms, crowded down to the shore on the approach of our boats, their long shadows were flung athwart the gleaming waters. […] The mutineers were remarkably compliant. They were evidently possessed of a sudden and insane idea that they were going to be tried by court martial, after some luxurious refreshment. […]
*By midnight, as the glorious moon came out through the clouds and reflected herself in myriad pools and streams, we had gathered 282 of the Bengali rebels. In the morning, a party of Sikhs arrived with a large supply of rope. But being as the trees were scarce, the rope was not used. […] *
There remained one last difficulty, which was of sanitary consideration. But again, as fortune would have it, a deep dry well was discovered within one hundred yards of the police station, furnishing a convenient solution as to how to dispose of the dishonoured soldiers.
At first light, the prisoners were bound together in groups of ten and brought out of their prisons. [..]
The execution commenced uninterrupted until one of our men swooned away (he was the oldest of our firing party), and a little respite was allowed. After we had shot some 237 of the Mohammedans, the district officer was informed that the remaining captives were apparently refusing to come out of the bastion, where they had been imprisoned temporarily in expectation of their execution. Anticipating a rush and resistance, preparations were made against their escape. The bastion was surrounded, the doors opened, and behold! Forty five bodies, dead from fright, exhaustion, fatigue, heat, and partial suffocation, were dragged into the light. These dead, along with their executed comrades were thrown by the village sweepers into the well. [..]
How the wisdom and heroism of our English soldiers seem like mere dross before the manifest and wondrous interposition of Almighty God in the cause of Christianity!
“That’s only one example!” injects the Master of Deflection and Disingenuous Discourse.
"Anyone who criticises the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Eretz Yisrael is a tankie / anti-semite / self-hating jew / pogrom enabler / racist / dishonest [etc. delete that which is not applicable] scumbag and by hurling unfounded and unwarranted accusations I will declare myself the arbiter of Truth and shut down any further discussion. I will also deny any citations I deem not supporting my point of view.
I will conflate Judaism with the State of Israel when it suits my purposes, at the same time I will call any critique of the State of Israel anti-semitism, due to a perceived conflation of Judaism and the State of Israel.
I will don the mantle of victimhood when it suits my purposes, I will dehumanize and diminish the suffering of those killed and injured through the actions I support.
People may call me a dishonest hypocrite but I am firm in my belief, I know the cause is good and that my brilliant rhetoric will prevail"
How very like the racist scumbag in Lahore in 1857.
