The year of 1857 saw events in India unprecedented ever before…a bloody reprisal by Indians – natives and soldiers, against the British East India Company. An episode in history that had not seen such violence, rage, vengeance and gore ever before by so called ordinary people. The “Siege of Lucknow”, as it was called, is a big chapter in this haunting year.
As we prepare to visit Lucknow, later this year, we look at a narrative of events that lead to the reprisal, and the equally horrifying events that followed.
The aim, of the presentation, is to address the issue of violence, rage and anger that seem justified irrespective of which side you are on. The attempt, also, is to connect the events to the violence we live in this world together and how we react, think, and feel about it.
We do not try to reach any answers, rather to throw questions, and the most important of them all – do the ends really justify the means?