Describe how art and literature helped in keeping alive, the memory of 1857.
(a) Art and literature and the writing of history has helped to keep alive memories of 1857. The leaders of the revolt have been depicted as heroes who succeeded in arousing the people against the oppressive rule of the British.
(6) Films and posters have helped create the image of Rani Lakshmi Bai as a masculine warrior. She is usually portrayed in battle armour, with a sword in hand and riding a
horse—a symbol of the determination to resist injustice and foreign rule.
(c) The pictorial images produced by the British and Indians - paintings, pencil drawings, posters, cartoons, etc., form an important record of the mutiny. In particular, British pictures offering a variety of images have provoked a range of different emotions and reactions.
(d) Some of them commemorate the British heroes who saved the English and repressed the rebels. An example of this type was ‘Relief of Lucknow’ painted by Thomas Jones Barker in 1859. It depicts the efforts of James Outram, Henry Havelock and Colin Campbell in rescuing the besieged British garrison in Lucknow. The siege of Lucknow according to British accounts became a story of survival, heroic resistance and the triumph of British power.