THIS chapter examines some of the lesser-known casualties of the mutiny and uprising in India. When revolt spread from the sepoys to the civilian population and engulfed much of north and central India, large sections of colonial society were caught up in the violence. East India Company soldiers, officials and their families were, of course, the first targets, but many others suffered too, among them Eurasians,' Indian Christians, Indians working for the British, and women widowed in the conflict. Some were already victims of British and Indian prejudice, and the mutiny made their position even more vulnerable. Much emphasis in recent mutiny writing has been placed on the Indian protagonists—on their actions, their motives and the context in which they operated—but we are in danger of forgetting their victims, particularly the non-British groups who have, as yet, been largely without a voice in the dominant historical narratives. These were people who, because of race, religion, marriage or occupation, already lived at the margins of colonial society even in relatively peaceful times. This chapter examines the impact of the mutiny on these civilian groups.
Eurasians
Estimates of the number of British civilians killed during the year 1857 range from 1,000 to 1,500, a tiny number compared to the thousands of Indian civilians who were indiscriminately slaughtered. Although the mutiny has attracted more attention than almost any other event during Britain's three hundred year long involvement in India, and has been extensively, indeed, obsessively, annotated, we will never have a precise figure for the British civilian dead. The memorial tablets in All Souls' Church, Cawnpore, record 'more than a thousand Christian souls' who were killed, but these also include some 200 pfficers and men. Seventy-seven were killed at Jhansi, at least fifty in Delhi and thirty-one at Meerut.