Most studies have taken into account the reactions of Britons through the press. Albert Pionke sketches the different tendencies of the British press in their depictions of Indians, British troops and the Mutiny in general. Although showing the strategies used by newspapers to promote the heroism of Britons in comparison with mutinous natives – both in terms of military achievements and personal virtues – Pionke's analysis is mainly descriptive and he offers a rather general overview without going into much detail. Don Randall too touches on the reactions in the press to the Indian Mutiny, but put them in parallel with the main object of his focus, religious sermons calling Britain for a day of fasting and self-examination. This nation-wide …show more content…
Randall draws bridges between the Mutiny and religion (and its effects through philanthropy). He examines where, according to those sermons, the blame lay for the uprising – either on Britain as a whole, on the East India Company or simply on ‘heathen’ sepoys, and hints at how accusing each of these alternative culprits involved social and/or racial ideas of superiority of one group over another. For example, Randall makes light on the strategies used by Christian missions to urge for more effective policies toward the Christianisation of India by blaming the East India Company's ban on military missionaries for the ruthlessness of the mutineers. In that sense, Randall joins Salahuddin Malik in showing that imperialism and religion were intertwined, as British – or indeed Western – standards tended to consider Christianity as a basic requirement for being considered civilised. Similarly, Malik demonstrates how the revolt was seized upon by preachers at home with that result. The essay also shows that in these sermons religion also served the purpose of justifying violence. It is true that