The Hot Zone Analysis

The people identified by the magazine as Britain's enemies are accused of creating an alternative vision of Empire that subverts its founding principles. The line separating friends and foes of the metropolis is therefore signalled as very fine, which calls Britons to exert a constant vigilance on themselves and others in order to maintain a patriotic behaviour. In particular, religion holds an ambivalent position: it is all at once the basis of imperialism, a tool for spreading Western ways, a means of federating British and colonial subjects, but, when taken too far, a triggering factor of colonial unrest and national divisions.
When paired with politics, religious logic is understood by Punch as capable of the best and the worst – and in

Punch issued two cartoons emphasising his unreasonble leniency toward the sepoys. The first shows Canning sitting on a chair in the position of a father telling off his child for misbehaving. Instead of a child, it is a sepoy standing in front on him.4 He is much smaller than Canning, but also much more threatening, as he has blood on his clothes, holds some weapons, and has a ferocious look on his face. The Governor-General assures him that the British troops ‘shan't blow him from nasty guns’ in retaliation for the exactions committeed against the Britons living in India, but in return, he ‘must promise to be a good little sepoy.’ Punch portrays Canning as a weak man who does not realise the danger represented by the sepoys, but – as the childish language highlights – treats them instead like mischievious children who mean no harm. For Peers, representations of ‘this childlike state confirmed the superiority of the Europeans, a superiority which even the sepoy was alleged to acknowledge’ (134). Yet, the evil-looking sepoy standing in front of Canning has nothing of the innocence of a child or the submission of an ‘inferior’ being. This contrast suggests that being merciful toward him on the grounds that he is not fully

It depicts a British soldier about to kill a sepoy when the Governor-General steps in between them, holding a proclamation.6 He seems to be wearing a royal crown as a symbol of authority, and extends his hand over the sepoy as a sign of protection. The corpses of two children with their toys scattered around are lying in between the two soldiers – perhaps again in reference to Cawnpore. They have evidently been murdered by the sepoy, as the blood dripping from his sword and his cruel face suggest. Canning almost steps on the bodies, as if he did not care at all about them; on the contrary, he is eager to save the sepoy from the vengeful hands of the British soldier, which is what his posture, the proclamation lifted above his head, and the title and caption hint he is going to do. Punch is again outraged at what it perceives to be too much benevolence toward rebellious and bloodthirsty sepoys, which betrays a rather questionable loyality to the Crown. The proclamation which features in the cartoon was issued by Canning to prescribe how the British troops should deal with the mutineers, and what rewards awaited those Indians who submitted to Britain instead of following the rebels. Chakravarti comments that ‘despite an appearance of clemency, the guidelines constituted a more