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Blowing From a Gun: The British Empire’s Most Gruesome Punishment
Going out with a bang
Great empires are no strangers to inventive and gruesome punishments. In a bid to maintain order over vast stretches of territory, empires believed it necessary to craft punishments that would terrify the population into submission. Incarceration wasn’t enough. Rebels, rabble rousers, and political liabilities had to be taught a lesson in order to keep unsavory ideas or the sparks of rebellion from spreading.
One such punishment was called “blowing from a gun,” and it involved a person being strapped to the front of a cannon and blown to pieces in front of a watching crowd. The British heavily used this method in India following the uprising of 1857. Rebels were rounded up by the dozens and tied to cannons to face punishment. The method was honed and well documented during the British period in India as a way to dissuade the population from rising up in the future. (And they were largely successful.)
The British East India Company would also employ this method against Sepoys who mutinied or deserted. Sepoys were local Indian soldiers hired as mercenaries to prop up British military power in India. The practice was heavily used for decades in the 19th and 20th centuries. Similar to rebels, Sepoys could not get the idea in their heads that they…
