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I am passionate about Lucknow history and plan to re-narrate and re-interpret it in a book that I started 4 years ago and plan to complete in another 4 years. Enjoy a few of the pictures from my collection in http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2413659453543.2134861.1012989103&type=1&l=3664f2db40
Notes on the associated picture : This picture was taken by Felice Beato, an italian photographer, in 1858. Sikander Bagh (formerly Secundra Bagh), a summer house on eastern side of Lucknow which is almost at the heart of the city now, had been occupied by mutineers who began firing on Sir Colin Campbell's troops. it was a scene of intense fighting in Nov,1857. Following the action, the British dead were buried in a deep trench but the Indian corpses were left to rot. Later, the city had to be evacuated and was not recaptured until March 1858 and it was shortly afterwards that Beato probably took this photo. One contemporary commentator described it: "A few of their [rebel] bones and skulls are to be seen in front of the picture, but when I saw them every one was being regularly buried, so I presume the dogs dug them up." A British officer, Sir George Campbell, noted in his memoirs Beato's presence in Lucknow & stated that he probably had the bones uncovered to be photographed. However, William Howard Russell of The Times recorded seeing many skeletons still lying around in April 1858.
The British opened fire on the solid brick wall of the building. Holes pounded in the wall turned into wide gaps. The slaughter inside was appalling, and before long the ground was covered with both the dead and dying Indian soldiers. This is perhaps the most notorious photograph associated with the entire struggle and shows the pavilion within the garden where, as Beato's own caption dispassionately recalls that, 2000 Indians were slaughtered. In the restaging of the interior view 4/5 months later, Beato not only positioned the horse and Indians, but, even more chillingly, arranged for disinterred bones to be scattered in foreground to create a constructed image of military triumph and celebration. This is the conic image of the aftermath of the Mutiny. By the time that Beato reached Lucknow, the corpses of the rebels had been deposited in mass graves, and were disinterred so that he could only arrange the bones in front of the ruined building. Look closely enough and the arrangement of bones seems to echo the triangular pediment of the neo-classical façade above. Broken bodies echoing broken buildings in a staging of history to be consumed in the capital of the victor: from the outset, a self-conscious esthetics of violence has informed the production of war photographs as both document and art. The most notable point is that the savagery on the rebels were perpetrated by the Pujab and Gorkha regiments under the command of the British officers. In fact, it were the loyalty (to the British !! sic) of those regiments which were one of the major reasons for the failure of the rebelion.
Beside the previous visits, I went to Lucknow in 2010 for some work at IIM and kept a couple of free days to go over the old city all over again. Secundrabagh is now almost like any other park, except the gate which is still standing and a small memorial erected that tarsely says this is the place where about 2000 rebel soldiers were killed in fighting. The beutiful building was razed to the ground by the British themselves, as they did most of the superb Kaizer-bagh area where the main King's palace was situated and the whole area was overloaded with many beutiful buildings. The other structures have also given away, only a few remnants of the massive pillars are there.
