LAHORE: A nine-day exhibition of the archives of War of Independence of1857 opened here at the tomb of Anarkali inside the Civil Secretariat.

The exhibition, organised by the Punjab Archives Department in league with the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), was inaugurated by Additional Chief Secretary Umar Rasool. It will continue until June 8.

The exhibition explores elements of fear and vengeance between the sepoys (the natives) and the British army in 1857. It features enlargements of engravings published in 1858 and 1859. These are paired with letters from the time to build a narrative which depict the atmosphere of war, the fears of those involved, and the resulting vengeful feelings.The documents include directives for censorship, punishment and prayer in testing times for the Britons. The communication between the British officers further reveals this fear, telling that despite their might and power the rebellion by the sepoys was no small matter and had worried Britons deeply.

The engravings show the sepoys full of force despite in small numbers. Typically Victorian in style the images were based on descriptions provided by the British officers to the artists as very few photographic references existed at that time.

The images employed are from a two-part volume, entitled `The History of the Indian Mutiny,` giving a detailed account of the sepoy movement in India.

The letters exhibited are BritishArmy wartime telegrams, urgent circulars and letters addressed primarily to Chief Commissioner Sir John Lawrence. These documents are a part of the special collection of the Punjab Archives in Lahore and are not available anywhere else in the world.

The rebellion had started with Indian sepoy attacks in Meerut and wildfire insurrections which followed throughout much of northern and central India.

The officials said the images and the documents had been placed with a view to create the image that it was a rebellion full of the element of fear and vengeance. It is the first part of the entire stock of archives about the event and the second and third parts would also be exhibited shortly, they said. Staff Reporter