7. Use of Violence and Terror as Policy Tools
The East India Company employed brutal tactics to suppress resistance and maintain control over its territories. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Company forces engaged in widespread violence against both rebels and civilians. In Cawnpore (now Kanpur), after a massacre of British women and children by rebel forces, the Company’s troops executed numerous captured rebels and civilians in retaliation. Similarly, in Jhansi, after the defeat of Rani Lakshmi Bai and her forces, British troops conducted mass executions of captured rebels. These actions exemplify the Company’s use of terror to enforce its rule, drawing parallels to modern instances where corporations or states employ violence to suppress dissent and maintain power (steelannals.com).
