The massacres at Meerut and Delhi provoked a strong British response. In mid-August, British forces, reinforced by Gurkhas from Nepal and the Queen's regiments fresh from the Crimean War, began a bloody campaign to re-establish British rule in India.
The British are widely said to have seen themselves as dispensers of divine justice, and, given the initial atrocities committed by the mutineers, to have viewed their cruelties as simply repayment in kind. As myths of the mutiny grew, every dead British child became a slaughtered angel, every woman a violated innocent, every sepoy a black-faced, blood-crazed savage. There was little room for mercy in the hearts of the British troops and those, such as Governor Lord Canning, who spoke of restraint were derided by their countrymen. Canning became known contemptuously as "Clemency Canning."
After the British recovered control, few sepoys survived as those who remained were bayoneted or otherwise slaughtered. Indeed, whole villages were wiped out, their inhabitants hanged for some real or imagined sympathy for the mutineers, and the widespread looting of Indian property, religious or secular, was common and endorsed. Later, convicted mutineers were lashed to the muzzles of cannon and had a roundshot fired through their body. Not unnaturally, like suttee, this unbelievably brutal punishment has attracted special attention in recent years. Though generally instantaneous enough, it had a further dimension: by dispersing the body into atoms, it could be assumed to deprive the victim of any hope of an afterlife.