SIR - Karl Dallas again will not give a balanced view of the Indian mutiny or uprising (T&A, May 23).
The fact that the Indian sepoys were employed by the East India Company and not the Army is unimportant. It was, after all, the British East India Company.
In my last letter (T&A, May 17) I mentioned the many European women and children who died at the hands of the rebels. While the incident with the animal fat cartridge was regrettable, and some officers offered to replace them with harmless vegetable fat, once the story took hold many Indians believed that this was part of a wider European attempt to destroy indigenous religious practices and to pave the way for Christian evangelism.
However not all European or Indians thought that way.
While the mutinous sepoys slaughtered every European they encountered, at the siege of Lucknow the British went to great pains not to offend the loyal Indian troops.
While the British rule in India was bad in some ways there were some good things Britain left India: a good education system, the transport and rail system, the civil service, the judicial system and the free press.
Two sides to every story, Mr Dallas.
Paul Collins, Brookfield Road, Bradford 3
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