Blowing from a gun is a method of execution in which the victim is typically tied to the mouth of a cannon which is then fired, resulting in death. George Carter Stent described the process as follows:
Blowing from a gun was a reported means of execution as long ago as the 16th century and was used until the 20th century. The method was used by the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries, from as early as 1509 across their empire from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka)Calcutta Review (1851), p. 395 to MozambiqueAlden (1996), p. 55 to Brazil.Southey (1822), p.469 The Mughals used the method throughout the 17th century and into the 18th, particularly against rebels.17th century case, Afsos, Court (1871), p. 64, 18th century case Hazārah, McChesney, Khorrami (2012), p. 54
This method of execution is most closely associated with the British East India Company rule in India. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, "blowing from a gun" was a method the British used to execute rebelsLong (1869), p. 397–398 as well as for Indian sepoys who were found guilty of desertion.February 1781 Parlby (1822), p. 188, May 1783 Baillie (1788), p. 490, July 1783 Forbes (1815), p. 123, October 1783 Forbes (1815), p. 133 November 1783 Baillie (1788), p. 468 Using the methods previously practised by the Mughals, the British began implementing blowing from guns in the latter half of the 18th century.Long (1869), p. 51 page 224
Destruction of the body and scattering of remains over a wide area had religious symbolism as a means of execution in the Indian subcontinent, as it prevented the necessary funeral rites for Hindus and Muslims.Past Present, Volume 233, Issue 1, November 2016, Pages 185-225, Calculated to Strike Terror: The Amritsar Massacre and the Spectacle of Colonial Violence by Kim A. Wagner, https://academic.oup.com/past/article/233/1/185/2915150/Calculated-to-Strike-Terror-The-Amritsar-Massacre For believers, the punishment was extended beyond death, and this was well understood by foreign occupiers. The practice was thus not generally employed by them in other territories across Africa, Australasia, or the Americas. Most recently, there was an exceptional use of the practice in Afghanistan in 1930, against 11 Panjshiri rebels.Cullather, Meyerowitz (2003), p. 50
Rituals
A commonly reported method of blowing a person from a gun is to tie them in front of the muzzle of the gun and then have them shot. Loading the cannon with a cannonball is on occasion reported, but more often, the use of blank cartridge or grapeshot is attested. The following description of the manner of tying up the convicted is from Afghanistan, 7 July 1839, ordered by Shuja Shah, during the campaign against Dost Mohammad Khan:Atkinson (1842), p. 189–190
Although immobilizing a victim in front of a gun before firing the cannon is by far the most reported method, a case from Istanbul in 1596 alleges that the victim was actually put into the gun and as ammunition.Boyar, Fleet (2010), p. 112 Reports exist of people occasionally fastened to rockets and launched into the air. This is said to have been the punishment for a Brahmin in the Kingdom of Mysore during Hyder Ali's reign (1761–1782),Campbell (1839), p. 421 and in an 1800 treason case in the Maratha Empire.Duff (1826, 3), p. 190, and Lal, Prinsep (1831), p. 127
Problems with the method Things did not always work out according to plan at such executions. At a mass execution at Firozpur in 1857, there was an order that blank cartridges should be used, but some guns were loaded with grapeshot instead. Several of the spectators facing the cannons were hit by the grapeshot and some had to have limbs amputated as a result. In addition, some of the soldiers had not been withdrawn properly and sustained injuries from being hit by pieces of flesh and bone.Ball, (1859, 3), p. 411 In another case, a soldier who was to be shot fell down just as the shot went off, with the following result:American Peace Society (1858) p. 23
Others reported how birds of prey circled above the execution place and swooped down to catch pieces of human flesh in the air,"It is a curious fact, and well attested by many persons present, that a number of kites (a bird of prey very common in India) actually accompanied the melancholy party in their progress to the place of execution, as if they knew what was going on, and then kept hovering over the guns from which the culprits were to be blown away, flapping their wings, and shrieking, as if in anticipation of their bloody feast, till the fatal flash, which scattered the fragments of bodies in the air; when, pouncing on their prey, they positively caught in their talons many pieces of the quivering flesh before they could reach the ground! At sight of this the native troops employed on this duty, together with the crowd which had assembled to witness the execution, set up a yell of horror." The description is from the execution of those found guilty in the Vellore Mutiny in 1806, Blakiston (1829), p. 309. while others were nauseated by the dogs loitering about the place of execution and rushing to the scene to devour some of the body pieces spread around as a result of the execution.In an 1845 Herat case: "It was a scene that I shall never forget—a horrid spectacle, and touched me to the very heart. The broken limbs of the unfortunate man were scattered in all directions, while his bowels, which had not been thrown to so great a distance, were in an instant devoured by the dogs that were loitering about the spot." Ferrier (1856), p. 189.
Mughal Empire
Blowing from a gun as a method of execution has a long and varied history in the Indian subcontinent, and many reports from the mid-18th century and onwards testify to its varied use. The execution method was used during rebellions and as punishment for a variety of crimes. Here, a focus is chosen upon the Mughal tradition of blowing from guns as a local tradition preceding, for example, the British tradition in the same subcontinent.
Several historians note that blowing people from the guns as a method of execution was an "old Mughal punishment" in the Indian subcontinent.See, for example, Heathcote (1995), p. 105, and Fremont-Barnes (2007), p. 79 . Just prior to the institution of the reign of the first Mughal emperor, Babur, his son Humayun is said to have blown from guns 100 Afghan prisoners on 6 March 1526, in one incident of his father's many struggles against the Lodi dynasty.Abdul Sabahuddin and Rajshree Shukla (2003), The Mughal Strategy of War, p. 122 During the latter half of the 17th century, members of the Jat community in Northern India rebelled and raided against the Mughal Empire, and Emperor Aurangzeb is said in one account to have ordered one of their leaders blown from a gun.Afsos (1871), p. 64 Purbeel Singh, said to have been the last Hindu chief of Umga, close to Aurangabad in today's Bihar state, was reportedly taken by an unnamed Mughal emperor to Aurangabad, and blown from a gun.Asiatic Society of Bengal (1847), p. 658 The Sikh General Banda Singh Bahadur was finally vanquished in 1716 by the Emperor Farrukhsiyar, and after his execution, Banda's son was ordered to be "blown to bits by a cannon".Hazārah, McChesney, Khorrami (2012), p. 54
While the preceding cases are examples of rebels or military adversaries being blown from guns, the Mughal era also contained a few examples of using this form of execution for other crimes. For example, in a rather anecdotal story from the times of Jahangir (r. 1605 – 1627), the emperor had six mullahs blown from guns, for having consented to, and given approval of, the forcible abduction and marriage of a Hindu girl to a Muslim officer.Kashmir: History and People By S.R. Bakshi (1997), p. 103–104 In 1714, thieves were a severe annoyance to a marching army; a trap was made, and two thieves caught by the concealed guards were later blown from guns. During a siege in 1719, the problem of deserters was eventually solved for the commander of the Mughal Army by blowing four deserters caught in the act from guns, in the presence of his troops.Irvine (1922), thieves, p. 287, and deserters, p. 415.
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese used blowing from a gun as a form of capital punishment in many of their colonies. A short review follows:
Sri Lanka
During the Dutch siege of Colombo in 1656, the city population endured extreme famine. One nursing mother became so starved that her production of milk stopped, and her infant was dying. She chose to kill it, and eat it. Once the Portuguese general became aware of her act of cannibalism, he ordered her blown from a gun, but in this particular instance, the clergy and the principal citizens dissuaded him from carrying out the act.Ribeiro, Le Grand (1847), p. 138
Mozambique
During explorer Francisco Barreto's 1569–73 campaign in Monomotapa, he at one time imprisoned some 50 Muslim individuals, and had them "impaled, blown from mortars, torn apart on tree-trunks, axed or shot". In mid-18th-century Tete, in north-western Portuguese Mozambique, the capital punishment for slaves is said to have been to be blown from guns,According to the same source, this punishment was only inflicted in cases of rebellion, otherwise, deportation was the most severe punishment Thoman (1869), p. 111 and, in the first decade of the 19th century, an inveterate raider chief was caught by the Portuguese and blown from a gun.Salt (1814), p. 39–40
Brazil In Brazil in 1618, an indigenous leader, Amaro, was taken prisoner and blown from a gun.Southey (1822), p. 469
British Empire
Before 1857 The British had a long tradition prior to the Indian Rebellion of executing sepoys found guilty of mutiny or desertion in this manner. According to one historian, the British tradition began in 1760, when the British East India Company examined the modes of capital punishment in use. In the district of the 24 Perganas, it was found that the common military mode of capital punishment was flogging to death. Regarding blowing from a gun as an old Mughal punishment, the East India Company opted for this technique, as being, relative to death by flogging, more deterrent, more public and more humane. Already in 1761, orders were given in Lakhipur "to fire off at the mouth of a cannon the leader of the thieves who was made prisoner, that others may be deterred".Long (1869), p. 51 page 224 for 17 November 1760 decision, footnote remarking that thief was a carpenter named Nayn Technically, in cases of court-martial, it seems that until 1857 the courts were composed of Indian rather than British officers, but it is added: "although they are presided over, and generally led and ruled, by the superintending officer, whose duty, however, is merely to transcribe the evidence, and assist the native officers with advice and counsel".Anderson (1859), p. 39