The Skull of Alum Bheg

The Skull of Alum Bheg begins with the discovery of a human skull in a Kent pub and a handwritten note identifying it as the remains of Alum Bheg, a havildar in the 46th Bengal Native Infantry. Kim A. Wagner follows the trail back to the 1857 uprising at Sialkot, Bheg’s months as a fugitive and his capture and execution in 1858, when he was blown from a cannon as part of the British campaign of retribution.

Working from fragmentary evidence, Wagner tests the accusations attached to Bheg’s name and reconstructs the lives of soldiers and civilians caught in the violence of rebellion and reprisal. The story also becomes an investigation of exemplary punishment, the colonial collection of human remains and the long afterlife of imperial violence, showing how a single war trophy can expose both the uncertainties of the archive and the brutality through which empire sought to restore authority.