Meanwhile, at least one commentator in the United States drew a larger lesson from the rebellion. D.H. Wheeler, president of the Chautauqua Institution, despaired in 1885 that Britons had ignored “the religious source” of the uprising and continued their twin practices of arming some Muslims and slaughtering others. “[England] is uniting Islam, and teaching Islam how to make war…A Moslem victory is proclaimed in every Arab tent, and in every Indian village.” While decrying the European atrocities, Wheeler preferred that Islam “should be locked fast in the iron arms of the British empire” for the sake of Christendom.

XREF: Connects to patterns of imperial overreach creating unified resistance movements, a recurring theme in colonial history studies.

Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon F…, loc. 66