---
title: '"The British Lion''s Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger" (Punch, 1857)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/punch-british-lion-bengal-tiger-1857/
description: A maned lion leaps in from the left onto a tiger that crouches over the body of a woman with an infant in her arm.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!["The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger" (Punch, 1857)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/punch-british-lion-bengal-tiger-1857.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/punch-british-lion-bengal-tiger-1857.jpg)

# "The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger" (Punch, 1857)

A maned lion leaps in from the left onto a tiger that crouches over the body of a woman with an infant in her arm. The tell is the animal code: the rebels are reduced to a single striped predator, and Britain to the lion that avenges a woman and child, so the viewer is asked to judge the whole rising through one killing scene.

- **Date:** August 22, 1857
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Punch, or the London Charivari (London satirical weekly); cartoonist John Tenniel
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [United Kingdom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-kingdom)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Palmerston Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=palmerston-government)
- **Leader:** [Lord Palmerston](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=lord-palmerston)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [Indian Rebellion of 1857](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=indian-rebellion-of-1857)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2022653488/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1857; artist d. 1914; LOC: no known restrictions on publication) After John Tenniel, Punch, or the London Charivari, 22 August 1857. Library of Congress, LOT 4625 B, LC-USZ62-34326.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.—AUGUST 22, 1857.
THE BRITISH LION'S VENGEANCE ON THE BENGAL TIGER.
```

Only the running head and the printed title are legible. Ghosted, reversed type from the other side of the leaf shows through beneath the title and is not part of this page. The committed JPEG is a 1280-pixel greyscale conversion of the LOC master TIFF.

[← Hurban, Hodzsa es Stur szemelyes leirasuk (wanted notice for the Slovak uprising leaders, Hungarian, German and Slovak)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hurban-hodzsa-stur-wanted-notice-beniczky-1848/) [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)