For Punch Book Summary

The imperial ideologies spread by Punch magnify Christianity as the founding principle of Britain 's domination over other nations. If mocking other faiths is meant to assert it as a much superior religion – indeed, the only true religion – Punch nevertheless makes a distinction between Christian movements. During the Mutiny, Catholicism was violently attacked by the magazine, which identified with the more widespread Protestantism of its readers. More precisely, the Catholics of Britain were blamed for their stronger allegiance to the Pope than to their Protestant Queen. For Punch, this amounts to committing the capital offence of treason, and the Catholics – or ‘Ultramontanes’ – are therefore depicted as enemies, conspiring with the mutineers

In one poem, the main character is thus ‘a Bigot, kneeling to a doll’ and who ‘pray[s] against Old England, whom the Roman priests detest.’2 Moreover, the poem comments that ‘an object sad he was to see for any Christian souls,’ so as to imply that his belief and behaviour are far remote from what Christianity really is about. Unlike Protestantism, the Catholic faith has institutionalised the worship of religious icons, which for the magazine puts it in parallel with the Hinduist cult to idols. This implies that Catholics are not true Christians, but rather ‘pagans’ who do not follow the ‘right’ ways of God; moreover, this reinforces the idea of a connection between Catholics and sepoys through common religious