Blowing from a gun is a method of execution in which the victim is typically tied to the mouth of a cannon and the cannon is fired. Blowing from a gun as a method of execution was used, perhaps most well known, by British troops during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
The British, however, had a long tradition prior to the 1857 rebellion to execute Indian soldiers found guilty of mutiny or desertion in this manner. According to one historian, the British tradition began in 1760, when the government examined the modes of capital punishments 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 Mogul punishment, the Government 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".
