AMAZING UNTOLD TRUE STORIES OF INDIA’S 1857 WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
[The
first fact we must remember about this great liberation war is that though
known as 1857 War of Independence but it continued till the end 1859 steadily. This
commemorative piece based on the contemporary documents appeared on the 150th
anniversary (2007) of India’s first great war of liberation, in English, Hindi and
Urdu. The primary sources quoted in this essay are available with the author
which were collected from different parts of India and the world in over a period
of more than a decade. Another aspect author wants to highlight is that in this
narrative mainly those incidents/individuals have been covered in which revolutionaries
laid down their lives. I would make a humble request that researchers having
interest in this theme, please, make copies of it and put in the libraries so
that researchers/readers become familiar with this great heritage which gave
birth to our democratic-secular India.]
(1) Participation of common people in India’s
First War of Independence.
(2) Hindu-Muslim-Sikh joint martyrdoms in India’s 1857t
War of Independence.
(3) Women in the forefront of India’s First War of
Independence.
(4) Conclusion: Shameless betrayal of
the sacrifices and joint heritage of India’s War of Independence by the rulers
of independent India.
(1) Participation
of common people in India’s 1857 War of Independence
Beginning
of the liberation war
There is
no denying the fact that the first sparks of India's 1857 War of Independence were
ignited on 15th February 1857, when the soldiers of the 19th Native Regiment of
East India Company rose in revolt at the Barrakpore cantonment in Bengal. The
immediate reason for this revolt was the use of newly introduced cartridges
which the soldiers had to bite before firing. These were very smooth due to use
of a greasy material and the soldiers had strong apprehension that this was due
to the use of the fat of cows and pigs. British army officers failed in giving
any convincing explanation that it was not the case.
Thus the
religious feelings of Hindu and Muslim soldiers were equally hurt by the
introduction of these new cartridges and outcome was mutinies in many
cantonments. To suppress mutiny at Barrakpore
the British rulers held Mangal Pandey responsible for it and presented him in
front of a military court which finally ended in his being hanged to death on
8th April 1857. Mangal Pandey's execution helped spreading the revolt in other parts
of the country and most of the cantonments of the Company [East India Company] sepoys
[Indian soldiers] started protesting.
Myths
and Facts
It did
not happen in isolation. Parallel to this were thousands of native rulers and
taluqdaars [big landholders] who announced their independence in various parts
of the country. Of course, many of these sided with the colonial masters. This
collective revolt came to a critical point when on 10th May 1857; Indian
soldiers of the British army devastated the biggest cantonment of the East
Indian army at Meerut army in North India. This rebellion did not remain
confined to the Meerut cantonment. It seems that they had a plan and marched on
to Delhi in order to have an audience with the captive Mughal King, Bahadur
Shah Zafar. They were joined by thousands of peasants on the way. Similar to
this, rebel soldiers from the North India's various cantonments and the common
people continued marching towards Delhi, the capital of the independent Mughal
Empire which came into being on May 11, 1857.
Under
the leadership of Bahadur Shah Zafar, an independent government was formed in Delhi, which issued an
announcement in the name of countrymen and called upon for eradication of
British rule and put all the energy in this holy work because "if the
British continue ruling India, they will leave no one alive".[i]
The myths
which have continually been propagated about this war of liberation are that it
was a mutiny which occurred due to the indiscipline of the soldiers which was supported
by the repressive, degenerated and corrupt feudal elements like kings and
nawabs who backed the undisciplined soldiers and it was short lived and had no
pan-Indian character.
Many of
these insinuations appeared in the contemporary writings of many Indians who
were in the service of the East India Company or the British stooges. The two
such important works, both in Urdu were, Tareekh-e-Bhaghawat-e-Hind:Moharba-e-Azeem
[History of Indian Mutiny: A Great War by Pandit Kanhaya Lal which appeared at
the end of 1857 and the other by Syed Ahmad Khan (also known as Sir Syed)
titled, Asbab-e-Bhaghawat-e-Hind [The Causes of the Indian Revolt] which
was published in 1859.[ii]
The
historians who thought on these lines believed that this struggle did neither enjoy
the support of the country's masses nor had pan-India character. On the 150th
anniversary of this struggle, it is important to let the nation and the world
be aware of the facts and demolish the myths constructed by the British
stooges.
The
first myth about India’s 1857 War of Independence which we must confront is that
it was short-lived rebellion which was suppressed in the year 1857 itself. The
contemporary official documents (specially, The British government gazetteers,
autobiographies, records of the Native rulers and letters of Spies) tell a
different story. It continued in one form or the other till 1959. The last big
battle was fought on 21st Jan 1859 near Sikar in Rajasthan. In this battle, due
to the treachery of native rulers of the region, a huge army of the
revolutionaries led by Tatya Tope, Rao Sahib and Shahzada Ferozshah's had to
face defeat. Smaller battles continued through 1960.
The
second myth that it had no national character is not borne by the contemporary
narratives. This War of Independence of India true to its name was a national
liberation war. It raged from Jammu in the North to Hyderabad in the South and
from West in Afghanistan to East in Tripura, everywhere the British rule was challenged
and in many cases overthrown. The liberation war which started from Meerut
spread in the whole country like a wild fire.
South
India was not immune to 1857 Indian War of Independence. Pandit Kanhaya Lal,
the pro-British chronicler of the ‘Mutiny’ described in details the
revolutionary actions in South India some of which are reproduced below.
HYDERABAD
“In the month of July (1857), the armed forces of
Nizam Hyderabad revolted. When 21 soldiers of Nizam’s Regiment-I had revolted
at Aurangabad were hand over to the British Resident for court martial
proceedings at Hyderabd on July 7, the people of the City (Hyderabad) were not
only surprised but rose in revolt seeing the loyalty of Nizam to the British.
On July 17, a huge violent crowd surrounded Nizam’s palace and demanded release
of the arrested army-men. Before it this huge crowd went to the house of Head
Molvi (of Nizam’s court) and requested him to give a religious order (fatwa) in
favour of release of rebels. When Molvi refused to oblige and scolded the
crowd, it took revenge by severing his head. After that they went and
surrounded the palaces demanding release of the incarcerated rebels.
“It was reported immediately to Resident Saheb
who subsequently informed through telegram to the commandant Saheb of the
contingent of Nizam Army. The orders were issued to Colonel Ford Saheb, chief
of the artillery. A force consisting of the British Cavalry-III and Indian
regiments numbers I, XXII, XXIV, XXXXI, XXXXII of Cavalry joined the
artillery…attacked the rowdies. Many of them were blown into pieces and those
captured were hanged. Apart from Hyderabad places like Golapur, Aseergadh and
few small towns also witnessed rebellion, these were crushed too.”[iii]
AURANGABAD
‘All the [native] trop at Aurangabad became
rebellious…On 23rd June [1857] The British Army under the command of
General David Burn [sic] arrived and it was decided that the mutineers
must be completely eliminated. He took army under his command to the place
where [rebellious] cavalry was encamped. They were ordered to surrender their
arms. All followed the order except one Troupe [a cavalry regiment]. The
mutineers were given ten minutes to obey order. When they refused, artillery
fire was opened against them. Some were killed on the spot, many ran away
British Dragon regiment went after them and many more were killed.”[iv]
MADRAS
“August 18 (1857), an Indian regiment which had
come from Bangalore was ordered to proceed to Calcutta [now Kolkata] by boats.
But when these sepoys reached Poonamallee, 13 miles from Madras and declared
that they would not fight against their own countrymen. In the meantime a
British artillery regiment happened to arrive at the place. The rioters were
forced to surrender horses, pistols and other battle material.”[v]
South Indian city, Hyderabd witnessed many
great sacrifices in this War of Independence. Turram Khan also known as
Turrebaz Khan was a trained soldier
and leader of the armed rebel force of Rohillas and Arabs in 1857 in Hyderabad
Princely State. He was firmly of the opinion that the British stooge,
Nizam ruling clan could not be defeated till their British patrons were not
eliminated. He Organized a rebel
force of hundreds of Rohillas and Arabs in association with Molvi Alauddin (who
was later given life imprisonment and was transported to Cellular Jail where he
died in 1884). Captured by the British and sentenced for life imprisonment with
confiscation of his property. This brave revolutionary escaped from British
custody on January 18, 1859. A reward of Rs. 5,000 was announced for his
capture. He was captured in a week's time, shot dead by police. A close comrade
of his Jan Mohammad was also killed by police when he was trying to save
Turrebaz Khan from capture by police. His dead body was not buried but
tied with chains and hung in public place at Hyderabad as a warning to rebels.[vi]
Contemporary British narratives confessing mass
character of the rebellion
In this liberation war, army men, zamindars,
Rajas, Nawabs, peasants, common people, women, intellectuals, literary figures
and journalists fought together. This truth is engraved on every page of the contemporary
documents and memoirs. The official British military historiographer of the
mutiny, Sir John William Kaye[vii]
while underling the character of the rebellion stated that it was impossible to
deny “the universal fact that the Black man had risen against the White.”.[viii]
Another contemporary British historian Charles Ball confessed that 1857
revolution was a "national revolution".[ix]
WSR Hodson was a leading commander of the
British army which put Delhi under siege after
“From hence to Allahabad, the fort of Agra and
the Residency of Lucknow are the only spots where the British flag still flies.
We are more to be considered now as an isolated band, fighting for our very
name and existence in the midst of an enemy’s country, than as an avenging army
about to punish a rebel force.”[xi]
William Howard Russell, a veteran war correspondent
of the British newspaper, The Times, who
came, specially, to cover the mutiny, in one of the despatches candidly stated:
"Here we had not only a servile war and a
sort of Jacquerie combined [an insurrection of peasants against
the nobility in northeastern France in 1358 which was ruthlessly
suppressed] but we had a war of
religion, a war of race, and a war of revenge, of hope, of some national
promptings to shake off the yoke of a stranger, and to re-establish the full
power of native chiefs, and the full sway of native religions."[xii]
Thomas Lowe being a physician, his clinical
mind led him even to deliberate on the causes of the national rebellion.
According to him,
“It is quite evident that the resources of this
country, instead of being developed and improved, have been permitted to lie as
they did a thousand years ago, and decay; that such of the native arts and
manufacturers as used to raise for India a name and wonder all over the western
world are nearly extinguished in the present day; once great and renowned
cities are mere heaps of ruins…ruin, ruin poverty and natural wealth
everywhere, as though a leper had touched the land, it were hastening to decay.
A question constantly asked of oneself is—‘whence arise all this?’ and the
conclusion one arrives at is, that something
must have caused such terrible result, and that something equally bad continues
to perpetuate! [italics as in the original] Whether this ruin has been
natural result of a vicious feudalism, or misgovernment on our parts of
territories and their cities, absorbed by British power, is for others to
decide.
“No one who has eyes and ears to use, can doubt
for a moment that we have almost totally neglected the resources of such a
mighty country, while we have introduced the trash of our manufacturing towns
into every cranny of the land. It appears as though we had endeavoured to
destroy every inherent useful production of an eastern nation for the
introduction of western merchandise. And what must be the end of such
short–sightedness if such an erroneous line of policy be pursued?”[xiii]
Thomas Lowe shared an anecdote to convey the
point that it was a state of helplessness for common people having no choice
but rise in revolt.
“I
remember asking on old man about the country and its owners, when he
significantly said to me, ‘The jungles, sahib, the trees, the rivers, the
wells, all the villages and all holy cities belong to the Sircar [British
government]; they have taken all—everything (bahut achcha)—very good, what can we do?”[xiv]
For him,
“To live in India now was like standing on the
verge of a volcanic crater, the sides of which were fast crumbling away from
our feet, while the boiling lava was ready to erupt and consume us!”[xv]
Lowe underlining the participation in the
rebellion of servant class which stood at the lowest rung of the social
hierarchy wrote:
“All had disappeared to a man; even the native
servants had leagued with the murderers of their masters, and hurried away with
the destroying stream.”[xvi]
The
perusal of the contemporary documents and narratives of the 1857 War of
Independence which this author has collected make one fact crystal clear. It is
impossible to neglect that whether the initiators of this rebellion were army
personnel but it didn't take long to become a national liberation struggle. The most important reason of this
was that almost all the revolutionary soldiers came from peasant families and
the plight of farmers naturally affected their thoughts and actions. The common
people who were trapped in misery, they all became the part and parcel of this
revolution and joined hands to throw the British rule lock, stock and barrel.
It was
not only Lowe who found that the servants of the British officers had suddenly
disappeared. Hodson in a letter to his wife on 5th June 1857 wrote:
“I have tried everywhere to get a bearer, but
the natives will not serve us now, and I could get no one even on double pay.
Only two days ago I succeeded in getting a Bheestie [Bhishti or water-carrier].”[xvii]
John
Kaye stated that even before the start of the rebellion the domestic servants
had disappeared. It was no ordinary disappearance; before parting they had
damaged or carried the weapons. Kaye while narrating the events of Sialkot (now
in Pakistan) uprising on
“took an
active part against their old masters. That they knew what was coming seems to
be proved by the fact that the Brigadier’s sirdar-bearer, or chief body
servant, an ‘old and favourite’ domestic, took caps off his master’s pistols in
the night, as they lay beside him while he slept. And how thoroughly they cast
in their lot with the soldiery is demonstrated with equal distinctness by the
fact that they afterwards fought against us, the Brigadier’s khansaman [cook],
or butler, taking an active part in operations…”[xviii]
Kaye
observed that servants were acting in league with other sections of the
populace. According to him:
“There
seems to have been perfect cohesion between all classes of our enemies—the
mutineers, the criminals from the gaols, the ‘goojurs’ [Gujars] from the
neighbouring villages, and the servants from the houses and bunglows of the
English. From sunrise to sunset the work went on bravely. Everything that could
be carried off by our enemies was seized and appropriated…And nearly everything
belonging to us, that could not be carried off, was destroyed and defaced,
except—a strange and unaccountable exception—the Church and Chapel, which the
Christians had reared for the worshipping of the Christian’s god.”[xix]
Fred Roberts
who played a vital role in suppressing the ‘Mutiny” of 1857 and later became
the chief of the British army in India, in a letter to his mother on 7th
September 1857 admitted:
"All
Natives are the same, and I believe we are as thoroughly hated in the Punjab as
elsewhere…Without being severe, I have always kept my servants well in order,
once they trip, I give it them well. Yet, all this time, when whole sets have
gone off and many officers are without one."[xx]
Whatever,
may be claimed by the pro-British historians about 1857; it being a mutiny of
the army, what Roberts as a British military commander faced was a mass revolt.
In a letter to his mother from Camp Bulandshahar [approximately 60 kilo-meters
from Delhi] on 30th September 1857, Roberts stated:
“With
scarcely an exception, all the Police and Native Civil Authorities joined at
the very commencement [of the rebellion], and the many independent Rajahs
raised their Standards against us. Every villager tore down European and robbed
their property.”[xxi]
George
Otto Trevelyan [Lord Macaulay was his maternal uncle] was part of the
British ruling elite. In the beginning of his career he served as a civil
servant in India. In his book Cawnpore (published
in 1866) he narrated how different subaltern sections, specially, performers
prepared ground for the nation-wide rebellion.
“Sometimes
it was a couple of fakeers perched on
an elephant; sometimes a party of country-people on their way to the Ganges for
their annual dip in the sacred stream; a gang of gipsies [sic]; a string of camel-drivers; or a troop of musicians escorting
a celebrated nautch-dancer to her home in Cashmere [sic], after a successful season in Bengal. However, it might be,
it invariably happened that, a few hours after the strangers had entered the
station, the bazaar and the cantonments
were in a ferment of gossip and conjure; the sepoys at once grew sulky and
idle; the Mahomedans [sic] of the
town became insolvent, and the Hindus pert.”[xxii]
The
insubordination had spread even to the domestic servants of the British
officials, Trevelyan stated:
The very
domestic servants appeared to share the contagion; the cooks got drunk and the
grooms stupid; the water-carrier omitted to fill the bath, and the butler to
ice the Moselle [white wine]; the peon spent twice his usual numbers of hours
in conveying a note to the next compound; while the bearers delighted to insult
their mistress by smoking under her window, and coming bare-headed into her
presence…”[xxiii]
William Kaye
while highlighting the causes of the mutiny held the puppetry artist
responsible for spreading the disinfection amongst common people specially the
Company soldiers. Describing the themes of the puppet-shows in ‘Bazaars and the
Lines [the cantonments], he stated:
“There
were two subjects which the Kootpoolee-Wallahs
[sic] extremely delighted to illustrate-the degradation of the Mogul [sic], and the victories of the French over the English, one
intended to excite hatred, the other contempt, in the minds of the spectators”.[xxiv]
By June
1857 the British had mobilized a force outside Delhi which in strength and
resources was never witnessed in the colonial history claiming that they will
turn the city into wreckage. Their spies and compradors with strong presence in
the city were continuously involved in the destructive activities to facilitate
the British to enter Delhi. However, the British could enter Delhi only at the
end of September and that too after a series of conspiracies. The common people
of Delhi stayed united against the British siege and relentless artillery
bombardments which was underlined by Hodson in a letter to a senior officer in
a letter dated July 27 [1857],
"The
news-letters [most of which were brought by the spies] from the city mention
meetings in the marketplace and talkings at the corner of the streets, with big
words of what they intend to do…”[xxv]
Mass Participation
We can know
more about the sacrifices of the common people of Delhi against the British fortification
by getting acquainted with the names of those who laid their lives on different
battle fronts and this has been documented officially which is a proof of the
marginalized sections’ participation in the revolt. The available list includes
martyrs like Abdul (rubber-stamp maker), Chosa Bhishti (water-carrier), Eman
Kahar (palanquin lifter), Gannoo Halwai (sweet-meat
seller), Heera Dom (scavenger), Laloo Teli (oilman) etc.[xxvi]
Such martyrdoms were witnessed
throughout the country.
The large
scale participation of common people in the countryside can be gauged by the
fact that according to the contemporary British gazetteers hundreds of villages
in the districts of Gurgaon, Delhi, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Aligarh, Faruqabad, and
Bulandshahar were burnt to ashes with villagers confined inside. This kind of
savagery was perpetrated in order to punish the peasants for participating and
supporting the rebellion.
Bravery of the revolutionaries
How bravely and daringly Delhi commoners defended
Delhi when the British, after almost 5 months long preparations and Indian
stooges in tow, went for all-out assault on the city from the Kashmiri Gate
side on September 14, has been chronicled by none else but Kaye who had access
to all the contemporary military memos in the following words:
“So furious was the fire of the enemy, and so
heavy the shower of stones and bricks from the crumbling walls, which the
maddened insurgents poured upon us, that it was difficult, for a little time,
to plant the ladders in the ditch so as to ascend the scrap on the other side…So
fearful, indeed, was the carnage that when Baynes [British commander] found
himself opposite the Water Bastion, the seventy-five men who had started with him
on their perilous mission were reduced to only twenty-five.”[xxvii]
The revolutionaries were always denigrated by
the British as a bunch of budmash [those
who are in evil professions], looters, Pandies and what not. They were
described as cowards but Kaye while narrating the details of the defence of
Delhi by the ‘insurgents’ referred to the comments of a prominent British
commander, Chamberlain who,
“could not but admire the dashing manner in
which the Native officers rode in among the ranks of the mutineers, urging them
and leading them on to battle against the British and Jummoo troops nor was his
admiration, in this conjuncture, without some feeling of anxiety. For it seemed
at one time that the enemy might break through our Subzee-mundee [even
presently known by this name only] defences, carry the undefended battery below
Hindoo Rao’s house, and take possession of the post itself, with its hospital
and its magazine.”[xxviii]
Hodson who had been using the filthiest
language against the rebels wrote on
“Our Artillery officers themselves say that
they are outmatched by these rascals in accuracy and rapidity of fire, and so
they have unlimited supply of guns and ammunition from our own greatest
arsenal, they are quite beyond us in many respects.”[xxx]
On June 27, 1857 he wrote to his wife:
“The cannonade was very heavy, and I have
seldom been under a hotter fire than for about three quarters of an hour at our
most advanced battery, covered every moment with showers or rather clouds of
dust, stones and splinters…The only formidable part of the enemy is their
artillery, which is amazingly well served, and in prodigious abundance, as my
experience this morning abundantly proved.”[xxxi]
Another prominent British military commander Griffiths
narrating the status on the day [September 14] his troops stormed Delhi from Kashmiri
Gate side wrote:
“Advancing from our first place at the main
guard, No. 5 Column pushed forward to the College Gardens, Marching through
narrow streets and lanes, with high houses on each side. But how can I describe
that terrible street-fighting, which lasted without intermission the whole day?
From every window and door, from loopholes in the buildings, and from the tops
of the houses, a storm of musketry saluted us on every side, while every now
and then, when passing the corner of a street, field-guns, loaded with grape,
discharged their contents into the column. Officers and men fell fast…”[xxxii]
The resolute resistance by the rebel forces and
commoners against the British attack at the Delhi front was not isolated
happening. The contemporary British military documents are full of thousands of
such stories.
Liberation
war for a new India
The
establishment of an independent India under the kingship of Bahadur Shah Zafar
after rebels had declared freedom from the British slavery was in no way
restoration of the degenerated and dehumanized rule of the feudal elements as was
alleged by the British rulers and their Indian stooges. This was clear from
almost all the proclamations of independence issued by rebellion leaders in
different parts of the country. These proclamations made solemn promise to the
commoners that their rights would be safeguarded. For instance in in Oudh[xxxiii],
British had deprived the Pasis [Sudras] of their ancestral profession of
guarding (chowkidaari) the
countryside and cities. The independent rule of Birjis Qadar under the regent
ship of her mother Begum Hazrat Mahal through a proclamation assured that
"Pasis
should know that gate-keeping is their ancestral profession but the British
appointed Berkandaaz [police with
guns] in place of them and so they were deprived of their livelihood. It will
not be repeated.”[xxxiv]
Uprising
in Tribal areas
The
tribal areas of India too became centres of armed uprisings. The contemporary
records (though only partially accessed)
are full of tribal uprisings against the British rule. Bheem Naik, a prominent
Bheel tribal leader of Nimar (Barwani State) in the then Central India
organized a valiant armed resistance against the British rule in the area. He
was able to unite other tribes like Bhilalas, Mandlois and Naiks for a joint
military campaign to oust the British from the area. He also joined forces with
Tatya Tope and made daring attacks on the British positions on Bombay-Agra road
between Sindhawa and Khull. Revolutionary army under his command continued the
War till 1859. But due to the treachery of many non-tribal princes of the
region they were defeated. They shifted their base into the forest and
continued with the guerilla warfare. He could be captured in 1861, sentenced for
life imprisonment, sent to Andaman Islands where he died (date not known).[xxxv]
It is
not only sad but shameful that we forgot these startling facts of the First War
of Independence. If we had remembered this glorious heritage, the rise of
communal polarization as well as gradual take-over of the independent India by
the pro-feudal-capitalists-imperialist ruling class would have been scuttled.
(2) Hindu-Muslim-Sikh joint martyrdoms in
India’s First War of Independence
The
people of India, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs[xxxvi],
unitedly challenged the might of world’s greatest imperialist power, Britain,
during India’s War of Independence [hereafter referred as War] which began in
May 1857. This unprecedented unity, naturally, unnerved the British rulers or Firangees and made them conscious of the
fact that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when
Hindus and Muslims, specially, were divided on communal lines and no
opportunity was missed to create enmity between these two largest religious
communities of India. This was the reason, that immediately after crushing
militarily, this War of Independence with the help of spies and stooges, the
then minister of Indian Affairs Lord Wood, sitting in London, in a letter to
the chief of British rule in India, Lord Elgin, admitted, "we have
maintained our power in India by playing off one part against the other and we
must continue to do so. Do all we can, therefore, to prevent all having a
common feeling."[xxxvii]
The most
prominent administrator of the East India Company in India and chief strategist
of the British plan of suppressing the mutiny (India’s War of Independence 1857),
John Lawrence, shamelessly declared:
"If
the Mohameduns [sic] and Hindoos [sic] have quarreled so much the better
for us, let them slaughter each other, and on the fall of Delhee[sic], we shall not find it difficult
matter to reconquer the whole of Rohilcund [sic]
."[xxxviii]
In order
to put this strategy in operation effectively, the White rulers and their
Indian stooges, the Brown Sahebs came out with the two-nation theory implying
that Hindus and Muslims belonged to two separate antagonistic nations, as they
belonged to different religions. The birth of the two-nations theory was no
accident, in fact, it was specifically designed and created to help the British
rulers in creating communal divide and fragmentize the Indian society on the
basis of religions as a religiously united India could prove to be the death
knell of their rule here. The memories of the War, which the British rulers
called ‘Mutiny’, in which Hindus and Muslims fought tooth and nail with great
determination and spirit of sacrifice against the rule of the East India
Company, was too fresh in the memories of the White rulers who saw their
repressive rule almost on the brink of collapse. They could succeed only with
the use of treachery and deceit, hallmarks of the British imperialism (or any
other) the world-over.
Joint command for the war
One
truth, which should never be missed about this War, is that it was jointly led
by leaders like Nana Sahib, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Maulvi Ahmed Shah, Tatya Tope,
Khan Bahadur Khan, Rani Laxmibai, Hazrat Mahal, Azimullah Khan and Ferozshah, a
galaxy of revolutionaries who belonged to different religions. It was a
liberation struggle in which Maulvis, Pandits, zamindars, peasants, traders,
lawyers, servants, women, students and people
from different creeds, castes and regions rose in revolt against the
dehumanized rule of the East India Company and laid down their lives.
On the
eve of 164th anniversary of War of Independence we need to tell the
present flag-bearers of the Hindu-Muslim brands of communal politics that the
revolutionary army which declared the Mughal King Bahadur Shah Zafar, a Muslim,
India’s Independent ruler on 11th May 1857 comprised of more than
seventy percent Hindu soldiers. These were Nana Sahib, Tantya Tope and
Laxmibai, all Hindus, who played vital role in making Zafar, Badshah; the real
King of Hindustan once again.
The
contemporary documents of the period which are available even today are replete
with instances, not confined to one particular area, in which Hindus and
Muslims could be seen joining the War, making supreme sacrifices together,
least bothered about who was in the lead and who would bear what cost for
opposing the British rule. The details of this War contained in the
contemporary documents present one fundamental truth that Hindu-Muslim
separatism or hatred between these two communities was not at all a problem to
be worried about.
We
present in the following some of the instances of how Hindus-Muslims-Sikhs rose
in revolt together, making joint sacrifices for a common cause underlying the
fact that this united effort could bring the foreign rule to its doom. These
are but few of the examples from thousands and thousands of unparalleled deeds
of bravery and sacrifices which remain unsung even today.
MEERUT
The War of Independence started on May 11, 1857 when
revolutionaries declared India free of the British rule. However, the process started on May 9 at the
Meerut cantonment when the British military brass attempted to Court Martial
the 85 sepoys of the 3rd Light Cavalry Regiment who [out of 90] for
the crime of refusing the new cartridges which were to be mouth-bitten before
firing. All of them were to be killed; to be blown by the artillery guns. This
news spread like a wildfire with other sepoys, commoners including many women
and the convicted sepoys were freed. Later they with thousands others left for
Delhi. The most notable fact about the identity of the 85 rebel sepoys was that
48 of them were Muslims.
AYODHYA
After
independence, the town of Ayodhya has emerged as a place which caused the
growth of immense hatred between sections of Hindus and Muslims. Babri
Masjid-Ram Janmbhoomi [birth-place] dispute at Ayodhya has played significant
role in creating an environment of violence and mistrust between the two
largest religious communities of India. But in 1857, it was the same Ayodhya
where Maulvis and Mahants and common Hindu-Muslims stood united in rebelling
against the British rule and kissed the hangman’s noose together. Maulana Ameer
Ali[xxxix]
was a famous Maulvi of Ayodhya and when Ayodhya’s well-known Hanuman Garhi’s
(Hanuman Temple) priest Baba Ramcharan Das[xl]
took lead in organizing the armed resistance to the British rule, Maulana also
joined the revolutionary army. In one battle with the British and their
stooges, both of them were captured and hanged together on a tamarind tree at
the Kuber Teela in Ayodhya.
Baba
Ramcharan Das and Maulana Ameer Ali were no exception in Ayodhya. This region
also produced two more great friends, belonging to different religions who made
life hell for the British sponsored armies. Acchhan Khan[xli]
and Shambhu Prasad Shukla[xlii]
were two such friends who lead the army of Raja Devibaksh Singh[xliii]
in the district of Faizabad. Both of them were able to defeat the Firangee army in many battles,
inflicting heavy losses on them. It was due to the treachery again that they
were captured. In order to desist anyone from such companionships between
Hindus and Muslims both these friends were publicly inflicted prolonged torture
and their heads were cruelly filed off.
It is
not difficult to understand that why the same Ayodhya where blood of both Hindus
and Muslims flowed for liberating the motherland in 1857 later became a
permanent source of friction between the two communities. The joint heritage of
Ayodhya needed to be erased and only then the British Indian Empire could
survive. It was meticulously done by the British rulers and the heritage of
communal unity at Ayodhya was turned upside down.
RAJASTHAN
Kota
state (now in Rajasthan) was ruled by a Maharao subservient to the British. The
leading courtier of this state was, Lala Jaidayal Bhatnagar[xliv],
a great literary figure who was equally conversant with Persian, Urdu and
English. When it was found that Maharao was collaborating with the British he
joined hands with the army chief, Mehrab Khan[xlv]
and established a revolutionary government in the state. When Kota was captured
by the British forces with the help of stooge neighbouring princes, they
together continued fighting in the region till 1859. Betrayed by an informer
both were hanged at Kota on September 17, 1860.
HARYANA
Hansi
town (now in Haryana) presents another heart-warming example of how Muslims and
Jains fearlessly challenged the foreign rule and did not hesitate in
sacrificing their lives together. In this town lived two close friends,
Hukumchand Jain[xlvi]
and Muneer Beg[xlvii].
They were known for literary works and love for mathematics and joined the
revolt in the earlier phase itself. The revolutionary government of Bahadur
Shah Zafar chose them as advisors and appointed them as commanders in the
region of west of Delhi which is known as Haryana today. They led many
successful military campaigns in the area but due to the treachery of rulers of
Patiala, Nabha, Kapurthala, Kashmir and Pataudi were defeated in a crucial
battle and captured. The British were extremely worried and horrified with this
kind of unity of the people of two religions that they decided to kill them in
a most horrendous and sickening manner. After hanging them on the same tree in
Hansi on January 19, 1858, Hukumchand Jain was buried and Mirza Muneer Beg was
cremated against the custom of their respective religions. It was done with the
obvious purpose of making fun of the unity of these two revolutionaries
belonging to different religions and show hatred towards their comradeship.
Another unspeakable crime committed by the British was that when Fakir Chand
Jain[xlviii],
13 year old nephew of Hukamchand Jain protested to this treatment he too was
hanged, although there was no sentence passed against him.
CENTRAL
INDIA
JHANSI: We all are familiar with Rani Laxmi
Bai's[xlix]
sheroic resistance to the British rule and her death fighting the British
forces at Gwalior. She was able to put up such a great resistance with her
Muslim commanders; Ghulam Ghouse Khan (chief of artillery, martyred on June 4,
1858 in hand-to-hand fight with the British troops inside Jhansi fort)[l],
Khuda Bakhsh (chief of infantry, martyred defending the Jhansi fort on June 4,
1858)[li]
both of whom were martyred defending Jhansi fort on June 4, 1858. Even her
personal bodyguard was a young Muslim lady, Mundar who laid down her life with
Rani on June 18, 1858 at Kotah-ki-Sarai battle in Gwalior.[lii]
MALWA:
Malwa region in the then Central Province (now Madhya Pradesh) was another war
theatre where big and crucial battles were fought against the British. The
joint command of Tatya Tope,[liii]
Rao Saheb (alias Pandurang Sadashiv and a nephew of Nana Saheb[liv],
Laxmi Bai, Ferozshah and Moulvi Fazal-ul- Haq[lv],
was able to mobilize a huge rebel army of 70-80 thousand fighters. This army
won innumerable battles against the British. However, in a crucial battle at
Ranod when due to the treachery of stooge princes the revolutionary army led by
Tatya Tope, Ferozeshah and Moulvi was encircled, Moulvi Fazal-ul- Haq stood as
a rock in the way of advancing British troops. He and his 480 companions laid
down their lives on December 17, 1858, but were able to save the main force
which included Tatya Tope, Rao Saheb and Ferozshah.[lvi]
Thus saved by the supreme sacrifice by Moulvi Fazl Haq and his comrades, Tatia
Tope continued to wage war till the beginning of 1859.
Tatia
Tope continued to wage war till the beginning of 1859 and it was due to the
treachery of Man Singh, ruler of Narwar, that the British were able to capture
him and subsequently hang him on April 18, 1859. Rao Saheb (Pandurang Sadashiv,
nephew of Nana Saheb) too continued to wage the struggle and could be captured
only in 1862 betrayed by a Maratha chief in the Jammu region. He was later
hanged in Kanpur on August 20, 1862. Ferozeshah, fought the longest, was never
captured and travelled to the West Asia in search of help from the Muslim
rulers for India’s freedom. Disheartened by their apathy went to Mecca where he
died in 1887.
ROHILKHAND
Rohilkhand
(present day Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Badaun and Bijnor etc.) was the area which
was a strong hold of revolutionaries from the beginning of the revolution.
Immediately after the announcement of an independent Indian government at Delhi
on May 11, 1857, Khan Bahadur Khan[lvii]
was appointed as the viceroy of Mughal emperor there. Khan soon after assuming
charge appointed a committee of eight members consisting both Hindus and
Muslims to conduct the affairs of the state. His deputy was Khushi Ram.[lviii]
This government forbade cow-killing
in deference to the sentiments of local Hindus as was done in Delhi by the
orders of General Bakht, chief commander of the revolutionary army. Khan and
Khushi Ram led troops defeated the British and their stooges in many battles
but were defeated in a crucial battle at Bareilly after remaining in office for
almost a year. They continued with the struggle and withdrew towards Nepal but
were captured. Both of them were brought to Bareilly and hanged with hundreds
of their followers outside old Kotwali on March 20, 1860. Their bodies were
left hanging in order to terrorize the populace.
14 Hindu-Muslim-Sikh women jointly laid down
lives at Thana Bhavan, Western Uttar Pradesh
Hindu-Muslim
unity during the First Indian War of Independence was not confined to one area
or one section of the population. This unity pervaded the whole country at all
stratum. It was a ground reality and fact of life with which, naturally, women
also did not remain untouched. In a small town, Thana Bhawan, situated in
Muzaffar Nagar district (now in western Uttar Pradesh) 13 brave women belonging
to different religions and Castes were hanged together or burnt alive for
taking up arms against the repressive British rule.
The
names of these sheroes [according to the dictionary word ‘hero’ means a “man
who exhibits great bravery” which is not gender neutral and conveys the faulty
wisdom that only man can be brave. Author is using the term ‘shero/sheroes for
female participants in the liberation War] and sheroic deeds of them are as follows.
Asghari
Begum, 45 years old, belonged to a well-to-do family and was burnt alive for
organizing rebellion in the area in 1858.[lix]
Another revolutionary woman was, 28 years old, Asha Devi[lx],
who belonged to a Hindu Gujar family and was hanged in 1858. Another martyred
woman was 23 year old young Bhagwati Devi[lxi],
born into a Tyagi family of farmers who fought in many battles against the Firangee rule and was hanged in 1858. 24
year old, Habeeba[lxii],
belonging to a Muslim Gujar family, fearlessly fought in many battles to
liberate neighbouring areas from the British
tyranny. She was a great organizer and mobilized her neighbourhood for the
liberation struggle. She was captured while resisting a British attack and was
executed on gallows in 1858.
Another
brave woman from this area named Mam Kaur[lxiii]
belonged to a family of the shepherds and was hanged at the young age of 25
years in 1858. 26 years old, Umda[lxiv]
was another gallant woman from this area, born into a Jat Muslim family who
sacrificed her life resisting the British invasion. Raj Kaur[lxv]born
in 1833, hailed from a Rajput family and made the supreme sacrifice fighting
against the British in Thana Bhawan area only. Another brave woman hailing also
from a Jat family who laid down her life fighting against the British was Inder
Kaur[lxvi].
Bkhtawari[lxvii]
born in 1819 was another brave woman from the region who laid down her life
fighting against the British rulers.
Jamila[lxviii]
born into a Pathan family of the area took up arms against the foreign rulers
and was martyred in 1858. Three other revolutionary women from Thana Bhavan who
sacrificed their lives for liberation of India from the Company rule were,
Rahimi[lxix],
belonging to a Muslim Rajput family born in 1829, Bhagwani[lxx]
born in 1831, Shobha Devi born in 1832, both hailing from Brahmin families and
Beebee who were hanged in 1858. It is to be noted that most of these
revolutionary women were hanged in 1858 which shows that the British that this
area remained liberated till 1858.
DELHI
British
made it a prestige issue to recapture Delhi (which the revolutionaries got
liberated from the British rule on May 11, 1857 and declared it to be the
Capital of an Independent India). They rightly thought that if once they were
able to re-capture Delhi, the centre of anti-British activities, then it would
not be difficult to suppress the rising tide of rebellions in other parts of
the country. During June-September 1857, the British army encircled Delhi with
all their might but could not break into Delhi
which was valiantly
being defended by the revolutionary army, which was mocked by the
British as poorabia sena (army of
people from eastern India).
The
majority of this revolutionary army consisted of Hindu soldiers and was led by
a joint command consisting of Mohammed Bakht Khan,[lxxi]
Azimullah Khan[lxxii],
Sham Singh Dooga, Sirdhara Singh, Ghouse Mohammad, Hira Singh and a 'Doabi
Brahmin'.[lxxiii]
The contemporary British documents show that despite all their attempts to
create communal divide in the ranks of revolutionary army and residents of
Delhi, the Indians stood as one. In order not to let the British spies succeed
in creating communal conflict amongst Delhites, General Bakht Khan, C-in-C of
the revolutionary army prohibited cow slaughter.[lxxiv]
What
kind of communal amity existed in Delhi under siege can be further known by the
fact that when a huge canon of Shahjahan’s times which was lying unused was
taken out, repaired and made useable, before firing the first canon, in the
presence of Bahadur Shah Zafar and other army officials, Hindu priests
performed Aarti, garlanded it and blessed it with Vedic hymns.[lxxv]
ANTHEM
OF THE WAR
The high degree of communal unity among the
rebels can further be known by going through the Rebel Anthem [Aazaadee kaa Tarana] of 1857, penned by Azimullah Khan. It was in Urdu and read:
Hum haen iss ke malik, Hindoostan hamaaraa/Paak
watan hae qaum kaa Jannat se bhee piyaaraa.
[We are its owners, it belongs to us. It is our
holy land, lovelier than paradise.]
Yeh hamaari milkiat Hindoostan hamaaraa/iss kee
roohaniyat se Roshan hae jug saaraa.
[It is our Hindustan, our owned. The whole
world sparkles with its spiritualism.]
Kitnaa qadeem kitnaa naeem, sab duniyaa se
niyaraa/kartee hae zarkhez jisse Gang-o-Juman kee dhaaraa.
[It is old as well as pleasure giving, unique
in the world. Ganga and Jamuna irrigates its lands.]
Ooper barfeela parvat pehre-daar
hamaaraa/Neeche sahil per bajta sagar kaa naqqaaraa.
[On top snow-clad mountain guards us. On the
lower end you can hear roaring of sea.]
Iss kee khanen ugal raheensona, heera,
paaraa/iss kee shaan shaukat kaa duniyaa maen jaikaaraa.
[Its mines produce gold, diamond and lead. Its
greatness is renowned throughout the world.]
Aayaa Firangee door se, essaa mantar
maaraa/loota donon hathoon se piyaaraa watan hamaaraa.
[The British came from far away, played trick.
Our dear land was looted with both hands.]
Aaj shahidon ne tumko, ahl-e-watan
lal-kaaraa/Todo ghulamee kee zanjeeren barsao angaaraa.
[Martyrs are calling you, countrymen. Break
shackles of slavery, spit fire.]
Hindoo-Mussalmaan-Sikh hamaaraa bhai
piyaaraa-piyaaraa/yeh hae azaadi kaa jhanda isse salaam hamaaraa.
[Hindu-Muslim-Sikh are our dear brothers. This
is the flag of independence, salute to it.][lxxvi]
Contemporary British narratives underscoring
Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity
William
Russell, a renowned war correspondent was sent by The Times, a leading British newspaper published from London to
cover the ‘Mutiny.’ In one of his reports from Oudh, dated, March 2, 1858,
while describing the strength of the revolutionary army he wrote:
“There
are, it is said, at least 60,000 regulars of all sorts, and about 70,000
nujeebs [irregulars], militia, and matchlock-men. All the great chiefs of Oudh,
Mussalman and Hindu, are there, and have sworn to fight for their young king,
Birjeis Kuddr [Birjis Qadr], to the last. Their cavalry is numerous, the city
is filled with people, the works are continually strengthened. All Oudh is in
the hands of the enemy, and we only hold the ground we cover with our
bayonets.”[lxxvii]
Thomas
Lowe was part of the British army's campaign against the rebels in Central
India as commander of the medical corps. He was one of the leading British
officers who participated in the most long running military campaign against
the revolutionaries which included killing of Rani of Jhansi. In his war
memoirs [published in 1860 from London] despite his deep hatred for the rebels,
he was quite frank in sharing the fact that in this rebellion all the following
sections of Indians came together for waging war against the British:
“the
infanticide Rajput, the bigoted Brahmin, the fanatic Mussalman, and the luxury
loving, fat-paunched ambitious Maharattah [sic],
they all joined together in the cause; the cow-killer and the cow-worshipper,
the pig-hater and the pig-eater, the crier of Allah is God and Mohommed [sic] his prophet and the mumbler of the
mysteries of Brahma…”[lxxviii]
Fred
Roberts was one of the leading British military commanders who led the British
army to re-capture Lucknow, the Capital of the Oudh kingdom. He later on became
the Commander- in-Chief of the British armed forces in India. In one of his
letters, from the Lucknow front dated November
25, 1857, while rejoicing victory on that day at Sikander Bagh, Lucknow
war front could not miss out the fact that even in the face of death the rebel
army consisting of both Hindus and Muslims did not lose heart and stayed glued
to each other. When Fred entered the Sikander Bagh he found nearly 2000 rebels
on the ground dead or dying. According to him:
“I never
saw such a sight. They were literally in heaps, and when I went in were a
heaving mass, some dead, but most wounded and unable to get up from the crush.
How so many got crowded together I can’t understand. You had to walk over them
to cross the court. They showed their hatred even while dying, cursed us and
said: ‘if we could only stand, we would kill
you.”[lxxix]
Throughout
the War of Independence 1857 every nook and corner of the country was replete
with such instances of fearless fighters, supreme sacrifices and strong bond of
unity amongst people belonging to different religions. Such glorious instances
of unbreakable Hindu-Muslim unity did really happen not more than 165 years
back. These can be verified even today by a simple perusal of the contemporary
British archives, autobiographies, personal collections, diaries and
narrations.
Given
these realities of history, it is not difficult to understand why a divide
between Hindus and Muslims was necessitated, who were instrumental in
accomplishing it and who benefited out of this divide. This natural unity
between the followers of the two largest religions in 1857 had greatly alarmed
and perturbed the British rulers and they could foresee the end of their
colonial project in India, in fact, Asia.
This
danger could only be averted if Hindus and Muslims were hoodwinked to separate,
follow opposite directions and behave as two antagonistic ‘nations’. The
survival of the British Empire in India depended on the successful execution of
this strategy. The flag-bearers of the politics of two-nations in the past and
communal politics, presently, are the ones who helped the British to
successfully execute this evil design. We should never ignore the fact that
communalism was a ploy of the British who feared the end of their Empire in
India if Hindus and Muslims continually stood united. Not only on at every anniversary
of the great rebellion but every day we must take pledge of never betraying the
shared heritage and shared martyrdoms of the First Indian War of Independence.
(3) Women who led India’s 1857 War of
Independence 1857
The
apologists of the British rule in India, past and present, argued that the
incidents of 1857 were not more than a sepoy mutiny. According to them, in May
1857 it occurred due to the anarchist and disobedient soldiers and they were
responsible for violence and destruction. However, the contemporary narratives
and records which we perused above in details make it clear that such
conclusion about this War was and is a patent lie.
The
truth is that the great liberation war which began in May in 1857 will be
always remembered for the glorious reality that not only a particular group or
people of a particular Caste, gender, religion or region participated but the
people of almost all strata joined it and jointly laid down their lives for the
liberation of India. One great characteristic, almost forgotten, was that women
not only participated in this Great War with male rebels but they led the
military campaigns against the British at many places.
1857
demolished male chauvinistic view of women
It is
generally believed that women are weaker and unintelligent in comparison to
males. In fact, despite this male-chauvinistic omnipresent belief about women,
the 1857 War of Independence of India once again proved the denigrators of
women patently wrong. The contemporary documents are a huge repository of great
sheroic deeds and sacrifices by the women rich and poor hailing from both
countryside and the towns. The War proved umpteen times that given chance women
were capable of shaking the foundations of the colonial rule in India of the
greatest imperialist power on the earth.
Rani
Lakshmi Bai
Born in
1835 [some contemporary sources mention 1828 or 1830 as her year of birth] in
Kashi, the queen/Rani of Jhansi Laxmibai's (real name Manikarnika Tambe) was one of the first native rulers who challenged
the repressive rule of the East India Company.[lxxx]
The contemporary documents make it amply clear that she did not dream of
freeing her own State Jhansi only but the whole of India from the British
hegemony. She waged one of the most sheroic[lxxxi]
military challenges against the British army and kept it going till her last
breath. Her correspondence with other rebel chiefs is the living testimony of
how she led from the front. In a letter to a rebel chief, Mardan Singh, she
wrote:
"Shri Maharani Lakshmibai conveys good
wishes for the well-being of Maharaja Shri Raja Mardan Singh Ju Dev. We are
well here. We are delighted to read the letter brought by Devan [Dewan, an
office equivalent to prime-minister] Ghaus…After consultation among ourselves
including yourself and Shahgarh and Tatya Tope we came to the conclusion that
there should be suraj, our own
rule…"[lxxxii]
Laxmibai
used to lead her army’s contingents wearing normal military attire. She was a
great military strategist and rebel leaders in the area used to follow her
military plans as would be clear from her another letter to Mardan Singh:
"Shri Maharani Lakshmibai Ju Devi conveys
good wishes for the well-being of Maharaja Shri Raja Mardan Singh Bahadur Ju
Dev…It is further stated that you please set-out towards Sagar. There are two
companies of Sahebs enroute. After crushing them, go ahead along with Raja of
Shahgarh. Tatya Tope, Nana Saheb, and I are engaged in making arrangements for
the army. Drive Hue [Hugh] Rose at Notghat and proceed towards Kalpi. There we
all will meet to jointly attack the British at Gwalior. Now there should not be
any delay."[lxxxiii]
As a
great military strategist she realized that without defeating the prominent
British stooge in the Central India, the Scindhias who ruled Gwalior State, the
foreign rulers could not be defeated. With this aim she attacked Gwalior Fort.
One of the battles continued for more than 15 days. It was here at the battle
front of the Kotah-Ki-Sarai on June 17, 1858 she was martyred while fighting
riding. She was barely 22 at the time of her martyrdom. Even the British used
to praise her bravery. The chief commander of the British Army, Sir Hugh Rose
wrote in his report:
"Although
a lady she was the bravest and the best military leader of the rebels. A man
among the mutineers."[lxxxiv]
The
British official historiographers of the mutiny, John William Kaye and GB
Malleson confessed that,
“She
gained a great influence over the hearts of her people. It was this influence,
this force of character, added to a splendid and inspiring courage, that
enabled her…to offer to the English troops under Sir Hugh Rose, a resistance
which made to a less able commander, might have been successful.”[lxxxv]
Thomas
Lowe who was present in all the battles with the Rani though described her as
‘the Jezebel of India’; the wicked woman, did confess that she was “the young,
energetic, proud, unbending un-compromising Ranee”.[lxxxvi]
Martyrdoms
of Rani and Mundar
Sir
Robert Hamilton who was asked to file a report on the killing of Rani by the
British military headquarters submitted the following report:
“The
Ranee [sic] was on a horseback, and
close to her was the female (a Mohammedan long in the family) who seems never
to have left her side on any occasion, these two were struck by bullets and
fell, the Ranee survived about 20 minutes.”[lxxxvii]
The
Muslim lady who never left Rani alone was a young brave fighter woman named
Mundar [Munzar?] who was Rani's personal security in charge. She had shown her
courage in the battles of Jhansi, Koonch, Kalpi and Gwalior, finally, laid down
her life trying to save Rani at the same Kotah-Ki-Sarai. Her sacrifice based on
the contemporary police and military archives has been recorded in the
following words:
“Resident
of Jhansi [now in Uttar Pradesh]; Muslim woman who was a close associate of the
Rani of Jhansi; took active part in the Great Revolt against the British rule
in 1857.Fought by the side of Maharani Laxmi Bai during the battles against the
British at Jhansi, Koonch, Kalpi and Gwalior. Killed in the battle at
Kotah-ki-Sarai [June 17, 1858] in Gwalior, where the Rani attained martyrdom.”[lxxxviii]
Sadly, our nation does not know that Rani’s father
Moropant Balwant Rao Tambe, injured gravely was arrested on June 18, 1858 in
the vicinity of Jhansi and hanged the same day at Jhansi fort.
Moti Bai
Another
lieutenant of Rani in the War who sacrificed her life was Moti Bai, a
canon-operator. Her sacrifice has been recorded in the following words:
“She took part in throwing the British out from
Jhansi and surrounding areas; later the British struck back and reached Jhansi
in 1858; while fighting against the British offensive at the Jhansi Fort on
April 4, 1858, she was knocked down by the enemy fire and died on the spot.”[lxxxix]
Rani
Avantibai Lodhi
In this
War the sheroic deeds and sacrifices of another woman warrior Rani Avantibai
Lodhi of Ramgarh State, situated in the tribal region of the Satpura jungles
remain under wrap. According to the
contemporary records the British had confiscated Ramgarh after the demise of
her husband, Raja Lakshman Singh. With the beginning of the liberation War she
also declared war against the British,
“and
advanced towards Suhagpur in July 1857. The opposing British force was defeated
and Sohagpur was captured by her. Another British force under Captain HF
Waddington tried to stop her and a bloody battle was fought near Shahpura.
Riding on horse-back, the Rani personally led her army…Fighting with remarkable
valour, she defeated the enemy…Captain Waddington retreated in such haste that
his infant child was left behind, but the Rani sent he child to him through her
special emissary.”[xc]
The
contemporary records also tell us that repeated British attacks were repulsed
by the Rani’s army but in a crucial battle in April 1858 when her army was
fighting the British army,
“the
army of the treacherous pro-British ruler of Rewa [Raghuraj Singh] assaulted
her from behind. She herself and her army fought with extreme bravery, but were
hopelessly outnumbered”.[xci]
She was asked to surrender but refused to
submit and instead of accepting defeat or surrendering, according to the
British gazetteer, “she killed herself by inflicting herself with a
double-edged sword so that could not be arrested”.[xcii]
Begum
Hazrat Mahal of Lucknow
One more
queen who led the War after joining hands with Tantya Tope, Nana Sahib and
Azimullah Khan was Begum Hazrat Mahal of Lucknow [not to be confused with
Zeenat Mahal, wife of Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar who helped the British to
capture Delhi in September 1857].[xciii]The
East India Company had deceitfully deposed her husband, Wajid Ali Shah as ruler
of Oudh. On the advice of chieftains she installed her minor son, Brijis Qadr
as ruler [she becoming a regent] and formed a united front against the British
and challenged them vigorously in the Oudh region. She brought out a
Proclamation in 1858 declaring objectives of the independent rule.
When the
British army attacked Lucknow, her army fought bravely with her associates. The
bravery shown by revolutionaries under her joint command is now part of the
folk stories and folklore. The revolutionary forces were defeated due to the
treachery of some local chieftains allied with the British and arrival of
thousands of the Gurkha soldiers who were sent by the Nepal Rana in support of
the British.
Her
forces withdrew to Shahjahanpur where in a crucial battle lost due to the treachery
of Raja Jagannath Singh of Pawayan. This
brave queen instead of discarding the armed struggle continued fighting in the
Tarai areas of Nepal with Nana Sahib and Azimullah Khan. She died there and is
buried in the vicinity of Jama Masjid, Kathmandu, Nepal.[xciv]
War
correspondent Howard Russell who was present in all the battles fought with the
army of Hazrat Mahal confessed:
“The
Begum exhibits great energy and ability. She has excited all Oudh to take up
the interest of her son, and the chiefs have sworn to be faithful to him. We
affect to disbelieve his legitimacy, but the zamindars, who ought to be better
judges of facts, accept Birjeis Kuddr [Brijis Qadr] without hesitation. Will
Government treat these men as rebels or as honourable enemies?
“The Begum declares undying war against us; and
in the circumstances of the annexation of the kingdom, the concealment of the
suppression of the treaty, the apparent ingratitude to the family for money
lent, and aid given at most critical times, has many grounds for her indignant
rhetoric…”[xcv]
The male chauvinist specially in India who
continue to denigrate women as inferior to the males must read what a diehard
defender of the British colonialism in India wrote about Indian women who
mainly stayed in zenanas [female apartment]. According to Russell:
“It appears, from the energetic character of
these Ranees and Begums, that they acquire in their zenanas and harems, a
considerable amount of actual mental power, and, at all events, became able intriguantes. Their contests for
ascendancy over the minds of the men give vigour and acuteness to their
intellects.”[xcvi]
Uda Devi’s unbelievable deed of bravery at
Lucknow Front
The Lucknow war front witnessed one of the most
sheroic deeds of not only 1857 War but any other battle by lone revolutionary
woman which even the British army commanders could not resist from sharing. Uda
Devi’s husband Makka Pasi of Hazrat Mahal’s revolutionary army was killed in a
battle at Chinhat (near Lucknow) on June 10, 1857. In order to avenge his death what she did was
corroborated by the British commander, William Forbes-Mitchel who was leading
the attack at the Secundrabad battle front at the end of November 1857. He
wrote in his memoirs:
“In the centre of the inner court of the
Secundrabâgh there was a large peepul [Ficus Indica] tree with a very bushy top, round the foot
of which were set a number of jars full of cool water. When the slaughter was
almost over, many of our men went under the tree for the sake of its shade, and
to quench their burning thirst with a draught of the cool water from the jars.
A number however lay dead under this tree, both of the Fifty-Third and
Ninety-Third, and the many bodies lying in that particular spot attracted the
notice of Captain Dawson. After having carefully examined the wounds, he
noticed that in every case the men had evidently been shot from above.
“He thereupon stepped out from beneath the
tree, and called to Quaker Wallace to look up if he could see any one in the
top of the tree, because all the dead under it had apparently been shot from
above. Wallace had his rifle loaded, and stepping back he carefully scanned the
top of the tree. He almost immediately called out, ‘I see him, sir’…”[xcvii]
He fired
on the sighted person and nobody could believe that,
“down fell a body dressed in a tight-fitting
red jacket and tight-fitting rose-coloured silk trousers; and the breast of the
jacket bursting open with the fall, showed that the wearer was a woman, She was
armed with a pair of heavy old-pattern cavalry pistols, one of which was in her
belt still loaded, and her pouch was still about half full of ammunition, while
from her perch in the tree, which had been carefully prepared before the
attack, she had killed more than half-a-dozen men."[xcviii]
Ishwori Kumari Devi Rani of Tulsipur
In the annals of the history of India’s
liberation War another woman who stands tall was Ishwori Kumari Devi, Rani of
Tulsipur. Tulsipur known as Tulsipur Pargana (located in the Terai region
between India and Nepal) was one of the principalities of the Oudh kingdom. She
took up arms when her husband Drig Narayan Singh was treacherously arrested and
put up in a jail at Lucknow. The queen of Tulsipur not only raised a large army
with the help of Raja Riasat Ali Khan of Utraula but also formed a joint armed
front with Nana Sahib, Begum Hazrat Mahal and Raja Devibaksh Singh of Gonda.
Her army was defeated due to the arrival of thousands of Gurkha soldiers from
Nepal in support of the British army and treachery of Man Singh of Ayodhya and
Raja of Balrampur. She with her army shifted her base in the jungles of Nepal
and there are almost no primary source clues how and when she died. The
Imperial Gazetteer of India recorded the fact that where as many rebel taluqdars (large estate holder)
“accepted
the amnesty; but neither the Raja of Gonda nor the Rani of Tulsipur could be
induced to surrender…and their estates were accordingly confiscated and
conferred as reward upon Maharajas Sir Drigbijai Singh of Balrampur and Sir Man
Singh of Ajodhya [Ayodhya]”[xcix]
Mainavati
Mainavati
was another leading revolutionary who performed amazing deeds during the War.
She was from Bithoor, Cawnpore (now Kanpur), a foster daughter Nana Saheb
Peshwa. According to contemporary primary sources she,
“joined
the anti-British rebel forces and participated in driving the British out from
Kanpur and its neighbouring areas; acted as a supplier of the basic necessities
for the rebels during the revolt; in the course of the fighting she was
captured by the enemy and mercilessly burnt alive.”[c]
Sursee
Sursee
was mother of Bheem Naik, a prominent Bheel tribal leader of Nimar (Barwani
State) in the then Central India who organized a valiant armed resistance
against the British rule in the area. According to the contemporary records
Sursee organized her own battalion and supported
“her
son’s resistance against foreign intrusion in the tribal inhabited areas; she
was captured by the British troops near Saloda on 8 February 185, following
serious encounter with troops at her command; she was imprisoned and tortured
physically as well as mentally at Mandleshewar Fort, died in detention on 28
February 1859.”[ci]
Bheem
Nayak continued guerilla resistance war in the jungles. The British could
arrest him in 1861. He was sent to Kala Pani [Cellular Jail] where he was
hanged on December 29, 1876.
14 women
martyrs from small town Thana Bhawan
The saga
of rebel women taking up arms against the foreign rule and laying down their
lives in the liberation War was not confined to one area or one section. Women
sacrificed lives in every nook and corner of the country. We have discussed
above how in a small town, Thana Bhawan, situated in Muzaffar Nagar district
(now in western Uttar Pradesh) 14 brave women belonging to different religions
and Castes were hanged together or burnt alive for taking up arms against the
repressive British rule. We need to re-run that great occurrence.
The
names of these sheroes[cii]
and sheroic deeds of them are as
follows. Asghari Begum, 45 years old, belonged to a well-to-do Syed family who
was burnt alive for organizing rebellion in the area in 1858.[ciii]
His two sons were also hanged by the British. Another revolutionary woman was,
28 years old, Asha Devi[civ],
who belonged to a Hindu Gujar family and was hanged in 1858. Another martyred
woman was 23 year old young Bhagwati Devi[cv],
born into a Tyagi family of farmers who fought in many battles against the Firangee rule and was hanged in 1858. 24
year old, Habeeba[cvi],
belonging to a Muslim Gujar family, fearlessly fought in many battles to
liberate neighbouring areas from the British
tyranny. She was a great organizer and mobilized her neighbourhood for the
liberation struggle. She was captured while resisting a British attack and was
executed on gallows in 1858.
Another
brave woman from this area named Mam Kaur[cvii]
belonged to a family of the shepherds and was hanged at the young age of 25
years in 1858. 26 years old, Umda[cviii]
was another gallant woman from this area, born into a Jat Muslim family who
sacrificed her life resisting the British invasion. Raj Kaur[cix]born
in 1833, hailed from a Rajput family and made the supreme sacrifice fighting
against the British in Thana Bhawan area only. Another brave woman hailing also
from a Jat family who laid down her life fighting against the British was Inder
Kaur[cx].
Bkhtawari[cxi]
born in 1819 was another brave woman from the region who laid down her life
fighting against the British rulers.
Shobha Devi born into a Brahmin family in 1832
was another organizer of the anti-British armed struggle in the area. Jamila[cxii]
born into a Pathan family in 1835 of the area took up arms against the foreign
rulers and was martyred in 1858. Three other revolutionary women from Thana
Bhavan who sacrificed their lives for liberation of India from the Company rule
in 1858 were, Rahimi[cxiii],
belonging to a Muslim Rajput family born in 1829, Bhagwani[cxiv]
born in 1831 hailing from a Brahmin family and Beebee. It is to be noted that
most of these revolutionary women were hanged in 1858 which shows that the
British that this area remained liberated till 1858.
How serious was rebellion mainly led by women
and the degree of resistance at Thana Bhavan can be understood by reading the
description about it in a British gazetteer which shared the information that
after hearing about the rebellion,
“The troops at once proceeded to Thana Bhawan
and attacked the town, but were repulsed with the loss of 17 killed and 21
wounded, and were obliged to retire upon Muzaffarnagar, which was again
threatened by marauders. On the arrival of reinforcements from Meerut, an
expedition was again led against Thana Bhawan which was evacuated by the enemy,
and the gates and walls were razed to the ground.”[cxv]
Women
warriors of Delhi
Delhi,
battle front too witnessed unbelievable sheroics of Indian women which was
beyond comprehension of the leading British commanders. Hodson in a letter to
his wife on August 8, 1857 informed her,
“I have sent one of our few prisoners up to
Forsyth [a senior British official] at Umbala [Ambala], whom we ironically call
the ‘Maid of Delhi’, though her age and character are questionable, and her
ugliness undoubted. She actually came out on horseback, and fought against us
like a fiend. The General at first released her, but knowing how mischievous
she would be among those superstitious Mahommedans, I persuaded him to let her
be recaptured, and made over for safe custody.”[cxvi]
Importantly, another leading commander of the
besieging British army outside Delhi, HH Greathed (who was killed by the
defending revolutionary army on September 19, 1857) in a letter to his wife
dated July 19, 1857 informed about another woman fighter being arrested outside
Delhi,
"A John of Arc [a young French lady who
played sheroic role against the besieging British army and was martyred in
1431] was made prisoner yesterday; she is said to have shot one of our men, and
to have fought desperately. She is a 'Jehadin,' a religious fanatic, and sports
a green turban, and was probably thought to be inspired. She is to be sent
prisoner to Umballa [Ambala]."[cxvii]
Mubarak
Shah a prominent stooge of the British who continued staying in Delhi during
the siege stated in his narrative of the Mutiny that there were two more such
daring women.
It is to
be noted that details of participation of women (or joint martyrdoms of
Hindus-Muslims-Sikhs and participation of common people) in the Great War of
liberation are based on whatever contemporary records have survived. Most of
the contemporary archival material has been lost due to the exigencies of
weather, personal collections not maintained or destroyed due to the political
upheavals. The official records too met the same fate in many-many cases.
Moreover, Partition of India caused bifurcation of these records and large
number of documents lost in transition.
We also
lost lots of documents due to the ‘theft’ of the documents by the departing
colonial masters. They took away all important archival material with them; the
proof being that all important documents of the period are stored at India
Office Library, London and thus remain generally inaccessible to researchers.
Those Indian researchers who can afford to visit have to buy their own
documents which are sold as per the size of the document.
Unfortunately,
even after independence we did not demand return of this treasure containing
records of our glorious resistance to the foreign rule from our former masters.
It is this paucity of documents that according to a renowned historian
Professor Nurul Hasan "prevents us from acknowledging here thousands of
other patriots whose name may remain unknown."
Women as balladeers of the War
Those
women who did not participate in the War directly produced amazing, popular,
inspiring, great folk-songs hailing the revolutionaries and decrying the
foreign rulers [author has reservation about calling these songs as ‘folk-songs’
which as per the dictionary definitions and usage mean created by the
commoners, written in regional languages/dialects which do not represent the
mainstream. It is the outcome of our hatred towards common people, the
languages/dialect they use, specially, women who have traditionally been
composers and singers of such songs. In fact, during the War these were the
mainstream songs which inspired millions of revolutionaries and kept the whole
nation engrossed in the cause of liberation].
Such
songs and ballads were composed, set to tunes and sung mainly by women in every
regional languages and dialects. Sadly, most of these have been lost as, except
connoisseurs and historian like PC Joshi, independent India did nothing to save
this great heritage of joint-struggles and joint martyrdoms. Two of such songs
are reproduced in the following.
Oh, come and look!
Oh, come
and look!
In the
Bazaar of Meerut,
The
Firinghi [the British] is waylaid and beaten!
The
Whiteman is way laid and beaten!
In the
open Bazaar of Meerut,
Look, oh
look (he is beaten).
His gun
is snatched, His horse lies dead, His revolver is battered!
In the
open Bazaar,
He is
waylaid and beaten!
In the
Bazaar of Meerut,
Look, oh
look!
(Composed, sung by Gujar [a peasant community]
women in the Western Uttar Pradesh region after the victory of revolutionaries
in Meerut, Translated from the
regional dialect known as ‘desi bhasha’)[cxviii]
Ah my
little Devar [husband’s younger brother]!
The army has attacked the fort,
My Devar [husband’s younger brother] is facing
the screaming bullets,
One ‘Firangi’ [the British], my darling has
killed.
Two Firangis, my Devar has seized and thrown,
Inside the dungeon,
I reproached him and he was angered terribly.
There [on the otherside],
An order was given, And the Firangi armies,
Got ready and stormed the fort.
But see my Devar,
Still unperturbed,
Is fighting them as though it is mere play to
him.
Oh, dear sister,
Much, very much did I tell him,
But he does not listen,
Now even the shells are finished.
(But) He says, ‘I will not yield’,
And thus, he needs not,
Ah! My little Devar.
[A song sung by a sister-in-law translated from
Braj language of the Mathura-Agra region.][cxix]
(4) Conclusion: Shameless betrayal of the sacrifices and joint heritage
of India’s 1857 War of Independence by our independent India.
Now it is almost 170 years that people of this
country; men, women, children belonging to all religions, regions and strata
rose in revolt from Kashmir to Madras and Sylhet to the borders of Afghanistan.
Today if Indians have forgotten about this glorious saga of commitment and
sacrifices for the liberation of India can be forgiven in absence of the
contemporary narratives. But what independent India did to obliterate the
memories of this great War immediately after independence on August 15, 1947,
when only 90 years had elapsed to this great War, could only be described as
criminal.
It is true that we spent crores of rupees in
celebrating the 100th 150th anniversaries of the War but
did not bother to revive the common heritage of the joint martyrdoms of this
glorious struggle. Earlier, the first education minister of the independent
India, Abul Kalam Azad organized a team of renowned historians to compile the
list of pan-Indian martyrs of the War but it was abandoned. On the eve of 150th
anniversary Indian Council of Historical produced volumes with details of martyrs
which unfortunately not available now.
True, these were worthy deeds but the issue was
not only of chronicling the sacrifices but how to undo the injustice done to
the liberation warriors who not only lost their lives but all their properties
were confiscated and given to Indian stooges who helped the foreign rulers with
all kinds of human and non-human resources for suppressing the mutiny.
We cannot overlook the fact that Indians lost
this War despite mass upsurge and support. The perusal of the contemporary
documents makes it clear that it was due to the Indian stooges that we lost
this War. reasons are not difficult to find out. Kaye was forthright in his
conclusion that these were princes who helped the British in recapturing India
after 1857 revolt. According to him,
“It was one of the most curious characteristics
of the mutiny-war, that although the English were supposed to be fighting
against the native races, they were in reality sustained and supported by the
Natives of the country, and could not have held their own for a day without the
aid of those whom we hated as our national enemies.”
William Russell, war correspondent in one of
the dispatches (May 9, 1858) wrote that
“Our siege of Delhi, would have been quite
impossible, if the rajahs [sic] of Patiala and of Jhind (now known as Jind in Haryana)
had not been our friends, and if the Sikhs had not recruited (in) our
battalions, and remained quite in Punjab. The Sikhs at Lucknow did good
service…as our armies were attended and strengthened by them in the field”
It is to be noted here that when Russell
referred to Sikhs, it did not mean common Sikhs but the Sikh rulers of Punjab.
Moreover, these were not the only rulers who came to sub-serve the
interest of the British masters
when the latter were
on the verge of losing
India. The rulers of Kashmir,
Hyderabd, Gwalior, Nabha, Kapurthala,
Udaipur, Jaipur, Alwar, Kotah, Bhopal,
Pataudi and hundreds others joined the bandwagon
of the British imperialism in the War.
Sir Charles Aitchison, who played a leading
role in suppressing ‘Mutiny’ not only hailed the crucial contribution of such
stooge princes in winning India in the following words:
“The Native States rendered priceless service
in the day of our distress…Speaking in the fullness of his gratitude, Lord
Canning [the Governor General] described them as ‘breakwaters to the storm,
which would otherwise have swept over us in one great wave.’ ‘The safety of our
rule is increased,’ he wrote, ‘not diminished, by the maintenance of Native
Chiefs well affected to us…And should the day come when India shall be
threatened by an external enemy, or when the interests of England elsewhere may
require that her Eastern Empire shall incur more than ordinary risk, one of our
best mainstays will be found in these Native States.’”
The post-1857 era witnessed an India in which
only those princely states survived which either had worked as the stooges of
the colonial masters in this War or were pardoned by the British. Those entire
nationalists who challenged the foreign rule were ruthlessly suppressed. Most of them died fighting
or were hanged; their families banished and their estates confiscated
and handed over to the loyal princes.
On the eve of independence the first decision
which independent India’s sovereign government should have taken must have been
to return the properties of the families of the martyrs which were confiscated
and given as rewards to the Indian stooges. The whole nation knows how the descendants
of these revolutionaries including those belonging to princely families lived
life of penury, hunger and died miserable deaths. Out of
thousands, here are few examples of gross and criminal injustice which needed
immediate redressal but we kept mum as a State and nation.
According to the contemporary British
gazetteers the estates of Raja of Gonda and Rani of Tulsipur,
“were confiscated and conferred as rewards upon
Maharaja Drigbijai Singh of Balrampur and Sir Man Singh of Ajodhya”.
Scindhia
of Gwalior who helped the British greatly in defeating Rani Laxmi Bai and Nana
and their killings, as per the contemporary British gazetteer
“For his services in the mutiny lands worth 3
lakhs a year revenue were made over to him, while he was allowed to increase
his infantry from 3,000 to 5,000 men and his artillery from 32 to 36
guns."
We come to know again through a contemporary
British gazetteer that,
"Wazir
Muhammad Khan, who, during the Mutiny, repulsed with comparatively few men an
attack made on the Tonk fort by the combined forces of Nawab of Banda and
Tantia Topi [sic]. For these
services, his salute was raised from 15 to 17 guns…"
Ruler of Patiala who as an ally of the British
played a prominent role in crushing
rebellion in Haryana, Delhi, Oudh received huge ‘inaam’,
"After
1857 Narendra Singh’s splendid services were rewarded with the gift of
sovereign rights in the Narnaul division of the forfeited State of the Jhajjar
Nawab, assessed at a revenue of two lakhs on condition of political and
military support in times of general danger or disturbance. He was also
permitted to purchase the Kanaud pargana of Jhajjar and the taluka of
Khamaon in perpetual sovereignty in liquidation of loans advanced to the
British Government during the Mutiny. In addition, the Maharaja was granted
administrative jurisdiction over Bhadaur, and the right of escheats and
reversion to lapsed estates therein, receiving the annual sum of Rs. 5,265,
previously paid into the Imperial treasury by the Bhadaur Sardars. Narendra
Singh was made a K.C.S.I., in 1861…”
Likewise,
Raja Randhir Singh of Kapurthala State who helped the British to crush
rebellion in Delhi and Oudh
“was rewarded
with a grant of the two confiscated estates of Bundi and Bithauli, in the
Bharaich and Bara Banki districts in Oudh, yielding a rental of Rs. 4,35,000.
His brother, Kunwar Bikrama Singh, who had accompanied the Raja to Oudh, was
given a portion of the Akauna estate in Bharaich, yielding Rs. 45,000 a year.
The Raja of Kapurthala stood fifth in order of precedence among the chiefs of
the Punjab. He was entitled to a salute of eleven guns, and to receive a return
visit from the Viceroy.”
The
Pataudi family too was rewarded for services rendered during the mutiny.
"He [nawab of Pataudi] also took an active
part in the suppression of a rising in the Bahora pargana of Gurgaon, organized
by one Tula Ram, grandson of Rao Tej Singh of Rewari; and his troops were
present on the side of order at the action outside Jaurasi, which lasted for
two days… Pataudi ranks seventeenth in order of precedence amongst the Native
States of the Punjab, and the chief is entitled to be received by the
Viceroy."
The
British rulers were grateful to Jodhpur Raja when stated:
"The
Maharaja [Takht Singh of Jodhpur] did good service during the Mutiny. He was
entitled for a salute of 17 guns. Takht Singh died in 1873, when he was
succeeded by eldest son, Jaswant Singh…He was created a GCSI in 1875 and
subsequently his salute was raised first to 19, and next to 21 guns."
The Pawayan [in Shahjahanpur] was ruled by a notorious
British stooge, Raja Jagannath Singh when 1857 happened. In a
gut-wrenching treachery he invited the leading commander of the rebellion
Maulvi Ahmedullah Shah posing as supporter of the War. However, when Maulvi
reached his palace in the evening he was beheaded by Jagannath’s brother Baldeo
Singh. The British had announced a prize of 50 thousand pieces of silver for
beheading the Maulvi. He presented Maulvi’s severed head same night to the
British commander of the area and received cash ‘inaam’ as reward. In his
absence the rebel forces including under the command of Nana and Hazrat Mahal
lost important battle and revolutionary rule in Rohilkhand came to an end. The
decadents of this criminal family became legislators, ministers both at the
Stat and central levels. This is how we paid homage to 1857 martyrs!
Apart
from these stooges, rulers of Dhar, Ratlam, Jaipur, Jammu, Rewa, Rampur and
hundreds other were rewarded for suppressing the mutiny. It must be noted that
in 20th century most of these pro-British native rulers became
patrons and financiers of communal-fascist organizations like Hindu Mahasabha,
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Muslim League. They provided sanctuaries to
these anti-national organizations. Many-many of these kept on ruling free India;
we saw the spectacle of the family members of the stooges enjoying power as
chief ministers, ministers, Governors in an independent India. They continued
enjoying the benefits of estates which were confiscated from the rebels and
awarded to their families by the British.
By
forgetting the heritage of the War 1857; the heritage of religious unity and
unity of all the struggling masses against loot and imperialism. The ruling
classes let the polity slip down to the present sorry state of affairs when
India is devastated by the forces of religious bigotry, intolerance, Casteism
and ruthlessness.
How heartless was independent India that we
even did not try to locate the final resting places of heroes and sheroes of
the War of 1857 like, Rani of Tulsipur, Zeenat Mahal, Azeemullah Khan, Nana Saheb,
General Bakht Khan and many of their comrades who died in Nepal.
Shamsul Islam
August 03, 2023
Link for
some of S. Islam's writings in English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam,
Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and video interviews/debates:
http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332
Twitter:
@shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com
REFERENCES
[i] For the
whole text see Husain, Iqbal (ed.), Proclamations
of the Rebels of 1857, ICHR, Delhi, p. 28.
[ii] Lal,
Kanhaya, Tareekh-e-Bhaghawat-e-Hind:Moharba-e-Azeem
[History of Indian Mutiny: A Great War], Munshi Nawal Kishore Press, Awadh,
1889 and Khan, Syed Ahmad (Sir Syed), The
Causes of the Indian Revolt, Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library, Patna,
1999 reprint [first edition 1859.
[iii] Lal, Kanhaya (Pandit), Tarikh
Baghawat-e-Hind : Mohareba-e-Azeem, Matba Munshi Naval Kishore, Avadh,
1889, pp. 350-351.
[iv] Ibid., p. 368.
[v] Ibid.,
pp. 368-369.
[vi] Chopra,
PN (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs: 1857, vol. 3, Government of
India, 1973, p. 148. It is the most authentic narrative of the 1857 martyrs as
data was collected from police, administrative records and the British
gazetteers. It is to be noted as admitted in the preface by Professor Nurul
Hasan that loss and non-availability of records "prevents us from
acknowledging here thousands of other patriots whose name may remain
unknown."
I have also consulted the contemporary British
records and narratives for sharing details of martyrs.
The record of the martyrs of India’s First War
of Independence is also available in 5 volume series (2 volumes in two parts)
commissioned by Indian Council of Historical Research, Delhi titled Dictionary of
Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle (1857-1947), vol.
ii (part 2),ICHR, Delhi, 2010. Its circulation was stopped for unknown reasons
recently.
[vii]
Kaye, A History of the Sepoy War in India (in three volumes).
[viii] Kaye,
John William, A History of the Sepoy War in India 1857-1858, vol. iii,
London, 1870, Preface p. vi.
[ix] Ball, Charles, The History of the Indian Mutiny,
vol. ii, The London Printing & Publishing Co, 1858.
[x] Hodson,
George E (ed.), Twelve Years of a
Soldier's Life in India: Being Extracts from the Letters of the Late Major WSR
Hodson (BA Trinity College; First Bengal European Fusiliers, Commandant of
Hodson's Horses) Including a Personal
Narrative of the Siege of Delhi and Capture of Delhi and Capture of the King
and Princes, John W. Parker, London, 1859, p. 246.
[xi] Hodson. p. 240.
[xii]
Russell, William Howard, My Diary in
India:In the Year 1858-9, vol. i, Routledge, Warner & Routledge,
London, 1860, p. 164.
[xiii] Lowe, pp. 357-358.
[xiv] Lowe, p. 327.
[xv] Lowe, p. 59.
[xvi] Lowe, p. 57.
[xvii] Hodson. p. 196.
[xviii] Kaye, vol. ii, pp. 630.
[xix] Kaye, vol. ii, p. 631.
[xx] Fred, p. 56.
[xxi] Fred, p. 75.
[xxii]
Trevelyan, GO, Cawnpore, Macmillan,
London, 1866, pp. 34.
[xxiii] Trevelyan, GO, Cawnpore, Macmillan, London, 1866, pp. 34-35.
[xxiv] Kaye, A History of the Great Revolt, vol. i,
p. 246.
[xxv] Hodson,
p. 243.
[xxvi] Chopra, PN, pp. 1,30,39,43,55,81-82.
[xxvii] Kaye,
John William, A History of the Sepoy War in India 1857-1858, vol. iii,
London, 1870, pp. 592-593.
[xxviii] Kaye,
John William, A History of the Sepoy War in India 1857-1858, vol. iii,
London, 1870, pp. 610-611.
[xxix] Hodson.
p. 201.
[xxx] Hodson,
p. 205.]
[xxxi] Hodson.
pp. 219-220.
[xxxii]
Griffiths, Charles John, A Narrative of
the Siege of Delhi with an account of the Mutiny at Ferozepore in 1857,
John Murray, London, 1910, p. 159.
[xxxiii] For
Oudh multiple spellings have been used like Oude, Awadh as mentioned in the
contemporary narratives.
[xxxiv] Husain,
Iqbal (ed.), Proclamations of the Rebels
of 1857, ICHR, Delhi.]
[xxxv] Iqbal,
Rashida (ed.), Unsung Heroes of Freedom
Struggle in Andamans: Who’s Who, Andaman & Nicobar Administration, Port
Blair, 2004.
[xxxvi] In this
national war of independence people of other religions also participated as we
find Jains, Buddhists and even Christians too laying down their lives but
contemporary documents refer to the followers of only these 3 religions.
[xxxvii] Cited
in Pande, BN, The Hindu Muslim Problem, Gandhi Smriti & Darshan
Samiti, Delhi, p. vi.
[xxxviii] John
Lawrence note dated August 18, 1857 cited in Khan, Syed Ahmad (Sir Syed), Sarkashee-e-Zila Bijnore, Nadwatul
Mussanefeen, Delhi, 1964 [first edition published by Mufussilite Press, Agra,
1858], p. 339.
[xxxix] Chopra,
PN (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs: 1857, vol. 3, Government of
India, 1973, p. 9. It is the most authentic narrative of the 1857 martyrs as
data was collected from police, administrative records and the British
gazetteers. It is to be noted as admitted in the preface by Professor Nurul Hasan
that loss and non-availability of records "prevents us from acknowledging
here thousands of other patriots whose name may remain unknown."
I have also consulted the contemporary British
records and narratives for sharing details of martyrs.
The record of the martyrs of India’s First War
of Independence is also available in 5 volume series (2 volumes in two parts)
commissioned by Indian Council of Historical Research, Delhi titled Dictionary of
Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle (1857-1947), vol.
ii (part 2),ICHR, Delhi, 2010. Its circulation was stopped for unknown reasons
recently.
[xl] Ibid.,
p.120.
[xli] Ibid.,
p.3.
[xlii] Ibid.,
p. 139.
[xliii] Ibid.,
p.34.
[xliv] Ibid.,
pp. 62-63.
[xlv] Ibid.,
pp. 62-63.
[xlvi] Ibid.,
p p. 56-57.
[xlvii] Ibid.,
p. 102.
[xlviii] Ibid.,
p. 40.
[xlix] Ibid.,
81.
[l] Ibid.,
45.
[li] Ibid.,
75.
[lii] Chopra,
PN (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs: 1857, vol. 3, Government of
India, 1973, p. 102.
[liii] Ibid.,
143-144.
[liv] Ibid.,
125. The British were not able to arrest him till 1862 when due to the
treachery of a Maratha landlord was arrested at Jammu (Kashmir) with his wife
and a child. He was hanged at Kanpur on August 20, 1862.
[lv] Ibid.,
41.
[lvi] Ibid.,
41-42.
[lvii] Ibid.,
73-74.
[lviii] Ibid.,
76.
[lix] Chopra,
PN (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs: 1857, vol. 3, Government of
India, 1973, p. 11.
[lx] Ibid.,
p. 11.
[lxi] Ibid.,
p. 21.
[lxii] Ibid.,
p. 49.
[lxiii] Ibid.,
p. 87..
[lxiv] Ibid.,
p. 149
[lxv] Ibid.,
p. 118.
[lxvi] Ibid.,
p. 60.
[lxvii] Ibid.,
p. 16.
[lxviii] Ibid.,
pp. 64-65.
[lxix] Ibid.,
p. 118.
[lxx] Ibid.,
pp. 20-21.
[lxxi] Ibid.,
17. According to the British military reports he was martyred while leading a
revolutionary army contingent on Nepal borders on May 13, 1859.
[lxxii] Ibid.,
13. Escaped from India into Nepal forests with Nana Saheb, died at Bhutwal
(Nepal) in October 1859.
[lxxiii] The
names of these commanders keep on recurring in the letters of spies who were
sending day-to-day reports to the British commanders at the Ridge where Hindu
Rao Hospital stands presently. According to these spies there was 'fauji kote'
or war council consisting of the above commanders. For these letters see,
Islam, Shamsul (ed.) Letters of Spies: How Delhi was Lost, Pharos,
Delhi, 2019.
[lxxiv] From
the letter of spy Ramji Das Alipur, Ibid., p. 63.
[lxxv]
Metcalf, Charles Theophilus, Two Narratives of the Mutiny of Delhi, A
Constable & Company, London, 1898, pp. 125-126.
[lxxvi]
Appeared in Urdu newspaper Pyam-e-Azadi [Message of Independence],
Delhi, May 13, 1857.
[lxxvii]
Russell, William Howard, My Diary in India, in the Year 1858-9, vol. i,
Routledge, London, 1860, p. 244.
[lxxviii] Lowe,
Thomas, Central India: During the
Rebellion of 1857 and 1858: A Narrative of Operations of the British Forces
from the Suppression of Mutiny in Aurangabad to the Capture of Gwalior Under
Major General Sir Hugh Rose, GCB, and
Brigadier Sir C. Stuart, KCB, Longman, London, 1860, p. 324.
[lxxix]
Roberts, Fred, Letters Written During the Mutiny, Macmillan, London,
1924, pp. 103-104.
[lxxx] Chopra,
PC (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs:
1857, p. 81.
[lxxxi]
According to the dictionary, word ‘hero’ means a “man who exhibits great
bravery” which is not gender neutral and conveys the faulty wisdom that only
man can be brave. The author is using the term ‘shero/sheroes
for female participants in the liberation War and sheroic for their deeds.
[lxxxii]
[Chaturvedi, DN, (tr. & ed.), Remember
Us Once in a While, Publication Division (GOI), Delhi, 1998, p. 2.]
[lxxxiii] Ibid.,
p. 3.
[lxxxiv] cited
in Joshi, PC, 1857 in Folk Songs,
PPH, Delhi, 1994, p. 46.
[lxxxv] cited
in Joshi, PC, 1857 in Folk Songs,
PPH, Delhi, 1994, p. 50.
[lxxxvi] Lowe,
p. 236.
[lxxxvii] [Foreign
Political Consultations, No. 4293, December 31, 1858. Cited in Surendranath
Sen, 1857, Government of India,
Delhi, 1957, p. 293.
[lxxxviii] [Chopra, p. 102.
[lxxxix] DICTIONARY OF MARTYRS: INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE
(1857-1947), vol. 2 (part ii), Delhi, 2010, p. 97.
[xc] Chopra, PC (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs: 1857, pp. 11.
[xci] Chopra, PC (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs: 1857, pp. 11.
[xcii]
District Mandla Gazetteer (1912) cited in Mishr, Suresh, Mandla ke Dastavez, Swaraj Sansthan, Bhopal, 2004, p. 15.
[xciii] Chopra,
PC (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs:
1857, pp. 54-55.
[xciv]
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/nepal-sun-shines-on-begum-hazrat-mahals-grave/articleshow/58074241.cms
[xcv]
Russell, William Howard, My Diary in
India, vol. 1, Routledge, Warner & Routledge, London, 1860, pp. 274-75.
[xcvi] Ibid.,
p. 275.
[xcvii]
Forbes-Mitchell, William, Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny 18576-59
Including the Relief, Siege & Capture of Lucknow& the Campaign in
Rohilcund & Oude, Macmillan,
London, 1897, p. 57.
[xcviii]
Forbes-Mitchell, William, p. 58.
[xcix] Imperial
Gazetteer of India, vol. xii, Oxford, London, 1908, p. 313.
[c] Mutiny Records, Kanpur Division, Mutiny Basta,
UPRRA; WWIM, III, p. 86.
[ci] Mutiny Papers, vol. ii, NAIB; WWIM, iii, pp.
141-142 cited in Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle
(1857-1947), vol.
ii (part 2), ICHR, Delhi, 2010, p. 345.
[cii]
According to the dictionary word ‘hero’ means a “man who exhibits great
bravery” which is not gender neutral and conveys the faulty wisdom that only
man can be brave. The author is using the term ‘shero/sheroes’
for female participants in the liberation War and sheroic for their deeds.
[ciii] Chopra,
PN (ed.), Who is Who of Indian Martyrs: 1857, vol. 3, Government of
India, 1973, p. 11.
[civ] Ibid.,
p. 11.
[cv] Ibid.,
p. 21.
[cvi] Ibid.,
p. 49.
[cvii] Ibid.,
p. 87..
[cviii] Ibid.,
p. 149
[cix] Ibid.,
p. 118.
[cx] Ibid.,
p. 60.
[cxi] Ibid.,
p. 16.
[cxii] Ibid.,
pp. 64-65.
[cxiii] Ibid.,
p. 118.
[cxiv] Ibid.,
pp. 20-21.
[cxv] Imperial
Gazetteer of India, v. 18, p. 86.
[cxvi] Hodson.
p. 259.]
[cxvii]
Greathed, HH, Letters Written During the
Siege of Delhi (edited by his widow), Longman, London, 1858, p. 130.
[cxviii] Joshi,
P. C. (compiled), 1857 in Folk Songs,
People’s Publishing House, Delhi, 1994, p. 9.
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