NDTV.com

NDTV.com

Rani of Jhansi 1857 remembered

Rajesh Ramachandran
Tuesday, May 8, 2007 (Jhansi)
On the 150th anniversary of the Great Revolt of 1857, we focus on the role of the great Rani of the Revolt - Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi.The image, real or imagined, of Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi taking on the British is probably the nation's most enduring memory of the Great Revolt of 1857.While the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar meekly surrendered to the British, the last Peshwa Nana Sahib disappeared and most other leaders of the Revolt had an inglorious end, Lakshmi Bai a was the only leader who fell fighting the British.And that could be why she has a special place in the Indian imagination of 1857.It is her presence and that of other princes that makes the 1857 Revolt more than a mutiny of the Company's mercenary sepoys.By 1857, Jhansi had been annexed by the British after Lakshmi Bai's husband and son had died and the East India Company refused to accept her adopted son Damodar.But she patiently petitioned the Company till the Company's sepoys rebelled without her leadership.They captured the fort, and at Johan Bagh, the Rani's army chief, Rasaldar Kala Khan, ordered the massacre of British prisoners of war.However, she joined the battle against the British only when they attacked her almost a year later to re-conquer Jhansi in March 1858.A blood-soaked battle raged for over a week; local men and women fought for the Rani, but could not hold out.Soon, the Rani was forced to flee the fort with Damodar on her back, leaving behind a ghost town of 5000 dead men, women and children.She then joined forces with Tatia Tope, the General of Peshwa Nana Saheb's army who was camping at Kalpi between Jhansi and Kanpur along with Nana's nephew Rao Saheb.And although they lost the battle at Kalpi, Tatia, a great organizer, decided to march to Gwalior banking on his Maratha ties and the nobility there for support.But Scindia wasn't keen to join the rebels. After Tatia Tope and Rani Laxmi Bai defeated him, he fled to the British in Agra, and the rebels enthroned Rao Saheb the king of Gwalior.Two weeks later, the British marched to reclaim Gwalior for the Scindia.On June 18, 1858, the Rani of the great Revolt led her troops thorough this gate to meet Major-General Huge Rose. It is there that she was shot from the back.As she turned and fired at her attacker, he ran a sword through her.Her companions quickly made a pyre and cremated her to prevent her body from being defiled by the enemy.Rani Laxmi Bai may not have been a battle-hardened general, but her valour, recorded by her enemies, gave her immortality - even exaggerated importance.The legend took root years later when Subhash Chandra Bose set up a contingent of women fighters for his Indian National Army, calling it the Rani of Jhansi brigade.