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Tatya Tope | |
---|---|
General of the Peshwa's army | |
In office 1856 – 6 December 1857 | |
Succeeded by | Rao Sahib |
Personal details | |
Born | Ramchandra Panduranga Yewalkar 16 February 1814 Yeola,Nasik,Maratha Confederacy (present-day Nashik district,Maharashtra,India) |
Died | 18 April 1859 (aged 45) Sipri,Gwalior State,British India (present-day Shivpuri district,Madhya Pradesh,India) |
Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
Tantia Tope (also spelled Tatya Tope, [a] Marathi pronunciation:[t̪aːt̪ʲa ʈoːpe];16 February 1814 —18 April 1859) was a notable commander in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. [1]
Born as Ramachandra Panduranga Yewalkar to a Marathi Deshastha Brahmin [2] [1] family,in Yeola,(near Nasik). A personal adherent of Nana Saheb of Bithoor,he progressed with the Gwalior contingent after the British reoccupied Kanpur (then known as Cawnpore) and forced General Windham to retreat from the city. Later on,Tantia Tope came to the relief of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and with her seized the city of Gwalior. However,he was defeated by General Napier's British Indian troops at Ranod and after a further defeat at Sikar,he abandoned the campaign. [3]
According to an official statement,Tantia Tope's father was Panduranga Yewalkar and his mother was Rukhma Bai. [4] Tope was a Maraṭha Vashista Brahman by birth. [4] In a government letter,he was said to be the minister of Baroda,while he was held identical to Nana Saheb in another communication. [4] A witness at his trial described Tantia Tope as "a man of middling stature,with a wheat complexion and always wearing a white chukri-dar turban".
Tope was executed by the British Government at Sipri (now Shivpuri) on 18 April 1859.
After the rebellion in Cawnpore (Kanpur) broke out on 5 June 1857,Nana Saheb became the leader of the freedom fighters. When the British forces at Cawnpore surrendered on 25 /June 1857,Nana was declared Peshwa in late June. [5] After a defeat,Nana's troops had to withdraw to Bithur,after which Havelock crossed the Ganges and retreated to Awadh. [5] Tantia Tope began to act in Nana Saheb's name from Bithur.
Tantia Tope was one of the leaders of the massacre of Cawnpore,which occurred on 27 June 1857. Afterwards,Tope held a good defensive position until he was driven out by the British force on 16 July 1857. Afterward,he was defeated by General Cyrill in the Second Battle of Cawnpore,which started on 19 November 1857 and continued for seventeen days. Tope and his army were defeated when the British counterattacked under Sir Colin Campbell. [6] Tope and other rebels fled the scene and had to take shelter with the Rani of Jhansi,while aiding her as well.
Later on Tantia and Rao Saheb,after assisting Jhansi during the British assault successfully helped Rani Lakshmibai escape the attack. [7] Together with Rani Lakshmibai,they took control of Gwalior Fort declaring Hindavi Swaraj (Free Kingdom) under the name of Nana Saheb Peshwa from Gwalior. After losing Gwalior to the British,Tope and Rao Saheb,nephew of Nana Saheb,fled to Rajputana (present-day Rajasthan). He was able to induce the army of Tonk to join him.
Even after the Revolt of 1857 was put down by the British,Tantia Tope continued resistance as a guerrilla fighter in the jungles. [8] He also defeated Ratan Singh in Siege of Charkhari. He induced the state forces to rebel against the Raja and was able to replace the artillery he had lost at the Banas River. Tope then took his forces towards Indore,but was pursued by the British,now commanded by General John Michel as he fled towards Sironj. Tope,accompanied by Rao Saheb,decided to divide their combined forces so that he could make his way to Chanderi with a bigger force,and Rao Saheb,on the other hand,with a smaller force to Jhansi. However,they combined again in October and suffered yet another defeat at Chhota Udaipur.
By January 1859,they arrived to the state of Jaipur and experienced two more defeats. At this point,he met Man Singh,Raja of Narwar,and his household and decided to stay at his court. Man Singh was in dispute with the Maharaja of Gwalior while the British were successful in negotiating with him to hand Tope to them in return for his life and protection of his family from any reprisals by the Maharaja. After this event,Tope was handed to the British and left to face his fate. [9] The British army brought him to Shivpuri.
Tantia Tope admitted the charges brought before him,but noted that he might be held accountable only before his master,the Peshwa. He was executed on 18 April 1859 at Sipri. [1] Every year State Government and locals pay tribute to Tatya Tope on this day and organised Shaheed Mela.
Lakshmibai Newalkar, the Rani of Jhansi or Jhansi ki Rani widely known as Rani Lakshmibai, was the Maharani consort of the princely state of Jhansi in the Maratha Empire from 1843 to 1853 by marriage to Maharaja Gangadhar Rao Newalkar. She was one of the leading figures in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, who became a national hero and symbol of resistance to the British rule in India for Indian nationalists.
Nana Saheb Peshwa II, born Dhondu Pant, was an Indian aristocrat and fighter who led the Siege of Cawnpore (Kanpur) during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the East India Company. As the adopted son of the exiled Maratha Peshwa, Baji Rao II, Nana Saheb believed he was entitled to a pension from the Company. However, after being denied recognition under Lord Dalhousie's doctrine of lapse, he initiated a rebellion. He forced the British garrison in Kanpur to surrender and subsequently ordered the killing of the survivors, briefly gaining control of the city. After the British recaptured Kanpur, Nana Saheb disappeared, and conflicting accounts surround his later life and death.
Events in the year 1857 in India.
Shivpuri earlier known as Sipri, is a city and a municipality in Shivpuri district, located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is in the Gwalior Division of northwest Madhya Pradesh and is the administrative headquarters of Shivpuri District. It is situated at an altitude of 1,515 feet (462 m) above sea level.
The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore were duped into a false assurance of a safe passage to Allahabad by the rebel forces under Nana Sahib. Their evacuation from Cawnpore thus turned into a massacre, and most of the men were killed and women and children taken to a nearby dwelling known as Bibi Ghar. As an East India Company rescue force from Allahabad approached Cawnpore, 120 British women and children captured by the rebels were butchered in what came to be known as the Bibi Ghar massacre, their remains then thrown down a nearby well. Following the recapture of Cawnpore and the discovery of the massacre, the angry Company forces engaged in widespread retaliation against captured rebel soldiers and local civilians. The murders greatly enraged the British rank-and-file against the sepoy rebels and inspired the war cry "Remember Cawnpore!".
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Bithoor or Bithur is a town in Kanpur district, 23.4 kilometres (14.5 mi) by road north of the centre of Kanpur city, in Uttar Pradesh, India. Bithoor is situated on the right bank of the River Ganges, and is a centre of Hindu pilgrimage. Bithoor is also the centre for War of Independence of 1857 as Nana Sahib, a popular freedom fighter who was based there. The city is enlisted as a municipality of Kanpur metropolitan area.
The Second Battle of Cawnpore was a battle of Indian Rebellion of 1857 that was decisive by thwarting the rebels' last chance to regain the initiative and to recapture the cities of Cawnpore and Lucknow.
The Central India Campaign was one of the last series of actions in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The British Army and Bombay Army overcame a disunited collection of states in a single rapid campaign, although determined rebels continued a guerrilla campaign until the spring of 1859.
Events in the year 1858 in India. Act of Parliament 1858
Jhansi Fort or Jhansi ka Qila is a fortress situated on a large hilltop called Bangira, in Uttar Pradesh. It served as a stronghold of the Karhade Brahmin Kings in Balwant Nagar from the 11th through the 17th century.
Ek Veer Stree Ki Kahaani – Jhansi Ki Rani is an Indian historical drama based on the life of Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi. The series was directed by Jitendra Srivastava and written by Rajesh Saksham, Ila Dutta Bedi, Malavika Asthana, Mairaj Zaidi and Virendra Singh Patyal. It premiered on 18 August 2009 on Zee TV with Ulka Gupta playing young Queen Lakshmi Bai. On 8 June 2010, the story moved on several years and Kratika Sengar portrayed the Queen from there on. The last episode aired on 19 June 2011, completing 480 episodes. This show replaced Maayka serial time slot.
Nana Rao Park / Company Bagh is a public city park in Kanpur, the industrial hub of Uttar Pradesh, India, built after Indian independence in honor of Nana Sahib. Prior to Indian Independence the location was known as Memorial Well and commemorated the massacre of British women and children during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Jhansi was an independent princely state ruled by the Maratha Newalkar dynasty under suzerainty of British India from 1804 till 1853, when the British authorities took over the state under the terms of the Doctrine of Lapse, and renamed it the Jhansi State. Before the takeover, it was under the Peshwas from 1728 to 1804. The fortified town of Jhansi served as its capital.
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