Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Nana Sahib
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nana Sahib (Dhondu Pant by birth) was a Indian leader during the Rebellion of 1857. He is notable for ordering the massacre of over a hundred British women and children who were his prisoners and then fleeing across the border to Nepal.
Nana Sahib was born in 1824 to Narayan Bhatt and Ganga Bai. In 1827, he was adopted by the Peshwe Baji Rao II. Through his adoption, he was heir-presumptive to the throne. However, after the death of Baji Rao II in 1851, the East India Company stopped the pension on the grounds that Nana Sahib was only an adopted son. Being the Peshwa, he was highly offended. He had sent an ambassador from his side to England to discuss this issue, but was unable to convince the East India Company.
He had an active part in the Rebellion of 1857, that was referred to as the First War of Independence by Indians and Sepoy Mutiny by the East India Company. His English-educated right hand man was a Muslim named Azimullah Khan, who was very instrumental in advising the Nana Sahib.
Sahib's general, Tantya Tope, fought in many battles during the conflict and led Nana Sahib's troops during the siege of Kanpur (Cawnpore).
Initially, Nana Sahib had promised to assist the British trapped there, but quickly joined the rebelling sepoys. After a brutal siege Nana Sahib offered the British an ultimatum; surrender and be allowed to leave peacefully or be slaughtered when his troops stormed the garrison. The weakened British agreed and withdrew towards the boats supplied by the Nana. Regardless who fired first, the retreat was a trap and the Nana ordered his troops to fire on the British with musket and with canon. The survivors were then rounded up; the men being shot and the women and children stuffed into a small building.
After it became obvious that the British would retake Kanpur, the Nana ruthlessly ordered the murder of all the women and children in the hope that this would influence the British to abandon their march. The plan failed and as a result, Nana Sahib fled into hiding.
Under the leadership of General Havelock the British were able to overthrow the rebels and recaptured Kanpur. The last serious engagement recorded by the British was on 16 July, 1858. Nana Sahib was defeated. By 1859 He had fled to Nepal and was never heard from again. Though there were rumours and reports that he had been captured, most of them turned out to be untrue. In fact his escape and survival soon turned out to be the source of legends with the novels by Jules Verne, Demons of Cawnpore and The Steam House, portraying Nana Sahib as one of the important characters.
This biography of a member of an Indian royal house is a stub. See the WikiProject India for article coordination. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.