654. Rani Lakshmi Bai ( 1828 - 1858)

Rani Lakshmibai (portrayed as a sowar)
Birth name	Manikarnika Tambe
Born	19 November 1828
Birthplace	Varanasi, India
Died	17 June 1858 (aged 29)
Place of death	Gwalior, India
Predecessor	Rani Rama Bai
Successor	British Raj
Consort to	Jhansi Naresh Maharaj Gangadhar Rao Newalkar
Issue	Damodar Rao, Anand Rao (adopted)
Royal house	Maratha Empire

Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi  (19 November 1828 – 17 June 1858; was the queen of the Maratha-ruled princely state of Jhansi, situated in the north-central part of India. She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and for Indian nationalists a symbol of resistance to the rule of the British East India Company in the subcontinent.

Biography

Lakshmibai was born probably on 19 November 1828 in the holy town of Varanasi into a Kshatriya Maratha family. She was named Manikarnika and was nicknamed Manu. Her father was Moropant Tambe and her mother Bhagirathi Sapre (Bhagirathi Bai). Her parents came from Maharashtra. Her mother died when she was four. Her father worked for a court Peshwa of Bithoor district who brought Manikarnika up like his own daughter The Peshwa called her "Chhabili", which means "playful". She was educated at home and was more independent in her childhood than others of her age; her studies included archery, horsemanship, and self-defence.

Manikarnika was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Raja Gangadhar Rao, in 1842, and was afterwards called Lakshmibai (or Laxmibai). She gave birth to a boy, later named Damodar Rao, in 1851, who died when four months old. The Maharaja adopted a child called Anand Rao, the son of Gangadhar Rao's cousin, who was renamed Damodar Rao, on the day before the Maharaja died. The adoption was in the presence of the British political officer who was given a letter from the Maharaja instructing that the child be treated with respect and that the government of Jhansi should be given to his widow for her lifetime. After the death of the Maharaja in November 1853, because Damodar Rao was adopted, the British East India Company, under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, applied the Doctrine of Lapse, rejecting Damodar Rao's claim to the throne and annexing the state to its territories. In March 1854, Lakshmibai was given a pension of Rs. 60,000 and ordered to leave the palace and the fort.

Rani Lakshmibai was accustomed to ride on horseback accompanied by a small escort between the palace and the temple though sometimes she was carried by palanquin. Her horses included Sarangi, Pavan and Badal; according to tradition she rode Badal when escaping from the fort in 1858. The Rani Mahal, the palace of Rani Lakshmibai, has now been converted into a museum. It houses a collection of archaeological remains of the period between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.

According to a memoir purporting to be by Damodar Rao he was among his mother's troops and household at the battle of Gwalior; together with others who had survived the battle (some 60 retainers with 60 camels and 22 horses) he fled from the camp of Rao Sahib of Bithur and as the village people of Bundelkhand dared not aid them for fear of reprisals from the British they were forced to live in the forest and suffer many privations. After two years there were about 12 survivors and these together with another group of 24 they encountered sought the city of Jhalrapatan where there were yet more refugees from Jhansi. Damodar Rao surrendered himself to a British official and his memoir ends in May 1860 when he has been allowed a pension of Rs. 10,000, seven retainers only, and is in the guardianship of Munshi Dharmanarayan.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

May – July 1857

A rumour that the cartridges supplied by the East India Company to the soldiers in its army contained pork or beef fat began to spread throughout India in the early months of 1857.On 10 May 1857 the Indian Rebellion started in Meerut; when news of this reached Jhansi, the Rani asked the British political officer, Captain Alexander Skene, for permission to raise a body of armed men for her own protection and Skene agreed to this. The city was relatively calm in the midst of unrest in the region but the Rani conducted a Haldi Kumkumceremony with pomp in front of all the women of Jhansi to provide assurance to her subjects, and to convince them that the British were cowards and not to be afraid of them.

Till this point, Lakshmibai was reluctant to rebel against the British. In June 1857 a few men of the 12th Bengal Native Infantry seized the fort containing the treasure and magazine, and massacred the European officers of the garrison along with their wives and children. Her involvement in this massacre is still a subject of debate. An army doctor, Thomas Lowe, wrote after the rebellion characterising her as the "Jezebel of India ... the young rani upon whose head rested the blood of the slain". Four days after the massacre the sepoys left Jhansi having obtained a large sum of money from the Rani, and having threatened to blow up the palace where she lived. Following this as the only source of authority in the city the Rani felt obliged to assume the administration and wrote to Major Erskine, commissioner of the Saugor division explaining the events which had led her to do so. On 2 July Erskine wrote in reply that he requested her to "manage the District for the British Government" until the arrival of a British Superintendent. The Rani's forces defeated an attempt by the mutineers to assert the claim to the throne of a rival prince who was captured and imprisoned. There was then an invasion of Jhansi by the forces of Company allies Orchha and Datia; their intention however was to divide Jhansi between themselves. The Rani appealed to the British for aid but it was now believed by the governor-general that she was responsible for the massacre and no reply was received. She set up a foundry to cast cannon to be used on the walls of the fort and assembled forces including some from former feudatories of Jhansi and elements of the mutineers which were able to defeat the invaders in August 1857. Her intention at this time was still to hold Jhansi on behalf of the British.

August 1857 – June 1858

From August 1857 to January 1858 Jhansi under the rani's rule was at peace. The British had announced that troops would be sent there to maintain control but the fact that none arrived strengthened the position of a party of her advisers who wanted independence from British rule. When the British forces finally arrived in March they found it well defended and the fort had heavy guns which could fire over the town and nearby countryside. Sir Hugh Rose, commanding the British forces, demanded the surrender of the city; if this was refused it would be destroyed. After due deliberation the Rani issued a proclamation: "We fight for independence. In the words of Lord Krishna, we will if we are victorious, enjoy the fruits of victory, if defeated and killed on the field of battle, we shall surely earn eternal glory and salvation." She defended Jhansi against British troops when Sir Hugh Rose besieged Jhansi on 23 March 1858.

Jhansi Fort, 1882

The bombardment began on 24 March but was met by heavy return fire and the damaged defences were repaired. The defenders sent appeals for help to Tatya Tope; an army of more than 20,000, headed by Tatya Tope, was sent to relieve Jhansi but they failed to do so when they fought the British on 31 March. During the battle with Tatya Tope's forces part of the British forces continued the siege and by 2 April it was decided to launch an assault by a breach in the walls. Four columns assaulted the defences at different points and those attempting to scale the walls came under heavy fire. Two other columns had already entered the city and were approaching the palace together. Determined resistance was encountered in every street and in every room of the palace. Street fighting continued into the following day and no quarter was given, even to women and children. "No maudlin clemency was to mark the fall of the city" wrote Thomas Lowe. The Rani withdrew from the palace to the fort and after taking counsel decided that since resistance in the city was useless she must leave and join either Tatya Tope or Rao Sahib (Nana Sahib's nephew).

The place from where Rani Lakshmibai jumped on her horse, Badal

According to tradition with Damodar Rao on her back she jumped on her horse Badal from the fort; they survived but the horse died.^[31] The Rani escaped in the night with her son, surrounded by guards.^[32] The escort included the warriors Khuda Bakhsh Basharat Ali (commandant), Gulam Gaus Khan, Dost Khan, Lala Bhau Bakshi, Moti Bai, Sunder-Mundar, Kashi Bai, Deewan Raghunath Singh and Deewan Jawahar Singh. Along with all these warriors the local population of Jhansi irrespective of their religion or caste were always determined to fight and give their lives with pleasure for the cause of independence and their beloved Rani. She decamped to Kalpi with a few guards, where she joined additional rebel forces, including Tatya Tope. They occupied the town of Kalpi and prepared to defend it. On 22 May British forces attacked Kalpi; the Indian forces were commanded by the Rani herself and were again defeated. The leaders (the Rani of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, the Nawab of Banda, and Rao Sahib) fled once more. They came to Gwalior and joined the Indian forces who now held the city (Maharaja Scindia having fled to Agra from the battlefield at Morar). They moved on to Gwalior intending to occupy the strategic Gwalior Fort and the rebel forces occupied the city without opposition. The rebels proclaimed Nana Sahib as Peshwa of a revived Maratha dominion with Rao Sahib as his governor (subedar) in Gwalior. The Rani was unsuccessful in trying to persuade the other rebel leaders to prepare to defend Gwalior against a British attack which she expected would come soon. General Rose's forces took Morar on 16 June and then made a successful attack on the city.

On 17 June in Kotah-ki-Serai 26°12′44.26″N 78°10′24.76″E near the Phool Bagh of Gwalior, a squadron of the 8th (King's Royal Irish) Hussars, under Captain Heneage, fought the large Indian force commanded by Rani Lakshmibai which was trying to leave the area. The 8th Hussars charged into the Indian force, killing many Indian soldiers, taking two guns and continuing the charge right through the Phool Bagh encampment. In this engagement, according to an eyewitness account, Rani Lakshmibai put on a sowar's uniform and attacked one of the hussars; she was unhorsed, fired at him with a pistol, and also wounded, probably by his sabre, followed by a fatal shot from his carbine. According to another tradition Rani Lakshmibai, the Queen of Jhansi, dressed as a cavalry leader, was badly wounded; not wishing the British to capture her body, she told a hermit to burn it. After her death a few local people cremated her body. The British captured the city of Gwalior after three days. In the British report of this battle, Hugh Rose commented that Rani Lakshmibai is "personable, clever and beautiful" and she is "the most dangerous of all Indian leaders". Rose reported that she had been buried "with great ceremony under a tamarind tree under the Rock of Gwalior, where I saw her bones and ashes". Her tomb is in the Phool Bagh area of Gwalior. Twenty years after her death Colonel Malleson wrote in the History of the Indian Mutiny; vol. 3; London, 1878 'Whatever her faults in British eyes may have been, her countrymen will ever remember that she was driven by ill-treatment into rebellion, and that she lived and died for her country.'

Cultural depictions and memorials

An equestrian statue of Lakshmibai in Solapur, Maharashtra

Rani Lakshmi Bai Park, Jhansi

Equestrian statues of Lakshmibai are seen in many places of India, which show her and her son tied to her back. Laxmibai National University of Physical Education in Gwalior and Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi are named after her. The Rani Jhansi Marine National Park is located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. A women's unit of the Indian National Army was named the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. In 1957 two postage stamps were issued to commemorate the centenary of the rebellion: the 15 n.p. stamp portrayed the Rani on horseback.

Literature, film and television

Songs and poems

Patriotic songs have been written about the Rani; one of them includes these lines (translated): "How valiantly like a man fought she, / The Rani of Jhansi / On every parapet a gun she set / Raining fire of hell, / How well like a man fought the Rani of Jhansi / How valiantly and well!"^[43] She is a symbol of woman manhood as the line says in her respect "Khoob ladi mardani wo to jhansi wali rani thi" (Bravely and relentlessly she fought like men).

The most famous composition of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan is the Hindi poem Jhansi ki Rani, an emotionally charged description of the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai.