Nana Saheb Peshwa II
Nana Saheb Peshwa II, born Nana Govind Dhondu Pant, was an Indian aristocrat and fighter who led the Siege of Cawnpore 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 joined the 1857 rebellion and took charge of the rebels in Kanpur. 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.
Early life
Nana Saheb was born on 19 May 1824 as Nana Govind Dhondu Pant, to Narayan Bhat and Ganga Bai. After the Marathas were defeated in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the East India Company exiled Peshwa Baji Rao II to Bithoor, but allowed him to maintain a large establishment, partly funded by a British pension. Nana Saheb's father, a well-educated Deccani Brahmin, had travelled with his family from the Western Ghats to serve as a court official for the exiled Peshwa. He married the sister of one of the Peshwa's wives, with whom he had two sons.As Baji Rao II had no biological sons, he adopted Nana Saheb and his younger brother, Bala Saheb, in 1827. Nana Saheb's childhood companions included Tatya Tope, Azimullah Khan, and Manikarnika Tambe, the future Rani of Jhansi. Tatya Tope, Nana Saheb's fencing master, was the son of Pandurang Rao Tope, a significant noble in the Peshwa's court who had accompanied his sovereign into exile. Azimullah Khan later became Nana Saheb's secretary and dewan.
Inheritance
At the time, the British East India Company had absolute, imperial administrative control over many regions across the subcontinent. The doctrine of lapse was an annexation policy devised by Lord Dalhousie, the British Governor-General of India between 1848 and 1856. According to this doctrine, any princely state or territory under the paramountcy of the Company would automatically be annexed if the ruler was either "manifestly incompetent" or died without a direct heir. The doctrine overturned the long-established right of an Indian sovereign without an heir to select a successor, with the British reserving the power to decide the competency of potential rulers. The policy was widely resented by Indians as illegitimate.Although the Peshwa's domains had been annexed in 1818, prior to the implementation of the doctrine, upon the death of Baji Rao II, the Company invoked the doctrine to deny Nana Saheb the pension previously granted, as he was an adopted son. Baji Rao had been provided with an annual pension of 800,000 Rupees, along with tax-free lands, but these provisions were rescinded after his death. Nana Saheb repeatedly appealed for the restoration of the pension and funds, initially using the pro-Indian barrister John Lang to appeal to the authorities in India. Following the failure in India, he sent his advocate, Azimullah Khan along with an entourage, to London, to plead his case directly to the British government. However, this attempt too was unsuccessful.
Role in the 1857 uprising
The town of Bithur was 13 miles northwest of Kanpur. In the well-furnished palace which he had inherited from his adopted father, the Nana Sahib entertained British officers and frequently gave parties. He was known to be a generous host and so was well-liked by the British officers. In April 1857, the Nana went on a tour of the neighbouring cantonments, ostensibly on a pilgrimage. He was well received in Lucknow by Sir Henry Lawrence, however he suddenly cut short the visit and returned to Kanpur. Major General Hugh Massey Wheeler explicitly trusted the Nana, since his wife was related to Nana's family. So when reports, that the disbanded troops of the 19th Native Infantry were lavishly entertained by the Nana whilst they were passing through Bithur in late April 1857, reached the British, Gen. Massey took no notice. By May 1857, there were disturbances and arson attacks in the city. Candid and blunt warnings regarding Nana's intentions issued by sympathetic Indians, such as the banker Nanak Chand, were ignored by the British who invited the Nana to become a part of the committee in charge of discussions relating to the defence of the cantonments.The Nana Sahib expressed loyalty to Company officials in Kanpur and even offered to protect the Europeans in the city. It was planned that Nana Saheb would assemble a force of 1,500 soldiers to fight the rebels, in case the rebellion spread to Kanpur. Gen. Wheeler put the treasury in charge of Nana's own troops. Gen. Wheeler was so confident that there would be no action at Kanpur that he even sent a detachment of his small force to Lucknow.
The British had two potential locations where they could take refuge in the event of trouble. There was a fortified magazine with high and thick walls, 3 miles upstream of the cantonment, however the magazine did not have easy access to water. Therefore, instead of fortifying the magazine north of the depot with adequate arms and ammunition and sinking wells, the British barricaded themselves in two large, yet poorly fortified barrack buildings, one of masonry and another with a thatched roof, near the road to Allahabad, because there was a well near the buildings. They had started constructing a masonry wall, but the wall was only four feet tall at the start of the conflict and was not bulletproof. Sixty years after the events, a large, fortified, Mughal-era underground room was discovered at the barracks' site, the presence of which seems to have been unknown to both the British and Nana Saheb in 1857.
Attack on Wheeler's entrenchment
On 4 June, part of the Company sepoys of the 1st, 53rd, and 56th Native Infantry regiments and the 2nd Cavalry regiment of the East India Company at Kanpur rebelled, and the British contingent took refuge at the barracks in the northern part of the town. The Company forces had expected the rebels to leave for Delhi, so were unprepared for a lengthy defence.The barracks housed around 900 Europeans, Eurasians, and Indians, of which only 210 were European soldiers, joined by around 100 armed civilians. The British had five 9-pounders, one brass 3-pounder, and a mortar. Amid the prevailing chaos, Nana Saheb and his forces entered the British magazine in the northern part of Kanpur. The loyal sepoys of the 53rd Native Infantry guarding the magazine, assumed that the Nana, who was already in charge of the protection of the treasury, was there to protect it on behalf of the Company and thus he gained control of the magazine without any issue. After burning some bungalows, the rebels, as expected, left Kanpur for Delhi.
Nana Sahib, who hitherto had officially been uncommitted to the cause of the rebellion or was, at least officially, very pro-British, took control of the Company treasury, which, in accordance to the plans of the defence company, was guarded by his forces. Once the magazine and the treasury were in his control, the Nana Saheb officially declared his participation in the rebellion against the Company. On the advice of Azimullah Khan, the Nana rushed up the Grand Trunk Road on his state elephant. He caught up with rebel Company soldiers who were headed to Delhi to meet Bahadur Shah II, at Kalyanpur. Nana persuaded them to return to Kanpur and assist him in defeating the British by promising to double their pay and reward them with gold. He declared his intention to restore the Maratha Confederacy under the Peshwa tradition, with plans to capture Kanpur. He appointed Jwala Prasad as brigadier of the new army, his elder brother Baba Bhutt as the judge of Kanpur and Azimulla Khan as the collector.
On 5 June 1857, Nana Saheb sent a letter to General Hugh Wheeler, informing him to expect an attack at 10 am the next day. On 6 June, the rebel soldiers attacked the Company entrenchment at 10:30 am. The British, caught off guard, defended themselves as the attackers hesitated to enter the entrenchment, for fear of mined trenches. On 7 June, the rebels brought large calibre guns, and the bombardment of the entrenchment began. In the subsequent battle, Nana Saheb's eldest son, Baan Rao, was killed.
As Nana Saheb's attack on the British garrison became known, more rebel sepoys joined him. By 10 June, Nana led around 12,000 to 15,000 Indian soldiers. The first week of the siege saw Nana's forces establish firing positions from nearby buildings. Captain John Moore of the defending forces launched retaliatory night sorties. Nana Saheb then withdrew his headquarters to Savada House, two miles away. On 13 June, the rebels set fire to one of the thatched barracks used as a hospital and charged the British lines, but their charge was repelled by British grapeshot.
Sniper fire and bombardment continued until 23 June 1857. A prophecy about the downfall of East India Company rule exactly 100 years after the Battle of Plassey motivated over 4,000 rebel soldiers to launch a major attack on 23 June, beginning with a cavalry charge. General Wheeler waited until the cavalry was 50 yards away before opening fire with grapeshot.The infantry, using cotton bales for cover, approached within 100 yards of the perimeter but failed to breach the entrenchment and had to retreat. On the same day, a 9-pound shot decapitated Gordon Wheeler, General Wheeler's son.
The British held out for three weeks with little water and food, losing many to sunstroke and dehydration. Meanwhile, in the city, those Indians associated with the British or loyal to them, were killed. In due course, sectarian violence erupted, partly inflamed by Baba Bhatt, Nana's elder brother, who had ordered his soldiers to amputate the hands of Muslim butchers who had been caught slaughtering cows, a procedure which led to the deaths of the butchers. The situation was defused to some extent by Azimulla Khan. On 25 June, a Eurasian prisoner named Mrs Jacobi, approached the entrenchment with an offer of honourable surrender and safe passage to Allahabad. Facing dwindling provisions and with no reinforcements, following discussions with his remaining officers, Wheeler accepted the offer on 26 June, leading to a truce and negotiations with Vakil Azimulla Khan and Brigadier Jawala Prasad. During the negotiations, it was agreed that the garrison would be allowed to march out with their side arms and ammunition but would have to leave the artillery behind. Nana's officials also promised to provide the garrisons with boats which would allow them to evacuate from Kanpur.