Hi I'm the History Guy, I have a degree in history, I love history and if you
love history too this is the channel for you. In 1857 the soldiers of the Bengal army of the
British East India Company rebelled against their English officers. The causes of the rebellion were
complex but it was a brutal bloody affair that was characterized by atrocities and reprisals on
both sides. And of all the stories of tragedy, of atrocity, of heroism of the great rebellion
of 1857, none is more compelling than the story of Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi. A heroine to some,
a villain to others, she has been described as India's Joan of Arc.
Lakshmibai was the wife of the Maharaja of the princely state of Jhansi, making her the Rani
of Jhansi. Princely states were those parts of British India that had indigenous rulers, but were
under the paramountcy of the British crown. As her husband had no male heirs in 1853 on his deathbed,
he adopted the son of one of his cousin's. Now by Indian tradition that would have been totally
legit and the newly adopted son would have been heir to the crown, but the British refused to
acknowledge the adoption, and claimed Jhansi under something called the Doctrine of Lapse.
The Doctrine of Lapse was a rule where the crown would claim any vassal state under the paramountcy
of Britain, if the ruler became incapacitated or died without a male heir. And so Lakshmibai,
The Rani of Jhansi, and her adopted son were forced to leave the palace and the fortress
and just go live in Jhansi, although she remained loyal to the state. The armies of the British East
India Company were largely made up of Indian soldiers called “sepoys” and British officers.
The Great Rebellion of 1857 started when the company garrison and the City of Meerut rebelled
against its British officers. The causes of the rebellion were general dissatisfaction
with British rule and the belief that the British were destroying Indian customs and culture,
and when it started, it boiled out as a vicious anger. The rebellious sepoys didn't just slaughter
their European officers, they killed their families, women and children, and then they went
out into the countryside and killed any British civilians nearby who were thus left unprotected.
And of course in response, when the British were fighting the mutineers, they showed no quarter,
and the reprisals and atrocities of The Rebellion of 1857 were brutal. The rebellion quickly spread
throughout much of Central and parts of northern India though much of the country remained peaceful
and most of the units of the army and the princely states remained loyal to the British.
But in Jhansi where the people were still angry over the annexation, which they thought
was terribly unfair, the company garrison was ripe for rebellion and so the company officers
and their families sought refuge in the fortress. This created a standoff and Lakshmibai, being the
Rani of Jhansi, still had some authority, so she stepped in and negotiated a deal between the two,
where the mutineers promised to let the officers and their families go if they would just
leave. But as soon as they left the fortress the mutineers reneged on the deal and slaughtered them
all, men, women and children. There is a question to this day whether Lakshmibai had any role in the
massacre but she certainly did not control the mutinous troops. With no company authority left
in Jhansi, the Rani stepped into the vacuum. She bribed the mutinous sepoys to leave and then she
reoccupied the fortress. She didn't want to rebel though, Jhansi had always been loyal,
and so she sent a note to British authorities asking for help. And then she had to defend Jhansi,
first from attack by mutineers who were trying to place someone more friendly on the throne,
and then by attacks from two neighboring princely states that are hoping to take advantage of the
situation to divide up Jhansi. The Rani had grown up with a full education which included riding,
fencing and shooting, and she proved to be an able and charismatic commander. The British Army
didn't show up in Jhansi until March of 1858 and by then the situation had changed, The Rani had
slowly been persuaded by people who argued that she should defend her princely state and her right
to rule, whereas the Governor-General had slowly become convinced that The Rani was responsible for
the slaughter of the British officers and their families. And so when a British Army did show
up under the command of General Hugh Rose, they didn't arrive as friends, they besieged the castle
and forced The Rani of Jhansi to throw her lot in with the rebellion. The fortress of Jhansi fell to
a British assault in April of 1858 and according to legend The Rani threw her son on her back,
jumped on a horse and wielding swords in both hands, escaped with a few of her guards. She went
and joined up with the rebels whereas a Rani and as an experienced leader, she quickly became one
of their commanders. The rebels retreated to the fortress city of Gwalior which they had captured
earlier in the rebellion, and in the final bloody battle of the rebellion in central India, the Rani
of Jhansi commanded the mutineers left flank where she died in combat, a warrior to the end.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 cost over a hundred thousand Indian lives, and resulted in a complete
reorganization of the state, the dissolution of the British East India Company and the creation of
the Raj under the direct authority of the British crown. And while it was ultimately unsuccessful,
the Rebellion of 1857 is seen by many Indians today as India's first war for independence.
And as such the gallant figure of the Rani of Jhansi, mounted on a charger with her son
literally strapped to her back, fighting for her nation has become a symbol of the Indian fight
for independence, a fight that didn't end until 1947. She is commemorated in sculptures, she's on
stamps, there are poems and songs. One patriotic poem said “How well she fought like a man, the
Rani of Jhansi, how valiantly and well.” Of course to the British she's a villain, responsible for
the slaughter of women and children, but even the British respected her military prowess. General
Hugh Rose described her as the most dangerous of all the Indian leaders and also described her as
personable, clever, and beautiful. Even more importantly with time the British have come to
recognize that she's somewhat of a tragic figure, who was forced by ill-treatment, into rebellion
and that is generally how she's described by historians today. And she was a tragic figure
caught up in events larger than she could control but she was no hapless victim. She was a warrior
who fought with a force of personality, that inspired loyalty among her troops, and respect
among her enemies. And that makes her a heroine by any standard, one who deserves to be remembered.
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