The Sipahi Bahadur uprising of 1857 has been unduly neglected, given that it yielded one of the first secular self-governments during the British Raj. A report by
Shalini Rai
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| Artist's impression of the Sipahi Bahadur uprising (by Samia Singh) |
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| Ramjulal |
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| Risaldar Wali Shah |
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| Koth Havaldar Mahavir |
More than 150 years ago, the Revolt of 1857 stirred the sleepy conscience of India and pitched infant nationalism against established imperial might. Historians described it as the first war of independence and innumerable books were written on this important milestone on the road to freedom.
Yet, very few people know of the Sipahi Bahadur uprising and of 356 soldiers killed in cold blood on January 14, 1858, in a nondescript town in central India. About 154 years after the incident took place in Sehore (Madhya Pradesh), most Indians remain in the dark about it.
That’s hardly surprising, because there has been a systemic black-out of this episode of the first war of Independence. An episode that shocks as much as it awes. Ninety years before the British left India, Sehore --- about 30 km from Bhopal --- had declared independence from British rule.
On August 6, 1857, Risaldar Wali Shah led a group of soldiers, who rebelled against Sikander Jehan Begum, the Nawab of Bhopal (who paid allegiance to the British). These soldiers, fed up of being paid insufficient wages, issued sub-standard ration and shabby uniforms, set up a parallel government, complete with its own civil and criminal courts and an administrative council.
A staunch nationalist, Risaldar Wali Shah exhorted fellow soldiers --- most notably Koth Havaldar Mahavir, Arif Shah, Ramjulal, Adil Mohd Khan and Fazil Mohd Khan --- of the Bhopal Contingent Force, stationed in Sehore, to take up arms, saying: “The British are being hounded out of the whole of Hindustan. Not so in Bhopal state. We do not owe our lives to any Raja, Nawab or Begum.”
In the five months of its existence, Sipahi Bahadur (as against Company Bahadur or the East India Company, the de facto rulers of India till 1858) provided possibly one of the first instances of a parallel, secular government in India within the British Raj. “It was the beginning of serious attempts at a tryst with colonial modernity,” says Dr Biswamoy Pati, associate professor of History at Delhi University. Says Dr Shriram Tiwari, Director, Culture, Madhya Pradesh, “The rebel government was staunchly secular. It had two standards – Nishan-e-Mohammadi and Jhanda Mahaviri ---- that were raised together to symbolise Hindu-Muslim unity.”
Sipahi Bahadur inspired the people of Sehore, Bhopal, Sagar and other areas under the erstwhile state of Bhopal to shrug off tyranny-induced apathy and replace indolence with audacity. Lending strength to their cause was the citizens’ unflinching faith in a shared culture and simmering resentment against the Nawab of Bhopal and her British cohorts.
Shaharyar M Khan, former foreign secretary of Pakistan and a descendant of Nawab Sikander Jehan Begum, says on page no. 98 of his book
The Begums of Bhopal, “…in August 1857… Bhopal mutineers, under the banner of the Sepoy Bahadur revolt, attacked the British garrison in Sehore…”. Khan states further, “The rebel forces… gained sufficient strength to declare an alternative government in Sehore which called itself the Sepoy Bahadur government. They took control of Sehore and even set up a military court.” Soldiers of Sipahi Bahadur were embittered by the callous attitude of the Nawab of Bhopal towards pressing issues of daily concern.
As the nation joined hands in 1857, they were emboldened to make a final push for dignity and freedom. What followed was the biggest-ever challenge to the viability of the Bhopal state. By December 1857, the determined soldiers and their innumerable plainclothes supporters had garnered enough military resources and civilian support to lay siege to Gauhar Mahal, residence of the Bhopal Nawab.
Hemmed in by rebels in a landlocked state, Sikander Jehan Begum waited for the raging tide of nationalism to ebb and for the British to come to the rescue of the state of Bhopal, now shaken to its foundations. Expectedly, the Sipahi Bahadur movement was crushed with an iron hand and dealt a death blow, literally, on January 14, 1858. On this day, 154 years ago, as India awoke to celebrate Makar Sankranti, 356 rebel soldiers were put to sleep. In an incident that continues to stain the collective conscience of this central Indian area, the rebel soldiers were shot en masse in Sehore.
“It was the highest number of soldiers executed during the Revolt of 1857 in Madhya Pradesh. Of them, 195 were with the artillery unit and 159 were infantry soldiers,” says Dr Shambhu Dayal Guru, a veteran historian based in Bhopal. The incident finds mention on page no. 56 of
Hayat-e-Sikandari, based on the life and times of Sikander Jehan Begum and edited by her great-grandson General Obaidullah Khan.
This radical bunch of soldiers found support from Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi and the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. While Lakshmi Bai wrote to the Nawab of Bhopal thrice, asking her to desist from taking British assistance to crush Sipahi Bahadur, Zafar lent moral support to the revolutionaries by sending personal notes of encouragement to their leaders. “This incident is a little-known facet of the Revolt of 1857,” says Dr Suresh Mishra, another Bhopal-based historian and author of four books on the Revolt of 1857.
What Dr Mishra and for that matter, most people in Bhopal, do not mention is the organised manner in which the January 14 massacre has been erased from public memory. When these bravehearts were alive, every effort was made to intimidate, entice, con and coax them into laying down arms and to crush their rebellion. A century-and-a-half later, Sipahi Bahadur remains an unpleasant reminder of an uncomfortable relationship between the rulers and the ruled.
Were history written by victors, Sipahi Bahadur would have been banished to anonymity and obscurity. Yet, if you are reading this today, it’s because despite the rebellion having been ruthlessly crushed, the episode remains a nagging memory for people in the proverbial heart of India. It is a tragedy made more poignant because it has been condemned by decades of denial. Sipahi Bahadur differed from other uprisings of 1857. Its leaders knew any movement that resorted to acts of violence and arson to effect regime change could only be short-lived.
That’s why they put in place government machinery, complete with civil and criminal courts, a council and a state emblem. Soldiers part of Sipahi Bahadur rebelled due to issues common to other revolutionaries of 1857. Yet, how poorly they were treated is evident from one of their nine demands: “The soldiers should not be served stale rotis.”
http://tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=hub210112Unsung.asp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/specials/1156_1857_rarepics/page7.shtml
