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Indian Express
19-07-2025
- General
- Indian Express
Knowledge Nugget: Why Mangal Pandey's role in revolt of 1857 matters for your UPSC exam
Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up on your knowledge. Here's your knowledge nugget on Mangal Pandey and other prominent leaders' contributions to the Revolt of 1857. (Relevance: UPSC has asked questions on the Revolt of 1857 in both Prelims and Mains. Also, the contribution of Mangal Pandey holds immense significance in the outbreak of the revolt, making it an important topic for your UPSC exam.) On March 29, 1857, Mangal Pandey fired a shot at the Sergeant Major of his regiment at Barrackpore near Kolkata, triggering a great event in the history of Modern India — the Revolt of 1857, or the Sepoy Mutiny, or the First War of Indian Independence. With it ended the rule of the East India Company over India with Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858. It changed the British system of colonial rule in India with the enactment of the Government of India Act 1858 which appointed a Viceroy as the Crown representative in India in place of the Governor General of India. Lord Canning became the First viceroy under this new system. 1. Mangal Pandey was born on July 19, 1827, in Nagwa village in Ballia district in a Bhumihar Brahmin family. He joined the East India Company's army at the age of 22 as a soldier in the 6th company of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry. 2. He refused to use the newly introduced Enfield rifle. It was believed that the new Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket issued to the sepoys of the East India Company came with a cartridge dipped in beef and pork fat, which made it anathema to both Hindu and Muslim sepoys, who had to bite open the cartridge to load the weapon. 3. On March 29, 1857, Pandey mutinied and fired at his Senior Sergeant Major. He was overpowered and hanged on April 8, 1857, by the order of a Court Martial at Lal Bagan in Barrackpore. His regiment was disbanded, like the 19th infantry at Behrampore, for showing resentment. 4. Mangal Pandey was hanged to death by the Company on April 8. He belonged to the kingdom of Awadh, which had been treacherously annexed by Lord Dalhousie in 1856 on the grounds of misgovernance. It was not under the Doctrine of Lapse introduced by Dalhousie to annex other regions. It was introduced by Lord Dalhousie during his time as the Governor-General of India (1848–56). According to this doctrine, the adopted heir to the throne was not allowed to acquire the state, and the state automatically 'lapsed' into British dominion if the ruler died without any natural, biological heir. The territories of Satara (1848), Punjab (1849), Sambalpur (1850), and Jhansi and Nagpur (1854) were annexed under it. Bahadur Shah Zafar II was the Delhi emperor from 1836 to 1857. He was the second son of and became the successor to his father, Akbar II. After the failure of the Revolt of 1857, he was exiled to Rangoon in British-controlled Burma, and the Red Fort was illegally captured by the British on September 19, 1857. He lived in prison till his death in 1862. 5. Notably, Awadh was a region that supplied large numbers of soldiers of war to the Company's army. There were 75,000 soldiers from Awadh, and almost every agricultural family in the kingdom had a representative in the army. Whatever happened in Awadh was of immediate concern to the Sepoy. 6. The deposition of the Nawab and the confiscation of the villages of taluqdars during the land revenue settlement of 1856 caused outrage. Some 14,000 petitions were received from the Sepoys about the hardships they faced on account of the revenue system. Mangal Pandey represented the discontent that the misery of British rule had brought upon peasant families. 7. Next, the soldiers of the 7th Awadh Regiment rose in defiance, and they also met the same fate. After this, the incidents of disobedience, incendiarism, and arson were reported from the army cantonments in Ambala, Lucknow, and Meerut, until finally, the Meerut sepoys started the revolt on 10 May. 8. The marching band of sepoys from Meerut reached the Red Fort and appealed to Bahadur Shah II, the elderly Mughal emperor who was a pensioner of the East India Company, to become their leader to provide legitimacy to their cause. After much persuasion, he yielded and was proclaimed Shah-en-shah-i-Hindustan. Leaders across the northern region joined the revolt to provide leadership. Here are some of the prominent leaders that you shouldn't miss. 1. Nana Sahib: He was the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, the last Maratha peshwa (ruler), who assumed the leadership from Kanpur. Lord Dalhousie has refused the extension of the pension of his adoptive father to him, and the threat from sepoys made him join the revolt. He provided a strong front; however, in 1859, he was driven into the Nepal hills, where he is thought to have died. 2. Begum Hazrat Mahal: Begum, one of the younger queens of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, was a freedom fighter who made major contributions to the revolt of 1857. She took command of the revolt from Lucknow. She took charge of the affairs of the state after the British annexed it in 1856, exiling the nawab, and leaving the kingdom without a leader, in a chaotic mess. She crowned her son, Birjis Qadr, as the royal heir of Awadh. Ultimately, she escaped to Nepal with her son and a clutch of followers under adverse circumstances in 1859. She maintained her opposition through 20 years of exile in Nepal, until she died in 1879. 3. Veer Kuwar Singh: At the age of 80, Kuwar Singh was the chief organiser from the Bhojpur region of Bihar against the British East India Company during the revolt. He led the siege of Aarah for eight days. He was a master of guerrilla warfare and was able to elude the British for quite some time. At the battle of Jagdishpur, April 23, 1858, he was able to win back his homeland from the Britishers. He died of injuries, passing on the mantle to his successor and brother Amar Singh II. 4. Rani Laxmibai: Rani Laxmibai, original name Manikarnika, was born in Varanasi, was the leader of the revolt from Jhansi. In 1842, she was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi, Gangadhar Rao Newalkar. The couple adopted a son, Damodar Rao. However, after the death of the Maharaja, the British East India Company refused to recognise his claim to the throne under the Doctrine of Lapse. It became the factor for Rani to join the rebellion. In 1858, General Hugh Rose arrived in Jhansi leading his forces. It is then that Rani Laxmibai decided to take up arms to arms to defend her state. 5. Khan Bahadur Khan: The city of Bareilly was one of the strongholds during the rebellion of 1857 and remained so for nearly a year. Here, the resistance was led by an 82-year-old Khan Bahadur Khan. He put up a strong fight against Sir Colin Campbell, who was then the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army and marching towards Bareilly. In an action that lasted for nearly six hours and nearly cost the renowned war correspondent his life, the British forces were successful in making Khan's force retreat and take over the city. 6. Maulvi Liaqat Ali: He took control of the uprising from Allahabad. He enforced law and order in the city and made Khusro Bagh as his military operational headquarters. In 1872, he was arrested at Bombay Railway Station by British officials and was sentenced to transportation for life to the penal settlement of Andaman. (1) What was/were the object/objects of Queen Victoria's Proclamation (1858)? (UPSC CSE 2014) 1. To disclaim any intention to annex Indian States. 2. To place the Indian administration under the British Crown. 3. To regulate the East India Company's trade with India. Select the correct answer using the code given below. (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 (2) Consider the following pairs: Which of the following pairs is/are correct? (a) 1 and 4 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1, 3 and 4 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Source: Remembering Mangal Pandey, and the legacy of the revolt he inspired, Knowledge Nugget: Why is the Revolt of 1857 important for UPSC? ) Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X. 🚨 Click Here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for July 2025. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at Khushboo Kumari is a Deputy Copy Editor with The Indian Express. She has done her graduation and post-graduation in History from the University of Delhi. At The Indian Express, she writes for the UPSC section. She holds experience in UPSC-related content development. You can contact her via email: ... Read More
Hindustan Times
14-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Cellular memory: Tales of exiles and prisoners from the Dagshai jail museum
The lights went out and the maximum-security prison was plunged into the clotted darkness of night. Muffled groans and cries seemed to emanate from 54 narrow cells. Built in 1849, the mountaintop Dagshai prison held a range of political activists and freedom fighters in the British colonial era. Indians who fought in the Revolt of 1857 were held here, in particular Gorkha soldiers who took up arms in nearby battlefields in that first war of independence. Irish soldiers of the Connaught Rangers regiment were held here too, after they mutinied against their English officers in 1920. One of the prison's last inmates was Mahatma Gandhi's assassin, Nathuram Godse, who spent a night in a cold, dark cell here, while on his way to stand trial in Shimla. Our burly army guide was a reassuring presence in the dark. His whispered tales were not As the lights flickered on again, we continued our tour of the what is now the Dagshai jail museum in Himachal Pradesh. No one ever escaped its walls, except to the cemetery on its grounds, said our guide (who asked to go unnamed, in keeping with protocol). The cells were designed to be part of the punishment. Tiny and dark, the only source of light was a heavily barricaded window in the central corridor. A gallows house stood nearby, and an area for firing-squad executions. Among those executed here in this manner was the 20-year-old Irish soldier James Daly, part of the 1920 rebellion. The torture chamber still has chains on its walls, like the ones from which prisoners were suspended. Those who continued to rebel were put in a cage, a 3 ft wide cell with iron bars on the front (above), and fed only bread and water. Interestingly, Dagshai has a long history with criminals that far predates the jail. In the Mughal era, lawbreakers were banished to the dense, mountainous forests here as punishment. Before being exiled in this manner, such offenders were branded on the forehead with a 'royal mark' or 'daag-e-shahi', which is how this beautiful Himalayan town got its name. The curator of the prison museum, military historian Anand Sethi, has close ties to Dagshai too. His father, Balkrishan Sethi, was the first Indian appointed Cantonment Executive Officer, in 1941-42. He lived in a cottage right next to the jail and would later tell his son vivid stories about it. Sethi says he wondered, from time to time, what became of the prison after Independence. 'After all, history lies trapped within its walls,' he adds. About 20 years ago, he decided to find out. He moved to this nook of the mountains and found that the jail had been invaded by the forest, and was starting to crumble. Sethi approached then brigade commander (later lieutenant general) P Ananthanarayanan, who greenlit the project to restore the prison. With Sethi overseeing the project, soldiers ushered hordes of monkeys out of the premises, fixed the leaks in the walls, repainted and repaired, but left much of the rest unchanged. It felt fitting, Sethi says, to turn what might seem like a footnote in India's history into a museum with a message: that the painful past must never be allowed to repeat itself.
India.com
10-06-2025
- General
- India.com
7 Baby Names Inspired by Famous Indian Historical Figures
This name is inspired by Emperor Ashoka, known for his transformation from a fierce warrior to a promoter who bought peace. This name is named after Rani Lakshmibai, the queen of Jhansi, who played a crucial role in the Revolt of 1857. This name is inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose, a brave freedom fighter who believed in armed resistance. This name is named after Swami Vivekananda who is the spiritual leader who introduced Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga This name is named the only female Prime Minister who was known for her strong leadership. This name is named after the missile man of India A.P.J Abdul Kalam. This name is inspired by Sarojini Naidu who was the Nightingale of India and also a renowned poetess. Read Next Story
India.com
07-06-2025
- India.com
Explore The Spooky Side: 5 Haunted Walks In Jaipur You Must Try
Jaipur, with its imperial palaces, crowded bazaars and cosmopolitan festivals, is the 'Pink City' of beauty and grandeur. But lurking within its streets and buildings are ghost stories. These ghost stories, phantom voices and unfathomable happenings lend a strange twist to the city's historical swagger. If you're a sucker for ghost stories, or simply crave an adrenaline-fuelled experience, then maybe Jaipur's haunted tours and paranormal walks are for you 5 eerie places and experiences that are the perfect combination of history, mystery and adrenaline. 1. Bhangarh Fort: The Ghost Town The most famous haunted house in India is the Bhangarh Fort, 85 km away from Jaipur. The 17th-century castle is wrapped in legends of a witch's curse that befell the city. Visitors describe a sense of terror, weird noises after dark, and a chilling stillness. The Archaeological Survey of India even discourages visits after sunset, giving it its own ethereal aura. Guided paranormal tours of Bhangarh involve tale-telling sessions about its doomed history and unexplained events. Quick Facts Bhagwant Das built it in 1573 for his son Madho Singh. Legend: A wizard's lust left the town enchanted. Visited during: Early in the morning or in late afternoon (only in daylight). No entry after sunset for safety reasons. 2. Nahargarh Fort: The Desperate Journey of Sawai Madho Singh Nahargarh Fort is nestled atop the Aravalli Hills, an attraction not only for its breathtaking city views but also for its ghostly experiences. The fort was believed to be haunted by the ghost of its architect, Sawai Madho Singh, who guarded his work. Guests and employees have reported tools mysteriously disappearing and someone hovering over them. Taking a walk in the fort's dark passages is an eerie experience. Quick Facts The building was constructed in 1734 as a retreat palace. Legend: Madho Singh's agitated spirit oversees its maintenance. Admission: 50 for Indian visitors. Visit at sunrise or sunset for a different perspective. 3. Jal Mahal's Haunted Haveli The Jal Mahal district, famous for its majestic palace on Man Sagar Lake, has a darker history too. A nearby ruined haveli (mansion) is said to harbour an angry spirit. Nomads turn a blind eye, particularly at night when it's a source of unresolved screams and moans. Paranormal tours routinely include this haveli on their itinerary and tour guides tell the scariest tales that will have you thinking twice about walking out alone. Quick Facts Jal Mahal dates back to the 18th century. It is difficult to know how the haveli got there, and that adds to the mystery. Location: Near Amber Road. Visible only at night and not at night. 4. Brijraj Bhawan Palace: The British Colonel's Wife Amid Me The Royal Colonel's Ghost Brijraj Bhawan Palace Hotel, used to be a royal residence and now a heritage resort with a creepy touch. It is said to be haunted by the spirit of a British soldier, Major Burton, killed in the Revolt of 1857. Visitors and staff report seeing his ghost in the corridors. Remarkably, his soul is reputed to be strong and gentle but averse to etiquette (guards who doze off while on duty get slapped in the face!). Quick Facts The building was constructed around the turn of the 19th century. Legend: Major Burton's ghost guards the site. It is now a historic hotel. Eerie sightings mostly by staff. 5. Chand Baori: The Stepwell of Shadows. Chand Baori is a haunted architectural creation in Abhaneri village, Jaipur. The symmetrical architecture of the stepwell itself is haunting, but so is its profundity and the sense of unease. The stepwell is believed to have been constructed by spirits after the sun went down, and those who come in after sunset report feeling drawn or hearing voices. Most haunted tours visit Chand Baori for its scare stories and ghoulish atmosphere. Quick Facts It was constructed by King Chanda in the 9th century. Features over 3,500 narrow steps. Visit only during the day when it's safe to do so. Harshat Mata Temple is close by. Final Thoughts Walking around Jaipur's haunted sites and paranormal tours isn't only about scares but also a tour through the city's complex history, where folklore, architecture and culture collide. Believe it or not, these trips promise stories you will never forget once you get back home.
Hans India
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Operation Sindoor 'just an arrow in the quiver': Modi
Karakat (Bihar)/Kanpur: Prime Minister on Friday likened terrorism to a serpent to issue a stern warning 'terror will be dragged out of its hole and trampled if it tries to raise its hood again'. Hours later, he also said Operation Sindoor was "just an arrow in the quiver" of India and was not over yet. Addressing rallies in Bihar's Karakat and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said that India demonstrated the power of its indigenous weapons during Operation Sindoor, which made "Pakistan plead to stop the war". He asserted that the Indian armed forces have reduced to rubble the hideouts of those who had masterminded the Pahalgam attack, sitting in Pakistan. In Karakat, Modi said the enemy must realise that Operation Sindoor was "just an arrow in our quiver. The war on terror is neither over nor has it come to a halt". "If terror tries to raise its hood again, it will be dragged out of its hole and trampled," he added. He also said the "power of sindoor (vermilion) worn by India's daughters was witnessed by Pakistan and the entire world. Terrorists used to feel secure under the protection of the Pakistani army. But we brought them to their knees. We also destroyed Pakistan's airbases and their military establishments. This is new India (Naya Bharat), and its power is there for all to behold". In the course of his speech, he made a mention of BSF sub-inspector Mohammed Imtiaz, a resident of Saran district, who died fighting for the country in Jammu and Kashmir, and likened his sacrifice to the valour of Veer Kunwar Singh, the legendary king of Jagdishpur in Bihar who is considered one of the heroes of the Revolt of 1857. From Bihar, Modi went to Uttar Pradesh, where he addressed a rally in Kanpur after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for some developmental projects and said he was to attend the programme on April 24 but had to cancel it due to the Pahalgam terror attack two days prior. As many as 26 people, including Kanpur businessman Shubham Dwivedi, died in the dastardly attack at the verdant meadows of Baisaran in Pahalgam. In retaliatory action, India struck terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir two weeks later, which triggered a four-day military standoff with the neighbouring country. Modi began his speech by referring to the Pahalgam massacre and said, "Kanpur's son Shubham Dwivedi also became a victim of that barbarity." "We all can feel the pain, suffering and anger of our daughter Aishanya (Shubham's widow). The world witnessed the same anger of our sisters and daughters in the form of Operation Sindoor." "Operation Sindoor is not over yet. It showed the world power of indigenous weapons and Make in India. We destroyed terrorist hideouts in Pakistan by going hundreds of miles inside. Indian weapons, BrahMos missiles entered the enemy territory and wreaked havoc," Modi told the rally. The Prime Minister said the heroics of the Indian armed forces forced the Pakistani Army to "plead to stop the war" and asserted that India would no longer be intimidated by the threat of using nuclear bomb nor would it make a decision on that basis. Saluting the bravery of the armed forces' personnel, the Prime Minister reiterated India's uncompromising stance against terrorism. "The enemy, which was pleading during Operation Sindoor, should not be under any illusion, Operation Sindoor has not ended yet," Modi said and added that Pakistan's ploy of state and non-state actors was not going to work anymore. Laying out India's three principles in the fight against terror, Modi said, "First, India will give a befitting reply to every terrorist attack with the timing, manner, and the condition of the reply to be decided by our armies themselves." "Second, India will no longer be scared of the threat of atom bombs nor would it make a decision on that basis. And third, India will see the masters of terror and the government patronising terror in the same light."
