LaxmiBai (Jhansi Ki Rani)

Rani Laxmi Bai, popularly known as Rani of Jhansi (Jhansi Ki Rani), was a heroine of Revolt of 1857. She was and still is revered by people of Jhansi and remembered with pride whenever the Indian freedom struggle is mentioned.

Rani Laxmi Bai

 Early Life

• She was born on 19 November 1835 at Kashi (Varanasi) to Moropant Tambe and was named Manikarnika Tambe. Her father worked in the court of the exiled Peshwa of Poona (Pune). Unlike girls of her age, she was interested in learning various aspects of warfare. She was an expert horse rider, sword fighter and learned shooting and fencing.

History of Jhansi

• As was the custom of that time, on May 1842, she was married at the age of 14 years to the King of Jhansi ‘Gangadhar Rao Newalkar’, a widower and some 25 years her senior. She was named Laxmi Bai after the marriage. As was the prevalent custom, Rani Laxmi Bai observed ‘pardah’ (the custom to not appear in public without a veil), but she did not stop practising the various sports she loved, which was different from what was the usual practice of women of Royal household.

Jhansi Fort 1982

• She formed and trained her own army out of her female friends at court. After few years of marriage, Rani Laxmi Bai gave birth to a son, Damodar Rao, in 1851 who died shortly after. The King never recovered from his son’s death, and he died on 21 November 1853.

• 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.

• Around that time Lord Dalhousie had approved the ‘Doctrine of Lapse’- 

• According to this, any princely state under the direct or indirect (as a vassal) control of the East India Company where the ruler did not have a legal male heir would be annexed by the company.

• As per this, any adopted son of the Indian ruler could not be proclaimed as heir to the kingdom. This challenged the Indian ruler's long-held authority to appoint an heir of their choice.

• A petition for approval of the legal heir was filed with the help of a British officer, who appealed her case at the court of Queen Victoria, but was rejected. Jhansi was annexed into the British Empire and a pension of Rs 5,000 per year was set aside the Queen of Jhansi. The state jewels were confiscated. 

• When she was informed of this, she cried out "I shall not surrender my Jhansi" (Mein meri Jhansi nahi doongi). In March 1854, Lakshmibai was given an annual pension of Rs. 60,000 and ordered to leave the palace and the fort.

Revolt of 1857

• A few years went on like this, until a rumour began that soldiers had been supplied with bullets made with cow and pig fat, which led to the start of the Revolt of 1857.

Jhansi Revolt

• When the Revolt broke out it soon spread to many parts of North India and reached Jhansi, where the inmates in the jail took over the jail after killing the British officer and soldiers and went on killing their wives and children too. 

• Rani Laxmi Bai gave shelter to many such families in her palace and saved them from falling into the hands of the revolters. As British were forced to focus their attention elsewhere and Rani Laxmi Bai was left to rule Jhansi alone.

• During this time her qualities were demonstrated as she was able to swiftly and efficiently lead her troops against skirmishes breaking out in and around Jhansi. After the British regained their foothold in the revolt and marched towards Jhansi the Queen was prepared to plunge into a ‘Do or Die’ battle for freedom.

• The fight went on for four days. The British were only 1,540 in the field against an army of 20,000 rebel soldiers under the l leadership of Tatya Tope, a friend and mentor of the Queen and one of the generals in the rebel army. 

• The British soldiers were better trained and organised, so the defence of the fort fell. Rani Laxmi Bai was advised to leave the fort. She left the fort on horseback with her son tied to her back, along with her trusted aides to join the rest of the rebel force, some 150 kilometres from Jhansi. This ride was not an easy feat even for a man. She met with other leaders (Tantia Tope, the Nawab of Banda, and Rao Sahib) of the revolt and again trained and formed a battalion for war. To fulfil her goal of gaining freedom from the British and win in the war she needed a formidable fort.

Fight to Gwalior

• The Gwalior fort, a few kilometres from Jhansi was one such fort. She made an ambitious and daring plan to conquer the fort. Magically she succeeded in her goal. The Maharaja of Gwalior was a friend of the British. A few days after capturing the fort the British army attacked and recaptured the fort and Rani had to flee, fighting her way through the enemy lines. 

• She had her adopted son tied to her back, a sword in each hand and the reins of the horse in her mouth, but the Britishers were catching up fast. Rani suffered fatal wounds, but she still managed to ride her horse to a secluded place. She found an Devotee at a temple, who recognised her. 

The Place where Rani Laxmi Bai Jumped on horse back with her son

• She handed her son to a trusted general and she breathed her last breath on 18 June 1857. The Queen did not want the British to find her body, so she was cremated in haste, in the hut of the devotee. The British could not find the Rani’s 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".

• Twenty years after her death Colonel Malleson wrote in the History of the Indian Mutiny '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, We cannot forget her contribution for India. 

Songs and poems

• A number of patriotic songs have been written about the Rani. The most famous composition about Rani Lakshmi Bai is the Hindi poem Jhansi ki Rani written by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan. An emotionally charged description of the life of Rani Lakshmibai, it is often taught in schools in India. A popular stanza from it reads (Written by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan)

बुंदेले हरबोलों के मुँह हमने सुनी कहानी थी,

खूब लड़ी मर्दानी वह तो झाँसी वाली रानी थी।।

Movie adaption

• Number of movie & TV serial adaption has been made. The Latest is "Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi" (2019), a Hindi film starring Kangana Ranaut as Rani Lakshmibai.