1857 Tatya Tope 1080p
Pa Blood
After the rebellion in Cawnpore (Kanpur) broke out on 5 June 1857, Nana Saheb became the leader of the rebels. When the British forces at Cawnpore surrendered on 25 June 1857, Nana was declared Peshwa in late June.[5] After a defeat, Nana's troops had to withdraw to Bithur, after which Havelock crossed the Ganges and retreated to Awadh.[5] Tantia Tope began to act in Nana Saheb's name from Bithur.
Tantia Tope was one of the leaders of the massacre of Cawnpore, which occurred on 27 June 1857. Afterwards, Tope held a good defensive position until he was driven out by the British force on 16 July 1857. Afterward, he was defeated by General Cyrill in the Second Battle of Cawnpore, which started on 19 November 1857 and continued for seventeen days. Tope and his army were defeated when the British counterattacked under Sir Colin Campbell.[6] Tope and other rebels fled the scene and had to take shelter with the Rani of Jhansi, while aiding her as well.
Even after the Revolt of 1857 was put down by the British, Tantia Tope continued resistance as a guerrilla fighter in the jungles.[8] He induced the state forces to rebel against the Raja and was able to replace the artillery he had lost at the Banas River. Tope then took his forces towards Indore, but was pursued by the British, now commanded by General John Michel as he fled towards Sironj. Tope, accompanied by Rao Saheb, decided to divide their combined forces so that he could make his way to Chanderi with a bigger force, and Rao Saheb, on the other hand, with a smaller force to Jhansi. However, they combined again in October and suffered yet another defeat at Chhota Udaipur.
On 18 April 1859, the day of his execution, Tatya Tope wanted to wear a white kurta pyjama and meet his fellow freedom fighters. The authorities refused his request. But finally, they relented on one point and allowed one of the key leaders of the 1857 revolt to choose his clothes for his hanging.
By 27 June 1857, the revolt or First War of Independence had reached Kanpur, a garrison town for the East India Company armies. Then British General Hugh Wheeler, who was fluent in Hindi, had adopted local customs and married an Indian woman, was confident that the sepoys under him would not join the fight. Nana Sahib, too, had arrived a month earlier with 300 of his soldiers to support the British. So confident was Wheeler that he even sent two British companies to Lucknow.
By November 1857, Tope had taken command of the rebel forces. He was known for his very effective guerrilla tactics, which he used to disrupt British supply lines and communications. After the British recaptured Kanpur, Tope went on to lead the rebellion in central India and fought several battles against the British forces.
The result is "Operation Red Lotus" (Rupa & Co), a voluminous account of Tope's valour, based on meticulous research, including that of previously-not-accessed historical documents. Parag Tope, the US-based engineer-MBA, has written the engrossing book that deflates the accepted history that Tope was hanged by the British in Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh in 1859, and says that in reality he was killed in action a few months prior to that. Tope discusses Tatya, history writing in India and the book with Deccan Herald's Utpal Borpujari:
Why did you decide to take up the research?
The stories of Tatya Tope and 1857 that we heard growing up had little coherence with what was "officially" taught to us or written as history. This gap
remained in the back of my mind. I used to often discuss history with my siblings whenever we met.
History was a hobby and a passion. In 2006, my sister, Rupa (the psychologist), read in the newspapers about the books that were planned to be released in 2007, the sesquicentennial of 1857. She wondered if the same old tired story was going to be retold and asked me to write this book.
Several members of the current Tope family carried out the research. How difficult was the process?
The process was tedious - in terms of locating information, but not manageable. Rajesh (the doctor), my brother, for example came across the existence of these never before translated Urdu letters written to Tatya Tope. This needed travelling to Shivpuri, Bhopal, etc. We also travelled to various other towns and cities. While it was tedious, we saw it as an opportunity to reunite the scattered Tope family. There was a gathering of all the Topes from far-flung places in April 2007 in Shivpuri. The difficulty was not in research - it was in coming to terms with a jaundiced history written by Indian historians claiming to be objective.
What are the most significant and unknown aspect of Tatya Tope that you unearthed during the research?
The biggest find about Tatya Tope, the person, was an eye-witness account of Tatya Tope's death in the battlefield of Chhipa Barod at 6:30 am on January 1, 1859, by Maj Paget, and English artillery officer, months before he was supposed to have been hanged as per history books.
Does the contradiction between what your research threw up and what is contained in the known history reaffirm your argument that Indian history, especially that of the 1857 war, needs significant reassessment?
Absolutely. I recognise that history is always written with an agenda. The primary problem with the historiography of 1857 is not the rigour or aptitude of those wrote it - but their attitude and predetermination, which betrays an agenda. While we did unearth new content, our reassessment was in the context.
A reassessment of 1857 needed to be done without the "feudal" agenda or the "mutiny" prism or without the "subaltern" or "armed peasant" obsessions. Clearly we had an agenda as well which was to close the gap between what we had "heard" of as history and what was being "told" to us as history.
Do you feel Indian historians have faulted by largely following the English history and not carrying out their own original research into the 1857 war?
There has been plenty of research on 1857, including what would be considered "new" research. The problem lies not in the research and the aptitude of the work, but the tone and the attitude of the scholars. Semantics also changed. The "Oriental Despot" became the "Feudal." Words such as "dotard", "wicked", "worthless", "vexatious", "petty", "ill tempered" were used freely to describe Indian leaders. Hardly scholarly. The "mutiny" paradigm changed to a "civil rebellion" or an "armed peasant" to force fit 1857 into Karl Marx's ideas. The "subaltern" view of 1857 forced a narrow and emotional view on 1857 to transform the "mutiny" into a "religious" war. Historiography of 1857 remained a collection of incoherent and incomplete and illogical presentation of the events.
The current generation is hardly interested in knowing about past heroes like Tatya Tope, except in what they require to know as part of their educational curricula. Comment?
Indian history particularly that of 1857, that is taught in schools is built on a foundation of a false paradigm that punishes the mind and demotivates those who are exposed to it. Tatya Tope is mentioned as a hero, but none of his stories are consistent with the label. Operation Red Lotus demonstrates that India, today, remains a nation because of the leaders of 1857 and Tatya Tope, especially his resurgent campaign during late 1858 that revived the spirit of freedom.
Ramachandra Pandurang Tope, also known as Tantia Tope, Tatya Tope or Tantia Topi, was one of the most notable Indian freedom fighters and a general in the Rebellion of 1857. Even with no formal military training, he was one of the effective fighters.
He was hanged to death on April 18, 1859 by the British rulers. advertisementOn his 158th death anniversary, here are some interesting facts about the leader, better known as Tantia Tope:
- Born in 1814 in Nashik, Maharashtra, Tantia Tope was the only son of Pandurang Rao Tope and his wife Rukhmabai
- Tantia Tope was an intimate friend and the right hand of Nana Sahib, the adopted son of Peshwa
- In May 1857, Tantia Tope won the battle over the Indian troops of the East India Company at Kanpur
- He was the Indian leader in the Rebellion of 1857
- He was known for his guerilla tactics, which scared the British
- He forced General Windham to retreat from the city of Gwalior
- He collaborated with Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi to seize Gwalior
- Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi was Tantia's childhood playmate. He cremated her body and performed the last rites when she was killed by a sword
- He fought 150 battles against the British during his life span and demolished 10,000 British soldiers
- Man Singh, a former Sardar in the Gwalior army, betrayed Tatia Tope's trust by falling prey to the 'Jagir' and the proposals offered by the Englishmen
- Tantia Tope was defeated by Sir Colin Campbell (later Baron Clyde) on December 6, 1857
- He was hanged on April 18, 1859, in General Meade's camp at Shivpuri.
Tantia tope was Born in a Yeola of Nashik District, Maharashtra), he was the only son of Pandurang Rao Tope and his wife Rukhmabai. In 1851, when James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie deprived Nana Sahib of his father's pension, Tatya Tope also became a sworn enemy of the British.
Tatya Tope was Nana Sahib's close associate and general. During the Siege of Cawnpore in 1857, Nana Sahib's forces attacked the British entrenchment at Kanpur in June 1857. The low supplies of food, water and medicine added to the misery of the British Forces who accepted Nana Sahib offer of safe passage to Allahabad.
dd2b598166