Dhondu Pant,
better known as Nana Sahib, popularly recognised
as a great freedom fighter, was born in 1824,
and what happened to him after 1857 is a mystery
yet unraveled. Narayan Bhatt and Ganga Bai were
his parents. In 1827 his parents went to the court
of the last Peshwa Baji Rao. On 7 June Nana Sahib
was adopted by Baji Rao, and thus he became heir-presumptive
to the throne. Nana Sahib was well educated. He
studied Sanskrit but had no Western education.
He subscribed to all the leading Anglo- Indian
journals which were translated to him daily by
an individual. He was married to a cousin of the
Chief of Sangli.
Tantia Tope was an intimate friend of Nana Sahib
from childhood. Rani Laxmi Bai and Nana Sahib
were extremely fond of each other from their childhood.
Nana had the looks of a warrior, with his head
and face shaven clean. He had an excellent stable
of horses, elephants and camels. His armoury was
stocked with weapons of every age and country.
The Maharaja moved freely in public and graced
by his presence all occasions of festivity and
pomp.
He took great pride in his birth and race. He
never went abroad. He was very fond of entertaining
the English gentry at Kanpur and every now and
then arranged parties in the European style in
his mansion at Bithoor. His generosity endeared
him to the Englishmen who came in contact with
him. They all praised him with one voice for his
generosity and hospitality. His knowledge of English,
however, was scanty.
Nana had no sympathy for the social reforms
introduced by the English. Nana was known for
his deep religious nature and absolutely believed
in the rites and ceremonies of Hinduism. He
was a person of great piety and an orthodox
disposition and had special veneration for the
Ganges. Nana Sahib’s role in the Mutiny
of 1857-58 has been greatly exaggerated by popular
writers and even by some historians. In fact,
he was drawn into the vortex of events much
against his will in the same way as Bahadur
Shah II.
He himself had little inclination to a military
uprising against the British, with whom he was
on the best of terms till the Sepoys rose in revolt
at Kanpur on 4 June 1857. On the death of the
last Peshwa, Baji Rao
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II, in 1851, the Company’s Government
stopped the annual pension and the title but
Nana Sahib was allowed to inherit the savings
of his adoptive father. Nana appealed to the
Court of Directors against this measure and
even sent his agent Azimulla to plead his cause
in England.
But nothing came of it, and for the next six
years Nana Sahib seemed to be apparently reconciled
to the settlement made by the Company’s
Government. He often entertained British officials
at Kanpur, both Civil and Military, and had
no idea of leading any revolt. It was after
the sepoy revolt broke out at Kanpur (4 June
1857) and Nana Sahib’s own soldiers, sent
to the assistance of the British, joined the
rebels that Nana Sahib was virtually forced
by the mutineers to take the lead under threat
of dire consequences if he failed to join them.
It is not necessary here to go into the details
of the mutiny at Kanpur and the role played
by Nana Sahib. After seizing Kanpur, which had
a small British garrison, Nana Sahib proclaimed
himself as the Peshwa and called for the total
extermination of the British power in India.
But he showed little generalship in the fight
against the British. Nor is it clear to what
extent he was personally responsible for the
treacherous murder, near the riverside, of the
besieged Englishmen at Kanpur who had been earlier
guaranteed a safe conduct by Nana Sahib.
The over-confident Nana and his followers did
little to prevent a recapture of Kanpur by the
British under General Havelick. The last serious
engagement (16 July 1857) resulted in a total
rout of Nana’s forces. Nana rode away to
an unknown destination, and the leadership of
the mutineers in that region was assumed by
his devoted follower Tantia Tope.
Numerous letters written by Nana Sahib to the
British after the end of the Mutiny, preserved
in the National Archives at New Delhi, as also
Tantia Tope’s dying declaration reveal
that Nana’s role was neither premediated
nor well-planned, despite the popular myth created
about him since then. Nana fled away to Nepal
at the end of the Mutiny, but nothing is known
of his later life or the time and circumstances
of his death.
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