The Rebels' General

Tatya Tope

(1814 – 1859)

The most competent general leading the rebels in The Revolt of 1857 or the First War of Indian Independence. A terrifying character who made the British officers shudder with fear hearing his name. Tatya Tope fought more than 150 battles and played a foremost role in initiating the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Tatya Tope was a Maratha Brahmin, born as Ram Chandra Pandurang in Yeswale, Maharashtra in 1814 to Pandurang Rao Tope who was a noble at the court of Peshwa Baji Rao II. The Maratha kingdom fell in 1818; the family moved to Bithur along with the hapless Peshwa where Ram Chandra Pandurang became a close acquaintance to Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Peshwa. Nana Saheb possessed a dynamic character unlike his father who chose to live suitably with the British pension. Lord Dalhousie was the then Governor of India and was far more repressive than his forerunners. He looted India’s wealth, robbed palaces and brought Christian missionaries with a solemn aim to disregard the culture of the country.

In 1851, Lord Dalhousie deprived Nana Sahib of his father’s pension turning both Nana Sahib and Tatya Tope into sworn foes of the British. Tatya Tope urged the already discontent people to drive the oppressive British out of India. He organised Indian ‘sepoys’ in various regiments across India to rise in revolt at once on 31 May 1857. However, two months before the date an unplanned revolt erupted in the lead of Mangal Pandey following the introduction of Enfield rifle with greased cartridges. The sepoys had been issued with a new rifle, the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket, where the soldier had to bite off its end of a greased cartridge before loading the powder into its muzzle. The Indian sepoys were disturbed as the grease which was used to seal the cartridge was made from animal fat – cow which was sacred for Hindus and pork which was sacred for Muslims. The sepoys saw it as an intentional tactic by the British to undermine their religious beliefs and hurt their sacred sentiments. Mangal Pandey staged a one-man rebellion insisting his fellow sepoys to murder the first Britisher they saw. The British called the uprising The Sepoy Mutiny; however, for Indians it was the First War of Indian Independence or The Revolt of 1857.

In May 1857, Tatya Tope defeated the Indian troops of the East India Company posted at Kanpur and became the Commander in Chief of Nana Saheb’s revolutionary forces. He stormed the forces of General Havelock who were marching from Kanpur to Lucknow deploying his infamous ‘Guerrilla’ techniques. He then moved to Kalpi capturing the fortress which he turned to a garage to manufacture arms. He seized a number of forts before he won over the Scindhia regiment at Morar over his side of revolution. The next British official to fall prey to Taty’a defeat was Major Windham where he was defeated on the banks of Pandu. Tatya Tope’s name had by then reached Europe and became a terror in England. He became an invincible spirit of India vitalising people to breathe the air of freedom. The British retook Kanpur in July 1857 and Tatya Tope moved his military headquarters to Kalpi. He continued on his mission by winning over native kings and princes to his side of rebellion. He reached Gwalior enflaming another revolt; Tatya joined hands with Rani Lakshmi Bai leading a rebellion in Bundelkand where she attained martyrdom.

He was defeated by General Rose in a battle before he could consolidate his position in Gwalior. He launched ‘Guerrilla’ campaigns aligning and realigning with many Rajas in Khandesh and Rajasthan and defended the territories for about a year. He battled near Sanganir, Chotta Udaipur and other places quickly reforming after every war. The British launched a mammoth search for Tatya Tope for months and the lion was caged while asleep in his encampment in the Paron forest on 7 April 1859. He was betrayed by his comrade and Chief of Narwar, Man Singh. He was tried at the military court in Sipri where he jeered, “I am not your servant. I have obeyed the orders of my Peshwa, who is my master. I have shed no innocent blood. I do not ask for any mercy. Blow me to pieces on the mouth of a cannon or hang me to death from the gallows.” He was executed on 18 April 1859 at the camp of General Meadle in Shivpuri. He was not at all broken even at the time of his death that it was he himself who put the rope round his neck.

Tatya Tope was instrumental in reviving the spirit of freedom among millions by his resurgent campaign during the late 1850’s. He is indubitably a phenomenal persona in the Indian history of Independence Movement.

Jai Hind.