Heritage Gwalior - 1857 - First Mutiny For Independence

Jayaji Rao Scindia was quite young, 22, when the first mutiny for Indian Independence from British Raj took place. By this time the Scindias, with their anglicized last name, were completely submissive and even collaborators to the British. At the same time there was another young person, who was spearheading the fight for independence. She was the princess of Jhansi, the brave heart Rani Laxmi Bai. Jhansi, which is about 100km. away from Gwalior, was a Maratha kingdom, ruled by Raja Gangadhar Rao, to whom Laxmi Bai was married. After Raja's demise in 1853, the British forcibly annexed Jhansi into its territory under the pretext that their son was adopted and could not claim the throne. Laxmi Bai was given a stipend and was asked to leave the palace and the Fort of Jhansi. But the British did not consider the Rani as any kind of threat and did not pay much attention to Jhansi after that. Rani took advantage of this, and inspired by the Rebellion of 1957, decided to bring Jhansi out of the clutches of the British. By the time the British took notice of the rising dissent, Rani had assembled a strong army and was forging her own cannons to fight for Jhansi. When the British forces arrived in 1958 under Hugh Rose, and demanded surrender, Rani proclaimed Independence of Jhansi. 

On March 24th when Hugh Rose besieged Jhansi and started bombarding it, Rani asked Tatya Tope for help. He came with an army of 20000 but the British continued bombarding the city of Jhansi mercilessly and thus on April 2nd Rani decided to flee to stop the attack on Jhansi. She tied her son Damodar Rao on her back and fled on her legendary horse named Pawan. She joined Tatya's army and together they took over Kalpi. But the British immediately attacked Kalpi on May 22nd and the Indian forces were again defeated. The leaders then fled to Gwalior intending to capture the strategic Gwalior Fort. On June 16th General Rose's army captured Morar, an outskirt area of Gwalior, and then attacked the city. On June 17th in Kotah-ki-Serai near the Phool Bagh of Gwalior, a squadron of the 8th (King's Royal Irish) Hussars, under Captain Heneage, fought the large Indian force commanded by Rani Lakshmibai which was trying to leave the area. The 8th Hussars charged into the Indian force, killing many Indian soldiers, taking two guns and continuing the charge right through the Phool Bagh encampment. In this engagement, according to an eyewitness account, Rani Lakshmibai put on a sowar's uniform and attacked one of the hussars; she was unhorsed, fired at him with a pistol, and also wounded, probably by his sabre, followed by a fatal shot from his carbine. According to another tradition Rani Lakshmibai, the Queen of Jhansi, dressed as a cavalry leader, was badly wounded; not wishing the British to capture her body, she told a hermit to burn it. After her death a few local people cremated her body. The British captured the city of Gwalior after three days.

This spot still has a historic ashram right next to it. It is a common belief that the spiritual guru Gangadas of that ashram gave shelter to Rani in her last hours/days and eventually did her funeral. 

The ashram houses Rani’s last armor, sword etc which is kept in a safe locker in the ashram and can be seen if you are able to impress the ashram head.