Attack on Wheeler's entrenchment

Nana Saheb with his escort. Steel engraved print of 1860, published in History of the Indian Mutiny

On 5 June 1857, Nana Saheb sent a letter to General Wheeler informing him to expect an attack next morning at 10 am. On 6 June, his forces (including the rebel soldiers) attacked the Company entrenchment at 10:30 am. The Company forces were not adequately prepared for the attack but managed to defend themselves as the attacking forces were reluctant to enter the entrenchment. The Indian forces had been led to believe that the entrenchment had gunpowder-filled trenches that would explode if they got closer.^[4] The Company side held out in their makeshift fort for three weeks with little water and food supplies, and lost many lives due to sunstroke and lack of water.

As the news of advances over the British garrison spread, more rebel sepoys joined Nana Saheb. By 10 June, he was believed to be leading around twelve thousand to fifteen thousand Indian soldiers.^[5] During the first week of the siege, Nana Saheb's forces encircled the attachment, created loopholes and established firing positions from the surrounding buildings. The defending Captain John Moore retaliated and launched night-time sorties. Nana Saheb then withdrew his headquarters to Savada House (or Savada Kothi), which was situated around two miles away. In response to Moore's sorties, Nana Saheb decided to attempt a direct assault on the British entrenchment, but the rebel soldiers displayed a lack of enthusiasm.^[4]

The sniper fire and the bombardment continued until 23 June 1857 One of the driving forces of the rebellion by sepoys, was a prophecy that predicted the downfall of East India Company rule exactly one hundred years after this battle.^[6] This prompted the rebel soldiers under Nana Saheb to launch a major attack on the entrenchment on 23 June 1857. However, they were unable to gain an entry into the entrenchment by the end of the day.

Satichaura Ghat massacre

A contemporary image of the massacre at the Satichaura Ghat

Sati Chaura Ghat (jetty)

On the morning of 27 June, Wheeler's column, consisting primarily of unarmed civilians and including more than 300 women and children, emerged from the entrenchment. Nana sent a number of carts, dolis and elephants to enable the women, the children and the sick to proceed to the river banks. The Company officers and military men were allowed to take their arms and ammunition with them, and were escorted by nearly the whole of the rebel army.^[5] They reached the Satichaura Ghat by 8 am. At this ghat, Nana Saheb had arranged around 40 boats, belonging to a boatman called Hardev Mallah, for their departure to Allahabad.^[7] However, Nana Saheb's rebels had deliberately placed the boats as high in the mud as possible to delay the boarding, and the Europeans found it difficult to drift the boats away.^[8] Wheeler and his party were the first aboard and the first to manage to set their boat adrift. At this point three shots were fired from the direction of Nana Saheb's camp, which was the signal to initiate the attack. The Indian boatmen jumped overboard and started swimming toward the banks. However, according to Mowbray Thompson, one of the few survivors of the massacre, before the boatmen jumped overboard they had "contrived to secrete burning charcoal in the thatch of most of the boats", which set some of the boats ablaze.^[9] Though controversy surrounds what exactly happened next at the Satichaura Ghat, the departing Europeans were attacked by the rebel sepoys, and most of were either killed or captured.^[5]

Some of the Company officers later claimed that Nana had placed the boats as high in the mud as possible, on purpose to cause delay. They also claimed that Nana had previously arranged for the rebels to fire upon and kill all the Europeans. Although the East India Company later accused Nana of betrayal and murder of innocent people, no definitive evidence has ever been found to prove that Nana had pre-planned or ordered the massacre.^[10] Some historians believe that the Satichaura Ghat massacre was the result of confusion, and not of any plan implemented by Nana and his associates.^[11] Nevertheless, the fact that sniper fire from cannons pre-positioned along the riverbank was reported on the scene might suggest pre-planning.

Whatever the case, amid the prevailing confusion at the Satichaura Ghat, Nana's general Tatya Tope allegedly ordered the 2nd Bengal Cavalry unit and some artillery units to open fire on the Europeans.^[4] The rebel cavalry sowars moved into the water to kill the remaining Company soldiers with swords and pistols. The surviving men were killed, while women and children were captured, as Nana did not approve of their killing.^[12] Around 120 women and children were taken prisoner and escorted to Savada House, Nana Saheb's headquarters during the siege.

The rebel soldiers also pursued Wheeler's boat, which was slowly drifting to safer waters. After some firing, the European men on the boat decided to fly the white flag. They were escorted off the boat and taken back to Savada house. The surviving men were seated on the ground, as Nana's soldiers got ready to kill them. The women insisted that they would die with their husbands, but were pulled away. Nana granted the British chaplain Moncrieff's request to read prayers before they were killed.^[13] The British were initially wounded with the guns, and then killed with the swords.^[5] The women and children were taken to Savada House to be reunited with their remaining colleagues.

Bibighar massacre

The surviving women and children, around 120 in number, were moved from the Savada House to Bibighar ("the House of the Ladies"), a villa-type house in Kanpur. They were later joined by some other women and children, the survivors from Wheeler's boat. Another group of women and children from Fatehgarh, and some other captive women were also confined in Bibighar. In total, there were around 200 women and children there.

Nana Saheb deputed a tawaif (nautch girl) called Hussaini Khanum (also known as Hussaini Begum) to care for these survivors. He decided to use these prisoners in bargaining with the East India Company. The Company forces consisting of around 1,000 British, 150 Sikh soldiers and 30 irregular cavalry had set out from Allahabad, under the command of General Henry Havelock, to retake Cawnpore and Lucknow. Havelock's forces were later joined by the forces under the command of Major Renaud and James Neil. Nana demanded that the East India Company forces under Havelock and Neil retreat to Allahabad. However, the Company forces advanced relentlessly towards Cawnpore. Nana sent an army to check their advance, and the two armies met at Futtehpore on 12 July, where General Havelock's forces emerged victorious and captured the town.

Nana then sent another force under the command of his brother, Bala Rao. On 15 July, the British forces under General Havelock defeated Bala Rao's army in the Battle of Aong. On 16 July, Havelock's forces started advancing to Kanpur.

Nana Sahib, and his associates, including Tatya Tope and Azimullah Khan, debated about what to do with the captives at Bibighar. Some of Nana Sahib's advisors had already decided to kill the captives at Bibighar, as revenge for the executions of Indians by the advancing British forces. The women of Nana Sahib's household opposed the decision and went on a hunger strike, but their efforts went in vain.^[14]

Recapture of Kanpur by the British

"Futtehpore, the scene of the late engagement between General Havelock and Nana Sahib," from the Illustrated London News, 1857

The Company forces reached Kanpur on 16 July 1857. General Havelock was informed that Saheb had taken up a position at the Ahirwa village. His forces launched an attack on Nana's forces, and emerged victorious. Nana then blew up the Kanpur magazine, abandoned the place, and retreated to Bithur. The women and children imprisoned in the Bibighar were all massacred with appalling violence. When the British soldiers came to know about the Bibighar massacre, they indulged in retaliatory violence, including looting and burning of houses.^[4][15]

Provenance: This sword belonged to the Nana who was held responsible by the British for the massacre at Kanpur during the Indian mutiny in 1857, it subsequently passed into the ownership of Brigadier Major Henry Templer who commanded the 7th Regiment Bengal Infantry.

On 19 July, General Havelock resumed operations at Bithur, though Nana Saheb had already escaped. Major Stevenson led a group of Madras Fusiliers and Sikh soldiers to Bithoor and occupied Nana Sahib's palace without any resistance.^[16] The British troops seized guns, elephants and camels, and set Nana Sahib's palace on fire.^[17] Very few relics of Nana Saheb are known but a silver mounted sword seems to be one of the more interesting. Many British search parties tried to capture Nana Saheb but all failed to prevent his escape. A detachment of the 7th Bengal Infantry came very near to capturing him but he managed to escape just in time. In his hurry, he left this sword on the table, where he had been dining. Major Templer (later Major General) of the 7th Bengal Infantry brought home the sword. In the 1920s, the family loaned it to the Exeter Museum, until 1992 when it was sold at auction. The present whereabouts of this sword are unknown.

Nepal connection

By 1859, Nana was reported to have fled to Nepal.^[19] Perceval Landon recorded that Nana Sahib lived out his days in western Nepal, in Thapa Teli, near Ririthang, under the protection of Sir Jang Bahadur Rana, the Prime Minister of Nepal. His family also received protection, in Dhangara, eastern Nepal, in exchange for precious jewels.^[20] In February 1860, the British were informed that Nana's wives had taken refuge in Nepal, where they resided in a house close to Thapathali. Nana himself was reported to be living in the interior of Nepal.^[21] Some early government records maintained that he died in Nepal after a tiger attacked him during a hunt on 24 September 1859 but other record differs on the matter.^[22] Nana's ultimate fate was never known.

Venkateshwar, a Brahmin interrogated by the British, disclosed that he met Nana Saheb in Nepal in 1861.^[22] Up until 1888 there were rumours and reports that he had been captured and a number of individuals turned themselves in to the British claiming to be the aged Nana. As these reports turned out to be untrue further attempts at apprehending him were abandoned. There were also reports of him being spotted in Constantinople (now Istanbul).

Sihor connection

Two letters and a diary retrieved in the 1970s accounted that he lived as an ascetic, Yogindra Dayanand Maharaj, in Sihor in coastal Gujarat until his death in 1903. Harshram Mehta, the Sanskrit teacher of Nana Saheb, was addressed in the two letters probably written by him in Old Marathi and in black ink dated 1856 and signed Baloo Nana. The third document is the diary of Kalyanji Mehta, brother of Harshram. In Old Gujarati, the diary records arrival of Nana Saheb to Sihor with his colleagues after failure of rebellion. Kalyanji had raised Shridhar, son of Nana Saheb changing his name to Giridhar, as his own son and got him married in Sihori Brahmin family. His diary also records death of Nana Saheb in 1903 in Dave Sheri, Kalyanji's house in Sihor. The place still displays some articles of him. Keshavlal Mehta, son of Giridhar, recovered these documents in the 1970s and his descendants still live in town.^[22]

The authenticity of documents was accepted by G.N. Pant, former director of the National Museum, in 1992 but the official recognition was never given.^[22]

Belsare's account

K. V. Belsare's book on the Maharashtrian saint Brahmachaitanya Gondavlekar Maharaj claims that after the lost battle, Nana Saheb went to Naimisharanya, the Naimisha Forest in the vicinity of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, where he met Brahmachaitanya maharaj, who assured him safety. He lived there from 1860 until his death in 1906. According to the book, he died between 30 October to 1 November 1906 and Shri Brahmachaitanya maharaj performed his last rites.^[23] The authenticity of the claims in the book is not established.

Initially Nanasaheb was very much upset from losing the kingdom in battle with the British. But Shri Gondavalekar Maharaj explained to him the "Wish of God". He said, "It is very sad that Nanasaheb had to lose the battle and the kingdom in such a tragic way, but fighting with the British is totally different than fighting with Mughals. People from the middle class who know the British language will lead the next freedom war against British. Soon they will come into the picture. Your role as King or warrior has finished, and now you need to focus on the 'internal war'." Initially it was very difficult for him to accept this fact, but slowly, Nanasaheb accepted this and made progress on the path to God.^[24]

After the independence of India in 1947, Nana was hailed as a freedom fighter, and the Nana Rao Park in Kanpur was constructed in honour of Nana and his brother, Bala Rao.