When was nana sahib born

Amid the prevailing chaos in Cawnpore, Nana and his forces entered the British magazine situated in the northern part of the town. However, once he entered the magazine, Nana Sahib announced that he was a participant in the rebellion against the Company, and intended to be a vassal of Bahadur Shah II.

After taking possession of the Company treasury, Nana advanced up the Grand Trunk Road stating that he wanted to restore the Maratha confederacy under the Peshwa tradition, and decided to capture Cawnpore. On his way, Nana met the rebel Company soldiers at Kalyanpur. Nana wanted them to go back to Cawnpore, and help him defeat the British. The soldiers were reluctant at first, but decided to join Nana when he promised to double their pay and reward them with gold, if they were to destroy the British entrenchment.

Nana Saheb with his escort. Nana Saheb was well educated. He studied Sanskrit and was known for his deep religious nature. Nana Saheb's appeal to the Court of Directors was not accepted.

This made him hostile towards the British rulers. At this point a shot was fired possibly from the high banks and the Indian boatmen jumped overboard and started swimming toward the banks. During their jump, some of the cooking fires were knocked off, setting some of the boats ablaze. Though controversy surrounds what exactly happened next at the Satichaura Ghat, and it is unknown who fired the first shot, the departing European were attacked by the rebel sepoys, and most either killed or captured.

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. Some historians believe that the Satichaura Ghat massacre was the result of confusion, and not of any plan implemented by Nana and his associates.

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.

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. Around 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.

The British were initially wounded with the guns, and then killed with the swords. The women and children were taken to Savada House to be reunited with their remaining colleagues. The surviving women and children, around in number, were moved from the Savada House to Bibighar "the House of the Ladies" , a villa-type house in Cawnpore. 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 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, British, 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 Neill. However, the Company forces advanced relentlessly towards Cawnpore.

Nana sent an army to check their advance, and the two armies met at Fattehpore 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 16 July, Havelock's forces started advancing to Cawnpore. During the Battle of Aong, Havelock was able to capture some of the rebel soldiers, who informed him that there was an army of 5, rebel soldiers with 8 artillery pieces further up the road.

Havelock decided to launch a flank attack on this army, but the rebel soldiers spotted the flanking manoeuvre and opened fire. The battle resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, but cleared the road to Cawnpore for the Company forces. By this time, it became clear that the Company forces were approaching Cawnpore, and Nana's bargaining attempts had failed. Nana was informed that the British troops led by Havelock and Neill were committing violence against the Indian villagers.

Nana, and his associates, including Tatya Tope and Azimullah Khan , debated about what to do with the captives at Bibighar. Some of Nana's advisers had already decided to kill the captives at Bibighar, as revenge for the murders of Indians by the advancing British forces. The women of Nana's household opposed the decision and went on a hunger strike, but their efforts were in vain. Finally, on 15 July, an order was given to kill the women and children imprisoned at Bibighar.

Although some Company historians stated that the order for the massacre was given by Nana, the details of the incident, such as who ordered the massacre, remain unclear. According to some sources, Azimullah Khan ordered the killings of women and children at Bibighar, while some believe a Begum or slave-girl or mistress of Nana ordered the killings. At first, the rebel sepoys refused to obey the order to kill women and children.

When they were threatened with execution for dereliction of duty some of them agreed to remove the women and children from the courtyard. Nana left the building because he did not want to be a witness to the unfolding massacre. The women and children were ordered to come out of the assembly rooms, but they refused to do so. The rebel soldiers then started firing through the holes in the boarded windows.

After the first round of firing, the soldiers were disturbed by the cries of the captives, and adamantly refused to fire at the women and children.

An angry Begum Hussaini Khanum termed the sepoys' act as cowardice, and asked her lover Sarvur Khan to finish the job of killing the captives. Sarvur Khan hired some butchers, who murdered the surviving women and children with cleavers.

The butchers left, when it seemed that all the captives had been killed. However, a few women and children had managed to survive by hiding under the other dead bodies. It was agreed that the bodies of the victims would be thrown down a dry well by some sweepers. The next morning, when the rebels arrived to dispose of the bodies, they found that three women and three children aged between four and seven years old were still alive. The surviving women were cast into the well by the sweepers who had also been told to strip the bodies of the murder victims.

The sweepers then threw the three little boys into the well one at a time, the youngest first. Some victims, among them small children, were therefore buried alive in a heap of corpses.

The Company forces reached Cawnpore on 16 July 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 Cawnpore magazine, abandoned the place, and retreated to Bithoor. When the British soldiers came to know about the Bibighar massacre, they indulged in retaliatory violence, including looting and burning of houses.

British forces murdered all the villagers of the Bithoor mercilessly.