Tantya Tope

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Tatya Tope

A photo of Tatya Tope, said to have been the 1857 revolution's best
general, after his capture in 1859.

Alternate name(s): Tatya Tope, Tatya Tope

Date of birth: 1814

Place of birth: Yeola

Date of death: 18 April 1859

Place of death: Shivpuri

Movement: First War of Indian Independence

Ramachandra Pandurang Tope (1814 - 18 April 1859), also known as Tatya Tope
(pronounced Toh-pey), was an Indian leader in the First War of Indian Independence of 1857
and one of its finest generals. He was a personal adherent of Nana Sahib of Kanpur. He
progressed with the Gwalior contingent after the British reoccupation of Kanpur and forced
General Windham to retreat from Kanpur. Later on, he came to the rescue of Rani Laxmi Bai.
However he was only defeated by General Napier's British Indian troops, after betrayal by his
trusted friend Man Singh. He was executed by the British Government at Shivpuri on 18 April
1859.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Early life
 2 Fight against the British
 3 Capture and Death
 4 Legacy
 5 References
 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Born in village Yeola in Maharashtra, he was the only son of Pandurang Rao Tope and his wife
Rukhmabai, an important noble at the court of the Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao II. His father shifted
his family with the Peshwa to Bithur where his son became the most intimate friend of the
Peshwa's adopted son, Nana Dhondu Pant (known as Nana Sahib) and Maharaja Madhav
Singhji.

In 1851, when Lord Dalhousie deprived Nana Sahib of his father's pension, Tatya Tope also
became a sworn enemy of the British. In May 1857, when the political storm was gaining
momentum, he won over the Indian troops of the East India Company, stationed at Kanpur
(Cawnpore), established Nana Sahib's authority and became the Commander-in-Chief of his
forces.

[edit] Fight against the British

Tantia Tope's Soldiery
Main article: Siege of Cawnpore

Nana Sahib's forces attacked the British entrenchment in June, 1857. General Wheeler's
contingent incurred heavy losses as a result of successive bombardments, sniper fire, and assault.
The slow supplies of food, water and medicine added to the misery of the British Forces who
decided to surrender, in return for a safe passage to Allahabad. Nana Sahib agreed to this and
made arrangements as best as he could. At the Satichaura ghat, rebel sepoys not under Nana
Sahibs command attacked the departing British troops to settle old scores. General Wheelers men
were either killed or captured. The surviving British women and children were moved from the
Savada House to Bibighar ("the House of the Ladies"), a villa-type house in Kanpur. British
retaliation occurred as Company forces started approaching Kanpur, and Nana Sahib's bargaining
attempts failed (in exchange for hostages). Nana Sahib was informed that the British troops led
by Havelock and Neill had indulged in violence against Indian villagers and were continuing
with this violence as a 'tactic' .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, in retaliation for the murders of
Indians by the advancing British forces. Some sepoys were ordered to kill the women and
children who were being held, but they refused. The task of the slaughter was carried out by two
or three butchers from the town aided by others unknown. Three women and three children
survived by hiding under the corpses of their friends. When discovered they were thrown alive
into a well along with the deceased. The details of the incident, such as who ordered the
massacre, are not clear as no 'real' records exist.

[edit] Capture and Death

After losing Gwalior to the British, Tope launched a successful guerrilla campaign in the Sagar
and Narmada regions and in Khandesh and Rajasthan. The British forces failed to subdue him for
over a year. He was, however, betrayed into the hands of the British by his trusted friend Man
Singh, Chief of Narwar, while asleep in his camp in the Paron forest. He was defeated and
captured on 7 April 1859 by British General Richard John Meade's troops and taken to Shivpuri
where he was tried by a military court.
Tope admitted the charges brought before him saying that he was answerable to his master
Peshwa alone. He was executed at the gallows on April 18, 1859. There is a statue of Tatya Tope
at the site of his execution near the present collectorate in Shivpuri town in Madhya Pradesh.

[edit] Legacy
But the day after his hanging, The Times published its report of the popular hero’s hanging (”a
great scramble was made by officers and others to get a lock of hair”), it editorially eulogized*
Topi with the gusto of victor catching, perhaps, the foreshadow of Indian resistance awaiting in
generations still to come.[1]

He raised armies as fast as we could disperse them, took up one position after
“ another to our infinite annoyance, and led us a chace which, despite of unexampled
efforts on the part of our soldiers, seemed to be really endless. Our troops pursued
him without intermission, contrived more than once to surprise him, repeatedly
captured his artillery and scattered his troops, but could never deprive him entirely
of followers or guns. He seemed to summon forces from the earth as if by magic. As
the pursuit grew hotter and hotter he mounted his men on ponies and camels, and
marched, it is said, at the average rate of 60 miles a-day. Wherever we found him he
had always cavalry and guns, and these he posted with remarkable skill. ”
Be it remembered that for half a century we had been training soldiers, and that in
“ Bengal alone there were 150,000 natives under arms when this revolt broke out.
Now, in all this enormous host there was not a single man who, when the bonds of
allegiance and discipline were abruptly removed, displayed the intuitive capacities
of a military commander. … The two years of the revolt, with all their opportunities,
never produced one native General. … One man alone reproduced the old Indian
character, and that man was TANTIA TOPE — an obscure civilian, without place or
power. He, by the light of nature alone, discerned the strong points of the rebels’
position and our own weak points. By the exercise of that faculty with which heroes
are gifted he could always, even in his most desperate straits, draw followers to his
standard.

Nothing could more forcibly illustrate the reputation which this man had acquired
than the fact that his fate has been attended with some regret … if he had not met his
match in those opposed to him he might have founded a dynasty. ”
Writes Colonel G.B. Malleson [2], eloquently in "The Indian Mutiny of 1857" -

Tántiá Topí was a marvellous guerilla warrior. In pursuit of him, Brigadier Parke
“ had marched, consecutively, 240 miles in nine days; Brigadier Somerset, 230 in nine ”
days, and, again, seventy miles in forty-eight hours; Colonel Holmes, through a
sandy desert, fifty-four miles in little over twenty-four hours; Brigadier Honner, 145
miles in four days. Yet he slipped through them all--through enemies watching every
issue of the jungles in which he lay concealed, only to fall at last through the
treachery of a trusted friend. His capture, and the surrender of Mán Singh, finished
the war in Central India. Thenceforth his name only survived