When this freedom fighter of Dalit society killed the detachment of East India Company

The incident is of 16 November 1857. The place was Sikandar Bagh of Lucknow. It was here that while passing through a Peepal tree, a soldier of the East India Company was suddenly shot. He fell down injured. Then the second and third soldiers fell. The company’s troops stopped. When any of them tried to move forward, he would be shot. Soon the number of soldiers who were piled up reached 36. There was panic in the whole troop.

By Parag sharma

Troop commander Colin Campbell was puzzled as to where the shots at his soldiers were coming from. There was no one to be seen around. When asked the doctor engaged in the treatment of the injured, he told that bullets are visible in the soldiers’ bodies from top to bottom. Maybe bullets are raining from the sky. Upon hearing this, Campbell ordered the soldiers to shoot at the peepal tree. The firing started and from above a bleeding woman fell on the ground. This same woman had killed three dozen soldiers one after the other.

The name of this brave woman who fell on the ground was Uda Devi, who was from the Dalit Pasi community. Every person in their society was declared criminal by the British by the Criminal Tribes Act. After the martyrdom of her husband, Uda Devi formed an army of Dalit women for the freedom struggle after meeting the Begum of Awadh, Hazrat Mahal. He has a statue in Sikandar Bagh, Lucknow, in a confident walking posture with a rifle in his hand. A fair is held here every year on 16 November. A large number of Dalits and people from other societies come to the fair from West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Courtesy : Nav Bharat Times

Note: This news piece was originally published in navbharattimes.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights.