Tantya Tope
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Ram Chandra Pandurang Tope (1814 - 1859), also known as Tantya Tope (pronounced Toh-pey), was an Indian leader in the Indian rebellion of 1857.
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, Tantya 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.
He was accused by British imperialists for allegedly helping to orchestrate the mass-murder of Hugh Wheeler's entrenchment (mostly consisting of women and children) after promising them safe passage to Allahabad at the Sati Chowra on the Ganges River. Historians believe that this was partly done in retaliation for earlier British atrocities committed at Meerut. However there are British records (diaries of survivors) which indicate that the first shot was fired by the panicky British when the boat men who were supposed to take them to safety refused to ferry them and left the boats. It may be noted that the boat men merely refused to man the boats, but did not damage the boats.
After the reoccupation of Kanpur and separation from Nana Sahib, Tantya Tope shifted his headquarters to Kalpi to join hands with the Rani Lakshmi Bai and led a revolt in Bundelkhand. He was routed at Betwa, Koonch, and Kalpi, but reached Gwalior and declared Nana Sahib as Peshwa with the support of the Gwalior contingent. Before he could consolidate his position he was defeated by Hugh Henry Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn in a memorable battle in which Rani Lakshmi Bai was killed while leading her forces against the British assault on Gwailor.
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 that what he did was for his own motherland and that he had no regrets. He was executed at the gallows on April 18, 1859. There is a statue of Tantya Tope at the site of his execution near the present collectorate in Shivpuri town in Madhya Pradesh.
On 19 June 2007 the Times of India reported that in response to a request from the NGO Bismillah: the Beginning Foundation, 1 lakh Rupees of financial aid was to be provided to his descendants who live in Kanpur.[1]
