Portal:Uttar Pradesh/Selected biography/2007
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These biographies have appeared on the Portal:Uttar Pradesh page in 2007.
* Portal Started on 14 November 2007.
November
Mangal Pandey (c. July 19, 1827–8 April 1857) (Hindi: मंगल पांडे), also known as Shaheed Mangal Pandey (Shaheed means martyr in Urdu), was a sepoy (soldier) in the 34th Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) of the English East India Company.
Pandey was born in the village of Nagwa in district Ballia Uttar Pradesh. Families in Nagwa village claim Mangal Pandey to be their first ancestor and trace their family lineage to him. There is some dispute over his exact place of birth. One account (Misra, 2005) claims that Mangal Pandey was born in a Bhumihar Brahmin family to Divakar Pandey of Surhupur village of Faizabad district’s Akbarpur Tehsil. He joined the British East India Company forces in 1849 at the age of 22, as per this account. Pandey was part of the 5th Company of the 34th BNI regiment. He is primarily known for attacking his British officers in an incident that sparked what is known to the British as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and to Indians as the First War of Indian Independence.
December
Nana Sahib (born 1824), born as Dhondu Pant, was an Indian leader during the rebellion of 1857.
Nana Sahib was born as Dhondu Pant in 1824 to Narayan Bhatt and Ganga Bai. In 1827, he was adopted by the Maratha Peshwe Baji Rao II. Baji Rao II was exiled to Bithoor (near Kanpur) by the East India Company. Nana Sahib was brought up in Bithoor.
Nana Sahib's close associates included Tantya Tope and Azimullah Khan.
On June 5 1857, at the time of rebellion by the East India Company at Kanpur, the British contingent had taken refuge at an entrenchment in the southern part of the town. Amid the prevailing chaos in Kanpur, Nana Sahib and his forces entered the British magazine situated in the northern part of the town. The soldiers of the 53rd Native Infantry, which was guarding the magazine, thought that Nana Sahib had come to guard the magazine on behalf of the British. However, once he entered the magazine, Nana Sahib announced that he was a participant in the rebellion against the British, and intended to be a vassal of Bahadur Shah II.
