The history of India is full of struggles, there was a time when there was no man on earth who could face pitamah(grandfather) Bhisma. Then came the time that India got into the clutches of Mughal Shahi, Qutb Shahi, Nizam Shahi and Adil Shahi, it seemed that this civilization would end, but under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Indians demonstrated such bravery that there were only traces of Mughal emperor. But then, under the leadership of East India Company, the British took over the whole of India, the rule of the British spread so much that the Sun never set in their reign. They had become the world's largest power, the British took away big business from the Indians and took them in their hands and sold them to the landlords, licensed the moneylenders. The rent and interest began to be charged with great rigidity, the police which was used by the English for the recovery were the sons of the farmers, the army which won the India for British, were also the sons of the Indian farmer. The condition was worsened by the policy of state acquisition by Dalhousie, Darul Islam was replaced by Darul Harb, so Wahabi was also active, but the weapons were with the army and the police, until the Indian army stood against the British, no effort was successful. That day came 10 May 1857, when the Indian army of Meerut, the Meerut police and Meerut farmers together confronted the East India Company's government. After all, what had happened that from a trained soldier to the common man was fighting with the world's most powerful power. The common farmer tied the shroud with his head and stood in Meerut with the army of his country and the police.
At that time, there were two Kotwali in Meerut, one was city Kotwali, second sadar Kotwali. Sadar Kotwali was due to the cantonment which saw the law system of cantt. Area. From Delhi to Meerut and Saharanpur, Dehradun, the area between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers was dominated by three tribe groups Jat, Gujar, Rajput it is even today. These castes were in strong positions both in Hindu and Muslim religions. Under the name of Eastern Parganas was the Gujar Princely State ruled by King Jait Singh Nagar had fought with the Mughals in 1749, as there was no heir, the princes were seized by the British. The son of last king Natha Singh's uncle’s grandson Rao Kadam Singh who lived in the capital of the princely state, fort Parikshit Garh near village puthi . He was looking for a chance to take the princely state from the British rule. Rao Kadam Singh's three brothers were respectively Dalel Singh, Prithi Singh and Devi Singh, and their contact was with Nawab of Najibabad of Bijnor Mahmood Khan. Mahmood Khan was related to Bareilly’s Bakht Khan and Bakht Khan was in contact with Bahadur Shah Zafar in Delhi. Rao Kadam Singh family kinship was Salagram, the chief of village Panchli located Baghpat Road. Salagram had seven sons, their names were respectively Chainsukh, Nainsukh, Hari Singh, Dhan Singh, Mohar Singh, Mairup Singh and Meghraj Singh.Dhan Singh was Salagram's fourth son, born to mother Manbhari on 27 November 1814 Sunday(Samvat 1871kartik poornima)at 6 a.m.Dhan Singh was in police in Meerut's Sadar Kotwali. Rao Kadam Singh wanted his Garhi in village Sikri near Begamabad (latest Modinagar) and Panchli. Now, when the preparation of the revolution was going on, bread and Lotus flower were being distributed to villages as promotion. The date of the revolution was fixed May 31 as Dhansingh was in the police, he knew that it is difficult to get all the work done by the revolutionaries, the British intelligence system will not be sitting on hand with the hand, hence Dhansingh had explained to his ethnic brothers to near his village upto Sikri that they be ready at all times so that when called upon they could gather as soon as possible.
On May 10, 1857, in the background of the important role played by Dhan Singh and his village Panchli’s brothers in the revolution is hidden the story of British injustice and oppression. Dhan Singh Kotwal was from a farmer's family. Dhan Singh's father was the head of the Panchli village, so the British used to punish those villagers who could not pay the rent due to some reason, in the premises of Dhan Singh.
In the month of April, some time before the Revolution of 1857, an incidence forced Dhansingh to stand against the British. According to the popular culture in the village the farmers were busy raising their crops. One day around 10-11 am two British men and one woman waited to rest in a mango garden near this garden three farmers of village Panchli namely Mangat Singh, Narpat Singh and Jhajjar Singh were were engaged in agricultural activities. The British urged them to provide drinking water. There was a conflict in the grazes. These farmers attacked the British, caught an Englishman and a mam. An Englishman managed to escape. The farmers caught the British soldier and tied his hand and feet and put him in hot sand and forcefully make the mam do threshing .Two hours later, the soldier shot back with an English officer and 25-30 soldiers. By then, the farmer who had left the British soldiers, including a sword with golden handle, had run away. The British handed over the responsibility of investigating the incident and handed over the responsibility of handing over the guilty to the government to father of Dhan Singh. It was announced that if the chief did not hand over the three rebels to the government, then the villagers and the chiefs will be given the punishment. Many villagers migrated from the village due to fear.In the end, Narpat Singh and Jhajjad Singh surrendered but Mangatsingh could not be caught. Both farmers were punished with 30 hunter strikes each and eviction from the land. Three members of the family of escaped Mangatsingh were hanged near the village. Dhan Singh's father was sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment for not finding Mangatsingh. So when the revolution on May 10, Dhansinh Kotwal's father was also locked in the same jail in Meerut which he broke at night.
On May 8th in Meerut, the soldiers were seized and imprisoned by the soldiers, who refused to take the cartridges covered by cow and pig fat. Major General WH Hewitt of the Meerut Division had sentenced these arrested soldiers to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Meerut had only two pedestrian regiments of the native soldiers, while there was a full rifle battalion and a dragon regiment of white soldiers, the British had complete control over a good artillery. In this situation, the English were carefree. They were not feeling any danger from the Indian soldiers in Meerut.
The revolution program in Meerut was made with great wisdom. The program was as follows that the invasion of the British should be started immediately after the release of prisoners from jail. When the British is afraid of the sudden strike then the public shall attack the places related to all the British in the city under the leadership of the Police of Meerut. Thereby, the British would not know the center of conflict.
On 10th May, the activities of the Indian soldiers started with the hours of the church. At 6.30 p.m. Indian soldiers killed Colonel Finnish, Commanding Officer of the eleventh regiment and Capt MacDonald, who was in education department of the Twenty-Seven Regiment, was killed and breakout 85 associates from jail.
Kotwal Dhan Singh Gurjar of Sadar Kotwali was immediately active, he immediately sent a soldier to his village Panchli which was only five kilometers away from Kotwali. Sikari village was only 10 kilometers away from Panchli,Immediately the people who were able to fight were gathered and the number of thousands reached with Dhansingh Kotwal's brothers in Sadar Kotwali. Dhansingh Kotwal according to the plan, cleverly ordered the loyal police personnel of the British government to go inside Kotwali and stay the same. Following the order, the faithful policemen of the British remained sitting in Kotwali during the revolutionary incidents. On the other hand, Dhaningsinh Kotwal gave a secret order to the Indian policemen who agreed with revolutionary schemes to play a leading role in the revolution. Consequently, in many places police officers were seen leading the crowd of revolutionaries. According to the legend prevailing in the villages around Meerut, this revolutionary mob broke the jail at 2 am in late night under the leadership of Dhansingh Kotwal and rescued 839 prisoners and set fire to jail. Whatever was related to the British in Meerut city and Cantt had already been destroyed by a crowd of revolutionaries. The revolutionary mob burnt all the establishments related to the British in Meerut, to sabotage the communication system of British they cut the telegraph line, the English rule was over from Meerut, there was no British left, the English had either died or were hidden somewhere.
On May 11, the army reached Delhi and declared Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as the King of India and expelled the British out of Delhi.
On May 11, when the information about the events of the incident in Meerut reached around the area, Jat Zamindar Chaudhary Shahmal Singh of Bijrol village near Baraut, Rajput Thakur of Aklapura near Sardhana Narpat Singh, Rajput Muslim (Raghad) Kalander Khan of Gadhi village near Barnawa declared himself independent and started charging tax from the area. Rao Kadam Singh of Fort Parikshit Garh declared himself a king of eastern paragana.
But since the events of May 10 revolution, there was a major difference between the activities of the British and the activities of the Indians, where British activity was very high, while the activities of the Indians were running in a slow pace. The main reason for this was that the British had a state-of-the-art communication system. In 1853 only electronic telegraphs were entered in India. By 1857, the British had added all the important cities of India through telegraph.
The Agra-out of Meerut - the Delhi route was completely stopped by the revolutionaries, due to which the connection to Meerut was cut from other centers. The British started efforts to make arrangements for their rule. Agra was then the capital of the North-Western Province. The British were very upset with the collapse of Agra. The revolutionaries of Nurnagar, Lisadi and Gagol had dissolved the information system to stop the Bulandshahar-Agra route.
Under the circumstances, the Meerut region for Delhi's Indian government became very important. The general public around Meerut was delivering huge help to the revolutionaries of Delhi with the help of money and logistics. In those circumstances, the Mughal emperor made Nawab Vallidad Khan of Malangad as the deputy sovereign of this area. In order to speed up the revolutionary activities surrounding Meerut, Vallidad Khan, along with Umrao Singh Bhati in Dadri, planned to fight the British.
Meerut was the center of the entire division of the British Only the British could suppress this revolution by forming the basis of Meerut.Therefore, the British had doubts that the revolutionaries could attack Meerut. For the British to resolve their motives, they got ready to regain Delhi. On May 20, 1857, the Indians broke the bridge of the Hindon River, from which the British connection to the outskirts of Delhi broke down from Meerut and northern districts. Now a large British army led by English officer Bernard led the Ambbala Cantonment to run a ruckus on Delhi. Bernard took the decision to take the English army of Meerut before the attack on Delhi. Thus, on May 30, 1857, under the leadership of General Archangel Wilson, the English army of Meerut reached the banks of the Hinden river for help of Bernard. But in order to prevent these two forces from helping each other, the revolutionary soldiers and the general public fought for the other side of the Hindon river.When the English army was trying to make its order, then the revolutionary army attacked them with guns. The command of the revolutionary army was in the hands of Mughal emperor Mirza Abu Bakar, Umrao Singh Bhati of Dadri and Nawab Vallidad Khan. In the beginning of this war, the firing of revolutionary soldiers caused huge damage to the next part of the English army. The British attacked the Indian army with a swift attack. Due to this attack the revolutionary army had to retreat and five of their guns left there. As soon as the English army reached there to take possession of these guns, an Indian soldier set fire to the ammunition, which killed British officer K. Andorje and 10 English soldiers in a fierce explosion. In this way, an Indian soldier sacrificed his life and turned his enemy into bravery of his bravery.
The next day Indian Army attacked the English army in the afternoon, this day was very hot. In this war, the Leftinent Napier and 11 soldiers were killed and many were wounded by the English army. On June 1, 1857, the help of the British reached the Gorkha Platoon, yet the British army could not venture to move forward and turned towards Baghpat
On June 3, the British ordered the Kotwal of Meerut city, Bishan Singh Yadav, to guide the English army. But Bishan Singh Yadav had already given the information of the attack to the revolutionaries of Gagol and deliberately came to the English Force late. By the time this Force reached Gagol, all the villagers had escaped, the British set fire to the village. Bishan Singh also escaped to escape the punishment.
Wahabi Senapati Bakht Khan took the army from Bareily and headed towards Delhi. In order to prevent the army from reaching Delhi the British broke the bridge of boats in GarhMukteshwar. But Rao Kadam Singh on 27th June arranged boats and crossed the Ganges to the army of Bakht Khan. Then the then Collector of Meerut, RH Dunlap, wrote to Major General Hewitt on June 28, 1857, that if we did not take vigorous steps to punish the enemy and help his supporters, then the area would be out of possession.
Then the British formed a force in Meerut by the name of Khaki Risala, which included 56 cavalry, 38 foot soldiers and 10 artillery. Apart from these, there were 100 rifle stripe and 60 soldiers equipped with carbine. The first plan to take action on this force was to take action on the heart of revolution village Panchali, Nangla, Ghat village, village of Dhan Singh Kotwal.
Dhan Singh Kotwal was in the police; he was an associate of Rao Kadam Singh in revolutionary activities, so he also had his information system, Dhansingh was aware of this attack. He reached his village on the evening of July 3 itself. Dhansingh told the people of Panchli, Nangla and Ghat about the attack and immediately advised to flee from the village. The people of the three villages sat in their bullocks and moved the relatives of their families, women, children and elderly people to the relation of the relatives. When Dhan Singh came out of his mansion, he saw his ethnic brothers sitting beside the Choupal of the village equipped with weapons, these were the same people who reached Meerut on May 10, at the call of Dhansingh. Dhan Singh asked them the reason for the stay and gathering there. On which they replied that we would not leave our village to stay alive, those who had to go through the village have already gone. You also go away. Dhan Singh understood the situation that his brothers are in the mood of Saka(sacrifice). Those who had reached Meerut to fight the most powerful power of the world on their call, how to leave them today in death's mouth. Dhansingh took his decision. He made the revolutionaries of his village fight to fight as much as possible to counter the attack.
On July 4, 1857, Khaki Risale attacked the village itself. When the English officer saw the preparation of the fight in the village, he was bewildered. He did not want to fight this long, because the fear of the British rule was out of the minds of the people, revenue was not available from anywhere and its main reason was Dhansingh Kotwal and his village Panchli. Therefore, the entire village was blown away by the cannon ball. Dhansingh Kotwal's mud mansion was dashed. Heavy firing took place. Hundreds of people were martyred, of the remaining 46 were enslaved, and 40 of them were hanged. None of the dead were identified. After this attack, there was no activity of Dhaningsingh Kotwal, perhaps Dhan Singh Kotwal was also killed in this firing with his brothers. Bowing down his martyrdom.
On 10 May 1857 a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Major Williams to investigate the role of police in the revolutionary incidents in Meerut. Major Williams made a detailed discussion on the events of May 10 on the basis of different witnesses (Deposits) and prepared a memorandum regarding this. According to which he blamed Dhan Singh Kotwal for the blasts of the public's revolutionary activities in Meerut, he believed that if Dhansingh Kotwal had done his duty for the British cause, then it could have possibly prevented the public from getting aggressive.Dhan Singh Kotwal was convicted for the disintegration of police control. People, repressed by revolutionary incidents, directly accuse their witnesses and said that Dhansingh Kotwal, because he was a self-proclaimed man, did not stop the rebels, in which Gujar was the majority. They also accused Dhansingh of providing open protection to the rebels. According to Depository (testimony) number 66, the revolutionaries said that Dhansingh Kotwal himself called the rebels from the nearby village.
In November 1858, a report was sent to Secretary of North-Western Province (modern Uttar Pradesh) Government in connection with this by Mr.F William, Commissioner of Meerut. According to the report, "The matter of fat fitted cartridges and flour of bones"was spread out in the military camp of Meerut. The report also pointed to the suspicious role of a sadhu (Hindu mystic) from Ayodhya. Indian soldiers, Meerut city police and public and surrounding villagers were in touch with this monk. According to testimony number 8 given to Major Williams, Sadar Kotwal himself had met this monk at his place in Suraj Kund. It may be that it was an official meet, but it can not be ruled out that the two of them were in contact. In fact, the entire police, including Kotwal, had joined the monk (possibly Swami Dayanand) in this plan.
It is the opinion of scholars and historians that there were three lakh Indian martyred in this revolution that started on 10 May 1857 from Meerut. Since independence in 1947, there has been a government holiday on May 10 every year in Meerut, there are programs through governmental and non-governmental organizations in memory of the revolutionaries. Dhansingh Kotwal has a lot of respect in the hearts of the citizens of Meerut. In his name, there is a martyr memorial and statue in the village Panchli. In the Panchali, Dhan Singh Kotwal circle training center is built. In Chaudhary Charan Singh University is the building of Dhansingh Kotwal Community Center in Meerut. There is a full statue of DhanSingh Kotwal standing near Mawana stand in Meerut. The name of a gate at the Subharti University Meerut is named after Dhansingh Kotwal. Dhansingh Kotwal High School is built in Juraranpur village in Meerut block of Meerut district. In Sadar police station of Meerut, the statue of Dhan Singh Kotwal on July 3, 2018 has been established with the efforts of Mr. Rajesh Kumar Pandey, Senior Superintendent of Police, Meerut, who was unveiled by Mr. O.P. Singh, DGP, Uttar Pradesh. The statue of Dhan Singh Kotwal was established in the Dhansingh Kotwal Community Center in the premises of Chaudhary Charan Singh University on July 12, 2018, with the efforts of VC Professor Narendra Taneja of the university. Which was unveiled by Uttar Pradesh Governor Himam Ramanayake and Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Dinesh Sharma ji.
References:
1.1857 ki jankranti ke janak dhansingh kotwal,Gagol ka balidan,Krantikariyo ka sartaj Rao Kadam Singh, war of Hindan – Dr. Sushil Bhati
2. 1857 ke krantinayak shahid Dhansingh Kotwal ka samanya jeevan parichay – Tasvir Singh Chaprana
3- UTTAR PRADESH DISTRICT GAJETTEERS MEERUT -shrimati Esha Basanti Joshi
4- Chetra mein prachalit kivadantiya(popular legends in society)
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