1857 in Maharashtra

Ask most people where the revolt of 1857 happened, and they will name Meerut, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow and Jhansi. Maharashtra rarely comes up. Yet three of the revolt's best-known leaders came from Marathi-speaking families, and the Bombay Presidency and the Deccan saw a series of risings — some linked to 1857, others part of a longer history of resistance to British rule.

For MPSC, you need both parts: the Maharashtra connections of 1857's national leaders, and the regional risings.

Leaders with Maharashtra roots

Nanasaheb Peshwa

Nanasaheb (Dhondu Pant) was the adopted son of Bajirao II, the last Peshwa, who had been pensioned off to Bithur near Kanpur after 1818. When Bajirao II died in 1851, the Company refused to continue his pension to Nanasaheb. In 1857, Nanasaheb led the revolt at Kanpur. After the British recaptured Kanpur, he fled, and his fate remains unknown.

His adviser Azimullah Khan had travelled to London to plead his case.

Tatya Tope

Tatya Tope (Ramchandra Pandurang Tope) was born in Yeola, in present-day Nashik district, and served in Nanasaheb's household at Bithur. He became the most skilful military leader of the revolt:

• he fought at Kanpur;
• he joined Rani Lakshmibai, and together they captured Gwalior in 1858;
• after the fall of Gwalior, he waged a long guerrilla campaign across central India and Rajasthan;
• he was betrayed, captured and executed in 1859.

Rani Lakshmibai

Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi was born Manikarnika into a Marathi family (the Tambes) in Varanasi. She married Gangadhar Rao Newalkar, the Maratha ruler of Jhansi. After his death, Lord Dalhousie annexed Jhansi under the Doctrine of Lapse, refusing to recognise her adopted son. She fought the British at Jhansi and Gwalior and died in battle in June 1858.

Risings in Maharashtra in 1857

The revolt in the Bombay Presidency and the Deccan was more limited than in north India, but it was real.

• Kolhapur: a section of the 27th Bombay Native Infantry rose at Kolhapur in July 1857. The rising was suppressed, and further unrest in the region was put down later that year.
• Satara: after the annexation of Satara in 1848, Rango Bapuji Gupte, an agent of the deposed ruler, had spent years in London petitioning for the restoration of the state. In 1857, he was involved in organising a rising in the Satara region. The plot was discovered, several conspirators were executed, and Rango Bapuji disappeared.
• Khandesh and the Satmala hills: the Bhils rose in the late 1850s under leaders such as Kajising Naik in Khandesh and Bhagoji Naik in the Nashik region.
• Aurangabad: in June 1857, some cavalry of the Hyderabad Contingent stationed at Aurangabad showed signs of revolt before being disarmed.
• Nargund: in the southern Maratha country (now in Karnataka), Bhaskarrao Bhave (Babasaheb) of Nargund rose in 1858 and was executed.

Resistance before 1857

1857 was not the first armed resistance in Maharashtra after 1818. Several uprisings, often by tribal and peasant communities, preceded it:

These uprisings reflect the disruption caused by British revenue and forest policies and the disbanding of Maratha armies and fort garrisons.

Resistance after 1857: Vasudev Balwant Phadke

Vasudev Balwant Phadke (1845–1883), a clerk in the Military Finance office at Pune, is often called the father of armed revolution in India.

• Moved by the suffering during the Deccan famine of 1876–77, he organised an armed band of Ramoshis, Kolis and others in 1879.
• He aimed to raise money through raids to fund a revolt against British rule.
• He was captured in 1879, sentenced to transportation for life and imprisoned at Aden, where he died in 1883.

Why the revolt was limited in Maharashtra

Historians suggest several reasons:

• The Bombay Army remained largely loyal, and its regiments were drawn from different regions and communities than the Bengal Army.
• The British had disarmed much of the region after 1818, and many former Maratha soldiers had been absorbed into civilian life.
• Princely states such as Kolhapur and Baroda largely stayed loyal, or were controlled.
• British intelligence discovered plots, such as the Satara conspiracy, early.
• The Deccan had not experienced the specific grievances — such as the annexation of Awadh — that drove the revolt in the north.

Why 1857 matters for Maharashtra's history

• It showed the continuing political memory of the Peshwa and Maratha states — several of the revolt's leaders were connected to them.
• It influenced later revolutionary nationalism in Maharashtra — Phadke, and later the Chapekar brothers and Savarkar, whose book The Indian War of Independence of 1857 reinterpreted the revolt as a national war.
• It led to the end of Company rule and the beginning of direct Crown rule in 1858.

Questions to practise

Prelims-style:

1. Where was Tatya Tope born?
2. Who was Rango Bapuji, and what was his cause?
3. Which Ramoshi leader was hanged in 1832?
4. Who is called the father of armed revolution in India?

Mains-style:

• "The revolt of 1857 had a limited but significant impact in Maharashtra." Discuss.
• Examine the causes of tribal uprisings in Maharashtra in the first half of the nineteenth century.

In the decades after 1857, resistance in Maharashtra took a new form — the social reform movement and constitutional nationalism, led by figures like Phule, Ranade and Tilak.