Uda Devi

Uda Devi was a warrior in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, who fought against the British East India Company.

Uda Devi
DiedNovember 1857
Sikandar Bagh, Lucknow, India
Known forIndian Rebellion of 1857

While upper caste histories highlight the resistance contributions of upper caste heroines like Jhansi Rani, the reality was also that the battles for independence from British colonial rule also featured Dalit resistance fighters like Devi.[1] Devi and other female Dalit participants are today remembered as the warriors or “Dalit Veeranganas” of the 1857 Indian Rebellion.[2] She was married to Makka Pasi who was a soldier in the army of Hazrat Mahal. [3]

On seeing the rising anger of the Indian people with the British administration, Uda Devi reached out to the queen of that district, Begum Hazrat Mahal to enlist for war. In order to prepare for the battle that was headed their way, the Begum helped her form a women’s battalion under her command.[4] When the British attacked Awadh, both Uda Devi and her husband were part of the armed resistance. When she heard that her husband had died in the battle, she unleashed her final campaign in full force.[5]

Battle of Sikandar Bagh

Uda Devi took part in the Battle in Sikandar Bagh in November 1857. After issuing instructions to her battalion, she climbed up a pipal tree and began shooting at advancing British soldiers. A British officer noted that many of the casualties had bullet wounds indicating steep, downward trajectory.[6] Suspecting a hidden sniper, he ordered his officers to fire at the trees and dislodged a rebel who fell to the ground dead. Upon investigation, the sniper was revealed as Uda Devi. William Forbes-Mitchell, in Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny, writes of Uda Devi: "She was armed with a pair of heavy old-pattern cavalry pistols, one of which was in her belt still loaded, and her pouch was still about half full of ammunition, while from her perch in the tree, which had been carefully prepared before the attack, she had killed more than half-a-dozen men."[7]

The Pasis of Pilibhit, in particular, come together on November 16 every year to commemorate the anniversary of Uda Devi's martyrdom.[8]

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References
  1. Bates, Crispin; Carter, Marina (2 January 2017). Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Documents of the Indian Uprising. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 9789385985751. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017.
  2. Gupta, Charu (18 April 2016). The Gender of Caste: Representing Dalits in Print. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295806563. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017.
  3. Narayan, Badri (2006). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0-7619-3537-7.
  4. Gupta, Charu (2007). "Dalit 'Viranganas' and Reinvention of 1857". Economic and Political Weekly. 42 (19): 1739–1745. JSTOR 4419579.
  5. Narayan, Badri (7 November 2006). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 9788132102809. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017.
  6. Verma, R.D (1996). Virangana Uda Devi. Mahindra Printing Press.
  7. Safvi, Rana (7 April 2016). "The Forgotten Women of 1857". The Wire-GB. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  8. "Dalit group recalls its 1857 martyr Uda Devi". The Times of India-GB. 16 November 2015. Archived from the original on 24 May 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
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