STORY OF BULANDSHAHR AND NEARBY VILLAGES

They initially attacked the town of Sikandrabad on the 12^th of May and Turnbull, the Magistrate of Bulandshahr, subsequently went down to this region with a detachment of native sepoys, arresting 46 Gujjars from Dalergarh and Rampur and imprisoning them in Bulandshahr jail. The jail was built in 1835 and enlarged in 1845 which housed the mutineers.

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By 21^st of May, 1857, more news poured into Bulandshahr about the spread of the uprising throughout the surrounding region. News came from Aligarh of the mutiny of the soldiers and the departure of the Europeans of Aligarh to Agra. Prisoners from Meerut district jail, which had been broken earlier, had also by then reached various parts of Bulandshahr and nearby villages, seeing them the residents of this region understood that they could also release their comrades from the district jail of Bulandshahr. Gurjar and Rajput residents of many villages, namely Deotoh, Til, Wair, Bhonra etc, therefore collected themselves and attacked the city of Bulandshahr on the evening of the same day.

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The village of Chandpur has been specially mentioned in the context of this attack on Bulandshahr and it was the first to be subsequently searched. A detachment of Gurkhas from Dehradun travelled down the Ganges Canal up to Dasna from where they travelled (by foot probably) to Bulandshahr as the canal locks had been destroyed at Dasna. They reached Bulandshahr on the 24^th of May. On hearing of the arrival of these Gurkhas, the European officers of Bulandshahr, Sapte, Lyall, Rose and Tyrwhitt returned to Bulandshahr on the 26^th. With them came a detachment of Craigie’s levies from Meerut, but they turned out to be highly untrained combatants not fit for prolonged operations.

These European officers with their re-enforcements went to many of the villages which had participated in the attack on the European quarters of Bulandshahr on the 21^st of May; those who had participated in those events were identified and hanged.

The Gurkhas subsequently left on the 28^th of May to join General Wilson’s force at Ghaziabad. Nawab Walidad Khan in the meantime arrived in Malagarh from Delhi, having been appointed Subedar of Bulandshahr and Aligarh by the Mughal king (as discussed in chapter 18). He met the Gurjars of Dadri as well as Rajput zamindars to plan and overthrow colonial rule from the lands which had been assigned to him. The town of Sikandrabad was again attacked on the 31^st of June, tehsil records were destroyed and the treasury looted.

The Europeans at Bulandshahr decided to break the bridge of boats at Anupshahar, to prevent revolutionaries from crossing the Ganges and attacking Bulandshahr from the direction of Rohilkhand.

By the 1^st of June the uprising had reached its crescendo in Bulandshahr and the colonial authority had nearly ceased to exist in this region. At this time two more European officers, Clifford and Young, reached Bulandshahr. The roads in all directions of Bulandshahr were blocked by villages that lay along them. Umrao Singh of Kateyreh declared himself the Gurjar king of Dadri and Surjeet declared himself leader of Danpur. During this period a seesaw battle was taking place at Aligarh between the colonial and Indian fighters with each holding the town for one day alternatively. It was also the time when many sepoys of regiments which had mutinied and joined the uprising in the eastern lands, including Awadh and beyond, were marching toward Delhi along the Grand Trunk Road passing through Bulandshahar.

On the 10^th of June, 1857, a large of body of men belonging to the Oudh Irregulars (Awadh Irregulars) reached Khurja. 20 men of the Irregular cavalry who had been till this time working under the orders of the European officers of Bulandshahar then decided to leave their posts and join these sepoys who were now stationed at Khurja. The British residents of Bulandshahr, hearing of all this news and the reputation of the Oudh Irregulars at Khurja, decided to vacate Bulandshahr and withdraw to Gulaothi. Khurja had till this time been under the control of the European officers of Bulandshahr and Melville had just recently visited the place and brought the treasure down from there to Bulandshahr. But now Khurja also slipped out of colonial hands. Immediately after the withdrawal of the European officers, Walidad Khan entered Bulandshahr town and occupied it, taking it also away from direct colonial control.

The situation all around Western Uttar Pradesh had completely changed after the fall of Delhi on the 20^th of September, 1857. 

Final Battle of Bulandshahr and reassertion of Colonial Authority

A colonial force under Colonel Greathed was sent to Ghaziabad on the 28^th of September to launch an attack on Bulandshahr from that direction. The force marched further and reached the outskirts of Bulandshahr town on the 28^th itself, encamping at the point where the road to Malagarh branches out from the main road. Seeing this movement, a picket of revolutionary cavalry fell back on the town and the sepoys and others guarding it took up their positions, ready for battle. An artillery battery guarded the town and the infantry had taken up positions in the gardens and over the walls.

The colonial force left a reserve at the site of their camp to guard their stores and advanced into the town of Bulandshahr, fighting their way through. The revolutionary cavalry tried a diversionary tactic by attacking the colonial reserves left behind but this was not successful as they were fought back. The right and left flanks of the colonial force got engaged with the revolutionary soldiers. The revolutionary artillery guns were silenced and the lines of the revolutionary cavalry and infantry were broken by grapeshot. The colonial cavalry and artillery marched into the city, driving the revolutionary soldiers in front of them. Finally Bulandshahr town was re-taken by the colonial force. The clock tower in Bulandshahr that was built in 1835 stands as a testimony to the mutiny of 1857 in Bulandshahr.

– Original essay written by Dr Amit Pathak (http://www.amitpathak.org/) with additional research and additions made by The Kala Chaupal Team.

Dr. Amit Pathak is a Fellow of Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research, United Service Institution of India, New Delhi. He is fluent in Hindi, English, Assamese and is an avid student of History, Culture, Radiology, Linguistics, Archaeology, Sociology, Anthropology etc.

Images and video in the article are courtesy Bulandshahr Legacy and The Kala Chaupal Trust.