The history of Uttar Pradesh has run concurrently with the history of the country during and after the British rule, but it is also well-known that the contribution of the people of the State in the Indian War of Independence had been significant.
The people of Uttar Pradesh actively engaged in India’s freedom struggle. It remained an active centre of the freedom movement. Most of the active centres of the First War of Indian Independence, 1857 were in Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh also supplied both intellectual support as well as the support of masses in the freedom struggle led by the Congress. The revolutionary strand of the freedom movement also finds a strong connection with Uttar Pradesh.
Freedom Fighters from Uttar Pradesh
Some prominent freedom fighters from Uttar Pradesh are listed below:
Bakht Khan
- He had Rohilla heritage and was bom in Bijnor. He was a Subedar in the British East India Company.
- When he heard of the 1857 Revolt, he marched with his large number of Rohilla sepoys to Delhi.
- In Delhi, he acted as the commander-in-chief of Indian freedom fighters under the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
- After the capture of Delhi, he escaped and continued his struggle against the British in Lucknow and Shahjahanpur.
Nana Sahib
- Nana Sahib was an adopted son of Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao II. He was born as Dhondu Pant.
- During the Revolt of 1857, he captured Kanpur and compelled the English forces to surrender. After this success, he was declared the Peshwa.
- He continued the freedom struggleas a vassal of Bahadur Shah Zafar. After the recapture of Kanpur by the English forces under Havelock, he escaped to Nepal.
Tatya Tope
- The real name of the Maratha general Tatya Tope was Ramchandra Pandurang Tope. He was an associate and the commander-in-chief of Nana Sahib.
- He defeated the English commander General Windham at Kanpur. After the escape of Nana Sahib, he captured Gwalior along with Rani Laxmi Bai.
- Based on information provided by Mansingh, a vassal ofthe ruler of Gwalior Scindia, the English captured and hanged him in 1859.
Begum Hazrat Mahal
- Begum Hazrat Mahal, wife of the last ruler of Awadh Wajid Ali Shah, was from Faizabad. She was popularly known as Mehakpari.
- During the 1857 Revolt, she led the Indian rebels in Awadh. She was assisted by Raja Jailal Singh. She declared her son Birjis Qadir as the Nawab. After the capture of Awadh, she took asylum in Nepal, where she died.
Rani Laxmi Bai
- She was the Queen of Jhansi. Her real name was Manu or Manikarnika. She was married to the King of Jhansi, Gangadhar Rao.
- During the 1857 Revolt, she led rebels in Jhansi and Gwalior. She was a fierce warrior herself, She showed exemplary bravery during the battle against the British in Jhansi.
- She did not surrender and continued her fight. She was martyred on the battlefield at the mere age of 31. The British General Hugh Rose said about her that ‘She was a man among the mutineers’.
Mangal Pandey
- Mangal Pandey was a sepoy in the 34th regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry of the East India Company Army.
- He was from Nagwa, Balia. He is seen as an icon of the revolt of 1857. Pandey revolted against the British by firing at the officers of his regiment Major Hewsan and Lieutenant Bob.
- He was court-martialled and later given capital punishment on 8th April 1857.
Khan Bahadur Khan
- He was a pensioner of the East India Company who had retired as a judge.
- He was also the grandson of the Nawab of Bareilly Hafiz Rehmat Khan.
- During the Revolt of 1857, he took over the administration of Bareilly. He bravely fought against the British with an army of 30,000.
- After his defeat, he escaped to Nepal where he was captured by the British with the help of Nepalese.
- Later, this 82-year-old freedom fighter was hanged in front of the Bareilly police station.
Maulvi Liaqat Ali
- He was born in the village of Mahgaon in Prayagraj (then Allahabad ). He took overas leader the 1857 Revolt in Prayagraj and captured a large part ofthe fort.
- Later, he was declared as the subedar of Prayag. He made Khusro Bagh as his headquarters and started ruling.
- However, he had to escape after the recapture of the city by the English under Colonel Neil. He could only be captured after 14 years in Mumbai. He was given life imprisonment in 1873.
Maulvi Ahmadullah
- Maulvi Ahmadullah led the forces of Awadh in the fight against the British.
- He also fought along with Nana Sahib and Khan Bahadur Khan. After the capture of Lucknow, he kept shifting his base and fought against the British in Shahjahanpur.
Azimullah Khan
- Azimullah Khan was born in Patakapur, near Kanpur.
- He along with Tatya Tope and Queen Laxmibai played an important role in preparing the scheme of the 1857 Revolt.
- During the revolt, he was martyred fighting the English at Ahirana near Kanpur.
Devi Singh (Mathura)
- Raja Devi Singh was born in the Raya Tehsil of Mathura. During the 1857 Revolt, he was the leader of the rebels in the Braj region. He established his control in 80 villages of the Raya region.
- He was formally declared the Raja of Mathura by Bahadur Shah Zafar.
- Later, the English defeated him with the help of a large army under Thornhill. He was hanged to death on a tree on 15th June 1858.
Rao Umrao Singh Bhati
- He fought against the British in 1857. He was a notable Gurjar leader in Bulandshahr and Gautama Buddha Nagar.
Kadam Singh (Meerut)
- He fought against the British during the 1857 Revolt and established control in Meerut.
- He was known as the Raja of Parikshitgarh and Mewana.
Jhalkari Bai
- She played a significant role in the 1857 uprisings. She was the commander of Rani Laxmi Bai’s women Brigade Durgadal.
- Being a look-alike of Rani Laxmibai, she risked her own life to save the queen from being captured by the British.
Lai Pratap Singh
- He was the Prince of Kalankar in Uttar Pradesh.
- He fought against the British in the 1857 Revolt.
- He was martyred fighting the English in the Battle of Chanda in 1858.
Dhan Singh Gurjar
- He is credited with starting the revolt from Meerut on 10th May 1857. He was the Kotwal of Meerut.
- He was captured and hanged on a square in Meerut, by the English.
- A campus in Meerut University is named after him.
Amar Sahid Bandhu Singh
- Bandhu Singh was from Dumari,Gorakhpur. He fought against the British in the 1857 Revolt by using guerrilla tactics.
- He was arrested and hanged publicly at Ali Nagar Chauraha in Gorakhpur.
Acharya Narendra Dev
- He was from Sitapur. He was one of the founders of the Congress Socialist Party within the Congress.
- He remained active in the freedom struggle by being a member of the Congress.
Ashfaqullah Khan
- Ashfaqullah Khan, born in Shahjahanpur, was a revolutionary and a member of the Hindustan Republican Association.
- He was involved in looting the British treasury on 9th August 1925, from a train which started from the Kakori railway station.
- As a result of this incident, he, along with Ram Prasad Bismil, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Lai were hanged.
Chandrasekhar Azad
- He is one of the most prominent revolutionary figures in India. His birth name was Chandrasekhar Tiwari and took on the title of Azad.
- He changed the name of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association ( HSRA) and reorganised it.
- When he was surrounded by the British in Alfred park in Prayagraj on 27th February 1931, he sacrificed his life by shooting himself instead of surrendering.
Asaf Ali
- He was born in Seohara in Bijnor district. He was a prominent freedom fighter and lawyer.
- Later, he became the first Indian ambassador to the USA. He also served as the governor of Orissa.
Chittu Pandey
- He was from the Rattu-Chak Village in Ballia.
- He established a parallel government in Balia during the Quit India Movement in 1942.
- He was known as the ‘Tiger of Balia‘.
- He considered himself a Gandhian and died in 1946.
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi
- He was born in Prayagraj, but settled in Kanpur and worked as a journalist.
- He published a Hindi newspaper called Pratap which raised the voice of the revolutionaries and oppressed.
- He actively participated in the Non cooperation Movement.
Govind Ballabh Pant
- He was a Congress member and Indian freedom fighter.
- He represented revolution aries in the Kakori case.
- He became the Chief Minister of the United Province from 17 July 1937 to 2 November 1939.
- Post-independence, he served as union Home Minister from 1955 to 1961.
Hasrat Mohani
- He gave the famous slogan of Inquilab zindabad in 1921.
- He was the first to demand complete Independence in the Ahmedabad session of Congress in 1921.
- He was a poet and Islamic scholar and hailed from the Mohan town of Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh.
Mahavir Tyagi
- He was a prominent freedom fighter and farm leader. He was born in the village of Dhabarasi in Moradabad district.
- He led the Kisan movement under the banner of the Congress.
- Post-Independence, he acted as the Union revenue minister and minister for Defence Organisation.
Maulana Muhammad Ali
- He was from Rampur and a leading figure of the Khilafat Movement.
- He was made the President of the Congress in 1923.
- He is also known as Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar.
- He was also one of the founders of the Muslim League.
Maulana Shaukat Ali
- He was the leader of the Khilafat Movement.
- The Khilafat Movement clubbed with the Non-cooperation Movement brought the active participation of the Muslim community in the freedom struggle.
Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari
- Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was a famous doctor and nationalist who was born in Ghazipur.
- He acted as the President of both the Congress and the Muslim League.
- He was one of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia University which was formed to honour the call of swadeshi during the Non cooperation Movement.
- He remained the Chancellor of Jamia from 1928 to 1936.
Munishwar Dutt Upadhayay
- He was from Pratapgarh.
- He was a freedom fighter, politician and academician.
- He is called the iron man of the Congress Party of Uttar Pradesh.
Moolmati
- She was the mother of Ram Prasad Bismil. She played an important role in preparing Ramprasad Bismil for the freedom struggle.
- When she went to meet Bismil in jail, she told him that she was proud to have a son like him.
- She publicly offered to sacrifice her other son Sushil Chandra for the freedom struggle.
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
- He was a member of the Congress and actively participated in the Indian Independence movement.
- He was from Barabanki.
- Kidwai was a socialist and his socialist ideas are often referred to as Islamic socialism.
- He was India’s first communication Minister.
Raja Mahendra Pratap
- He was a revolutionary freedom fighter. He founded the Indian Independence League and Government in 1915 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
- He was made the President of this exiled government of India. It was accepted by Germany and Russia.
- He was also a writer, journalist, socialist and a social reformer.
- He donated land for Aligarh Muslim University. He was born in Mursan state of Hathras.
Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya
- Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya, who popularised Satyamev Jayate from the Upanishads,was bom in Prayagraj.
- He had a significant role in the Indian Independence movement.
- He was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress four times, in Lahore (1909), in Delhi (1918), in Delhi (1932) and Calcutta (1933).
- He also founded the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha and All India Brahman Mahasabha.
- He established the Banaras Hindu University in 1915. He is also called Mahamana.
Purushottam Das Tandon
- He was a Congress member and freedom fighter.
- He significantly contributed to granting official language status to Hindi.
- He was given the symbolic title of Rajarshi which means Royal Saint.
- He was born in Prayagraj.
Rajendra Lahiri
- He was an Indian revolutionary and was a part of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army.
- He was involved in the Kakori conspiracy and Dakshineshwar bombing incident.
- He was hanged in Gonda Jail on 17th December 1927.
Ram Manohar Lohia
- He was part of the socialist faction of the Congress and was a founder member of the Congress Socialist Party.
- He actively participated in the Quit India movement.
- He remained underground and broadcasted secretly on Congress radio.
- He was from Akbarpur and also started the Ramayan Mela in Ayodhya.
Ram Prasad Bismil
- Ram Prasad Bismil was a revolutionary and founder member of the Hindustan Republican Association.
- He was involved in the Mainpuri conspiracy and the Kakori conspiracy case of 1925.
- He was given the death sentence by the British on 19th December 1927 in Gorakhpur Jail.
- He wrote poems in Hindi and Urdu under the alias Ram, Agayat and Bismil.
- He was from Shahjahanpur.
Swami Shajanand Saraswati
- He belonged to the Ghazipur District of Uttar Pradesh.
- He was a Marxist, social reformerand revolutionary. He lived as an ascetic.
- Initially, his activities remained focused in Bihar only. Later, his political activities spread to rest of India with the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha in 1936.
Vijay Singh Pathik
- This revolutionary was born in the Guthawali village of Bulandshahr.
- His real name was Bhoop Singh. He was also known as Rashtriya Pathik.
Tej Bahadur Sapru
- He was bom in Aligarh. He was a prominent politician and freedom fighter.
- He was a Congress member, but later joined the Liberal Party. He helped in drafting of the Nehru Report and had a key role in the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the Poona Pact.
- He was the representative of liberals in the round table conferences (1930-1932).
Sucheta Kriplani
- Sucheta Kriplani played an important role in the freedom struggle.
- She was a Gandhian and later became the first woman chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Roshan Singh
- He was from Shahjahanpur. He was a member of the Hindustan Republican Association.
- He was involved in the Kakori conspiracy with Bismil and other revolutionaries.
- He was executed at Naini Jail by the British.
Laxmi Raman Acharya
- He was accused of the Agra conspiracy case in 1937.
- Later, he became the finance minister of Uttar Pradesh.
List of Freedom Fighters
| Name | Place of Birth | Contribution | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lt. Sri Ramkrishna Khatri | Buldana, Maharastra | Participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920 and Kakori Train Dacoity in 1925. | |
| Lt. Sri Sudhindra Kumar Vardhan | Singapore | Joined Azad Hind Fauj and remained Prisoner of War from September 1945 to February 1946. | |
| Col. Amar Bahadur Singh | Bhadohi | Served in Azad Hind Fauj. | |
| Sri Basant Singh Bhring | Meerut | Participated in Quit India Movement in Hastinapur, Meerut in 1942. | |
| Smt. Premvati Mishra | Agra | Participated in the Movements of 1930 and 1942. | |
| Acharya Deepankar Shastri | Meerut | Participated in the 1942 Quit India Movement. | |
| Sri Dwarika Prashad Maheshwari | Agra | Writer of children’s books. Participated in 1942 Quit India Movement. | |
| Sri Anup Singh Tyagi | Meerut | Participated in the Movements of 1930 and 1942. | |
| Sri Har Dutt Shastri | Meerut | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Dr. Ramesh Kumar Sharma | Agra | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Jagmohan Sharma | Meerut | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Shaheed ChandraBhan | Meerut | participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Dutt Tripathi | Meerut | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Daan Singh | Nainital | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Gopal Singh | Nainital | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Kanti Prasad Bhatnagar | Meerut | Participated in the Movements of 1930 and 1942. | |
| Sri Vidya Sagar Dixit | Meerut | Participated in the Movement of 1930. | |
| Sri Babu Ram Tyagi | Meerut | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Khote Lal Shah | Almora | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Rajeshwar Shastri | Meerut | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri HotiLal Agarwal | Meerut | Participated in the Movements of 1940 and 1942. | |
| Sri Khachendy Singh | Meerut | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Shiv Lal Verma | Almora | Participated in the Movements of 1930,1940 & 1942. | |
| Sri Mohan Singh | Nainital | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Dharam Lal Verma | Almora | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Baburam | Etah | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Ram Singh Bhakuni | Almora | Participated in the Movements of 1940 & 1942. | |
| Sri Madan Singh Dhoundiyal | Nainital | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Dhani Ram | Nainital | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Jaidutta Baila | Nainital | Participated in the Movements of 1940 and 1942. | |
| Sri Raghubar Das Pandey | Almora | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Madan Kholya | Almora | Participated in the Movements of 1940 and 1942. | |
| Sri Diwan Singh | Almora | Participated in the Movement of 1930. | |
| Sri Parmanand Pandey | Almora | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Moti Ram Joshi | Almora | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Prithvi Nath Chautervedi | Agra | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Rajbihari Lal Mathur | Kanpur | He was a Sepoy of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj. | |
| Kumari Kamla Sharma | Pori | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| Sri Hargovind Shukla | Agra | Participated in the Movements of 1930 and 1942. | |
| Sri Varshney | – | Participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. | |
| The memoirs of the following freedom fighters have also been recorded under the ‘Oral History Programme’ :- | |||
| Sri Chavi Nath Rai | Jaunpur | – | |
| Sri Hergovind | Ambedker Nagar | – | |
| Sri Jai Singh | Lucknow. | – | |
| Sri Raja Ram Dwivedi | Hamirpur | – | |
| Dr. Hernath Singh Yadaev | Hamirpur | – | |
| Sri Dharmraj Singh | Lucknow | – | |
| Sri Girja Dutt Tiwari | Lucknow | – | |
| Pademshree Vachnesh Tripathi | Lucknow | – | |
| Sri Leeladhar Sharma ‘Parvatiya’ | Lucknow | – | |
| Sushri Kunchan Lata Sabbervall | Lucknow. | – | |
| Sri Ramnarash Kushwaha | Deoria | – | |
| Sri Ram Outar Agarwal | Lucknow | – | |
| Sri Muneshwer Singh | Balia | – | |
| Sri Shivnath Tiwari | Kanpur | – | |
| Sri Babu Singh | Hardoi | – | |
| Sri Jharkhanday Tripathi | Lucknow | – | |
| Sri Jagat Mohan | Lucknow | – | |
| Sri Ram Vichar Pandey | Balia | – | |
| Sri Shivmohan | Lucknow | – | |
| Sri Shivnarayan Sharma | Sitapur | – | |
| Sri Swaraj Prakash Awasthi | Sitapur | – | |
| Sri Shanti Swarup Choudhri | Sitapur | – | |
| Sri Ram Srivastava | Sitapur | – | |
| Sri Neelkant | Allahabad | – | |
| Sri Shanti Swaroop | Bareily | – | |
| Sri Kishan Lal Anand | Bareily | – | |
| Sri Aftab Ahmad Khan | Aligarh | – | |
| Sri Ram Chandra | Eta | – | |
| Sri Vishwanath Bhadauria | Kanpur | – | |
| Sri Dhanya Kumar Jain | Varanasi | – | |
| Sri Shiv Shankar Singh | Varanasi | – | |
| Smt. Swaroop Kumari Bakshi | Lucknow | Participated in under ground movement 1942 | |
| Begum Hamida Habibullah | Lucknow | Founder Member of Sewa Institution | |