Uttar Pradesh in the Freedom Struggle, Before and After 1857

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, General Studies V:

• Contributions of UP in Pre and post 1857 freedom struggles of India.

Topics in detail

Learn each phase with its UP places and people. A good answer names the district, the leader and the year, and links the local event to the national movement.

Before 1857

• Raja Chet Singh of Banaras and his revolt against Warren Hastings (1781)
• Wazir Ali, the deposed Nawab of Awadh, and the rising at Banaras (1799)
• Resistance of Bundela chiefs and Awadh taluqdars to Company rule and revenue demands
• The Doctrine of Lapse and Jhansi (annexed 1854); the annexation of Awadh (1856) on the charge of misgovernment
• Why UP was central to 1857: Awadh sepoys in the Bengal Army, the summary settlement that hurt taluqdars, the fall of the Awadh court, the cartridge issue

The Revolt of 1857 in UP

• Meerut, 10 May 1857: the outbreak and the march to Delhi
• Lucknow: Begum Hazrat Mahal and Birjis Qadr; the siege of the Residency
• Kanpur: Nana Saheb, Tantia Tope and Azimullah Khan; Satichaura Ghat and Bibighar
• Jhansi: Rani Lakshmibai and Jhalkari Bai
• Bareilly (Khan Bahadur Khan), Faizabad (Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah), Allahabad (Liyaqat Ali), and risings in Aligarh, Mathura, Azamgarh and Gorakhpur
• Uda Devi and the fighting at Sikandar Bagh, Lucknow
• Suppression by Havelock, Outram, Neill and Colin Campbell; Queen Victoria's Proclamation read at Allahabad (1 November 1858)
• Results: Crown rule, the confiscation and later restoration of taluqdari estates, the loyalty of taluqdars as a British policy

Reform and awakening after 1857

• Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh movement; the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (1875)
• Darul Uloom, Deoband (1866) and Nadwatul Ulama (founded at Kanpur in 1894, later based in Lucknow)
• Arya Samaj in western UP; the Nagari Pracharini Sabha, Varanasi (1893); the Nagari resolution of 1900 allowing Devanagari in the courts; the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan (1910)
• Banaras Hindu University (1916) under Madan Mohan Malaviya
• The press: Hindi and Urdu newspapers, including Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi's Pratap (Kanpur)

Congress years and mass movements

• Congress sessions in UP: Allahabad (1888, 1892, 1910), Lucknow (1899, 1916, 1936), Banaras (1905), Kanpur (1925) and Meerut (1946)
• Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the Muslim League (1916); Home Rule League branches
• UP Kisan Sabha (1918); Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920) and Baba Ramchandra; the Eka movement (1921 to 1922) led by Madari Pasi
• Non-Cooperation and Khilafat in UP; Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur (4 February 1922), and the withdrawal of the movement
• Swaraj Party (1923) of C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru; the Nehru Report (1928)
• Protests against the Simon Commission in Lucknow (1928)
• Civil Disobedience: the no-tax and no-rent campaigns in UP (1930 to 1931)
• The Congress ministry of 1937 under Govind Ballabh Pant and its resignation in 1939
• Quit India (1942): student protests in Allahabad and Varanasi; the parallel government in Ballia under Chittu Pandey; risings in Azamgarh and Ghazipur

Revolutionaries

• Mainpuri conspiracy (1918) and Genda Lal Dixit
• Hindustan Republican Association (1924) and the Kakori train action (9 August 1925): Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Nath Lahiri
• Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (1928); Chandra Shekhar Azad's death in Alfred Park, Allahabad (27 February 1931)

Key events in order

Overlaps

• The freedom struggle in all of India: General Studies I.
• The people behind these events: Eminent Freedom Fighters and Personalities.