The Jang Bahadur Rana, the Prime Minister of Nepal.

The Jang Bahadur Rana, the Prime Minister of Nepal.

        After the capture of Chakkar Kothi, on March 11, the Company’s army started moving towards Begum Kothi. Outram was fighting the rebels with their men on the bridge, and Brigadiers Grant, Lugard and Roberts on horseback were crossing the gorge. At the same time, a foreign royal guest with his accompaniment came to visit Campbell. That was Jang Bahadur Rana, the Prime Minister of Nepal.
 

        The scene was also strange that bullets were being fired on one side, and a ‘Guard of Honor’ was being given in his hospitality on that battlefield. After all, he had not reached Lucknow alone, but with four thousand Gurkha soldiers and guns. Jung Bahadur, wearing a turban adorned with gems, was just sitting with Colin Campbell when the news came, “93rd Infantry has captured Begum Kothi”.
It is written in the memoir of Forbes Mitchell that Jung Bahadur said, “I have seen him in London. are very brave. I want to buy this whole infantry.”
 

        It was explained to them that this would not be possible at the moment. Even so, there was still a lot of fighting left. A deep pit was dug in front of Begum Kothi, in which she had to climb back up and fight the war. In this, Captain McDonald and some other British soldiers were killed, but in the end they reached Begum Kothi. There a scuffle ensued, shots fired. According to the details about 600 rebels were killed, and the kothi was laden with dead bodies.
 

        There are also details of looting during that time, when British soldiers started looting ornaments and jewels from all the boxes lying in the kothi. The robbery was led by William Hudson from Delhi (though according to Forbes Mitchell he was not himself). It was the same Hudson who had arrested the Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, and put the princes to death.
 

    Kicking a door, Hudson opened it and asked, “Anyone?”
 

        It was dark there. Hudson had just entered when a shot fired, and Hudson collapsed. What was the name of the last rebel soldier of this Begum Kothi, it is not recorded anywhere. But Hudson ended there that day. Well, those soldiers were killed at the same time.

        From 13 March the British soldiers moved to the back row, and Jang Bahadur’s Gurkhas attacked Lucknow. Thanks to the Gurkhas, the Imambara was in their possession till the next day. Rather, by that night, Shah Najaf and Sikander Bagh as well as the Kaiser Bagh palace came into their hands.

        Arthur Lang wrote, “It was a stately building…with fine marble carvings, and beautiful gardens. We looted a lot of gold, looted jewellery, were laden with silk clothes. A soldier was coming carrying a big bundle full of jewels, and said to me, Sir! You too take your share.…I picked up some good swords. One of my companions robbed jewelery worth at least five lakhs. I had never seen so much wealth at once in my life.”

        But, where did the thousands of rebels go? Where the number of one lakh was being told, a thousand were definitely killed. But where did the rest go? Lucknow was surrounded. Outram is accused by British historians of not building the blockade properly, and allowing the rebels to escape. Moreover, Begum Hazratmahal, Mammu Khan and the new Nawab Birjis Qadir also escaped.

        By 19 March, British soldiers had taken possession of Lucknow. In one last building, all the jihadists were present under the leadership of Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah of Faizabad, who were expelled from there on 21 March and killed. The Maulvi himself did not come into the hands of the British.

        Campbell was also accused of deliberately letting the rebels and their chieftains escape because they no longer considered a threat. It was true that the rebels were now demoralized after the fall of Delhi and Oudh, but these thousands were regrouping elsewhere, and for the next year they became a scourge. Their problem was that now they were scattered from Doab to Chambal, not in any one city.

        For example, the British did not think that after big victories like Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow, they would get a big defeat in a minor princely state. Some distance away from Hardoi was a fort – Ruiagarhi!