Kanpur City - Kanpur In 1857

Kanpur was soon to become the epicentre of the outbreak of 1857, as some of the leading luminaries of the War of Independence hailed from her, namely – Nana Sahib, Tantiya Tope, Azimoolah Khan and Brigadier Jwala Prasad. The three strategic events of the 1857 war at Kanpur were the fight at `wheeler’s entrenchment’, the `massacre at Sati Chaura Ghat’ and the `Bibighar massacre’. Nana Sahib had declared independence on th 7th of June 1857 at Kanpur. The British under Commander Hugh Wheeler retreated into a shallow earch entrenchment in the cantonment area, later known in history as `wheeler’s entrenchment’. The English garrison surrendered in the last week of June 1857 on terms of safe passage to Allahabad. But when on the morning of 27th June, the soldiers along with the women and children were about to embark into the boats at Sati Chaura Ghat, fighting broke out and most of the men were killed. The survivors, women and children were rescued who were imprisoned into the Savada Kothi and later shifted to Bibighar in the `cantonment magistrates’ compound. But when it became clear the relieving forces under General Havelock were nearing the city and defeat was inevitable, the captives-all women and children, were massacred and their dismembered bodies buried in the well of the compound on 15th July 1857. The Bibighar was dismantled by the British and reoccupation of Kanpur and a `memorial railing and a cross’ raised at the site of the well. The well is now bricked over. Only remains of a circular ridge survive, which can be still seen at the Nana Rao Park. The Kanpur Memorial Church – `The all soul cathedral’ was raised in honour of the fallen at the north-east corner of Wheeler’s entrenchment in 1862 by the British. The marble gothic screen with famous `mournful scarf’ was transferred to the churchyard of All Souls after independence in 1947, and in its place a bust of Tantiya Tope installed as Nana Rao Park’.

After 1857, the development of Kanpur was even more phenomenal. Government Harnes and Saddlery Factory was started for supplying leather material for army in 1860, followed by Cooper Allen & Co. in 1880. The first cotton textile mill, the Elgin Mills were started in 1862 and Muir Mills in 1882.

Today besides being the most industrialised region of the state, Kanpur is also an important educational centre, with institutions like Indian Institute of Technology, GSVM Medical College, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Agricultural College, National Sugar Institute and Government Textile Institute being located here. Apart from playing a stellar role in the development of the country as a whole, Kanpur has also been instrumental in making an unforgettable contribution to the Indian freedom struggle. A favourite centre of activities of stalwarts like Nanarao Peshwa, Tantiya Tope, Sardar Bhagat Singh and Chander Shekhar Azar among others, Kanpur is also the birth place of Shyamlal Gupta `Parshad’, composer of the famous patriotic ditty `Vijayee Vishwa Tiranga Pyara’. The propagation and popularisation of Hindi also owes much to this city, with great Hindu literatures like Acharya Mahavir Parasad Dwivedi, Ganesh Shanker Vidyarthi, Pratap Narain Mishra, Acharya Gaya Prasad Shukla `Sanehi’ and Balkrishna Sharma `Navin’ having hailed from here.

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