Dhan Singh Explained

Dhan Singh Gurjar
Birth Date:1820
Birth Place:Panchali, Meerut, Ceded and Conquered Provinces, Company India
Death Place:Meerut, North-Western Provinces, Company India
Movement:Revolt of 1857

Dhan Singh Gurjar, also known as Dhunna Singh, was the Indian Kotwal (police chief) of Meerut, who participated in the 1857 rebellion and led initial actions against the British East India Company in that city.[1] [2]

Early life

Dhan Singh was born in the Panchli or Panchali village in Meerut district.[3] Singh was a Chaprana Gurjar, many of whom joined the rebellion against British rule in 1857.[4] [5]

Role in the 1857 rebellion

On 10 May 1857, a rebellion against the East India Company rule broke out in Meerut during the 1857 uprising. As the Kotwal of the city, Dhan Singh's job was to protect the city. However, many of his officers deserted his force on that day, either to join the rebellion or to escape the rebels' fury. The city saw large-scale rioting, plunder and murder. When two of his chowkidars (guards) apprehended two men for stealing horses, he asked them not to make arrests, fearing reprisals from the rebels. Around midnight, he was called to the house of a Bengali man, which was being plundered by a huge group of armed Gurjars. Dhan Singh's chowkidars arrested two of the plunderers, but Singh restrained them from using force against the Gurjars. He then released the two men with the loot, after the group agreed to go away.[5]

Dhan Singh and several other policemen later deserted the police force (kotwali).[5] He is believed to have led thousands of villagers from all across the Meerut district to the city's jail. According to the official records, the rebels released 839 prisoners from the jail. These prisoners were among the rebels who participated in the siege of Delhi.[6]

After the rebellion was suppressed, Singh was hanged by the British for his role in the revolt at Meerut.

Commemoration

Notes and References

  1. Book: Crispin Bates. Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Volume I: Anticipations and Experiences in the Locality. 26 March 2013. SAGE Publications. 978-81-321-1336-2. 236–.
  2. News: Farmers, cops and sadhus who aided sepoys in 1857 . Uday Rana . 2015-05-09 . The Times of India .
  3. Book: Henderson, Carol E. . Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857 . I . Spatial Memorialising of War in 1857: Memories, Traces and Silences in Ethnography . Crispin . Bates . SAGE Publications India . 2013 . 9788132113362 . https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ-HAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA236 . 236.
  4. Web site: The Delhi Campaign. Agha Humayun Amin. Defence Journal. January 2000. 2007-05-31. 9 October 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121009083400/http://www.defencejournal.com/2000/jan/dehli-campaign.htm. dead.
  5. Book: Wagner, Kim A. . The great fear of 1857: rumours, conspiracies and the making of the Indian Mutiny . Peter Lang . 2010 . 9781906165277 . 162–165 .
  6. News: Farmers, cops and sadhus who aided sepoys in 1857 . Uday Rana . 2015-05-09 . The Times of India .
  7. Web site: UP Police will read history of Shaheed Dhan Singh Kotwal. Hindustan team, Meerut.
  8. Web site: Police Museum Delhi. . 3 July 2018.
  9. Web site: Meerut University . 11 December 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140911011206/http://www.ccsuniversity.ac.in/new/Health-Care.htm#DSCC . 11 September 2014 . dead .
  10. Web site: Welcome to dsgcollege.com, Loni, Ghaziabad . 2023-08-10 . www.dsgcollege.com.
  11. Web site: Meerut . 19 March 2021.
  12. Web site: Kotwal Dhan Singh Gurjar Marg . 1 August 2021.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dhan Singh".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.