Rani Jhalkaribai fought for her people

I am conscious of the fact that if women are conscientised, the untouchable community will progress. I believe women should organise this and will play a major role in bringing to an end the social evils. The progress of the Dalit community should be measured in terms of the progress by its womenfolk. “Every woman should stand by her husband, not as his slave but as his contemporary, as his friend,” are golden words of Dr. BR Ambedkar which ought to resonate in each and every one of us as India celebrates 70 years of Independence and 67 years of its Constitution. True to this, even Swami Vivekananda compared women to shakti (power) and believed that India was a regressive state for them. “Without shakti there is no regeneration for the world. Why is it that our country is the weakest and most backward of all countries? — Because shakti is held in dishonour here,” he said.

This is why it is important  that this country is aware of working towards women empowerment — and more importantly women-led empowerment. Another unfortunate truth is that history and history writers have not been kind to the subaltern segment of our society. 

Anthropology and the various characters which enrich it is an important cornerstone for resurrection of social pride and dignity for any community and country. It is about time we confronted the brute realities of India’s narrative builders who have deliberately avoided the contributions of iconic woman leaders such as Rani Jhalkaribai. 

She was the only daughter of Sadoba Singh and Jamuna Devi and was born on November 22, 1830 in the Bhojla village near Jhansi. Her family belonged to the Kori caste. After her mother’s death, her father raised her singlehandedly. 

At a very young age, she was trained to use weapons, ride a horse, and fight like a warrior.Koris claim descent from Kabir who in his lifetime questioned and challenged the orthodoxy within the religious order and rekindled it for the good.

If there was one warrior who epitomised Sun Tzu’s striking quote, “Attack is the secret of defence; defence is the planning of an attack,” then it has to be Rani Jhalkaribai.

 Her husband Pooran of Namampur in Jhansi played a key role in empowering her with all the skills that she needed, be it offence or defence, in essence he realised the necessity for her to militarily train up herself which was Rani Jhalkaribai’s passion. 

The warrior was trained by her lookalike Rani Lakshmibai into the art of archery, horse riding, shooting, wrestling and other physical exercises. 

Bundelkhand from where Jhalkaribai belonged has a legend that her reply in battles stunned the British, a general went on to say that even if “one per cent of Indian women were like Jhalkari; the British would soon have to leave India.” In 2001, the government of India under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee released a stamp in honour of this fierce revolutionary. 

While issuing the stamp, the government described how Rani Jhalkaribai sprang out of her comfort zone to rough it out and learn the hard way.  It says, “She is a living memory in the folklore of the Bundelkhand region (which was part of the erstwhile state of Jhansi) even today. Jhalkari was a village girl who had to take charge of the household chores in her childhood itself, following the early loss of her mother.” Such was the exemplary contribution of Rani Jhalkaribai which has unfortunately not been able to stand the test of time. Unless and until the coming generations are made aware of such icons and her social origin, we will not progress collectively as a nation with a rich diverse history. Shedding light on stories such as hers is a step in the right direction.

Sudarshan Ramabadran is the deputy Director with the India Foundation and Guru Prakash is a senior research fellow and project head with the same.