Birthday of Lakshmibai

Khoob Ladhi Mardani…. and the rest of can be completed in chorus by all without any assistance from Subhadra Kumari Chauhan. We know who we are talking about, the Rani of Jhansi - Lakshmibai. And yesterday, it was her birthday.

We celebrated it too, with my son writing a poem on her, as an ode to a valiant warrior, and to a woman who can be held up as an example to generations and to a mother who nursed her child till her grave.

I would grant it to the British, though such occasions were much too rare, when they would admire certain values that India stood for.

Such stellar was the Rani’s courage and such stark her valor so Spartan her lifestyle, so all of which she displayed with characteristic defiance till the last that she breathed, that Gen Hugh Rose who took the surrender of the forces of Jhansi post Indias first war of independence in 1857 was impelled to acknowledge at her grave – “here lies the woman who was the only man amongst the rebels”.

But such words of praise never came from any Muslim ruler or man of influence for anything that was indigenous. They, despite having imbibed a lot from the country, continued to deny all that was good and stable in that civilization.

Well this queen of valor, grew up not far from where I studied. Bithoor was where she and Nana the son of the Maratha rulers frolicked as infants, was just 10 kms from IIT Kanpur. this was also the place where she learnt warfare. But IIT Kanpur community chronically gaping in awe and wonder toward the west would rather be mindlessly celebrating Halloween, than be mindful of the birthday of Lakshmi bai. I have never heard the UP Government too celebrate her birthday.