Rani Lakshmibai

November 23, 2022

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

The Prime Minister has remembered Rani Lakshmibai on her Jayanti.

About Rani Laxmibai

Rani Laxmibai is known for her role in the First War of India’s Independence in 1857.
She was born in 1835.
When growing up with Nana Sahib and Tatya Tope, she got training in martial arts, sword fighting and horse riding and became proficient in them. She was more independent than other girls of her age, due to her unconventional upbringing.
She got married to the king of Jhansi. The couple adopted a son before the king’s death which the British East India
Company refused to accept as the legal heir and decided to annex Jhansi.
In 1853, when the Maharaja of Jhansi died, the East India Company took advantage of the situation and applied the Doctrine of Lapse to annex Jhansi.
Refusing to cede her territory, the queen decided to rule on behalf of the heir and later joined the uprising against the British in 1857.
Cornered by the British, she escaped from Jhansi fort. She was wounded in combat near Gwalior’s Phool Bagh where she later died.
Sir Hugh Rose, who was commanding the British army, is known to have described her as “personable, clever and one of the most dangerous Indian leaders”.
When the Indian National Army started its first female unit (in 1943), it was named after the valiant queen of Jhansi.

Doctrine of Lapse

It was an annexation policy followed widely by Lord Dalhousie when he was India’s Governor-General from 1848 to 1856.
According to this, any princely state that was under the direct or indirect control of the East India Company where the ruler did not have a legal male heir would be annexed by the company.
Thus, any adopted son of the Indian ruler would not be proclaimed as heir to the kingdom.

By applying the doctrine of lapse, Dalhousie annexed the States of: