Fateh Bahadur Sahi

Maharaja Fateh Bahadur Shahi was 99th Raja of Hathwa Raj situated in today's Gopalganj district of Bihar in India. He relentlessly pursued his objective of driving them out for nearly three decades while waging a guerrilla war against the British. The British used all of their might and resources to oppose him.
He belonged to the Baghochia clan of Bhumihars which controlled the Huseypur Estate, from which descended the Tamkuhi Raj of the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh and the Hathwa Raj of Gopalganj district.

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, the Bhumihar line's descendants settled in Kalyanpur Kuari pargana in the northwest While Some Hathwa chronicles confirm that by the early seventeenth century, the line had gained enough prominence for the eighty-seventh raja to be bestowed with the titles of "Shahi" and "Maharaja Bahadur" by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1605-1627). This was due to the family's increasing authority coupled with the king's growing wealth and power. After this the kings of his ancestry were acknowledged with those Honorific titles.

Rebellion against the British

He collaborated with Mir Qasim, who continued to provide military support to him in his battles against the Mughal Emperor from Monghyr to Buxar in Bihar; he opposed the Dewani powers that the British had gained over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa as a result of the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765.

Fateh Shahi Along with the rulers of Dileepnagar Estate and Rajas of Bettiah waged a 20 year guerilla war against the British East India Company from 1767 onwards. The British reached a compromise with the Bettiah after which he continued on his own. He was swiftly deposed after this and fled into the forests with his followers where he waged a guerilla war against the Britishers. The rulers of Dileepnagar Estate helped Fateh Bahadur from backstage in guerilla war against the Britishers. In 1772, he marched into Huseypur and killed Govind Ram who was appointed as the revenue farmer for the East India Company. In spite of this the company continued to try and bring Fateh Shahi into their fold as he held much influence among the zamindars however he refused all such offers.

By 1775, the British had been experiencing many problems in the region, so the British then designated Mir Jamal as their superintendent of the Huseypur revenue. The East India Company promised his cousin Babu Basant Sahi the throne if he would capture or kill him. Basant Sahi had been placed as the ruler of Huseypur by the EIC but Fateh Shahi once again marched into Huseypur at night with a thousand cavalrymen on May 3 in response to reports that the enemy was camped at Jadopur, close to Huseypur, and arrived at the enemy camp just before daybreak. After murdering his cousin Basant Sahi and Mir Jamal in the ensuing violent battle, he fled into woods. Even though two companies of sepoys were stationed in the neighborhood to keep an eye on him, this nonetheless transpired. After Basant Sahi's head was severed, it was given to his widow. The Widow together with 13 of his aides, whose husbands also perished in the fight, committed sati.

His repeated incursions had crippled revenue collection in the area and exposed the weakness of British control in the locality. In 1777, after many successes, he marched on to the Company's barrack / military station, gained control of it and placed his own men in charge. In response, the British destroyed his fort and they noted that he had caused even more problems for them than the Peshwas in Maharashtra. Following the rebellion of Chait Singh of Benares state in 1781 he renewed his campaign against the Britishers or in other words the East India Company.
Raja Chait Singh of Banaras attempted to use the anti-British riots in Bihar during his insurrection in August 1781. He supported his relative Fateh Shahi in his mission to assassinate the British and their sepoys. The zamindars of Padrauna and Narrowneys, along with the raja of Bansgaon Estate (Dileepnagar Estate), the rajas of Huseypur and Majhauli, formed a formidable alliance. Fateh Shahi had covert support from a number of Saran zamindars. They raised a force of 20,000 men at Munjoora in October, and they pillaged and took control of the Company's military outpost at Baragaon, which had been set there to repress Fateh. Fearing for his life, Saran Collector Grome turned to the anti-Fateh group inside the royal family, led by Dhujju Singh, a close friend and protector of Basant's younger son, for assistance. Together, they forced Fateh to flee into the jungle after engaging in a violent battle with him. His fort in Huseypur was destroyed. Warren Hastings at Banaras called for Dhujju as a reward, and he was adorned with a gold cloth khelat. But out of fear of a widespread uprising against them in the area, the British dared not punish a single one of Fateh's supporters.

The rebellion led by him along with others were eventually defeated and the Britishers reasserted their rule in Bihar after his forces were defeated in the battle. He later established Tamkuhi Raj approximately 109 kilometers from Husseypur, northeast of modern-day Deoria within the Kingdom of Oudh, seeing the growing influence and power of the East India Company. Maharaja Fateh Shahi changed his tactics and around 1789, he ceased his rebellious ways and handed the administration of the state to his sons .

Legacy

Fateh Shahi's rebellion against the East India Company was the first of many rebellions against the Britishers in Bihar and India and the soon after that was followed by the 1857 rebellion. The saga of his struggle and fight against East India Company is described in the poem ''Meer Jamal Vadh''.

References

{{reflist

18th-century Indian people
History of Bihar
People from Gopalganj district, India