
Azimullah Khan (17 September 1830 — 18 March 1859), also known as ''
Dewan
''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...
Azimullah Khan'', was initially appointed Secretary, and later Prime Minister (hence the prefix ''Dewan'') to
Shrimant Nana Saheb Peshwa II. He is also known as the ''Krantidoot Azimullah Khan'' (''Krantidoot'' in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
for "Ambassador of Revolution").
Azimullah Khan was involved in the
Indian Rebellion
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the for ...
of 1857, primarily ideologically, influencing important nobles such as Shrimant Nana Saheb Peshwa II.
Origins
Azimullah was rescued as a starving Muslim boy from the famine of 1837-38 along with his mother when they were provided shelter at a mission in
Kanpur
Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation ( help· info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military station ...
. There he learnt English but also French, no mean achievement for an Indian in the 19th century.
After working as secretary to several British officers, he was taken into the service of the
Shrimant Nana Saheb Peshwa II, adopted son of the late Peshwa Baji Rao II (died 28 January 1851), as secretary and advisor.
The Maratha mission
Nana Sahib was involved in an extended appeal to the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
to pass on to him the £80,000 annual pension that his adoptive father (exiled to the Kingdom of
Oudh
The Oudh State (, also Kingdom of Awadh, Kingdom of Oudh, or Awadh State) was a princely state in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the British in 1856. The name Oudh, now obsolete, was once the anglicized name of ...
) had been granted. While Nana Sahib had inherited Peshwa Baji Rao's property and title, the pension paid by the Company had terminated on the latter's death. Nana Sahib chose Azimullah to lead a delegation to England in 1853 to plead his case with the Board of Control and the British Government.
England
In England, Azimullah was taken under the wing of
Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon
Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon ( Austin; 24 June 1821 – 14 July 1869) was an English author and translator who wrote as Lucie Gordon. She is best known for her ''Letters from Egypt, 1863–1865'' (1865) and ''Last Letters from Egypt'' (1875), most ...
; an intellectual and translator whose husband was a civil servant, court functionary and the cousin of the then Prime Minister. This introduction probably came about through the philosopher
John Stuart Mill, who was an official of the East India Company and had been a childhood friend of Lucie's. Azimullah lodged with the Duff Gordons at their home in
Esher
Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole, Surrey, River Mole.
Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greate ...
, and in Lucie's company may have met her friends
Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
,
Carlyle,
Meredith,
Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
,
Browning and
Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...
(though there is no direct evidence).
The mission to obtain resumption of the pension for Nana Sahib was unsuccessful and reportedly embittered Azimullah Khan.
Constantinople
On his way back, Azimullah's party stopped in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
, which was then part of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. There he met with the Times correspondent
William Howard Russell
Sir William Howard Russell, (28 March 182011 February 1907) was an Irish reporter with ''The Times'', and is considered to have been one of the first modern war correspondents. He spent 22 months covering the Crimean War, including the Sieg ...
, who noted the young Muslim official's interest in the losses and setbacks suffered by the British Army. Azimullah is reported to have contacted Turkish and Russian spies.
Subversion and revolt
Although his mission had failed, he probably came back with a more dangerous idea, planting in the Nana Sahib's mind the seed of the
Indian rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...
. (Azimullah also brought back a French printing press, which was used – by others – to print and distribute subversive literature against the British in India.)
Azimullah's own role in the great uprising that followed, the "Indian Mutiny", was political rather than military. Although he was chief advisor to the Nana Sahib, one of the principal leaders of the rebellion, he was a
Muslim at a
Hindu court, a talker, at a time when military men were needed, and without personal wealth, nobility, or a following of supporters, and so he soon became a marginal figure. He did however play a key role in the negotiations that terminated the
Siege of Cawnpore
The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were unprepared for an extended siege and surrendered to rebel forces under Nana Sahib in r ...
. Representing Nana Sahib, Azimullah met with the British commander of the garrison Major-General
Sir Hugh Wheeler
Sir Hugh Massy Wheeler Order of the Bath, KCB (30 June 1789 – 27 June 1857) was an Irish-born officer in the army of the East India Company. He commanded troops in the First Anglo-Afghan War, and the First Anglo-Sikh War, First and Second Angl ...
and agreement was reached that the garrison and their families would be evacuated and taken by boat to safety in Allahabad. The following day he was seen among a group of Nana Sahib's advisers and officers who were present at the ambush and killing of most of the refugees as they boarded the waiting boats.
Death
Azimullah Khan probably died of a fever in late 1859, after the crushing of the rebellion, on the run from the British in the inhospitable border country of the Nepalese
Terai
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, caption =Aerial view of Terai plains near Biratnagar, Nepal
, map =
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, biogeographic_realm = Indomalayan realm
, global200 = Terai-Duar savanna ...
. Other accounts have him dying of smallpox while attempting to reach Calcutta in disguise, or of escaping India and eventually being murdered in Constantinople.
Azimullah Avenue, a road in
Kanpur
Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation ( help· info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military station ...
is named in his honour.
In popular culture
Azimullah Khan was portrayed by actor
Shahbaz Khan Shahbaz Khan may refer to:
* Shahbaz Khan (actor), formerly Haider Amir, Indian actor
* Shahbaz Khan (colonel), Pakistan Army colonel
* Shahbaz Khan (cricketer) (born 1991), Pakistani cricketer
* Shahbaz Khan (hydrologist), Australian climatolog ...
in the 2005 movie
Mangal Pandey: The Rising.
References
Further reading
* Lutfullah, Syed. ''Azimullah Khan Yusufzai: The man behind the war of independence 1857''. Karachi: Mohamedali Educational Society, second edition, 1970.
* Ward, Andrew. ''Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and The Indian Mutiny of 1857''. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.
* Fisher, Michael H. ''Indian Political Representations in Britain during the Transition to Colonialism''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
* Fisher, Michael H. ''Counterflows to Colonialism: Visitors and Settlers from India in Britain, c. 1600–1857''. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004.
* Jarman, Francis. "Azimullah Khan - A Reappraisal of One of the Major Figures of the Revolt of 1857". In: ''South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies'', vol. XXXI, no. 3, December 2008, pp. 419–49.
* Swatantryaveer Sawarkar, Marathi: 1857 che Swatantrya Samar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Azimullah
Revolutionaries of the Indian Rebellion of 1857
1830 births
1859 deaths
People from Kanpur
Indian Muslims
Indian revolutionaries
Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh