Did you know struggle for India's freedom from British took place four decades before 1857?
On April 16, PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to facilitate successors and family members of the freedom fighters who participated in the first mutiny against British rule, known as Paika Rebellion. Odisha is currently celebrating 200 years of what was considered among the first uprisings against British rule in India.
The first ever national recognition for the uprising probably came during the Budget speech of finance minister Arun Jaitley - "200 years ago in 1817, a valiant uprising of soldiers led by Buxi Jagabandhu (Bidyadhar Mohapatra) took place in Khurda of Odisha. We will commemorate the same appropriately".
It was the Paika Revolution of 1817, headed by their redoubtable leader Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra Bhramarbar Rai, more popularly known as Bakshi Jagabandhu of Khurda. Jagabandhu was a jagirdar under the King of Khurda and Killa Rorang was his familial estate. "Bakshi" was a title given to military leaders, who functioned much like the mansabdars under the Mughals.
The Paikas were the traditional landed militia of Odisha. They functioned as soldiers during war and had policing duties in peacetime. There were three types of Paiks - the Paharis who were basically swordsmen, the Banuas or gunmen (matchlock men rater) and the archers classified as the Dhenkiyas.
When armies of the East India Company overran most of Odisha in 1803, the Raja of Khurda lost his primacy and the power and prestige of the Paikas went on a decline. The British were not comfortable with these aggressive, warlike new subjects and set up a commission under Walter Ewer to look into the issue.
The last lines of Ewer's report succinctly sum up what was coming for the Paikas - he concluded his report by saying "... unless the Paik community is ruined completely, British rule cannot run smoothly".
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| An audio-visual gallery depicting rare photographs and paintings related to the Paika Rebellion in Bhubaneswar. |
The commission recommended that the hereditary rent-free lands granted to the Paikas be taken over by the British administration and this recommendation was zealously adhered to. However, the rebellion had several other underlying causes - like the rise in the price of salt, abolition of the cowrie currency for payment of taxes and an overtly extortionist land revenue policy.
A guess can be hazarded that had the traditional fighting force of the Paikas been treated tactfully by the British they could have emerged as a valuable, local militia for them. However, history took a different course.
The immediate trigger for the rebellion probably came in March 1817, when a body of around 400 swordsmen from Gumsur came to Khurda and revolted openly against the Company's rule. The Paiks under Jagabandhu joined them and proceeded to Khurda.
Although initially the Company struggled to respond they managed to put down the rebellion by May 1817. Many of the Paik leaders were hung or deported. Jagabandhu would surrender in 1825 and was still a prisoner when he passed away in 1829. Peace never really returned to Odisha as local insurgencies kept flaring up, like the one in Tapanga in 1827 and Banapur in 1835.