Mangal Pandey

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Mangal Pandey ( pronunciation ? / I ; Hindi : मंगल पांडे , Maṅgal Pāṇḍe ; * 1831 in the village of Nagwa, Avadh ; † April 8, 1857 in Barakpur , Bengal ) is commonly known in India as the first independence fighter against British colonial rule and therefore as a martyr ( Hindi: Shahid ) considered. Audio file / audio sample

Barakpur uprising

Mangal Pandey was a soldier in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry Regiment (BNI). Even before the actual Sepoy uprising began , Mangal Pandey revolted against colonial power and called on his comrades to revolt against the colonial masters. On March 29, 1857, intoxicated by Bhang and completely beside himself, he attacked and wounded his British superiors, a regimental adjutant with the rank of lieutenant and a sergeant major in Barakpur near Kolkata. The comrades, with the exception of a Muslim soldier by the name of Shaikh Paltu , refused to give orders to arrest Mangal Pandey or to help the British officers, but on the whole acted wait and see, although Mangal Pandey harshly cursed them as cowards.

When no one from his regiment joined his revolt, Mangal Pandey tried to shoot himself with his rifle. However, he was saved seriously wounded. A British military tribunal sentenced him to death by hanging in a quick trial , the sentence was carried out on April 8, 1857 in Barakpur.

The background to Panday's attack was new ammunition used for the Enfield P-53 rifle , which was introduced in the same year . There were rumors that these cartridges contained lubricants made from animal fat . This animal fat allegedly came mainly from pigs and cows . Cows are sacred animals in Hinduism , pork products are not consumed by devout Muslims . Since the BNI consisted mainly of members of these two religious communities, conflicts were thus predetermined.

Pandey's immediate superior, Ishari Pandey , was also hanged on April 22, 1857 for ignoring the execution of orders to arrest and shoot Mangal Pandey on March 28 of the same year. The involvement of two apparently unrelated soldiers of the same name led to the later mutineers of the BNI being collectively referred to by British soldiers as "pandies". Pandey is a common surname from the Brahmin caste of northern India. The BNI (Bengal Native Infantry) - despite its name - recruited its soldiers mostly from northern India, especially from Awadh , and not from Bengal .

Mangal Pandey's address to his comrades suggests that a broader revolt was planned, which was prevented precisely by the fact that he acted too early in excitement and that his comrades were not yet prepared for an open conflict. The collective disobedience was punished with the dissolution of the 34th regiment of the BNI. Shaikh Paltu, the sole savior of British officers, was honored for his loyalty and rose to the post of jamadar in the BNI after Pandey's execution ; shortly afterwards and a few days before his regiment was disbanded, however, he was lured into a trap by his comrades and killed.

Artistic and literary processing of the history of Mangal Pandey

At the end of 2005 the film The Rising came to the cinemas. In the Bollywood film by Ketan Mehta , Aamir Khan plays the rebel Mangal Pandey. Since little is known about Mangal Pandey's actual résumé, the film is mainly based on the event outlined above. Other side stories in the film are therefore dramatized and sometimes only represent fiction. B. the film adaptation of his alleged love / wedding with a prostitute. Because of this "factual falsification" there were protests in the home region of Pandey in Uttar Pradesh against this "slander" of a hero.

Mangal Pandey also plays a supporting role in the novel "White Teeth" by the British author Zadie Smith , which was published in 2000 and has become an international bestseller. One of the two protagonists of the story, the Indian-born Brit Samad Iqbal, describes himself as a direct descendant of Pandey, whose story is told in detail in the novel.

memory

Mangal Pandey's cenotaph in Mangal Pandey Park

Stamp

On October 5, 1984, the Indian Post issued a postage stamp in honor of Pandey.

Mangal Pandey Park

The park 'Sahid Mangal Pandey Udyan' is named after him. It was erected on the spot where it was hung.

literature

  • Kim A. Wagner: Rumors and Rebels. A New History of the Indian Uprising of 1857 . Oxford: Peter Lang 2017 (text identical to the previous edition The Great Fear of 1857 from 2010). - Chapter 4: Mangal Pandey, pp. 79–97

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the English protocol bhainchute , in Hindium script bahincod "Schwesternficker"; Wagner, Rumors and Rebels (2017), p. 97 with reference to the interrogation of Shaikh Paltu on April 4, 1857
  2. ^ Wagner, Rumors and Rebels (2017), p. 97, with reference to The Delhi Gazette of May 9, 1857
  3. ↑ Mangal Pandey Park, Amusement Parks / Auditoriums / Clubs , kmcgov.in
  4. ↑ Mangal Pandey breathes life into Barrackpore's past , samrat ray, December 1st, 2008, merinews.com
personal data
SURNAME Pandey, Mangal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian independence fighter
DATE OF BIRTH 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Nagwa , Avadh
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1857
Place of death Barakpur , Bengal