The woman who challenged British before 1857!
Rani Velu Nachiyar
Rani Velu Nachiyar (3 January 1730 – 25 December 1796) was a little-known queen of Sivaganga estate from 1780–1790. She was the first queen to fight against the British colonial power in India.She did this in 1780, 77 years before the First War of Independence.She was popularly known as ‘veeramangai’ (brave woman).
Nachiyar was trained in war match weapons usage, martial arts like Valari, Silambam, horse riding and archery. She was a scholar in many languages and she had proficiency with languages like French, English and Urdu.
When she was 16, Velu Nachiyar was married to Muthuvadugananthur Udaiyathevar, the prince of Sivagangai. They had a daughter together called Vellachi, and ruled over the kingdom for over two decades – from 1750 to 1772, until the year that Mathuvadugananthur Udaiyathevar was killed by the British.She escaped with her daughter.She formed an army and sought an alliance with Gopala Nayaker and Hyder Ali with the aim of attacking the British, whom she did successfully fight in 1780.
1780 was the year Velu Nachiyar bravely defeated the British in a brilliantly formulated coup. Her intelligence gathering agents found out where the British had stored their ammunition. A suicide attack was then devised to destroy all of it.
Kuyili, the commander-in-chief, gallantly volunteered to carry out the suicide mission. She doused herself in ghee and set herself on fire before jumping into the ammunition store, destroying every last bit of it. Kuyili is considered by many to be Velu Nachiyar’s adopted daughter, and is the first recorded suicide bomber in history.
Coincidentally, the festival of Vijayadashami during which women from near and far parts of the country came to Sivaganga to visit the temple of Rajarajeswari Amman, was being celebrated that day.
The sad part is that we are never taught about these brave fighters.They are unfortunately not mentioned in our history books too!We are to be blamed more than our history textbooks as it is because of us that these martyrs become a memory!
Source: Wikipedia, The Better India , Feminism in India
~Bhagyashri S.
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