Gujjar Freedom Fighters

[AP Singh]

Gujjar Jhanda Singh of Meerut:

Daaku Jhanda Singh from Meerut, a nineteenth century dacoit who was a follower of Indian freedom movement, but called ' dacoit' by the British because he destroyed their stations, arms, ammunition and treasury.

He is still alive in folklores sung by children in this area.

Jhanda Gujjar dake dale.
Angrejon ki Gaddi Hale.
( The whole British Empire shakes due to the fear of Gujjar Jhanda Singh).

[AP Singh]

Kalua Gujjar: The First freedom fighter of India.

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Fact recorded by Mr.H.C. Williams in the Gazetteer of Dehra Dun of 1890:

During the erstwhile British regime. During the middle of the 19th century a Gujjar called Kalua had terrorised the British forces for years by his constant attacks upon them. He did not trouble the local Indians but was a constant threat to the British forces. Such was the fear the British had of him that when finally he was captured his head was severed and stuck on a pole outside the jail for a month as an abject lesson to the local population not to oppose their 'masters'. This was before the first war of independence or as the Britishers preferred to call it 'the sepoy mutiny'. As a matter of fact Kalua was one of the first freedom fighters of the country.

Kalyan Singh was the general of Bhagwan Pur state of Gujjar Parmar kingdom. Yograj Singh a 7'8" warrior was of this Gujjar Parmar clan who driven away Taimur from the holy place of Haridwar. Later this fort was upooted by Mughals and Gujjar Parmar foinded their new kingdom at Landhaura near Roorkee in present day Uttranchal

[Ashok Harsana]

Hello AP Singh Ji,

A nice peice of info but there is a confusion....
Kalyan singh Hamra (the commander in chief of Vijay Singh Pawar's Army) was different from Kalua Gujjar who was a Muslim from Dehradun area and was a teror to the britishers for a long time. Kalyan Singh fought against the brtish during 1823 (the actual "first freedom fight") wheras The Kalua Gujjar's time was around.

Please check the source and confirm it for the sake of our knowlidge.

Best Regards

Ashok Harsana

[AP Singh]

Hi Ashok,
I was also of the same opinion but KPS Gujjar informed me with the right information.

KPS Gujjar belong to the same family of Kunja Bhagwan Pur and hence he must be right.
Here is his post ( posted at Samajsandesh.com) of KPS Gujjar which will not only clarify the issue but will provide more clarification about his descendents:
Dear A.P. Singh
The year mentioned in respect to War in Kunja (first line) is a typo mistake it was 1824 and the mention of Kalua goes with the same story.
Full Stroy is :

Vijay Singh was land lord of Kunja-Bhagawan Pur Riyasat. He proclaimed himself Raja of the Riyasat, with Kalyan Singh as his army general. It is Kalyan Singh who is sometimes referred to as Kalua. From 1822-25 they held a fierece armed protest against British. The place where Vijay Singh's fort was build is Kunja Bahadurpur.
No british soldier or officer dare to tresspass their territory. Raja Vijay Singh started collecting Malguzari and extended his Riyasat beyond Meerut on one side and so is on other sides.
When British were transporting their treasury from Jawalapur to Saharanpur, it was escorted by 200 British Soldiers. But as I mentioned earlier they never dared and whenever they did they were butchered and treasury looted. Same happened to this episode, most of the soldiers were killed and everything looted by Raja Vijay Singh's army under the leader ship of Kalyan Singh (Kalua), Kuda and Bhoora.
British forces planned to suppress this uprising. They commanded Gurkha Batallion for the task. In their first attempt they met the same fate, what they always met when faught against Raja Vijay Singh.
At last in 1824-25 British managed to conquer the fort with a vast Gurkha Regiment and planned attack. Raja Vijay Singh and Kalyan Singh lost the battle of life in saving the motherland.
Raja Vijay Singh's head and Kalyan Singh's waist (DhaD) were hung on the main gate of Dehradun Jail. Later the head was transferred to Thomson College (University of Roorkee),. Skull was there at University of Roorkee (Now IIT Roorkee) till 1974.
One cannot sum up the whole story without mentioning Kuda and Bhoora. Kuda and Bhoora also faught alongwith Raja Vijay Singh. In the British attack of 1824-25, Kuda was injured and laid down his life for the Mother Land in 1825 while they were again organizing an attack and recruiting army in Rishikesh. Bhorra continued the fight and build an army. He started Gurilla War against British troops. Later he was also killed in an encounter with British Forces.
In a single day 100s of natives (adult males) of Kunja Bahadurpur were hung by neck till death. If anyone is interested he may still visit the Huge Tree where they were hung. It is close to Roorkee, and one can still find the iron rings (Kunde plural of Kunda) on the tree where people were hung.
When Bhoora and Kuda were recruiting their army people from Kunja-Bhagawanpur riyasat migrated to the jungles near Rishikesh,as a part of their army. There is a village Aurangabad near Hardwar court. People in that village are of Chauhan Gotra and are known as Rajputs, while they all know that they migrated from Kunja-Bhagawan pur Riyasat and were Gujjars.

There are no remains of the fort of Raja Vijay Singh now, so fierce was the British Attack. But as everything is well documented in the Records of Dehradun Gazetteer, Kunja Bahadurpur was awarded the Freedom Fighter Village status by Uttranchal Govt. There is a statue of Raja Vijay Singh in Kunja Bahadurpur, erected recently.
Kunja-Bhagawanpur and landhora riysasat were completery took-over by British only in year 1859.
Please do not confuse Raja Vijay Singh with Vijay Singh "Pathik". (At times people do)

Regards
KPS Gujjar

[Ashok Harsana]

Yeah,

Very authenticate source...I must say...

Thanks for correcting me AP Singh Ji,

Regards

Ashok Harsana

[AP Singh]

Great Freedom Fighter the, Gujjar Ruler Rao Umer Dedhar ( This clan is also called as Dor, Doi, Dodhi, Dedhar, Dedha etc.) of Dadri is news in Times of india.


Dadri power project a non-starter
Arvind Singh Bisht, TNN 31 October 2009, 01:22am IST
LUCKNOW: The much publicised 10,000 mw gas-based Dadri Thermal Power Project of Anil Ambani is nowhere in site even after lapse of its gestation
period of three years.

But what has made UP to cut a sorry figure is the fact that the project, showcased as a great `power house' with a potential to ease the state's power shortage in one go, has virtually remained a non-starter. This is when the project was awarded with a breathtaking speed to Anil Ambani, also former Samajwadi Party (SP) MP to the Rajya Sabha and a member of the State Development Council headed by SP general secretary Amar Singh from 2003 to 2007.

The site for the project was chosen to be Dadri in Gautam Buddh Nagar, which is located in close proximity to Delhi in the National Capital Region. With a population of around 57,457, Dadri is not only known for its rich alluvial soil of Ganga-Yamuna doab, but also for high 84% literacy rate, which is much higher than the national average of 59.5%.

Its glorious past could be traced back to its proud history of its role in the uprising of 1857 when its Gujjar ruler Rao Umar Dedhar rose against the British rule and fought it bravely by roping in the support of other Gujjar rulers of the area. He was hanged along with four mutineers by the British.
Ambani's project was also in tune with Dadri's profile, as it is already a home to the NTPC's enterprises of 840 mw coal-based power plant and 830 mw gas-fired power plant. Two new units of 490 mw each are also coming up at the same plant. This plant has a switchyard with power handling capacity of more than 5000 mw. Besides, it has India's first biggest HVDC transmission line operating at 500 kv and handling power at 1,500 mw.

While no tenders were invited for the project, the Ambani group was virtually given an upper hand in the agreement. Under it, the state is entitled to only 40% of the power generated from the project whereas state has to bear 60% of the land cost.

The deadline set for its operation was 2008 as per the state support agreement (SSA) signed between the government and the Ambani's power company. It was also supposed to provide cheap power at the rate of Rs 2 per unit to power-starved UP.

For its tall promise, the company was rewarded amply with a huge 2,500 acres of most fertile land. This area is almost equivalent to that of the throbbing Gomti Nagar in the state capital, which accommodates sprawling dream projects of Mayawati and nearly one lakh houses, most of them quite palatial.

The huge chunk of land allocated for the project has always been debated on the floor of the Assembly. As per norms, the project of this magnitude could be set up on about 1000 acres of land.

However, ignoring this, then Mulayam Singh Yadav government pushed the project at a break-neck speed by choosing to acquire the land from farmers under section meant for `urgency' and defined only for the express purpose of public interest. In such a case, the purpose stated to be the commissioning of power project by the company, which never kept its promise.

Under the proceedings, coercive measures were also used in which around 500 FIRs were lodged against farmers. Those resisted acquisition of their land were even put behind bars. The hapless farmers were forced to accept the land compensations and signed a tripartite agreements between farmers, local administration and the company, said Rajpal Tyagi, president of Sahayoga Samiti of Farmers.

Insisting on his demand for cancellation of the project, Tyagi said that the project should be done away with immediately, as it had failed to meet the deadline. He said farmers were agitated and upset over acquisition of their land and would start a stir if denied justice. So far, he said, the farmers were in possession of their land and cultivating it under a Supreme Court order. For further hearing, he said, the apex court had referred the matter to the Allahabad High Court, which had currently reserved its judgment on the issue after a prolonged hearing.

[naresh gujjar]

Dear A P bhai ram ram
i think rao sahab of dadri are bhati instead of dedha .as no dedha population in that area . plz rectify . thanks

[AP Singh]

Nov 20, 2009 10:47:06 GMT 5.5 @naresh gujjar said:

Dear A P bhai ram ram
i think rao sahab of dadri are bhati instead of dedha .as no dedha population in that area . plz rectify . thanks

Naresh Bhai,
This is a newpaper report and I also thought the same way.

This western part of UP including Meerut, Bulandshahar, Gaziabad, Muzaffar Nagar, Saharanpur,Haridwar are was called Gujarat before independence and Dadri area was called Bhatner after the glorious clan of Bhati Gujjars.

Bhim Singh Bhati, the famous olympian wrestler belonged to this part of the country.

Bhati is more than 2000 year gotra of Gujjars and Bhatinda fort belonged to them during Gujjar Kushan Empire. Bhati Gate in Lahore is also named after this celebrated clan of Gujjars. Lahore was the capital of Gujjar Pratihar Prince Jai Pal, ( The son of Gujjar Emperor MahiPal, the grandson of Gurjjar Samrat Mihir Bhoja the Great. Bhatiya ( somewhere near Multan was the capital of Bhatti Gujjars during Gujjar Pratihar Empire. There is historical reference that Gakkars and Khilji tribe, who were employed by the Gujjar Pratihar Empire to keep a watch over infiltrating Arabs in Kabul, were allowed to settle in present day Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Gujjar Prince Jaipal after consultation with Gujjar Bhati Prince of Bhatia ( near Multan).

My grandmother was from this celebrated clan of Bhatti Gujjars.

[Ashok Harsana]

As far as my knowledge is concerned the name was 'Rao Umrao Singh Bhati' instead of 'Umer singh Dedhar'. There might be some confusion as the current royal family residing in Dadri (chitthera?) are Bhatis only.

Please clarify

Regards

[kapilkhatana]

i just mention two names from my villege
1. Bishambar Khatana (expires 3 years ago)
2. Sumarta Khatana still alives