Punjab

by Rajmohan Gandhi

The British columns were still far from Kanpur when, on 25 June, after three weeks of bombardment, illnesses and deaths at the Entrenchment, General Wheeler sued for peace. The man to whom he submitted was Nana Sahib, a descendant of the Peshwas, who lived near Kanpur and whom the sepoys had accepted as their ruler. From the besieged Lucknow Residency, Henry Lawrence had smuggled out a letter asking Wheeler not to trust Nana Sahib, but Wheeler yielded before the letter arrived. The Entrenchment’s surrendering men, women and children were assured safe passage to Allahabad by Nana Sahib. Two days later, at Kanpur’s Satichaura Ghat, Wheeler and many other Britons were killed while boarding boats in the Ganga for the promised journey to safety. The rest from the Entrenchment were either shot or detained. In the middle of July, under the aegis of Nana Sahib, the imprisoned were all slaughtered, including women and children, in the well-known Bibighar massacre.