Born: 18th May 1824
Died: 24 Sep 1859
Shri Nana Govind Dhondu Pant, also known as Nana Saheb was born in Bithoor (Kanpur District), Uttar Pradesh on 18th May 1824. His father was a court official of the Peshwa Baji Rao II, Pune and his mother was the Peshwa’s sister-in-law. Tatya Tope and Manikarnika Tambe (Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi) were Nana Saheb’s childhood friends. In 1827, he and his brother were adopted by the Peshwa who was childless.
Adopted by Baji Rao II, the last Maratha Peshwa, Nana Sahib was educated as a Hindu nobleman. After the Third Anglo-Maratha WarPeshwa Baji Rao II had been living in Bithoor and was given an annual pension by the British. After the Peshwa’s death, the British stopped giving pension Nana Saheb, since he was adopted and refused to accept him. Despite being declared as the heir in the will of Baji Rao II, the British refused to accept Nana Saheb’s legal right to be the next Peshwa.
The threats of the sepoys and the refusal of his claim led him to join the sepoy battalions at Kanpur and to take part in the Revolt of 1857. He had written a warning letter of the attack to Sir Hugh Wheeler, commander of British forces at Kanpur, as a taunting gesture to his former friends. Safe conduct given to the British under General Wheeler by Nana Sahib was broken on June 27, and British women and children were massacred at Nana Sahib’s palace. Lacking military knowledge, he could not command the rebellious sepoys, though in July 1857, after the capture of Gwalior, Nana had the satisfaction of being declared Peshwa by the Tantia Tope and his followers. After getting defeated by Sir Colin Campbell and General Henry Havelock, Nana Saheb appointed his nephew, Rao Sahib, to give the command to Tantia. Nana Sahib was driven into the Nepal hills in 1859, where he is thought to have died.