Rani Lakshmibai

• 20 Nov 2019

The Prime Minister paid tributes to Rani Laxmibai on her 191^st birth anniversary. She was one of the leading figures of the 1857 war of independence.

• She was born on 19^th November 1828 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
• Rani Lakshmibai was one of the brave warriors of India's struggle for Independence. In 1853, when the Maharaja of Jhansi died, the East India Company took advantage of the situation and applied the Doctrine of Lapse to annex Jhansi.
• Lakshmibai fought bravely against the British and gave a tough fight to Sir Hugh Rose so as to save her empire from annexation. She died fighting on the battlefield on June 17, 1858.
• When the Indian National Army started its first female unit (in 1943), it was named after the valiant queen of Jhansi.

Doctrine of Lapse

• It was an annexation policy followed widely by Lord Dalhousie when he was India's Governor-General from 1848 to 1856.
• According to this, any princely state that was under the direct or indirect control of the East India Company where the ruler did not have a legal male heir would be annexed by the company.
  
  • As per this, any adopted son of the Indian ruler could not be proclaimed as heir to the kingdom.
• By applying the doctrine of lapse, Dalhousie annexed the States of:
  
  • Satara (1848 A.D.),
  • Jaitpur, and Sambalpur (1849 A.D.),
  • Baghat (1850 A.D.),
  • Udaipur (1852 A.D.),
  • Jhansi (1853 A.D.), and
  • Nagpur (1854 A.D.)

Source: TOI