A great martyr of Jhadsa

RS Dalal

The post-retirement phase is a good time to reconnect with friends and acquaintances, or else time hangs heavy. It is more in the nature of just loafing around, as I call it. And during such joyful wanderings, I would cross Bakhtawar Chowk in Gurgaon several times and wonder who that eponymous personality was.

‘Oh! You don’t know about him! Bakhtawar Singh Thakran was the chieftain of this region and he belonged to Jhadsa village,’ exclaimed my acquaintance from Jhadsa. ‘Excuse me, while serving in the Haryana Police, I only knew about two gangsters from Jhadsa, who later got killed in an inter-gang rivalry,’ I teasingly remarked, but added quickly, ‘the sudden economic prosperity brings new types of crimes in its wake. So, no aspersions cast on people hailing from Jhadsa.’

Jhadsa is a historic village. Gurgaon (Gurugram), now the Millennium City, was then a small village. Jhadsa was a pargana of Delhi suba (state). The British seized it in 1836 after the death of Begum Samru and established a cavalry cantonment and Civil Lines here, which to date is a prestigious area, continuing to have the official residences of top government officers. When Mangal Pandey and Rani of Jhansi sounded the bugle of independence in 1857, Jhadsa, under the leadership of Bakhtawar Singh Thakran, also rebelled and fought against the British rulers. The British record room was burnt by the villagers. That room was used for the safe-keeping of the draconian and arbitrary Acts, notifications, rules and orders through which the British divested self-respecting Indians of their jagirs and properties to re-allot to those subservient to them.

The villagers fought against the British troops fearlessly. A British officer, Mr Chiffard, assistant to the Deputy Commissioner, was killed and many were taken prisoner by the villagers. The unarmed villagers taking on the well-trained and fully equipped British troops was in itself an unparalleled show of courage and valour.

Unfortunately, the tide turned in favour of the British and they unleashed a reign of terror. To save their lives, the residents deserted their homes and took shelter in the surrounding Aravalli hills. Bakhtawar was arrested as one of his confidants ratted. He was brutally tortured. On January 8, 1858, he was hanged from a peepal tree in a public place. No one dared to bring down his body. However, the Thakrans of the neighbouring village of Islampur rose against British barbarism; risking their lives, they brought Bakhtawar’s body to their village and cremated him with the befitting rites and utmost respect. The chowk bearing Bakhtawar’s name is a grateful tribute to him and the brave people of Jhadsa and Islampur.

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