Biography of ‘Nana Saheb’
A Nana Saheb was born in 1824 to Narayan Bhatt and Ganga Bai. In 1827 his parents went to the court of the last Peshwa Baji Rao, who adopted Nana Saheb, thus making him heir-presumptive to the throne.
Nana Saheb studied Sanskrit and was known for his deeply religious nature. On the death of the last Peshwa, Baji Rao-II, in 1851 the Company’s Government stopped the annual pension and the title. Nana Saheb’s appeal to the Court of Directors was not accepted. This made him hostile towards the Brit- ish rulers. When the First War of Independence broke out, he assumed leadership of the mutineers in Kanpur. After seizing Kanpur, which had a small British garrison, Nana Saheb proclaimed himself the Peshwa and called for the total extermination of the British power in India.
Kanpur was recaptured by the British under General Havelock. But somehow, Nana rode away to an unknown destination in Nepal in 1859 and probably perished in the jungle.
