Uda Devi

Uda Devi (Hindi- hi:ऊदा देवी) was a warrior in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, who fought against the British East India Company. Uda Devi was from the Dalit Pasi community and was born in a Ujriaon village in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.^[1]

She was also known as Jagrani and was married to Makka Pasi. She became an associate of Begum Hazrat Mahal,and Uda formed a women’s army, with herself as the commander. Her husband became a martyr in the battle at Chinhat. Uda decided to take revenge.^[2]

Battle of Sikandar Bagh

Uda Devi took part in the Battle in Sikandar Bagh in November 1857. William Forbes-Mitchell, in Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny, writes of Uda Devi: "She was armed with a pair of heavy old-pattern cavalry pistols, one of which was in her belt still loaded, and her pouch was still about half full of ammunition, while from her perch in the tree, which had been carefully prepared before the attack, she had killed more than half-a-dozen men."^[3]

W Gordon-Alexander’s account of the storming of Sikandar Bagh by British troops states:^[4]

In addition ... there were ... even a few amazon negresses, amongst the slain. These amazons having no religious prejudices against the use of greased cartridges, whether of pigs’ or other animal fat, although doubtless professed Muhammadans, were armed with rifles, while the Hindu and Muhammadan East Indian rebels were all armed with musket; they fought like wild cats, and it was not till after they were killed that their sex was even suspected.

Uda Devi was one of them, who is said to have climbed overa ‘pipal’ tree and shot dead, according to some accounts 32 and some 36, British soldiers. One soldier spotted someone in the tree and shot the person dead, and only then it was discovered that she was a woman. Realising her brave feat, even British officers like Campbell bowed their heads over her dead body in respect.

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