Rani Lakshmibai 187th Birth Anniversary:
Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi paid tributes to Rani Lakshmibai, the Jhansi queen known for her role in the 1857 Mutiny, on her 187th birth anniversary.
- Rani Lakshmibai, one of the warriors of India’s struggle for Independence, was born as Manikarnika Tambe in Varanasi.
- Lakshmibai got married to Gangadhar Rao Newalkar, the Maharaja of Jhansi and got the name of Rani Lakshmibai.
- Then Lakshmibai and Gangadhar Rao adopted Rao’s cousin’s son, Anand Rao, who was later renamed as Damodar. Soon after they adopted Anand, Maharaja died due to an illness.
- The East India Company took advantage of the Maharaja’s death and applied the Doctrine of Lapse.
- Doctrine of Lapse 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 under the direct or indirect (as a vassal) 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. This challenged the Indian ruler’s long-held authority to appoint an heir of their choice.
- So, due to the Doctrine of Lapse, Britishers did not accept Damodar Rao as the legal heir. The plan of the Britishers was to annex Jhansi.
- They seized the state jewels, granted her an annual pension of Rs 60,000 and asked her to leave the fort forever.
