Lakshmi Bai: Who is India's Joan of Arc?

Lakshmi Bai was born into wealthy family in 1830, but she was far from the typical aristocrat. In this episode, Deblina and Sarah recount the life and work of Lakshmi Bai, from her youth to her instrumental role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm to bring a chalk reboarding and I'm fired out
and Sarah and I have been talking a lot this
month since it's Women's History Month, about real life Amazon's

(00:22):
and it's interesting. But when you're talking about female warriors,
Joan of Arc is one who always comes up. She's
kind of a big name among female warriors. Absolutely, And
in case you're not familiar, Joan of Arc of course
is a national heroine in France for leading an army
to several victories during the Hundred Years War. And she's
also a Catholic saint. She said, movies man about her

(00:43):
books written about her. Super famous way up there. But
it's interesting. She's so famous that a lot of female
warriors since then have been compared to her, and they've
even earned the Joan of Arc nickname, you know, attached
to whatever country they're from. They're they're quite few of them, actually, yeah.
For example, Augustina d Arragon is called Spanish Joan of Arc,

(01:05):
and there's also a Vietnamese Joan of Arc. I think
you guys have touched on her before. And if I
remember correctly, I'm pretty sure she predates Joan of Arc,
which makes that kind of a strange title that you're
you're getting that that nickname after the fact, But whatever,
what are you gonna do? But this is all just
to kind of set up to day's episode, which is
about India's Joan of Arc, a woman named Lookshmi by

(01:28):
now looks at me By, who is also known as
the Ronnie of John C. She became famous for her
role in the Indian Mutiny of eighteen fifty seven, which
is sometimes thought of as India's first War of independence
from the British, of course, and her life is uniquely
wrapped up in all the factors that led to this rebellion.
So that's kind of why we wanted to focus on
her out of all these other Joan of arcs to yeah,

(01:48):
and I mean, another interesting fact about her is she's
still quite important in modern India. She's considered a national
heroine and there are statues of her. Her story is
told old and things like novels and movies and ballads,
just like just like Joan of Arc. I mean, how
about that um illustrated comics. I mean, she she's a

(02:09):
well known figure. Yeah, I think Prime Minister in the
ra Gandhi even appeared as Looks me By in a
political commercial in the nineteen eighties. So she's kind of
all over the place, all sort of different facets of
of popular culture, and her story has become the stuff
of legend. And as we know with legends, a lot
of times, once history becomes legend, we sort of get

(02:30):
a little murky on what's fact and what's fiction. So
that's what we're gonna look at today. We're just really
going to consider who is Looked me By, what are
the real facts about her? And why is she alternately
known as India's Joan of Arc and India's Jezebel depending
on who you ask. Yeah, but she'll didn't see that
one coming. So we're gonna start at the beginning talk
a little bit about her childhood because it really lays

(02:51):
a pretty strong groundwork for the woman she become. She
was born November nineteenth eighty seven to a Brahmin family
in Banaras, which is in northern India, and it was
a good family. It was even maybe a prominent family,
but they didn't really have that much money, it seems.
According to Rainier Jurro's biography, The Ronnie of John C

(03:12):
Rebel against Will. They didn't have that much money because
her parents had left their home in Maharashtra in central
India in exile because the ruler there was banished by
the British so um while they had been high ranking,
and while her father had been high ranking, he might
have had a little trouble re establishing himself in a

(03:32):
new part of the country and never really attained that
high an income. Yeah, so that just kind of sets
up her family for you. But looks at me by
His original name was Moni Carnica and her parents called
her Manu. Now Mona's childhood was kind of unique for
a little girl growing up in India around that time.
And that's mainly because her mom, Voggy Rothy, passed away

(03:54):
when she was about four years old, and her dad,
more upon Thumbay, remained a widower from more than a decade.
So really no big conservative corrective influence, that female influence
in her life. Who would have put her on the
path too, I guess a more feminine upbringing. Yeah, no one.
They're telling her to stand up straight and behave it seems,

(04:16):
and she was naturally feisty. She was kind of a
little tomboy, and because she didn't have this female influence
in her life, she got to stay that way. She
was allowed to stay that way. And some sources say
that it was her dad who was actively encouraging that
tomboyish behavior in her. You know, he was teaching her
how to do things like ride horses and how to

(04:38):
fence and shoot, and that was all part of her education.
Other sources, such as Dross, suggests that her father really
he just might have not been in the picture enough
to be that closely watching her education, so she got
to kind of run free she wanted. So what is

(04:58):
known about her though, or ardless of what really happened,
is that she became a very skilled writer and learned
how to use weapons, and most likely did this before
she got married, because it would have been very inappropriate
for a woman who was a traditional maharaja's wife to
um to do these things, especially because she quote rode
a horse like a man. In addition to these manly skills,

(05:20):
she also learned to read and write, which was still
kind of unusual for girls at that run at time. Yeah,
so you know, she comes out of this a young
girl with unusual talents, and it seems like maybe some
of this stuff would even dissuade potential suitors. But she
does get married in eighteen forty two, she's about fifteen
years old and she becomes the second wife of Gunga

(05:41):
Thar Rao Nil Walker, who is a lot older than her.
He's childless, but he is the Maharajah of John c
which is a principality about two d fifty miles southeast
of Delhi. And just to give you a little background
on terms we're going to be using, because I think
from here on out we're pretty much going to be

(06:02):
calling her the Rani. Raja in India is a prince
or a king of a particular area, and his wife
is known as Ranie, so she's a queen or a princess.
It's interesting that you mentioned that about how her behavior
might dissuade potential suitors, because it's not really clear how
the match got. The match between these two occurred. There's

(06:22):
such an odd couple they really are, and her family
really wasn't that wealthy. But here's one theory that's out
there about why the Raja picked her. Apparently he had
a tendency to cross dress sometimes for theater roles when
he played female roles, but sometimes not. Sometimes he would
just wear women's jewelry around and stuff like that. And

(06:42):
since this was rather widely known at the time, it
suggested that this may have limited his choices in second
brides somewhat. So he may have had to settle for
this um noble but not particularly well off bride after
her marriage man who starts going by the name Lakshmi
by and this is just a reverence for the goddess
of prosperity and happiness. So Luxmi was the patron deity

(07:05):
of her husband's family, and this would have made sense
for her to do, for her to change her name
like this. Yeah, it was a good move. And she
really did seem to embrace her role as Ronnie. She
she sort of put aside what she was used to
doing pretty easily, it seemed. And um tried really hard
and for a very long time to have a child
and an air and um it didn't happen. I think

(07:28):
years and years went by, but finally lashed me by
and the Rajah took a journey in eighteen fifty one,
kind of a pilgrimage to sacred Hindu sites, and not
long after that she got pregnant and gave birth to
a son. And you can imagine this couple was incredibly
excited now to finally have an air and a son
at that. But unfortunately for them, that excitement didn't last

(07:51):
very long because the baby died at only three months old,
and they didn't know why it happened. He just died,
Son Lane and they were unfortunately not just in trouble
for personal reasons after that. Yeah, I mean they're personally personally,
they're grieving, but there are other consequences as well, and

(08:13):
that's because of something called the Doctrine of Laps. They
now have to worry about this too. So here's a
little background of the Doctrine of Laps. It's a formula
that was devised by Lord Dalhousie, who was Governor General
of India from around eighteen eighteen fifty six, and the
doctrine it reflected this general desire on the part of
the British to expand the territory that they had in India.

(08:36):
And just to give you a little bit of background
on I guess Indian custom before that, family politics finmally
politics exactly. According to Indian tradition, a ruler who didn't
have any natural errors could adopt a person who would
then have all the personal and political rights of a son. So,
for example, the Ronnie of John C himself had been
an adopted heir, so there was precedent for it there. However,

(08:59):
dal Hawsy with this new doctrine, he basically asserted Great
Britain's right as the paramount power to approve adoptions. So
what it did is, in practice, it gave the British
the opportunity to reject a lot of last minute adoptions
and therefore take over this territory, yeah to step in
and and collect land piece by piece, which was obviously

(09:19):
what their greater policy was exactly. But this didn't stop
the Ronnie and the Raja from trying to do the
same thing. In eighteen fifty three, Gunga a Row becomes
seriously ill and adopts a distant five year old cousin
named them a Row as his son, and he draws
up adoption papers and a will which named the boy
is the heir and the Ronnie as his regent, and

(09:41):
he presents them to Major Ellis, who was serving as
an assistant political agent at John C at the time,
and this was all done on November eighteen fifty three. Unfortunately, though,
the Raja dies the very next day. Yeah, so suddenly
you have this kind of last minute paperwork that's just
gone down, this British policy that doesn't really look that

(10:03):
kindly on these adoptions, especially a last minute one like this.
And um, it seems though that things might work out
for a minute because Ellis is sympathetic to the Ronnie
and he forwards the information to his superior Major John Malcolm.
But Malcolm, even though he's not that keen on the
idea of the Ronnie being regent, he still describes her

(10:25):
to Delousie as quote, a woman highly respected and esteemed
and I believe fully capable of doing justice to such
a charge. So it still seems like maybe the British
are going to get behind this particular adoption at least. Yeah. Unfortunately, though,
Dalhousie refuses to acknowledge them. With Arrow as Air and

(10:45):
the new British Superintendent, Captain Alexander Sken comes to John
C and takes control under the doctrine of laps without
any opposition. So British are now in control, and it
seems that the Ronnie is out of luck. Yeah, the
estates tied up and is allowed to keep the town
palace as a personal residence, but she loses all of

(11:05):
the country estate and she only gets this annual pension
of about five thousand rupees and from that she's expected
to pay her husband's debt. So not a good deal
at all. So she doesn't accept it. No, she doesn't
accept it right away. She keeps submitting letters to contest
the doctrine of laps. She submits letters in December, February,

(11:27):
April of that year, and she keeps submitting letters until
I think early eighteen fifties six or so, so she
doesn't give up. Most of these letters, however, aren't even
forwarded to Lord's Ohousie, so she's not really being taken seriously.
At this point. Her attempts to get the air of
British officials just it's falling on deaf years. It's not

(11:48):
a luck, it seems. So she consults with the British
Council John Lange, who is trying and trying to get
her to agree to this pension that she wouldn't accept,
and she says to him, and this has become kind
of a famous quote. She said, as Mary john Z Nahid,
and this means I will not give up my john Z.
So's making a stand. Put her foot down. Um. But meanwhile,

(12:10):
we're gonna catch you up with what's going on in
the rest of India. There were tensions mounting among the
Sea Boys, which were Indian troops in the British East
India Company Army. And actually Canadas and Jane a very
long time ago did an episode on the East India Company, um,
and they mentioned sea poison that so you could go
learn a little bit extra about them. But on the surface,

(12:32):
it seemed like the tensions that were mounting among these
troops were caused by rumors at the time that the
cartridges were newly issued Endfield rifles were greased with either
cow or pig fat, and depending on whether you were
a Hindu or a Muslim Sea Boy, that would be
sacrilegious when you had to tear open the cartridges with

(12:53):
your teeth. Um. So the fear was that the British
were we're doing this on purpose. They knew that this
was likely to cause religious related offense, and they were
doing it to undermine the sea boys faith and eventually
make it easier for them to convert them all to Christianity. Yeah,
that was the rumor at the time, as you said,

(13:14):
But historians tend to think that the tensions that were
building up before this, they were more due to the
so called reforms that were being made to Indian customs
and culture around that time or in the years leading
up to it. For example, widows being allowed to marry.
That was something that was very radical change. UM Land

(13:34):
reform had displaced many landowners. So these things that the
Ronnie was experiencing, others were experiencing them too, and they
weren't happy. You can imagine how that would cause some
pretty widespread discontent. So in Mirat, on May nine, eighty
five of these seapoys who refused to use the Endfield
cartridges were tried and put into irons, and um that

(13:57):
started off major rebellion. The next day, three regiments stormed
the jail and killed the officers and their families, and
they marched from there to Delhi, which was fifty miles away,
and from there the seapoint rebellion really just kind of spread,
you know. It started as this localized incident but it
started to spring up elsewhere like little brush fires, and

(14:20):
a few leaders took charge and transformed what had been
a mutiny into an organized resistance. They were really going
to give the British some trouble, yeah, And eventually the
mutiny made its way to John C too. On June
six fifty seven, the troops at John C mutinied and
shot their commanding officers, Captain Skeen. At this point he

(14:42):
gathers all the Europeans in the city, which there were
sixty six of them, and that included about half of
them I think were women and children. They took refuge
in the fort, which was pretty well designed as a defense.
It could withstand a siege and it had an internal
water supply. But they really didn't have that much food
at all. So it wasn't going to be a long
term solution to this standoff afford to stay there long.

(15:04):
So on June eighth, Skiing leads the British out of
the fort and they were massacred. By June twelfth, the
mutineers had left John C for Delhi. So a bad situation,
a very bad situation, and considering how unhappy that Ronnie
had been with the government. Many British people believe that
she was behind the mutiny. Yeah, but there was never

(15:26):
any real proof from this, and as we're going to see,
it certainly did not benefit her in any way. But
still people were suspicious. This is where the jazz belt
part of the title comes from. Um. So she sent
a letter afterwards. You know, she knows that people are
suspicious of her, So she sent a letter to the
British authorities and she recounted everything that had happened to her,

(15:46):
and she said, um, among a lot of other things,
quote that they the mutineers afterwards, behaved with much violence
against herself and her servants, and extorted a great deal
of money from her. So, you know, basically just trying
to make the point. They messed with me too. You know,
I was not their leader. I didn't help get this
whole thing going. Yeah, and she expresses It's a long

(16:08):
letter and you can find excerpts on it in various
essays and biographies, but she basically is like, hey, I'm
sorry this happened to you. This is really sad, but
my hands were tied. I couldn't do anything about it.
She sends another letter later saying that there was anarchy
in john Cy, and she asked for orders from the
British and they issued a proclamation authorizing the Ronnie to

(16:28):
manage to the district until they could send soldiers there
to restore order. And I was really surprised by this part,
because up until now, you know, the British have been
trying to strip her of any power she had, and
here they are authorizing her to to raise an army.
Pretty amazing. Yeah, I think it shows, you know, that
they did think that she had some brains, they had

(16:49):
some respect for her. They just didn't want her to
actually have any land. Yeah, in absence of any other
British option, we will let you run the place for
a little while until we get there. But you know,
in general, but she does start building up this army
while managing the district, and presumably at this point it
is to defend John C from neighboring districts and rebels,

(17:13):
maybe a distant claimant to the throne, you know, just
anybody who might come and cause trouble. Yeah, And according
to military history, some of her troops included mutineers from
the former John C Garrison, which is kind of suspicious,
I guess. And probably didn't help her cause and trying
to convince people that she wasn't responsible to from them
right then. Jerosh also says that her army included some

(17:36):
women too, and that this was an indicator of how
devoted and loyal her subjects were to her, because they
were willing to cast aside tradition to fight with her. Yeah.
But you know, speaking of tradition, we need to mention
the appearance of this woman too and her mannerisms, because
she she cut quite a figure, I mean to to
say the least. She's been described as being fair and handsome,

(18:00):
and though according to most of the British Men who
described her, her face was a little on the round side. Um,
but she quote had a noble presence and figure and
a stern expression. And instead of following the traditional customs
of widows at the time and dressing all in white
and not wearing any jewelry, she came out wearing men's

(18:21):
clothes sometimes, this coat of dark blue, a beautiful turban
on her head, and this embroidered cloth around her waist,
and jeweled a jeweled sword. I mean, she she must
have been pretty amazing looking, especially out leading an army. Yeah, definitely,
and she, I guess, had some moves to People have

(18:43):
said that they've you know, they saw her practicing her
skills on horseback and with their weapons out, um, you know,
while she was getting this army together. And one of
her signature moves, which I love. I think I was
trying to remember this for you earlier but couldn't remember
it. It It was that she would be on a horse
and twirling a saber in each hand with the reins

(19:03):
of the horse and her teeth so very skilled. Indeed,
that would be really scary if if you saw someone
coming with two sabers. Yeah. I didn't worried about my
teeth though, I hope that was me. You might like
go over a little bomb or something. Yeah. Yeah. But
she had bigger problems though than her teeth. I mean,

(19:25):
that was not her top concern. That was not her
top concern. And I mean, if you wanted to show
people you were tough, hey, that's the way to do it.
Suffice to say, she soon got the opportunity to show
off her skills in January, Major General Sir Hugh Rose,
who ends up being named as her major opponent in
this whole affair. I think march towards the city with soldiers,

(19:46):
and as late as February the Ronnie told her British
advisors that she would in fact return the district to
the British when they got there. So exactly, she didn't
seem this is a relief she's been waiting for, right, um,
so not frontational at this point. But that's not really happened.
It wasn't a nice handoff, was it'. It's not how
Rose treats the situation at all. On March fifty eight,

(20:10):
Rose and his forces attacked Johncy and again, according to
military history, lux me By resisted because she wasn't sure
if she was going to be executed if she was captured.
I think she really believed that the British, after all,
they still weren't really happy with her after the mutiny
and really blamed her for it. Still many of them did,
the officials at least well, and and clearly the relations

(20:30):
between her and the British were muddled to say the least.
I mean, she didn't know what exactly was going on.
So by March thirty, most of the Ronnie's guns were
disabled and the fort's walls had been breached, and by
April three, the British broke into the city and they
took the palace and stormed the fort. But she got out.
She escaped on horseback in the night before that final assault.

(20:53):
And this is the amazing part. And if you if
you look up a picture of her, you'll see dramatizations
of this, not entirely accurate ones. But she escapes into
the night on horseback with her ten year old adopted
son strapped her back. I think he mentioned that she
knew she was going to have to to ride too
fast to just have him sitting in front of her

(21:15):
strapped to her back. Yeah. I mean, this is where
you see a lot of the legend come in. You'll
hear many different accounts of how this escape might have occurred,
but in general we think that he was strapped to
her back, tied to her with a sash, and that
she and a bunch maybe up to three hundred of
her troops escaped in the middle of the night. And
it's a little bit sketchy because how did they get
past the British troops, But maybe they were just confused

(21:38):
in the dark. Yeah, But I mean, once the Ronnie
is out, she rode like the wind because she was
afraid that the British were after her, and it said
she wrote anywhere from eighty six to ninety three miles
and twenty four hours to get all the way to
the fortress of Kalpi, where she joined up with some
of the other resistance leaders. Yeah Nanassa hid rouse aheb

(22:01):
and thought the ape. These were well known resistance leaders.
They had been involved in other mutinies elsewhere in India
going on at the time, and so they grouped together,
joined forces at Um and they faced the British in
two consecutive battles Um starting from Kalpi, one on May
six but which they were forced to retreat from, and
another one where they were defeated again on May twenty

(22:23):
two or twenty third somewhere around there. The British thought
that was the end at that point, but that wasn't
actually the case. On May thirty, the rebels reached Gualier,
which controlled both the Grand Trunk Road and the telegraph
lines between Agra and Bombay. There they met Joy g
raw Shindia, the Maharaja of Gwalior, and he was a
British loyalist and actually tried to stop them. At this

(22:45):
point he tried to kind of push the rebels back
and not let them in, but his troops ended up
switching sides and he had to flee to Agra. So
at this point the rebels have control of Gualier. Yeah,
pretty big bunch of them too by now, and on
ju sixteenth, Rosa's forces closed in though, so it's important
to note up until this point locked me By had

(23:06):
not been out at the head of these rebel battles,
but she was the one who led what remained of
her John C. Contingent out to stop Rose's forces on Gwalior.
She went out to battle dressed in male clothing. She
had on the red uniform of a cavalry officer. She
was wearing a white turban over her short hair. She

(23:29):
really cut quite an inspiring figure. But during the battle
she was shot from her horse and killed, and it's
believed that she was cremated really soon after that because
she was terrified that her body would fall into British
hands and and not be treated respectfully. And after her death,
Willier fell pretty soon after that, and the organized rebellion

(23:50):
really fizzled out, and even though locked me By herself
did not really win any of these battles, it seems
like her personality and her bravery really left a big
impression on people. Yeah, it's really that. I think, as
you mentioned her personality, that's really made her a symbol
of the fight for Indian independence. And at the time,

(24:11):
I think it was sort of true as well. I mean,
British newspapers proclaimed, look at me by the Jezebel of India.
But even Sir Hugh Rose, her big rival in this
whole battle, compared his fallen adversary to Joan of Arc.
So that's, you know, maybe one of the first places
that we see that. And he reported her death to
William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland in this way, he said,

(24:34):
the Ronnie is remarkable for her bravery, cleverness and perseverance.
Her generosity to her subordinates was unbounded. These qualities, combined
with her rank, rendered her the most dangerous of all
rebel leaders. And I mean, I think that's interesting. And
I mentioned this a minute ago when we were talking
about how strange it is that they gave her, they

(24:54):
gave her permission to raise an army in the first place,
but that they would be so disrespect full of her claims,
yet so admiring of her, her personality and her her capability.
I just think it's um, I don't know, it's sad. Yeah,
it's a huge contradiction, but I mean I think we
see that a lot throughout women's history, and Rose had

(25:16):
more praise for her, and maybe somewhat dubious praise, I guess,
depending on how you like to study your women's history.
He said, although she was a lady, she was the
bravest and best military leader of the rebels, a man
among the mutineers. So his highest compliment was comparing her
to a man. Yeah, and so does a popular folk song.
But I think that it might put it a little

(25:38):
a little better better, Yeah, definitely more exciting. Right, So
the folk song goes, how valiantly like a man thought
she the Ronnie of John C. On every parapetic gun
she set, raining fire of hell? How well like a
man thought the Ronnie of John C. How valiantly and well.
So I think that's a good way to finish off
the story of Lukshmi by writing are a pal writing

(26:01):
fire poll? Okay, maybe not, thanks Sarah, good point. Sorry,
But if this story of a female warrior a real
life Amazon didn't do it for you. We're thinking of
doing another episode soon, as you may have guessed from
as we mentioned our Facebook post. Maybe a lift, maybe
a list um, although I don't know how we're going
to narrow it down because there are so many good options.

(26:23):
But yeah, look for a list of real life warriors
coming up. Real life female warriors, we should say. And
you know, if you have any thoughts about your favorite ones,
we're always happy to hear them, and we'd love to
hear them. In fact, you can email us at History
Podcast at how stuff works dot com, or you can
look us up on Twitter at myston history or on Facebook.
And if you want to learn a little bit more

(26:44):
about Indian history, we have an article called why did
Gandhi march two forty miles for Salt? And you can
find it by searching on our home page at www
dot how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

(27:04):
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