Vijay Singh Gujjar
Raja Vijay Singh Gurjar[1] was the King of Kunja estate in Pargana Bhagwanpur Uttarakhand comprised 44 villages[2] Later he created a serious disturbance for the British Government. He was killed in First war of independence 1824. After His death his estate made over to the loyal village proprietors of Britishers.
Family
After death of Ram Dayal, British reassessed his estate and decided that many of the villages were not his property. Thus, in 1813 British cancelled contracts of many villages which were with Ram Dayal. The administrative setup implemented land reforms and granted villages to the village officials, rather than being under one person. Still, a sizeable number of villages were left in hands of the widow of Ram Dayal, his son Badan Singh and 6 other Taluqdars.[3]
In 1817, Chaudhari Vijay Singh, a remote cousin of Ram Dayal succeeded to one of these Taluqa, Kunja Bahadurpur covering 33 villages and paying 22,000 rupees annually to British. He wrote to British Collector Archibald Murray, narrating story of his hardship as he had to dispose of his horses, valuables to repay his debt. Vijay Singh was dependent of Shaikh Kallan of Sharanpur district who used him for expanding his own tasks of land purchase, intimidating of rivals etc. [4]
Role in First war of Independence 1824
In 1824 a somewhat dangerous disturbance was caused for Britishers by two Gurjars:[5] Kalwa (Kalyan Singh) a Gurjar chief and Vijay Singh, the Taluqdar of Kunja near Roorkee, who was related to the late Raja Ram Dayal. Without the knowledge of the authorities they collected a large armed force at Kunja Kalyan Singh was made the General of Army.[6] On October 1, 1824 , under the protection of 200 police guards, Tehsildar and Thanedar equipped with modern weapons, huge treasure was being sent from Jwalapur treasury to Saharanpur treasury, which was looted by the rebels under the leadership of Raja Vijay Singh and Kalyan Singh Gurjar.
Mr. Grindall, then magistrate of Saharanpur, obtained a reinforcement of Gurkha troops belonging to the Sirmor battalion, and at once attacked the insurgents in company with Mr. Shore, his joint magistrate. A stubborn fight ensued, lasting for a whole day, and eventually the rebels were totally defeated, with a loss of nearly two hundred killed and wounded, among the former being the two leaders (Vijay Singh and Kalyan Sing) It was afterwards found that the attack on Kunja had been most fortunately planned, for the rebels had devised a rising on a very large scale, and numerous reinforcements were actually coming to their assistance from this and other districts, when the death of the leading characters made the whole conspiracy collapse.[6]
References
- ^ Nevill, H. r. Saharanpur A Gazetteer Vol.2. p. 197.
- ^ G R C Williams. Historical And Statistical Memoir Of Dehra Doon.
- ^ Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Documents of the Indian Uprising, Vol 1, p.35
- ^ Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Documents of the Indian Uprising, Vol 1, p.35
- ^ Nevill, H. r. Saharanpur A Gazetteer Vol.2. pp. 197_198.
- ^ a b G R C Williams. Historical And Statistical Memoir Of Dehra Doon. p. 149.