Dhan Singh
{{Short description|Police chief who took part in the 1857 Indian Rebellion}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}}
{{Infobox person
|name=Dhan Singh
|image=KotwalDhanSinghGurjarMeerut.jpg
|caption=Statue of Dhan Singh in Meerut
|birth_place=Panchali, Meerut, East India Company
|death_date={{death date and age|df=yes|1857|07|04|1820}}{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}
|death_place=Meerut, British India
|movement=Indian independence movement
}}
Dhan Singh Gurjar , also known as Dhunna Singh, was the Indian kotwal (police chief) of Meerut, who participated in the 1857 rebellion.{{cite book|author=Crispin Bates|title=Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Volume I: Anticipations and Experiences in the Locality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ-HAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA236|date=26 March 2013|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-81-321-1336-2|pages=236–}}{{cite news |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/meerut/Farmers-cops-and-sadhus-who-aided-sepoys-in-1857/articleshow/47225728.cms |title=Farmers, cops and sadhus who aided sepoys in 1857 |author=Uday Rana |date=2015-05-09 |newspaper=The Times of India }}
Early life
Gurjar was born in the Panchli or Panchali village in Meerut district.{{cite book |title=Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857 |volume=I |chapter=Spatial Memorialising of War in 1857: Memories, Traces and Silences in Ethnography |first=Carol E. |last=Henderson |editor-first=Crispin |editor-last=Bates |publisher=SAGE Publications India |year=2013 |isbn=9788132113362 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ-HAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA236 |page=236}} many of whom joined the rebellion against British rule in 1857.{{cite web
|url=http://www.defencejournal.com/2000/jan/dehli-campaign.htm
|title=The Delhi Campaign
|author=Agha Humayun Amin
|publisher=Defence Journal
|date=January 2000
|access-date=2007-05-31
|archive-date=8 October 2012
|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6BFcDVgQb?url=http://www.defencejournal.com/2000/jan/dehli-campaign.htm
|url-status=dead
Role in the 1857 rebellion
On 10 May 1857, a rebellion against the East India Company rule broke out in Meerut during the 1857 uprising. As the kotwal of the city, Dhan Singh's job was to protect the city. However, many of his officers deserted his force on that day, either to join the rebellion or to escape the rebels' fury. The city saw large-scale rioting, plunder and murder. When two of his chowkidars (guards) apprehended two men for stealing horses, he asked them not to make arrests, fearing reprisals from the rebels. Around midnight, he was called to the house of a Bengali man, which was being plundered by a huge group of armed. Dhan Singh's chowkidars arrested two of the plunderers, but Singh restrained them from using force against. He then released the two men with the loot, after the group agreed to go away.
Dhan Singh and several other policemen later deserted the police force (kotwali). He is believed to have led thousands of villagers from all across the Meerut district to the city's jail. According to the official records, the rebels released 839 prisoners from the jail. These prisoners were among the rebels who participated in the siege of Delhi.{{cite news |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/meerut/Farmers-cops-and-sadhus-who-aided-sepoys-in-1857/articleshow/47225728.cms |title=Farmers, cops and sadhus who aided sepoys in 1857 |author=Uday Rana |date=2015-05-09 |newspaper=The Times of India }}
Singh was later hanged by the British authorities for his role in the uprising.
Commemoration
- Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police O P Singh unveiled the statue of Kotwal Dhan Singh on the premises of the Sadar police station in Meerut. He announced that a chapter of Dhan Singh Kotwal would be included in police training, and a documentary would be made to "take his inspiring story of bravery and martyrdom to the public." He also proposed a separate section for Dhan Singh Kotwal in the proposed National Police Museum in Delhi{{cite web
| title = Police Museum Delhi
|date=3 July 2018|url=https://www.thestatesman.com/india/statue-of-1857-hero-kotwal-dhan-singh-gurjar-unveiled-at-meerut-police-station-1502656819.html}}{{cite web
| title = UP Police will read history of Shaheed Dhan Singh Kotwal
| publisher = Hindustan team, Meerut
|url=https://livehindustan.com/uttar-pradesh/meerut/story-up-police-will-learn-the-history-of-dhansingh-kotwal-2049684.html}}
- "Dhan Singh Kotwal Community Centre", the campus community centre of Meerut University, is named after him.{{cite web |url=http://www.ccsuniversity.ac.in/new/Health-Care.htm#DSCC |title=Meerut University |access-date=11 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911011206/http://www.ccsuniversity.ac.in/new/Health-Care.htm#DSCC |archive-date=11 September 2014 |url-status=dead }}
- The Dhan Singh Mahavidyalaya in Loni, Ghaziabad is also named after him.
- Samajwadi Party's (SP) National President and the former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav addressed a gathering and unveiled the statue of Kotwal Dhan Singh, at Mawana, 20 kilometres from district headquarter Meerut.{{cite web |url= http://www.millenniumpost.in/nation/akhilesh-yadav-hits-out-at-bjp-govt-435212|title=Meerut |access-date=19 March 2021}}
- An arterial road running through the Sarita Vihar area of New Delhi is named after Kotwal Dhan Singh.{{cite web | url= https://g.co/kgs/xMEvAG|title=Kotwal Dhan Singh Marg |access-date=1 August 2021}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Indian Independence Movement}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Dhan}}
Category:Revolutionaries of the Indian Rebellion of 1857
Category:19th-century Indian people
Category:Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh