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Deothal Battle Day : April 16th 1815 By Mrs. Laxmi Thapa The Battle of Deothal
and the Battle of Waterloo were fought in the same
year. The Battle of Waterloo was fought in
Europe on June 18, 1815, near Waterloo, in what is now in Belgium. The battle
ranks as a great turning point in modern history. On the morning of June 18, the French,
Prussian and Anglo-Dutch armies were in battle position. The battle began at 11:30 am with
a feint by Napoleon who was on the right side of Sir Arthur
Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, who commanded the
British force. Fighting continued throughout the
day. At about 8 pm the Prussians, who had taken up positions on the extreme
left of Wellington's line, drove through the French right wing, completely
routing the Napoleon's army. The Battle of Waterloo was one of
the bloodiest in modern history. On June 22 Napoleon was
forced to sign his second abdication. The Battle of
Waterloo figures prominently in literature. Even now people of
the Great Britain are full of praise for the
sacrifice of their countrymen, who had laid down
their lives to protect the honor of their motherland.
About two months before the Battle of
Waterloo, Nepal had also fought a violent
battle against the British in the South Asian
Sub-continent. It was the Battle of Deothal,
which was fought on April 16, 1815. The
Battle of Deothal has glorified the courage and
bravery of Nepalese people, who laid down
their lives to protect the independence of
Nepal. The 16 th April, 1815
should have gone down in the
history of the whole South Asian Sub-continent
as a day of great sacrifice in
the struggle against the European domination.
Unfortunately, even among we Nepalese only very
few know about the significance of that
day. It is also a day when the
bravery of Nepalese people became a legend
in the world. The courage and gallantry
shown on that day
by Nepalese might have badly
shaken the determination of the enemy
to subdue Nepal and turn it
into an European colony. It was
this very day when the 74- years-old
Bhakti Thapa led a counterattack
against an enemy far superior
in strength at Deothal to protect
the honor of Nepal and its proud
people. Growth of European
Colonization Eighteenth century was
a period of great political turmoil
in the Indian subcontinent. The powerful
Mogul empire had come to an end
at the very beginning of this century.
The colonial powers like England and France were
doing their utmost to increase their
presence by exploiting the weaknesses
of the rulers of the small states
recently broken off from the Mogul
empire. Historian HG Wells has
written about the British rule in India
at great length. The text from his
book {History of the World) has been
reproduced here. He has written “Englishmen
at home were perplexed when presently the generals
and officials came back to make dark accusations
against each other of extortions and
cruelties. Upon Clive, Parliament passed a vote
of censure. He committed suicide in 1774.
In 1788 Warren Hastings, a second great
Indian administrator, was impeached” Campaign For
Unification The Great Prithivi Narayan
Shah dedicated his whole life to
fulfill the aspiration of the peoples
living in the Himalayan region to be united.
He was a person determined to
go to any extent to accomplish this task.
Prithivi Narayan Shah was able to unite
the eastern part of Nepal in his own
life time. After the unification of the
Kathmandu valley further expansion to the
east was made slightly easier by
comparison with similar expansion
later on to the west because
the British had not been able
by that time to gain a good
foothold in the North India.
Prithivi Narayan Shah passed away
in 1775. Historian Mr. R.K. Shah writes that
the state of uncertainty and anxiety
characterized the reign of Pratap Singh
(1775-1777) and the regency of Queen Rajendra Lakshmi
(1777-1785) that followed after the passing away
of Prithivi Narayan Shah. In 1785 Bahadur Shah
became the regent and took over the
administration of the country. The
regency of the Bahadur Shah was at a very
critical time. On one hand the
country was deeply committed to
fulfill a very difficult mission to unite
the far-flung western regions which
indeed was a great challenge, on
the other hand his own position was being
made more and more difficult by his
rivals in the court until his dismissal
in 1794. Nonetheless it was the
most fruitful period. During the
unification campaign within a very
short period of about two years
the western border of the Great Nepal
was extended almost close to the
Sutlej river across a distance
of about 400 kilometers. The westward
expansion of Nepal was extremely rapid. Role of Bhakti
Thapa In the 1790s, the effort
to unite the Himalayan region had been greatly intensified.
Nepal spared no efforts and resources to accomplish this
historic mission. The process of unification
had gone ahead at an exceptionally rapid pace.
At the height of this unification campaign
Bhakti Thapa, who was stationed at Kumaun (now
India), was the supreme commander and
administrator of the entire territory to
the west of the Chepa-Marshangdi. All the
military commanders and garrisons including the
kings of protectorates were at his command. British India Alarmed The Great Nepal was
seen all along as a threat to
British rule in India till the end of
Anglo- Nepal War of 1814-16. Similarly, the
Marathas in the south were also posing
threat to the expansion of British
rule in India. From the perspective of
the British the direct linkage between
the Great Nepal and the Marathas would
have posed the most serious threat
to their rule in India. Amidst
these political developments in the South Asian
Sub-continent comes the 1809 Amritsar Treaty
between Ranjit Singh and British India.
Surprisingly the David Ochterlony who played
decisive role in defeating Nepal in
1814-16 Anglo-Nepal War was responsible
to arrange the signing of the Amritsar
Treaty. The Amritsar Treaty was certainly
a ploy to block further expansion of the
Great Nepal. Was it also a
carefully planned action to prevent Marathas
and the Great Nepal joining hands in
a fight against the British rule in India?
Such a possibility deserves to be carefully
analyzed in future. Nepal and British
India at War The British began
preparation for the war from the time
when F.R. Hastings- Earl of Moira landed in
India as Governor General and
Commander-in- Chief in 1813. The actual
declaration of war against Nepal is
recorded as 1 November, 1814, though the
war began from middle of October. The
decision to declare war had been made six
months earlier so the territorial dispute appears
to be only a pretext. British force had
marched into Nepal across a frontier of
more than 1500 km to attack
at several points at the same time
The eastern British flank was moving
north from the Teesta area whereas
the farthermost western flank from the
Sutlej river area. It was virtually a
modern type warfare extended over a period
of three calendar years and
necessitating to protect the entire region
bordering the enemy held territory. The
British invasion force, in comparison with Nepalese,
had absolute superiority in cavalry, pioneers, and at
least the superiority of 10 times in
infantry and 100 times in artillery. They
also had the advantage of maneuverability
in movement of their fighting force. The British rulers were
expecting a blitzkrieg victory. It
is said that the Governor General
Hastings had planned to win the war in
one mighty sweep in one to two months
in end 1814 but certainly before the
Christmas. He was badly mistaken in his
assessment. We Nepalese fought very bravely. In
early months of the war the British
invasion was completely beaten off. The British
rule in India was at a risk of
falling apart. Unfortunately at that time
the Sikhs and Marathas did not join Nepal
in liberating the whole of the South
Asian Continent from the grip of the
European domination. British army had at
its disposal virtually unlimited resources from
the Nepalese perspective. They continued to
press Nepal all across the frontier that
stretched over a distance of more than
1500 km. Nepalese resources were being
sharply depleted. There was not any
chance to be replenished. So the ability
of the Nepalese force to defend the
territory under their control was steadily
declining. They were forced to pull back.
There was breakdown in control and command
system. Towards the middle of the
1815 Amar Singh Thapa, chief of the
Nepalese force fighting in the western front
was confined within a small area
of the Malaun fort. The fate
of Nepal was going to be in the
hand of the Governor General Lord Hastings,
unashamedly imperialistic and who became famous
for having established the British Empire in
India more firmly than before. At that
time there could not be any room
for doubt in his intention either
to eliminate Nepal completely and bring
it under the British rule or to turn
it into a vassal state like so many other
states under that category in British
India. He could be forced not to
take any such decision detrimental to the
honor of Nepal only if he perceived
that such action could pose serious
threat to the continuance of British rule
in India. The Deothal Battle could
not be anything else but a clear
message of threat from Nepalese people to
the British warning them not to
take lightly the determination of Nepalese
people to protect the honor of their country. Deothal Battle At a time when
Nepal had almost lost the hope to win
the war fought against the British in
1815, the Nepalese high command in the west
appeared to have made up its mind to lay
down arms. However, Bhakti Thapa was
adamant to fight. He, at the age of
74 years, led the counterattack on April 16, 1815
against the British force at Deothal.
Bhakti Thapa and his followers in
the counterattack appeared to have vowed to
fight to the death. Bhakti Thapa had even
handed his infant grandson in the custody
of the Amar Singh Thapa just before
going to the battlefield. Defiant Bhakti
Thapa with a small force of just 400
marched to the battlefield in broad daylight
to fight against the entrenched British force
armed to the teeth and numbering
about 3500. Bhakti Thapa laid down his
life in the battlefield. Every one who
fought from the Nepalese side was either
killed or wounded. The British casualties were
also high. Bhakti Thapa was seen himself
fighting in the battlefield with a
khukuri in his hand along with other
soldiers. He had sustained several injuries all
over his body before he was hit by
a fatal shot. It is said
that even after the death his
stiffened hand was holding the khukuri. The
following day the fingers had
to be cut to release the khukuri from
his grip before cremating the dead
body in the pyre. Needless to say that
British rulers were thoroughly shaken
by the bravery of Nepalese in
the Deothal Battle. Bhakti Thapa
became a legend even in the eyes of
British. Historian CB Khanduri quoting various
contemporary British historians has written
" The euphemism of the BRAVEST OF THE
BRAVES had been used by Napoleon for Marshal
Ney, whose bravery during the retreat from
Moscow in 1812 was one of the highest.
BRAVE LES BRAVE, said Napoleon of him. British
then used this citation for the Gurkhas during and
after the Anglo-Nepal War. Such was the
bravery shown by Bhakti Thapa that the next
legend of the Bravest of the Braves had
been created on the day - 16 April, 1815 at
Deothal." (Thapa writes on history) |
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