Malwa Plateau · Central Highlands & Forest Belt
Malwa was almost entirely not British India. The plateau was a mosaic of princely states — Indore, the Gwalior districts, Dhar, Dewas Senior and Dewas Junior, Ratlam, Jhabua, Sailana and a scatter of smaller ones — with British authority present only as residencies and the cantonments at Mhow and Neemuch. Two consequences follow, and they are the honest shape of this section. First, 1857 here was a rising of garrisons and princely contingents rather than a countryside in revolt, and it was suppressed without the states being dismantled. Second, because there were no British districts to run a revenue or salt campaign in, the plateau produced comparatively few named figures in the national movement, and the documented record of individuals is thinner than the record of events. The plateau's most famous name, Chandra Shekhar Azad, was born on its western hill fringe and did all his work a thousand kilometres away.
Risings and revolts
The Bengal brigade at Neemuch mutinied and marched for Delhi, and on 1 July the troops at Indore mutinied. European officers took refuge in the Neemuch fort.
Outcome: The Malwa Field Force relieved Neemuch and restored order across the plateau during 1857 and 1858. Neemuch was the most southerly point the revolt reached.
Rebel forces gathered at Mandsaur, in the plateau's northern opium tract, and besieged the fort at Neemuch where the garrison's officers had taken shelter.
Outcome: Broken by the Malwa Field Force in 1857.
Insurgents took the fort at Dhar, the old Paramara and Sultanate seat, and held it until October 1857.
Outcome: Dhar State was annexed by the British after the revolt and returned to Anand Rao Pawar III in 1860.
People
| Name | Years | Movement | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chandra Shekhar AzadBorn at Bhabhra, Alirajpur, on the Bhil hill fringe west of the plateau | 1906–1931 | Revolutionary — Hindustan Republican Association, then Hindustan Socialist Republican Association | Reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in September 1928 and acted as its commander-in-chief.Died at Alfred Park, Allahabad, on 27 February 1931. |
| Tantya BhilBorn at Pandhana in Nimar; active across the scarp around Indore and Khandwa | c. 1840–1889 | Bhil resistance | Kept an armed band in the Vindhya and Satpura country for more than a decade from 1878, taking government treasure and distributing part of it, which is why he survives in the plateau's oral record as much as in the court files.Sentenced at the Jabalpur sessions court on 19 October 1889 and hanged on 4 December 1889. |
| Yashwantrao HolkarIndore and the Malwa plateau | 1776–1811 | Resistance to East India Company expansion | Kept a force in the field against the Company through the Second Anglo-Maratha War, besieged Delhi in October 1804, and was the one Indian ruler the Company came to terms with by treaty at Rajghat on 24 December 1805 rather than by subordination.Died at Bhanpura in 1811, aged thirty-four. |
People from Malwa Plateau who resisted colonial rule, and the regional risings and revolts that shaped that resistance. (6)