Niswarth Kadam pays tribute to the valiant female freedom fighter of India on her Birth Anniversary- Rani Lakshmibai.She was born on 19 November 1828 in the town of Varanasi into a Marathi Karhade Brahmin family.She was named Manikarnika Tambe and was nicknamed Manu. Her father was Moropant Tambe and her mother Bhagirathi Sapre (Bhagirathi Bai). Her parents came from Maharashtra.Her mother died when she was four yearsold was raised in an unconventional way by her father who worked as an advisor in the court of Peshwa.. Her father was the Commander of the war of Kalyanpranth. She was educated at home and was taught to read and write, and was more independent in her childhood than others of her age; her studies included shooting, horsemanship, fencing and mallakhamba with her childhood friends Nana Sahib and Tatya Tope.

Rani Lakshmibai contrasted many of the patriarchal cultural expectations for women in India’s society at this time. Her father supported her in learning horsemanship, archery, self-defence, and shooting.In 1842, Lakshmibai got married to Gangadhar Rao Newalkar, the Maharaja of Jhansi and got the name of Rani Lakshmibai. Few years after marriage, in 1851, Manikarnika gave birth to a boy but he couldn’t survive and died after four months.

Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi was an Indian queen, the Maharani consort of the Maratha princely of Jhansi from 1843 to 1853 as the wife of Maharaja Gangadhar Rao. She died in the Rebellion, from wounds received in a battle on 17 June 1858. The Rebellion was suppressed by November that year.From August 1857 to January 1858 Jhansi under the Rani’s rule was at peace. The British had announced that troops would be sent there to maintain control but the fact that none arrived, strengthened the position of a party of her advisers who wanted independence from British rule. When the British forces finally arrived in March they found it well-defended and the fort had heavy guns which could fire over the town and nearby countryside.