Babu Amar Singh was a revolutionary in the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the for ...

and the brother of

Babu Kunwar Singh Kunwar Singh (born: 13 November 1777 – died: 26 April 1858), also known as Babu Kunwar Singh, was a leader and military commander during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He led a selected band of armed soldiers against the troops under the comm ...

, the

zamindar A zamindar (Hindustani language, Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian language, Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous Raja, ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughal Em ...

Jagdishpur Jagdishpur is a nagar panchayat town of the district Bhojpur of the state of Bihar in eastern India. It was the capital of the eponymous Jagdishpur estate, ruled by Rajputs of the Ujjainiya clan. One of its rulers, Kunwar Singh, was a major f ...

Early life

Amar Singh was the second son of Sahebzada Singh born much after his older brother. He was described as being tall, of fair complexion and having a mole on the right side of his nose. He was a fond huntsman and enjoyed hunting big game including elephants, bears and wolves. He was also a deeply religious person and had the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

recited to him every night. He was initially reluctant to join the rebellion but agreed to do so on the insistence of his brother and the commander-in-chief,

Hare Krishna Singh Hare Krishna Singh was the commander-in-chief of Kunwar Singh's forces in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and also served under his brother Babu Amar Singh. Early life Hare Krishna Singh was born in 1827 in the village of Barubhee in Shahabad distri ...

Role in the 1857 rebellion

Babu Amar Singh originally assisted in his brothers campaign including the infamous

Siege of Arrah The siege of Arrah (27 July – 3 August 1857) took place during the Indian Mutiny (also known as the Indian Rebellion of 1857). It was the eight-day defence of a fortified outbuilding, occupied by a combination of 18 civilians and 50 members ...

. After the death of Babu Kunwar Singh on 26 April 1858, Babu Amar Singh became the chief of the army and despite heavy odds, continued the struggle and for a considerable time ran a parallel government in the district of Shahabad. Four days after the death of his brother, he heard reports about British tax collectors in

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the confluence of the ...

. He subsequently led an attack on them and defeated them. He was assisted by his commander-in-chief,

. A soldier who served Amar Singh and was captured in 1858 gave some details about his forces. He stated that after Amar Singh retreated into the hills, he had around 400 cavalry-men and six guns. The guns were obtained from a mechanic in Calcutta who served Amar Singh directly. The force also had cannon balls that were manufactured in Jagdispur with lead they obtained from raids on British boats. Amar Singh was also planning to join his force with fellow rebel leader

Nana Sahib Nana Saheb Peshwa II (19 May 1824 – 24 September 1859), born as Dhondu Pant, was an Indian Peshwa of the Maratha empire, aristocrat and fighter, who led the rebellion in Kanpur (Cawnpore) during the Great Revolt of 1857. As the adopted s ...

. One 6 June 1858, Amar Singh and his force of 2000 sepoys and 500 ''sawars'' arrived in the village of

Gahmar Gahmar is a village in India, located near the Ganges river in the Ghazipur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The village is 38 km from Ghazipur. The village has two post offices, 2 UBI, 1 SBI, 1 HDFC Bank & more than 10 ATM, Publ ...

Ghazipur Ghazipur is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. The city of Ghazipur also constitu ...

near the border with Bihar. The

Sakarwar Sikarwar is a Suryavanshi gotra. Sikarwar dynasty is found around Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh's Morena Bhind Gwalior, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh district Agra and Ghazipur. Villages Jajou, Basai and Ayela in Kheragarh tehsil of Agra district are very anc ...

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

rebels from this region, under the leadership of Meghar Singh, were keen for Amar Singh's support and a letter was composed in a village requesting his help. Amar Singh accepted their request. Meghar Singh personally presented Amar Singh with a ''nazrana'' or gift worth Rs 20,000. They exchanged supplies and Amar Singh left Gahmar on 10 June. Among the motivations for this alliance were the marital ties shared between the Sakarwars and the Ujjainiyas. In October 1859, after subsequent

guerilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run ...

skirmishes with the British, Amar Singh fled with other rebel leaders to the

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

Terai , image =Terai nepal.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption =Aerial view of Terai plains near Biratnagar, Nepal , map = , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , biogeographic_realm = Indomalayan realm , global200 = Terai-Duar savanna a ...

. He presumably went into hiding after this and disappeared before being captured later that same year and dying in prison. History of Bhojpur

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Kunwar Revolutionaries of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Rajput rulers