Surendra Sai Biography

By Author: Dark Odisha
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Ever since the British people came and established their power in India, their opposition started happening in every province. It appeared organically in 1857; But before that there were many such warriors, who kept the British in their nose. Veer Surendra Sai was one such revolutionary.

Surendra Sai was born on 23 January 1809 in the Chauhan dynasty of village Khinda (Sambalpur, Orissa). His village was 30 km away from Sambalpur. In his youth, he was married to the daughter of the Zamindar of Hatibari, who was then the head of the Gangapur state. Later, a son Mitrabhanu and a daughter were born in Surendra's house.

The Raja of Sambalpur died childless in 1827. Being of the dynasty, Surendra Sai now had the right on the throne; But the British knew that Surendra would not be their hand. Therefore, he made the king's wife Mohan Kumari as the administrator of the state. Mohan Kumari was a very simple lady. He had no knowledge of the government. So the British started making them dance like puppets on their fingers.

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But all the zamindars of that state got angry due to this cunning of the British. Together they decided to oppose it armed. For this he made Surendra Sai the leader. Gradually the pace of their struggle and resistance started increasing. This upset the British officers.

In 1837, Surendra Sai, Udant Sai, Balram Singh and Lakhanpur Zamindar Balbhadra Dev were discussing something together in Debrigad that the British suddenly stormed there. They ruthlessly killed Balabhadra Dev there; But the remaining three people managed to escape.

Even after this attack, their activities continued. The British also followed them. He had also engaged some spies to catch them. On the information of such traitors, Surendra Sai, Udant Sai and Balram Singh came under the grip of British in 1840. All three were sentenced to life imprisonment and put in Hazaribagh Jail. These three were also mutual relatives.

But his companions did not sit still. On July 30, 1857, hundreds of revolutionaries stormed the Hazaribagh Jail and rescued Surendra Sai along with 32 companions. After reaching Sambalpur, Surendra Sai again started an armed struggle to free his kingdom from the British.

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There used to be frequent skirmishes between the British police and Surendra Sai's soldiers. Sometimes one had the upper hand, sometimes the other; But Surendra Sai and his companions did not let the British sleep peacefully.

On January 23, 1864, when Surendra Sai was sleeping with his family, the British police raided and caught him. He was taken to Raipur with his family in the night itself and then the next day he was imprisoned in Nagpur's Asirgarh Jail. Even after a lot of physical and mental torture in jail, Surendra did not accept to bow down to the foreign rule.

The hero, who spent 37 years of his life in jail, breathed his last in the prison of Asirgarh Fort on February 28, 1884.