Mariaon Memorial Pillar

The celebration of the country's 'Independence Day' on August 15 also demands the remembrance of the sacrifices that have been made to gain this coveted freedom. The citizens of Lucknow should take pride in-their city-folks being amongst the first to sacrifice their lives against British imperialism as early as April 1857, according to contemporary historians. They recount incidents that indicated the mood of rebellion of native sepoys at the British cantonments of Mudkipur, Mariaon and Musa Bagh in April 1857. Munshi Ram Sahai Tamanna in Ahsan-ut-Tawareekh gives an account of the incident that initiated the struggle when an English doctor (probably named Wheeler) tried to administer a medicine to a sepoy of the 48lh Regiment [at Mudkipur] near Mariaon Cantonment, after having tasted it himself [by putting the bottle to his mouth]. The sepoy vehemently refused to take it and told his officer Colonel Palmer, that taking something jhoota was inconsistent with his belief and the doctor's action amounted to an insult of his faith. The officer tried to pacify him and the sepoys and justify the doctor's intention but they were not convinced. In the night they went beserk and burnt down the doctor's residence. The native sepoys of another regiment (the 13th) set fire to other buildings in the cantonment.

Towards the end of April there was another demonstration of the sepoy's rebellious attitude when the newly recruited native sepoys refused to use the animal grease coated cartridge which had to be put to mouth for tearing the wrapper. On May 3 the sepoys at Musa Bagh revolted and sent a message to their colleagues at Mariaon to follow suit. The message was intercepted and the British rushed with a heavy force to disarm the sepoys of Musa Bagh. They could only find a few of the thousand sepoys of the regiment as most of them had already left the place. Consequently their regiment was disbanded.
Sir Henry Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner, then held a durbar to address the native sepoys extolling the virtues of their loyalty and faithfulness to the British. He aiso rewarded four sepoys whose names have been given by Tamanna as Subedar Ram Sewak Tewari, Hawaldar Major Heera La! Dube, Sepoy Ram Narain and Hussain Bakhsh.
The inscription on a memorial pillar erected by the British at Mariaon Cantonment provides proof that a large body of native sepoys did revolt against the British on the evening of May 30, 1857. The inscription which is throughout in bold letters and is in thirteen lines says that this pillar marks the RESIDENCV Bungalow occupied by Sir Henry Lawrence on that memorable occasion and that the Mutiny was crushed by a small force of British and loyal Indian troops when the rebels were routed. In the end it says that the Mariaon Cantonment was abandoned on June 29, 1857 when Sir Lawrence's forces concentrated in the Lucknow Residency and Machhi Bhawan.
The pillar is the last of the monuments notified as protected for Lucknow district, in 1934. Ironicaliy till date and sixty five-years later, no addition of any other monument has been made in tne list by the Archaeological Survey of india (A.S.I.).
Prior to the Mariaon Cantonment, during the reign of the fourth Nawab, Asaf-ud-Dauiah, the British stationed their troops across tne river just opposite his Daulat Khana residence. Saadat AN Khan, the sixth Nawab provided land and funds for the British cantonment to be shifted about 3 miles away. Trenches were dug along the boundary and pillars were erected to mark the boundary. A pillar of this sort known as the Chand Minar, which is in a bad state and likely to crumble any day, may be seen at Bara Chand gunj, suggesting that the Cantonment boundary extended to this point.
In History of Lucknow Cantonment, one of the co-authors Dr. P.K.Ghosh (Reader, History Department, Lucknow University) has mentioned the stringent conditions that were laid down by Nawab Saadat Ali Khan for the British Cantonment. One of them was that only British troops and their followers were allowed to reside there and that there would be no fortification of buildings. Another condition required that no shelter be given to delinquents and criminals who tried to hide there. But the British with their own parallel government hardly adhered to the conditions imposed upon them.

The Mariaon Cantonment had a small church, a graveyard, a dance hall, and a commiserate for storing provisions for the troops, a talaab (tank) for sepoys besides residential quarters for officers and sepoys. There was a park with a band-stand and a race-course nearby.
Interestingly, though the Nawab erected and owned these buildings in the Mariaon Cantonment, some of them were re-sold by the British to the Nawabs [later Kings].
None of these structures of Mariaon Cantonment are extant now, except for about a dozen tombs in the cemetery of Beligarad (a corruption of Baillie's Guard, but this is found inscribed as such on the stone on the gate). It is there behind the newly built Secretariat Colony towards the eastern side of Sitapur road. The lone memorial pillar of Mariaon Cantonment is extant near the Mohib-ullah-pur crossing, on the west side of the Sitapur road.

Source:
Hindustan Times, City Scan, A Time in History
Wednesday 18.8.1999 — Where the valiant lie buried, unsung