RANI LAXMIBAI was a capable ruler, an intelligent communicator, and defender of the faith. She was sagacious when it came to her people and astute in dealing with her enemies. The widowed Queen had to repeatedly face gruelling challenges but drew strength from adversity, relying on her sense of justice, her dignity, and her magnanimity. She never surrendered to destiny, choosing instead to shape her own life. The British annexed Rani Laxmibai's kingdom, took away her political rights, and humiliated her. But she valiantly fought the foreign power and died a hero. Written after extensive research, this book portrays the making of a remarkable queen. Rani Laxmibai, the brave warrior-queen, remains a source of inspiration to us all.

Biography of Lakshmi Bai, 1835-1858, Rani of Jhansi.

The brave woman, Maharani Lakshmibai, is a grand personality and inspiring chapter of Indian history. Even today her name inspires a new zeal in the hearts of all those who are struggling against injustice and cruelties. Her life was a strange combination of rise and fall. A seven-year-old innocuous madonna, the daughter of Moropant Tambe, a very ordinary common man, by quirk of circumstances, became the queen of nearly middle aged Raja Gangadhar Rao?Maharani Lakshmibai. She became a widow at the tender age of nineteen years. And from here began her life of struggles. At the time of merger of her state in the British empire, she thundered, ?I?ll not give my Jhansi.

A little girl, Manikarnika, with an uncanny sense of her own destiny, grew up to be none other than the brave queen of Jhansi, Rani Lakshmibai. Trained in horse riding and the martial arts from an early age, Manu was married to Gangadhar Rao, the Maharaja of Jhansi, when she was thirteen. Soon after her husband’s death, the reins of the kingdom passed on to her, and she took up this responsibility undeterred and fearless. When Jhansi faced the danger of annexation, she fought against the British with unflinching courage, losing her life in the course of the battle. She has since become one of the most inspiring heroes of the freedom struggle and a much-admired role model. Deepa Agarwal chronicles the life and times of this legendary character in a gripping narrative, drawing a colourful portrait of bravery. This riveting account also includes nuggets of information about the eventful year 1857, making for a fascinating read.

1857-1858: The British Empire in India is teetering on the brink of collapse in the face of widespread rebellion by native regiments. In the final phase of the Great Indian Mutiny an intrepid young woman rises to lead the mutinying sepoys: Lakshmibai, the

Colonial texts often read the Indian woman warrior as a cultural anomaly, but Indian texts find recourse in the mythological examples of the female warrior. Rani Lakshmi Bai's remaking transforms the mythologically viable, yet socially marginal, figure of a woman in battle into bounded and meaningful feminine roles such as daughter, wife, mother, and queen. Women and the home were integral to how nationalist discourse envisioned the modern, yet traditional, Indian nation. The Rani remains a metaphoric referent of the home, and is an abiding symbol of the nation, reinvented as authority, power, and tradition. The depictions of the Rani signals what is at stake in representing the unrestricted woman in the public sphere. The book extends the discussion on what constitutes the historical archive of the gendered colonial subject and the postcolonial rebel by being attentive to the vexed figures produced within the competing ideologies of colonialism and nationalism.