Fateh Bahadur Sahi

Maharaja Fateh Bahadur Shahi was the 99th Maharaja of Baghochia Dynasty of Husseypur-Kalyanpur, centred around parts of present-day Bihar, and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. He is best known for leading a prolonged campaign of guerrilla warfare against the East India Company, resisting British expansion in the region for nearly three decades.

Rebellion against the British

He collaborated with Mir Qasim, who continued to provide military support to him in his battles against the Mughal Emperor from Monghyr to Buxar in Bihar; he opposed the Dewani powers that the British had gained over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa as a result of the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. In 1772, he marched into Huseypur and killed Govind Ram who was appointed as the revenue farmer for the East India Company. In spite of this the company continued to try and bring Fateh Shahi into their fold as he held much influence among the regional rulers, however he refused all such offers.

By 1775, the British had been experiencing many problems in the region, Following the rebellion of Chait Singh of Benares state in 1781 he renewed his campaign against the Britishers or in other words the East India Company.

Legacy Fateh Shahi's rebellion against the East India Company was the first of many rebellions against the Britishers in Bihar and India and the soon after that was followed by the 1857 rebellion. The saga of his struggle and fight against East India Company is described in the poem Meer Jamal Vadh.