In Bihar first revolt occurred on 12th June 1857 in a village Rohini (Deoghar).
The army personnel of 30th regiment revolted against British rule. Three of them murdered Major Norman Lesley and another British officer. The 30th regiment was under command of Major McDonald. Three of them were punished to death.
On 3rd July 1857 in Patna, under the leadership of a book seller Pir Ali revolutionaries captured Patna City Chowk. Major Loyal was deployed to suppress this revolt but he was killed along with his soldiers.
Major Taylor was commissioner of Patna. On 19th July 1857, he arrested 3 respected Muslims of Patna
- Md Hussein
- Ahmadulla
- Waizul Haq
and charged them to have relation with Wahabis (a banned organization at that time).
On his instruction house and shop of Pir Ali were demolished and 16 people from Patna were hanged to death.
On 25th July 1857 in Muzaffarpur, personnel in the Indian Army murdered Major Holmes and other officials.
On 30th July, Martial Law was imposed in the entire area of Patna Division (Saran, Tirhut, Champaran, Patna, Biharsharif, Shahabad)
On 25th July 1857, 3 regiments of Danapur revolted and they entered Shahabad whey they joined hands with the landlord of Jagdishpur (Kunwar Singh) and turned into rebels.They elected Kunwar Singh as their leader. They started gathering soldiers and at one point of time his army consisted 10 thousand soldiers.
They joined hands with the landlords of Rohtas and Sasaram.
There were incident of Rebellion at Rajgir, Biharsharif and Gaya. Rebels successes in freeing 400 detainees at Gaya.
The British supporter Tikari Raj was attacked.
In the month of August rebellion broke out in Bhagalpur.
In Palamu , rebellion was under the leadership of Viplav Sahni and Pitambar Sahni.
On 27th July 1857, Kunwar took control of Arrah and declared himself as its ruler.
On seeing this development, Captain Danvar of Danapur headed towards Arrah and was killed in the battle.
Major Vincent Aiyer of Bengal was on his way to Allahabad returned back from Buxar and attacked Arrah.
On 3rd August 1857 he encountered with Kunwar Singh at Bibiganj. Kunwar Singh had to flee from Arrah and reached Lucknow.
Kunwar Singh reached Ayodhya and met Nana Saheb Peshwa and along with Tantya Tope and him participated in the battle of Kanpur. On 29th November 1857, Nana Saheb Peshwa took control over Kanpur.
Kunwar Singh moved towards Azamgarh. Edward Lugard proceed towars as British were quite frustrated with guerrilla tactics of Kunwar Singh.
In order to avoid direct confrontation, Kunwar Singh divided his troop into two parts.
He proceed towars Jagdishpur with one of them. He was confronted with Douglas led British Army at Ghazipur, at the time he was trying to cross Ganges and was wounded in the battle.
He reached Jagdishpur with his wounds where he fought his last battle with Captain Lee Grand and had victory in the battle.
Struggle of Independece was kept alive even after death of Kunwar Singh by
- Amar Singh
- Harkishan Singh
- Jodhan Singh
- Ali Karim
Amar Singh led the movement of rebels after the death of Kunwar Singh and their control over Shahabad.
The British rule was challenged in the Chotanagpur, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Palamu.
On 5th August 1857, Ramgarh Army at Purulia and Chaibasa also revolted. Jai Mangal Pandey and Nadir Ali Khan of Ramgarh and other two leaders were hanged to death.
The rebellion continued in Singhbhum and Palamu.
In January 1857, Kols of Singhbhum under the leadership of Raja Arjun Singh of Porhat defeated Company’s Army.
On 16th January 1857, Captain Dalton reached Palamu and accompanied Lt. Graham attacked Palamu fort and disperse the rebels here and there.
The reasons for failure of revolt of 1857
- Lack of coordinated association of rebels
- Lack of arms & ammunitions
- Lack of communication system
- Lack of support from common people
- British proved superior to the native rebels