Avantibai

Rani Avantibai Lodhi (16 August 1831 – 20 March 1858) was an Indian queen-ruler and freedom fighter. She was the queen of the Ramgarh (present-day Dindori) in Madhya Pradesh. An opponent of the British East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, information concerning her is sparse and mostly comes from folklore. In 21st century, she has been used as an icon in Lodhi politics as she comes from Lodhi Rajput community.

Quotes

• The Rani who is our mother, strikes repeatedly at the British. She is the chief of the jungles. She sent letters and bangles to other (rulers, chieftains) and aligned them to the cause. She vanquished and pushed the Britishers out, in every street she made them panic, so that they ran away wherever they could find their way. Whenever she entered the battleground on horseback,she fought bravely and swords and spears ruled the day. O, she was our Rani mother.
  • Folk song, in : Pati, Biswamoy (29 September 2017). "India 'Mutiny' and 'Revolution,' 1857-1858". Oxford Bibliographies. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0040. Retrieved 25 September 2019.

• According to a dailymail.co.uk report, “following an uproar engineered by MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session” in 2011, the HRD ministry had advised NCERT to consider the inclusion of Avantibai in text books. “The protest had led to two adjournments in Parliament.” This political pressure led NCERTmention the brave 19th century freedom fighter’s name in “NCERT’s Social Science textbook for Class VIII — on pages 58 and 59 under chapter five called ‘When People Rebel’ — from the new academic session.”
  • in Rawal M. S. & Rawal Y. S. (2019). Saffron swords. Garuda Prakashan.