Rani Shiromani – The Laxmibai of Bengal

The forests of Jungle Mahal were restless. The wind carried whispers of revolt, and in the heart of Midnapore, the earth seemed to tremble under the weight of injustice. In that age of despair, when the East India Company bled farmers and tribals with merciless taxes, a queen rose—not from legend, but from flesh and blood. Her name was Rani Shiromani of Karnagarh.

She was not born to be a warrior. Born in 1728, Shiromani stepped into power when her husband, Raja Ajit Singh, died without an heir. Along with co-ruler Rani Bhabani, she was thrust into rulership of a fragile kingdom. Most expected her to retreat into the safety of silence. But destiny had other plans

A Queen Turns Rebel

The British were tightening their grip on Bengal. Fields once lush with paddy turned barren as taxes climbed higher than harvests. The Adivasis of Jungle Mahal—farmers, paiks, zamindars—could no longer bear it. Out of their pain rose the Chuar Rebellion.

And at its center stood a queen.

It was 1799. While most rulers bargained with the Company, Rani Shiromani chose to stand with her people. She was not a monarch cloaked in luxury—she was a mother to her land, and the cries of her farmers were her own. Gathering three hundred rebels armed with nothing more than bows, arrows, and courage, she led them into battle.

One March morning, she struck the Karnagarh fort itself. Company soldiers fell back as the rebels seized weapons, a queen at their helm, her voice ringing through the chaos.

“This land belongs not to the Company, but to its children!”

For months, her guerrilla warfare rattled British power across Midnapore, Salboni, and Bahadurpur. She was no longer just a queen. She had become the heartbeat of a rebellion.

Chains Could Not Break Her

But empires do not forgive defiance. By the year’s end, the British retaliated. Rani Shiromani was captured and dragged away, not to a palace but to the cold stone walls of the Hijli Detention Camp—today remembered as the grounds of IIT Kharagpur.

The Company even offered her a way out: to return as ruler of Karnagarh, but only as their puppet. Rani Shiromani refused. She chose the silence of prison over the shame of surrender.

For nearly twelve years, she remained imprisoned. Alone, stripped of her kingdom, she bore her chains with the same quiet dignity with which she had worn her crown. The British thought they had silenced her, but in truth, they had turned her into a martyr.

In 1812, she breathed her last behind bars—her body broken, her spirit unbroken.

The Legacy We Almost Forgot

Today, only ruins remain of the Karnagarh fort. Moss grows on its stones, and the wind rustles through broken walls. The State Government has made small attempts to turn it into a heritage resort, but little has been done to restore the grandeur of the fort. And so, the walls wait—silent witnesses to a queen’s courage.

Rani Shiromani was called the “Rani Laxmibai of Bengal” long before Laxmibai herself took arms. She was one of India’s earliest queens to fight the East India Company, decades before 1857 lit the nation’s flame.

Yet, history chose to forget her.

And that is why we retell her tale. Because hidden in the soil of Medinipur is the story of a queen who fought not for glory, but for her people—a queen who reminds us that India’s freedom was sown by countless unsung heroes.

✨ This is Rani Shiromani’s story. A story almost forgotten, but worth remembering—and retelling.