Dehradun: Uttarakhand is called the land of heroes, where many brave sons have been born. One such brave son of India was Balbhadra, who defeated the British army in the battlefield. In Raipur Nalapani, Dehradun, there is a monument narrating the story of valor and bravery of Gorkha heroes, which is called Khalanga Memorial. This monument symbolizes the attack of the British on Khalanga Fort and the bravery of the brave Gorkha soldiers who fought against them.
Nepali Language Committee President Madhusudan Sharma told Local 18 that many wars have taken place in Dehradun. A war took place in the year 1814, which took place between Gorkha soldiers and English soldiers, which is also called Anglo-Gorkha War or Nalapani War of Khalanga. He told that when the British government was attacking here to take control of Dehradun, at the same time the soldiers had also attacked the Khalanga Fort.
Story of Gorkha heroes full of courage
Through Shankar, the Gorkha soldiers got information that the British army was going to attack the fort. General Jillipsy was leading the British Army. They had in their mind that our service has guns, cannons and many modern weapons and the Gorkha soldiers have only weapons made of stone and wood, how will they be able to compete with us, they will soon be defeated and we will defeat them. Underestimating the Gorkha soldiers cost them dearly. In the first battle, only 600 Gorkha soldiers gave a befitting reply to the British, which included women and children. Gorkha warriors and brave women were fighting against the 5000 army of the British government.
The stunned British army demolished the Khalanga Fort.
Madhusudan tells that under the leadership of brave Balabhadra, about 600 soldiers, brave women and children gave a befitting reply to the British soldiers. The British army was well armed, whereas the Gorkhas, with their ancient and self-made weapons like Khukuri, spears, bows and arrows and loaded guns, had forced the more than 3500 disciplined and modern armed British army to chew iron gram.
Seeing the bravery of the Gorkha soldiers, the English soldiers became angry and destroyed the fort. Even today the soil here looks red because the remains of the fort are found in it. Seeing the continuous tough competition, the British stopped the water reaching the fort and started killing the soldiers coming out of the forest for food. The soldiers no longer went out, instead they survived by eating things like nettle grass i.e. Kandali and Pitput.
The English general had to jump into battle
Many soldiers were killed while fighting the British, some women, children and some soldiers survived. The British demolished the fort. Now Veer Balbhadra could not see many more people, including children, dying of hunger and thirst. So he took everyone with him to Sirmaur district. This was a battle in which the general took up arms and jumped into battle. The British built a memorial in Dehradun to honor their enemies. Along with the journal Jillipsy, a memorial of brave Balbhadra has also been built here, which still tells the story of bravery.
