This image of Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi riding a horse in battle with her 8-year-old son Damador Rao tied on her back, battling Britishers is etched in everyone’s mind.

It has been immortalised in movies and on statues…

Sadly, there is no public awareness of what happened to the minor prince of Jhansi or his descendants after Rani Laxmibai’s death in battle?

Only a handful are aware that the Queen’s son Damador Rao and his next 5 generations lived an anonymous life in Indore.

With no government or public help forthcoming, the first two generations of Queen’s descendants spent their life in a rented house in limited financial means.

Damador Rao breathed his last on May 20, 1906 at the age of 57, leaving behind his son Laxman Rao Jhansiwale, who was given a pension of Rs 200 per month by the Britishers.

After the country attained independence on August 15, 1947, the then government asked Laxman Rao to vacate the house in the Residency area. The descendants of Rani Laxmibai had no option but to shift to a rented house in Peergali area of Rajwada, Indore.

Rani of Jhansi’s grandson worked as a freelance typist in the district court. As penury struck, the family often slept on an empty stomach. He left this world in extreme poverty in 1959 leaving behind son Krishna Rao Jhansiwale and daughter Chandrakanta Bai.

Krishna Rao, the great grandson of the Queen, worked as a steno-typist in Hukumchand Mill in Indore. He used to receive a pension of Rs 100 per month from the Central and UP government. After spending his entire life in the same rented house, Krishna Rao died in 1967.

After his demise, the Central and the UP government discontinued the pension of the descendants of the Queen.

His son Arun Rao Jhansiwale was an engineer and joined MPEB. In 1994, he purchased a house in Dhanwantari Nagar in Indore. After the Rani left Jhansi with son Damodar Rao, the family had to wait for five generations to own a house.

Arun Rao’s son – software engineer Yogesh Arun Rao Jhansiwale (44) is the sixth generation member of Queen Laxmibai’s family. He currently lives in Nagpur with his wife Preet and two kids Preeyesh and Dhanika.

It is quite disconcerting that this reality is not well known and it took me a better part of 45+ yrs of my life to learn about this lost history…

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