Mahua Dabar, Basti

Mahua Dabar, a township situated 15 km from the district of Basti, has earned a proud place in the history of the freedom movement of India. The obscure habitat was rediscovered through a long and sustained research by Mohammad Latif Ansari, a businessman in Bombay whose forefathers lived here and were killed during the first war of India’s Independence in 1857. 

The researcher was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the then President of India, Dr. APJ Abul Kalam for his pioneering work. As the mutiny against the British Government started from Meerut on 10 May and from Delhi on 11 May 1857, the residents of Mahua Dabar, led by one Jaffer Ali murdered a party of 6 British army officers who were crossing the river Manorama close by. 

Infuriated by this audacity, the British 12th Irregular Horse cavalry led by W. Peppe, the Deputy Magistrate of Basti burnt the township completely. They butchered its entire population, razed all the houses, decimated and wiped out all traces of its existence. They leveled the township and converted it into agricultural land to retrieve the losses suffered by the British.