Patna: “There are some occasions on which it is good to give up life ...
You can hang me or those like me every day, but thousands will come up in my place and your purpose will never succeed”: These were probably the last words of Peer Ali Khan before he turned down a clemency offer by then Patna commissioner W Taylor, with a broad smile. The year was 1857 when the first war of Indian Independence was fought. Though India remembers the likes of Mangal Pandey and Rani Laskhmibai, Peer Ali’s name lost in the pages of history.
Peer Ali, who was arrested on the charges of mutiny and murder of an English nobleman, was brutally tortured before being hanged to death on July 7, 1857, in Patna at the spot just opposite the collector’s residence, where now stands a park named after him. The British officials believed that Peer Ali — a tall, lanky, kurta-pajama clad, bearded man in his late forties who would often be seen moving around in Bankipur area carrying newspapers and books — was one of the main conspirators of the revolt, having contacts with some sepoys at Danapur Cantonment. They suspected that his residence-cum-bookshop, a small thatched house in Patna City, was the meeting point of the revolutionaries.
The British demolished his house and offered him to disclose details of his comrades if he wanted to escape death. But he chose otherwise. As was the practice, there was no hearing before Taylor ordered the execution.
Peer Ali remained an unsung hero of the India.