Dewan Shatrughan Singh

DEWAN SHATRUGHAN SINGH and his wife RANI RAJENDRA KUMARI are two great Indian freedom fighters and Dewan Saheb was the father of the freedom movement in the whole of Bundelkhand, Dewan Shatrughan Singh is also known as 'Bundelkhand Gandhi' & 'Bundelkhand Kesri'. These were the two fountain heads of the freedom movement in all of Bundelkhand. They also were the main patrons of revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad who frequented their Castle in their native village of Maungrauth. The Rani defeated the sitting UP Chief Minister C.B. Gupta as an independent candidate. They were also the main inspiration behind the Bhoodaan movement in Bundelkhand and Maungraut changed the history of the movement by becoming the first complete Gramdaan.

Numerous scholars have done PhD's on the life of these 2 great Indian patriots. There is an annual mela on the birthday of these two stalwarts held annually in Maungrauth in 25th December and is attended by over 40,000 people. They opened numerous colleges and libraries in the Bundelkhand region and none were named after them. The district hospital of Hamirpur is named after Dewan Sahib after his death.

Despite being from one of the most affluent families in Central India this couple sacrificed everything for the nation and donated their lands to the poor even prior to 1947. They were in British jails for the freedom struggle for over 9 years each. They are now the subject of folk tales and songs highlighting their bravery and hailing them as symbols of Bundelkhandi valor.