Biography
Nana Saheb Peshwa II, born Nana Govind Dhondu Pant, was an Indian aristocrat and fighter who led the Siege of Cawnpore (Kanpur) during the Indian war of Independence 1857 against the East India Company. As the adopted son of the exiled Maratha Peshwa, Baji Rao II, Nana Saheb believed he was entitled to a pension from the Company. However, after being denied recognition under Lord Dalhousie's doctrine of lapse, he joined the 1857 rebellion and took charge of the rebels in Kanpur. He forced the British garrison in Kanpur to surrender and subsequently ordered the killing of the survivors, briefly gaining control of the city. After the British recaptured Kanpur, Nana Saheb disappeared, and conflicting accounts surround his later life and death.