Fatehpur District - Notable Personalities

Notable Personalities

* Hikmat Ullah Khan: He was deputed in this district during 1857 revolution. He was very much impressed with the feelings of freedom fighters. Ultimately, he offered his services to the motherland and was included in the army of Nana Saheb Peshwa. In the same year, during a clash he was captured by the British army and was hanged on an Imali tree.He was posted as Collector and Deputy Magistrate at Fatehpur district. On 12 July 1857 he arrested by General Havelock, his head was hung in the Fatehpur District kotwali.

* Sohan Lal Dwivedi: The great poet, who has said "Rashtrakavi" by Gandhi ji. He was born in 1905 in Bindki sub-division of this district.

* Dariyaw Singh: He was one of those martyrs of this district, who sacrificed their everything in the war of freedom. He along with his son Sujan Singh and others, captured the Khaga sub-division of the district on June 8, 1857. Till July 11, the district was under control of revolutionists. On March 6, 1858, both of them along with others were sentenced to death by the British govt.

* Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi: Renowned personality, freedom fighter influenced by Gandhi ideology, was born in the Hathgaon place of this district. This place is a block headquarters.

* Thakur Jodha Singh Ataiya* The resident of village Rasoolpur of this district, this freedom fighter played important role in 1857 revolution. On 28 April 1858, he was hanged on the "Imali" tree near town Khajuha, with 51 other revolutionists. The tree still exists, and this place is known as "Bawani Imali".

* Deep Narayan Singh* He was a great freedom fighter,an ex M.L.A and an advocate of Supreme Court of India. He involved in the freedom struggle in his very early stage of his life and went to jail many times. He was also a brilliant scholar and was awarded Sahityaratna. His Statue has been installed at Dhata town.

*Raja Bhagvant Ray Kheechi- head of Asother state, who defeated the army of Ibrahim Sharki and released women from his haram.

* Rai Bahadur Ishwar Sahai started Co-operative movement for the first time in India by opening Fatehpur District Co-operative Bank in 1898.Considering the immense success of the concept Government recognized the pioneer effort by introducing government Co-operative act in 1904.

* Rai Bahadur Ishwar Sahai introduced Leather Tanning in India by opening the first Leather Tanning School in India at Fatehpur.

* 'Padam Shri', Rai Bishan Mansingh Sahab was a pioneer in "Usar Land Cultivation" .His work was well recognized by international society i.e. UN(United Nations),he was member Agricultural wing Planning Commission of India, Founder Member of Bharat Krishak Samaj, Chairman Food development Board, Chairman Animal Husbandry and Chairman State Board of Agriculture U.P.He was awarded Padam Shri for his immense contribution to Usar cultivation by Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan the then President of India and Pandit Nehru.

* DIG Mansingh was the first Indian DIG, he retired in 1936.

* Shyam Chandra Mansingh, developed the farmlands of Suketi, by creating a surface drainage scheme and draining out the low lying areas into the River Yamuna. The reclaimed land was developed into the Suketi Model Agricultural Farm by him. Paddy, wheat, gram, peas, arhar and sugarcane was the prime produce of the farm. Even in years when the rest of the district was reeling under drought, this farm used to witness bumper crops due to the innovative drainage system put into place by him.

* Air Commodore Narendra, was born on 1 Nov 1912, he was Air Officer I/C Tech and Equipment Services, Air HQ at the time of his death. Born Fatehpur, Dist Fatehpur, UP. He gained his 'A' Flying Licence at Karachi Flying Club at the age of 18, while still a student at Allahabad Univ. He went to RAF Cranwell, UK and trained there from 01 Feb 32 onwards. He graduated out on 15 Dec 33, along with KK Majumdar and Daljit Singh. They were only the third batch of Indian Pilots to go to RAF Cranwell. With an effective commission from 9 January 1934, He was then sent to Old Sarum for an Army Cooperation course. He returned to India to No 1 Squadron, IAF in NWFP, He undertook missions in the NWFP Operations in 1937. He was later posted to Walton near Lahore in Sept 1941, 2 months later volunteered for the Parachute Brigade, he was the first regular IAF officer to qualify as a Para. He was next on the Air Staff of 244 Group RAF at Calcutta, then at Chittagong. In Oct 1943 was Air Force Representative at the Directorate of Selection and Personnel. In 1944 he was Officer Commanding flying training, frontier air operations, then CO of RAF Station Kohat. At the end of the war he was CO IAF Depot Arkonam, after partition he was CO No 2 Training Group (Later Training Command) and promoted to Air Commodore. A year later he was one of three principal staff officersas the head of Tech and Equipment Services Branch of a reorganised Air HQ. Air Commodore Narendra was killed in the Dakota Crash in Turkey. The aircraft was returning from the UK Courier, flying from Malta to Cyprus and lost its way in a fog. It struck a hill near Mersin, Turkey, killing five on board and injuring two other survivors. At the time of his death, he was the 3rd senior most officer in the IAF, after Subroto Mukerjee and Aspy Engineer. He left behind his father a Zemindar of Fatehpur, 2 brothers, a sister, his grieving widow, Maharajkumari Bibiji Devinderbir Kaur Sahiba (daughter of Maharani Deepkumar and MaharajaRanbir Singh of the House of Jind) a 2 year old daughter and most poignantly a son who was born a few months after his tragic demise.

* Brigadier Shridhar Mansingh was the first recipient of Vir Chakra in India, he got it for his gallant act during 1947 Pak war.

* Arjun Deshraj Mansingh developed "Activated Carbon" from paddy husk. It was the first ever manufacturing of Activated Carbon in India in late 1950's.

* Dr Tej Mansingh - A senior general practitioner in Fatehpur who has been one of the founder members of IMA - Fatehpur chapter and a founder member of the Lions Club International Fatehpur Chapter. A former ex-Army Captain for the Army Medical Corps, he has dedicated his entire life in uplifting the economically backward and underprivileged residents of the District. He has been a family physician for many in the District since 1975. A pioneer in getting most of the national social movements to Fatehpur from Kayatha Mahasabha to being an active board-member of the Government Girls Inter-College.

• In literature this district has been so fertile. Narhari Mahapatra (1562–1667 Samvat vikrami) is known the first known poet of this District.. before him no authentic record is available. it is also subject to research. Bhakti Sahitya headed by Sant Hans Das, Sant Chand Das and more known-unknown poets. later on Kavi Karnes, Thakur-I, Chandra Sekhar Bajpayee etc. caried the tradition of poetic writing.. there After new era headed by Sohan lal Dwivedi, Dulare Singh Veer, Aashu Kavi Jag Mohan Nath, Rameshwar Shukla, Rama Nath Awasthi.. and this is being carried by S.K.Trivedi,Chandra Kumar Pandey,Dr.C.P.Dixit Lalit,B.K.Pandey,Dev Dutt Arya,Aanand Swarup,Hari Prasad Shukla and lots more poets. Now-a-days, lots of younger poets like..Pankaj Pandey,Brijendra Agnihotri etc. also doing well in poetic writing..

In Urdu literature and poetry two names can't be missed.

Niaz Fatehpuri (1884-1966) was a fiction-writer of repute, whose Urdu short-stories, which are poems in prose, are considered to be on a par with those of Munshi Premchand and find a prominent place in Urdu Literature. He was also an Urdu poet and critic, and a polemicist who dared to raise his voice against Fundamentalism.

Until he migrated to Pakistan in 1962, he had continued to publish and edit Nigar the Urdu monthly journal, which he had launched in 1921. This was originally published from Agra, then from Bhopal and subsequently from Lucknow. It is still published from Karachi by Farman Fatehpuri.

Niaz Fatehpuri wrote on Urdu and Hindi literature, on religion and on the many evils affecting the social fabric of India in his time. He has more than two dozen major works to his credit. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1962 for his services to Urdu.

He died in Karachi, Pakistan on May 24, 1966.

Farman Fatehpuri was born on 26 January 1926 in the Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. His father died in 1933 while he was still a child. He received his matriculation from Fatehpur and intermediate education from Allahabad in 1948. He graduated from Agra University in 1950. Farman migrated to Pakistan in 1950 and settled in Karachi. He completed his Master of Arts, LLB and B.T. from Karachi University. In 1965 he obtained Ph.D. He holds the honour of being first Pakistani with a D.Litt in Urdu in 1974. He remained associated with Karachi University for nearly 30 years and produced many Ph.D.'s and researchers. He was later appointed chief editor and secretary of the Urdu Dictionary Board in 1985. In the same year, he was awarded the Sitar-e-Imtiaz medal by the government of Pakistan.

Masjid And Mandir