A walk down Bangalore’s roads
A former cantonment and Civil and Military Station after 1881, Bangalore has roads named according to military conventions such as Artillery Road, Brigade Road, Infantry Road, Cavalry Road (now Kamaraj Road), South Parade Road (now MG Road) and Commissariat Road.
The cantonment area was administered by a Resident and his quarters was called the Residency and therefore, Residency Road.
There are at least two roads named after famous battles, Assaye Road and Meanee Avenue Road. Both these roads meet like a fork near the Ulsoor Lake.
Assaye Road, the longer of the two roads, begins near the junction where Wheeler Road, Robertson Road and Buddha Vihar Road meet near Cox Town. It was named after the famous Battle of Assaye. Assaye is a small village in the Jalna district of Maharashtra. The village was the location of the Battle of Assaye in 1803, fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company.
The Battle of Assaye was a major battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company. It took place on September 23, 1803 where an outnumbered Indian and British force under the command of Major General Arthur Wellesley (who later became the Duke of Wellington) defeated a combined Confederacy army of Daulat Scindia and the Raja of Berar. The battle was the Duke of Wellington’s first major victory and one he later described as his finest accomplishment on the battlefield. Assaye was seen as a decisive battle in the establishment of British influence and power in Central India and established Wellesley’s reputation in India.
Meanee Avenue Road is named after the Battle of Meanee (also spelt Miani). The Battle of Meanee (February 17, 1843) was a battle between British forces under Sir Charles Napier and the Talpur Amirs of Sindh, Pakistan. Sir Charles defeated the Baluchi army.
The British were upset about the local amirs’ stance during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42). After Napier initially gained military control of the region by forcing an agreement with the Sindh Amirs, his forces attacked the fortress at Imamgarh. After the attack on Imamgarh, a popular revolt broke out, the Battle of Miani (also known as Meanee by the British) was the decisive victory that led to the British annexation of Sindh (excluding the state of Khairpur).
But why were these two lesser known battles chosen as names for roads in Bangalore? The answer lies in the fact that these battles were associated with the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) or Madras Sappers as they are popularly known. Bangalore Cantonment used to be under Madras Sappers. Even now Assaye Road is surrounded by military vestiges. To this day, the soliders of the Madras Sappers carry the badge of Assaye along with the elephant which symbolises this battle. In the Meanee Battle, the Sappers routed the Muslim Sindh rulers.
The MEG is headquartered close to these roads near Ulsoor Lake. The soldiers of the MEG or ‘thambis’ as they are known accompanied the British Army in their colonial conquest by helping them clear hurdles by building bridges, digging trenches and forming pathways.
Today, this area is largely multicultural and this is reflected in the institutions found on this road, including the Bengali Association and the Sindhi Association. There is also a Sindhi Colony given to Sindhi refugees who had fled empty handed from Pakistan during the partition. At the other end of Assaye Road, close to Ulsoor lake, is a building complex run by the Sree Narayana Samithi established in 1976 in memory of Narayana Guru, a religious leader who preached oneness of mankind. In 1895, when Narayana Guru visited Bangalore as a guest of one of his disciples called Dr Palppu, he was known to go for walks. During one such walk, the Guru would pause and rest at a spot close to the Ulsoor lake. The Samithi’s prayer hall is located at the very spot.
A giant battle tank stands majestically overlooking the Ulsoor Lake, where the Assaye Road and Meanee Avenue Roads join, as a reminder of the MEG participation in the World War II. The MEG Sappers fought for the British in North Africa in World War II. The M5A1 Stuart tank first appeared in combat in North Africa in early 1943. It served as the standard light tank for reconnaissance forces until 1945.
