Bamboo Fort of Titumir

Syed Mir Nisar Ali widely known as Titumir was born on 27 January 1782 at Chandpur in North 24 Parganas districts then in British India now in India. After becoming educated in a village school he moved to a local Madrassa¹. At the age of 18 he became a Hafiz² of the Holy Quran and also a scholar on hadith³ and the Muslims traditions.

In 1922 at the age of 40, he went to Mecca⁴ to perform the holy hajj⁵. On his returned from Hajj he introduced to wear a tahband, a tube shaped garment wear around the waist, instead of dhoti6 seen apparently a Hindu.

Titumir reacted on some discriminatory measures like taxes on beards and on mosques. The distance between him and his followers and the local Zamindars and the British increased day by day. 

Titumir was belonged to a peyada or martial family and he had himself served under a Jaminder as a paik i.e., lathial or lethel. He trained his followers in hand to hand combat and use of lathi⁶.

They organised several dacoities in the house of local Zamindars and looted horses from the stables of Zaminders and the British police stations. These events aggravated the British Government to send a series of expeditions and sustained a severe defeat in the hands of Titumir.

The followers of Titumir made a fort with bamboo stakes filled in with mud cladding and sun-baked at Narikelbaria⁷ near the town of Barasat⁸. Titumir declared independence from the British in the area of 24 Parganas, Nadia⁹ and Faridpur¹⁰ districts which came under his control earlier.

Ultimately, on the eve of 14^th November 1831, the British forces with mighty cannons and musketes mounted a concerted attack on his fort. There was a dead-fighting and heavy casualty on side of the Mujahids¹¹. Titumir along with many of his followers fell fighting on 19^th November and died on the spot. The British also noted his bravery in their dispatch.