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How did Lakshmi Bai resist British annexation of Jhansi?

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Collage of raised-fist silhouettes over a halftone orange, yellow, and green background, featuring historic newspaper text and faint crowd imagery. — Indian Independence Movement In August 1947 British rule ended on the Indian subcontinent.

Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi, resisted the British annexation of her state through both political and military means. After her husband, the maharaja, died without a natural heir, the British governor-general Lord Dalhousie invoked the doctrine of lapse to reject the succession of her adopted son, Damodar Rao, and annexed Jhansi in 1854.12

When her petition to be recognized as regent was rejected and she was offered a pension, she refused to cede her kingdom, famously declaring, "Meri Jhansi nahin dungi" ("I will not give up my Jhansi"). Following the outbreak of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, she was proclaimed regent and joined the uprising, organizing her troops and assuming command of rebel forces in the Bundelkhand region. She offered fierce resistance against British forces led by Hugh Rose, continuing to fight even after the fall of Jhansi until she was killed in combat near Gwalior in 1858.134