madho singh considered the british as ‘bendra’ or lowborn race due to their lack of consideration of indian nobility and relentless greed for grabbing land by any means possible. the british ignored the legitimate rights of surendra sai to the throne in their own favor and falsely imprisoned him for punishing the rebellious zamindar of rampur within his right to authority over his land. the revenue tax demands from the british swelled up to eight times putting additional burden on the local estate rulers to pressurize their subjects for paying more taxes. the zamindars and other chiefs beholding high sense of honor among their subjects were ordered to personally deposit the amounts at sambalpur.  madho singh denied to put hardship on his people to satisfy the british demands and was placed at top of a list of defaulters displayed in public. the sense of hatred against the british increased to an extreme when the zamindar of sonakhan estate (raipur), narayan singh and father in law of madho singh’s granddaughter from his son kunjel singh was, arrested and shot dead at raipur. the sonakhan estate ruler was trying to feed his people by looting the food grains from a rich merchant who had denied helping the population suffering famine in the region. adding to the bitterness, the british helped the cunning zamindar of bijepur estate to acquire the bhatibahal region against the wishes of madho singh.