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T The Battle of Saragarhi of September 12, 1897, recently dramatized in Akshay Kumar-starrer Kesari is one of the largest " last stands' of military history.
The story of the battle is recorded in the Digest of Service of 36 Sikhs (today 4 Sikhs), of whom I was the guardian for two years, from 1971 to 1972, as the 39; adjutant. The battle is also described in the personal letters of Lieutenant-Colonel John Haughton, who was the commander of the unit, as reproduced in his biography The Life of Lieutenantt.Col. John Haughton .
The battle saw a NCO, Havildar Ishar Singh (played by Akshay Kumar in the film), 20 other ranks, and a "follower" (civilian employed for housework), Daad, of 36 Sikhs fighting the Pashtuns until the "last man last round".
But as often happens, many myths are badociated with great "last clashes" and the battle of Saragarhi is no exception.
] This is what really happened during the battle of Saragarhi.
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Events preceding the battle
The Battle Saragarhi was fought between two sub-nationalities of the subcontinent – the Sikhs, who served the British, and the Pashtuns, who fought for their freedom.
The Sikh-Pashtun rivalry dates back 150 years, from the first invasion of Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1748. Over the next 50 years, a fierce struggle ensued for the control of Punjab. By 1800, the Sikhs had prevailed, and for the next 30 years they pushed the Afghans to the Durand Line (1893), which was the present western border of Pakistan. These are the borders that the British inherited after defeating Khalsa's army in 1849.
In 1893, the Durand Line to delimit the border between British India and Afghanistan was created , dividing the hearts of the Pashtuns. This provoked discontent among the tribes whose homeland had been divided. In addition to the garrison in the area, the British had to send military expeditions to quell the tribal rebellion.
In January 1897, half of the 36 Sikhs were deployed on Samana Ridge. The battalion headquarters and a company plus a platoon, 168 of all ranks, occupied Fort Lockhart at the east end. A company and a platoon, 175 of all ranks, were at Fort Gulistan, 5.2 km to the west.
But the two forts lacked inter-visibility and so a post was established at Saragarhi, named after the destroyer Pashtun. village of Saragarh, which served as a communication station with a heliograph (signaling device using sunlight and reflectors).
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Three more posts – Dhar, Sangar, Sartop with 37 respectively , 44 and 21 rows – were busy keeping the flanks of Fort Lockhart. The rest of the battalion is deployed 80 km further west in the Parachinar region.
In August 1897, the Hadda mulla issued an appeal to "Jehad" against the British and Afridis, Orakzais and Shinwaris, the Pashtuns of the Tirah region arose in rebellion. While the British Indian Army was strengthening its forces in Kohat (garrison town), the Orakzais and Afridis turned their attention to Samana Ridge.
The Tirah region numbered between 20,000 and 25,000 Afridis and Orakzais. Of these, nearly 10,000 began encircling the forts on Samana Ridge held by 36 Sikhs. Between August 28 and September 11, Fort Gulistan and the outposts around Fort Lockhart were attacked several times without success.
The battle and many testimonies
On the morning of September 12, part of the Pashtun rebels invests the vulnerable little fort in Saragarhi. The battle began at 9 am and ended shortly after 3:30 pm with all garrison killed in action. As there were no survivors, little is known about what really happened in Saragarhi.
The military narrative is based on visual observations made with binoculars / telescopes at Fort Gulistan and Fort Lockhart, located 2.8 km and 2.4 km from Saragarhi, respectively.
Many stories give a minute by minute description of the battle by the signalman Sepoy Gurmukh Singh through the heliograph. The official reports mention only two messages of this type: one at noon, presenting a factual report, and the other just after 3 pm, requesting permission to close the door. heliograph and join the battle.
There is no record of a Pashtun narrative of the battle. As a result, most of the non-military narratives of the Battle of Saragarhi are imaginary and speculative.
However, as this was a literal fight "last man last round," which lasted six and a half hours, there should be no doubt that all that we can imagine in terms of individual and collective courage and human emotions would have been exposed.
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What military account says
I have read and reread the Digest of Service of 36 / 4 Sikh and most battle reports written over the past 122 years. The Pashtun force that attacked the Saragarhi post comprised between 1,000 and 1,500 rebels
. Saragarhi had a cliff facing south and a narrow spur linking it to the ridge. It was not practical for more than 80-100 men to attack at the same time, but sufficient supplies were available for repeated attacks. The rest of the Pashtuns cut / blocked the road to Lockhart and Gulistan and also invested in Gulistan and other forts.
The Pashtuns first tried to rush to the post, but without success. They withdrew, hid behind the rocks and continued shooting at the post.
As observed from Gulistan Fort, two Pashtuns remained to dig under the wall of the fort and collapse it to create a breach. Being at blind spot, they could not be seen by the defenders in Saragarhi. Gulistan tried to warn the post, but the message was never forwarded.
At 12 o'clock, the signalman reported that a man had been killed, that a non-commissioned officer had been wounded and that three rifles had been damaged as a result of firing. Lt Col Haughton sent Lt George Munn with 12 soldiers to create a diversion by firing from a distance, but that had no effect. Between noon and 3 pm, the Pashtuns launched two more attacks with 80 to 100 men each, but were repulsed again with heavy losses.
At 3 pm, Lieutenant-Colonel Haughton with Lieutenant Munn and 98 other ranks undertook to create a diversion and relieve the pressure on Saragarhi. It had scarcely traveled a kilometer when part of the Saragarhi wall had collapsed as a result of the search of the two Pashtun men left behind and the final badault had been launched.
Shortly after 3 pm, Sepoy Gurmukh Singh sent his last message asking for permission. join the battle. At 3:30 pm, everything was over.
A great saga of bravery was pronounced. Most "last positions" are rarely literal because there are always survivors. Saragarhi was literally and metaphorically a great "last fight". Each of the 21 soldiers received the Indian Order of Merit (IOM), the highest decoration attributed to Indian soldiers by the British until 1911.
A pyramidal cairn 10 meters high, built in Saragarhi with ruins stones and a more formal obelisk was built in Lockhart as memorials. Two gurdwaras, one in Amritsar and the other in Firozpur, were built in their honor.
Myth vs fact
Most authors estimate that the number of Pashtun casualties at the Battle of Saragarhi would be about 600 to 1,000.
The Pashtun / Pathans were the masters of field gears and minor tactics and never engaged in rash frontal attacks on well-defended positions. According to the official badessment, 400 dead and 600 wounded on the ridge of Samana, and 180 dead in the battle of Saragarhi.
Most writers likened IOM to the Victoria Cross. While this was the highest distinction awarded to Indian soldiers, the fact that in addition to the 21 IOMs attributed to the brave Saragarhi, 36 Sikhs were awarded 14 other IOMs during the Battle of Samana and the Tirah's campaign which then diluted comparison
Writer-director Jay Singh-Sohal in his book Saragarhi: The Forgotten Battle destroys two other myths: a standing ovation in the British House of Commons for the Battle of Saragarhi. ranked by UNESCO as one of seven epic battles. Sohal has found no trace of these two statements.
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According to the military narrative, Sikh regiment soldiers were not free flowing but fluid beards. Nor did they carry kirpans (swords) in battle, as shown by the films and documentaries made about the event. The Sikh regiment soldiers of that time wore a khaki turban and not a Kesari turban, as the Kesari film shows. The film Akshay Kumar-starrer plunges into the personality of Havildar Ishar Singh, but no story so detailed mentions it in the military account.
The number of men killed in Saragarhi was 22 and not 21 years old. "Follower" the presence of Daad. A postman, he would have cooked for the soldiers and cleaned up the fort almost every day, but on the fateful day he joined the fight – a 36 Sikh tradition that is still respected. He remains the unsung hero of Saragarhi.
Lieutenant-General HS Panag PVSM, AVSM (R) served in the Indian Army for 40 years. He was GOC in C Northern Command and Central Command. After his retirement, he was a member of the Armed Forces Tribunal.
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