by Kiran Nirvan
The Untold Story of the
BATTLE OF SARAGARHI
KIRAN NIRVAN
BLOOMSBURY INDIA
Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd
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First published in India 2019
This edition published 2019
Copyright © Nirvan Singh and Kirandeep Singh, 2019
Illustrations in Chapter 7 © Jagdeep Singh, 2019
Nirvan Singh and Kirandeep Singh have asserted their right under the Indian Copyright Act to be identified as authors of this work
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ISBN: PB: 978-93-89000-39-9; eBook: 978-93-89000-41-2
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This book is dedicated to the memory of all martyrs, the service of all veterans and the selfless conduct of all serving personnel of the Indian Army. We also dedicate this book to the unparalled bravery and exemplary courage of the officers and all ranks of 4 Sikh
(erstwhile the 36th Sikhs).
Contents
Preface
PART I
The Colonial Era: A Backdrop
Know Thy Enemy
Know Thy Battlefield
PART II
Guru’s Kindred
From Sikh to ‘Khalsa’
The 36th Sikhs
The Twenty-One
Tensions in Tirah
The Attack on the Samana Forts
The Final Call of Duty
The Aftermath
The Tirah Expedition
Afterword
Appendix
Acknowledgements
Preface
In the humdrum of everyday life, where forgetfulness has become but a habitual phenomenon, it is not surprising to see history slip into oblivion. At a time when the ‘present’ is at war with the ‘future’, the ‘past’ fails to find its deserved place. Of course, many are familiar with the skeletal socio-political history of this nation, as is the purport of our school curriculum, but to know about battles and wars (besides the seminal victories or losses) is rare. However, it is important for a nation to appreciate her soldiers and for soldiers appreciate their legacy. To bridge the gap between a nation and the history of her armed forces, many tireless historians have given up their nights’ sleep trying to retrace and retell the epic saga of battles and wars.
The Battle of Saragarhi is one such battle of which very little is known to the general populace. In this episode of our country’s history, 21 gallant men faced the onslaught of 10,000 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen on the fateful day of 12 September 1897. In a fierce stand that lasted for seven hours, these brave soldiers did not falter in the face of odds heavily stacked against them and laid down their lives to defend their post.
Reasons dictating the onset of wars and battles do not emerge overnight. There exists a bone of contention in most cases, if not all, and discontent often brews for years, sometimes decades or even centuries before erupting into war. Hence, even before the story of this great battle begins, it becomes undeniably essential to first understand the reasons that led to it. Another point to explain here is the fact that while this book may be judged as downright biased, such is the nature of this chronicle that a judgment cannot be entirely avoided. Having said that, we have done our best to base this narration on facts and recorded figures we have uncovered in the Army archives. While it was very hard to find information about these 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikh Regiment, now 4 Sikh, it was not impossible. Ashes to Glory, an informative book on the history of 4 Sikh, written by veteran of the unit Brigadier Kawaljit Singh, provided us with the basic framework for our research. The references to the socio-political landscape of the time in Colonel H.D. Hutchinson’s literary work, Tirah 1897–98, were also helpful, as was Major Yates’s work, The Life of Lieutenant Colonel John Haughton, which helped us paint an adequate picture of the Commanding Officer of the 36th Sikh Regiment during the battle of Saragarhi. These, and many other books describing the colonial era at the end of nineteenth century were required reading before we began writing this book. Of course, it would have been impossible to even start this book without the unremitting help provided by the Commanding Officer and officers of the 4 Sikh.
While we have tried to tell the story as simply as possible, and will make deliberate efforts to avoid a tone that resembles a history lecture, we as privileged legatees thriving on this country’s rich history must pledge to carry this legacy forward before it is buried in the sands of time. Brief fictional episodes based on our assessment of the battle have been added before some chapters in Part II – we hope that these will help the reader connect with this piece of history at an emotional level. This battle deserves to be remembered, in isolation as well as a concrete testimony to the unparalleled bravery of Indians of which the world must be reminded from time to time. Therefore, everything that follows now will bear its own importance.
‘Waheguru ji ka khalsa, Waheguru ji ki fateh.’ (The Khalsa belongs to the Lord God! So the victory belongs to God!)
Part I
1
The Colonial Era: A Backdrop
In the vicinity of the famous Golden Temple in Amritsar rests a little-known cenotaph which bears immense significance in India’s colonial history. Often overshadowed by the famed Jallianwala Bagh, this forgotten memorial is inscribed with a legendary saga at par with the famed battle of three hundred Spartans against Xerxes and his massive Persian army: that of a daring stand of 21 warriors against the mammoth onslaught of ten thousand enemy fighters that took place almost a century ago. The unprecedented bravery shown in the fierce battle forever changed the way Britain – and the world – looked at Indian soldiers, especially Sikh soldiers. However, unlike in the rest of the world where writers and poets have immortalized the exceptional valour of their countrymen in verse, Indian history books almost never mention the battle that once swept the British Parliament off its feet.
Taking a leap back to the nineteenth century will provide necessary insights into events that culminated in the epic battle that took place at Saragarhi, particularly those pertaining to the history of India, Britain, Russia and Afghanistan. Nineteenth century was a crucial period in the histories of these countries, one now known as the ‘Great Game’, derived from heightened tensions between Britain and Russia as they battled for control over important territories in central Asia. By the end of eighteenth century, even as India’s wounds from the tyrannical rule of latter-day Mughal kings had
not yet healed, it fell victim to Britain’s desire for economic prosperity as well as recognition as a world power. After the French Revolution, European powers began to leave their shores in search of new lands to conquer, both for resources and dominion. In the early 1800s, the Industrial Revolution was beginning across the world and Great Britain was one such place where raw materials and new markets were in great demand in order to sustain the new industries. After Vasco da Gama landed on the shores of India in 1498, it was no longer hidden from the world that India was a country rich in resources and, for Britain, it became a priority to colonize India to stamp their authority across the world.
While Europeans were clever enough to use the idea of the ‘white man’s burden’ to justify their colonization of other nations, it was these nations that would bear the brunt of Europe’s burden during the Great Wars of the twentieth century, leading to a British victory that would otherwise have been impossible. In fact, even before the Great Wars, Indian soldiers proved to be invaluable in saving Britain from the humiliation of defeat in the battles fought as a part of the Tirah Campaign.
By the mid-eighteenth century, India had quickly become one of Britain’s most important colonies as it was rich in tea, cotton, raw materials and labour. However, India was not alone in this exploitation for trade – it also included a nation important to the backstory of this book: Afghanistan.
Throughout the nineteenth century, the key players of major historical events that took place in and around Indian subcontinent and central Asia were Britain, Russia, Afghanistan and India. Not long after East India Company took control of India in 1757, British rulers of India started to fear that in the ‘Great Game’ Russia would launch an attack on India through Afghanistan and particularly through the North-West Frontier region (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan). To counter this possibility, the British government decided to set up advanced posts in the region outside India’s frontiers to keep a check on the potential threat from Russia as well as to promote British interests in central Asia. These advanced posts later became the battlefield upon which the heroic stand at Saragarhi was taken.
An old map of the North West Frontier Province
Both Britain and Russia were hungry for power in central Asia, but whose side did Afghanistan finally choose? In order to understand the answer to that question, it is important to delve into the country’s own politics. In the 1830s, Afghan politics was going through an unstable phase under the rule of Dost Muhammad Khan. Despite his efforts to stabilize his territories, he could only succeed partially as his rule was plagued by a constant stream of threats, both internal and external. To the south, in Kandahar, one of Dost Muhammad’s brothers was challenging his power and his rule. In the East, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the legendary and powerful Sikh ruler of Punjab in nineteenth century, had extended his rule to Peshawar as a result of his ambitious campaigns; and in the West, Persia was rearing its threatening head. Dost Muhammad was trapped from all directions and with nowhere left to run, he chose to make an alliance with a powerful friend – Great Britain. While the Russians, too, tried to convince Dost Muhammad to join them, he was more inclined towards a British alliance.
While Dost Muhammad wanted to become an ally of the British Indian Government on the basis of complete equality and not as one of its puppets or subsidiary allies, much to his disappointment, he failed to get adequate terms from the British who would not offer anything more than verbal sympathy. As much as British touted the idea of the ‘white man’s burden’, their agenda had always been to keep their colonies weak and divided, and that is what they planned to do in Afghanistan as well. After all, it would be easier for them to rule over a weak and divided Afghanistan. Hence, Lord George Eden, the Earl of Auckland and the then Governor General of India, only offered a coalition to Dost Muhammad based on a subsidiary system.
Having failed to make allies of the British India government, Dost Muhammad had to half-heartedly change his course towards Russia, who had extended their hand in support against the British.1 These events, highlighting the quest of two hungry nations for power, eventually led to the First Afghan War in 1839–42 (which we shall only touch upon as briefly as possible). Lord Auckland, enraged by Afghanistan’s alliance with Russia, decided to replace Dost Muhammad with a subordinate ruler Shah Shuja, who was deposed from Afghan throne in 1809 and had since been living in Ludhiana as a British pensioner. On 26 June 1838, a treaty was signed between the British India government, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Shah Shuja according to which the British and Ranjit Singh would help Shah Shuja overthrow Dost Muhammad in return for the assurance that Shah would not make alliance with any foreign state without the consent of the British and Punjab governments. Following the treaty, the three allies launched an attack against Dost Muhammad’s territories in Afghanistan in February 1839 and captured Kabul by August 1839 in what is known as the First Afghan War. The tables had quickly turned and Shah Shuja now sat on the Afghan throne as Britain’s puppet. However, despised by the people of Afghanistan, Shah Shuja was overthrown as a result of an uprising in 1841 that once again installed Dost Muhammad in the seat of power. Still licking her wounds, Britain organized a new expedition and reoccupied Kabul in September 1842. This time, however, it had learnt its lesson well; knowing that history could repeat itself, the British India government and Dost Muhammad arrived at a settlement on the basis of which the former evacuated Kabul and recognized Dost Muhammad as the independent ruler of Afghanistan. This tentative peace was predictably shattered after Dost Muhammad’s death in 1863, and the tensions that had been simmering below the surface finally resulted in the battle that would immortalize the valour of a few brave men.
In 1885, the British India government and the then Emir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan, decided to define spheres of British and Afghan influences and thus set up a boundary commission as a result of which the Durand Line – a 2,430 kilometres-long boundary line – was drawn up in 1893. The British India government, however, did not give up its ‘Forward Policy’2 and went on to occupy frontier lands inhabited by Pathans, setting up military posts in the NWFP by drumming up the fear of a potential attack by Russia.
Having given an overview of the political scenario of the time, it is now time to complete the picture by acquainting with the people who came swarming into India in the thousands – fierce and hardened fighters who faced an unexpected challenge from merely twenty-one warriors, the heroes of this saga, the heroes of this book, the heroes of this country and its history.
1Davies, Huw J., ‘The Pursuit of Dost Mohammed Khan: Political, Social and Cultural Intelligence during the British Occupation of Afghanistan, 1839-4’, London: King’s College, April 2009.
2In the late nineteenth century, the British objective was not to set up a puppet government in Afghanistan but wanted Afghanistan to act as a buffer state in order to secure their occupied territories in India from Russian threats. Their ‘Forward Policy’ was in fact a policy of active vigilance against external threats, which included influencing events to suit the interest of security of the British dominion. The Durand line completed the chain of frontier settlements that began in 1872 and, in successive stages, gave Afghanistan a well-defined and stable frontier.
2
Know Thy Enemy
The nineteenth century – one that had witnessed the nuances of the ‘Great Game’ – was barrelling towards its end. As explained in the previous chapter, relations between the British India government and Afghanistan were largely contentious due to the First Afghan War, followed by the disputed issue of Durand Line emerging as a consequence of Britain’s ‘Forward Policy’. Moreover, at the time, India was Britain’s crown jewel and the British India government took an aggressive stance towards any perceived threat to India. After Britain’s annexation of Punjab in 1849, it instated a ‘closed border’ policy that decentralized control over these border areas to prevent any outsiders from gaining access to India. It was believed that a friendly and indep
endent Afghanistan would be a firm barrier against Russian expansion and their movement toward the Indian frontier, and the British decentralized control over border areas in return of assurance that Afghanistan would not build relations with Russia without British intervention. The latent threat of Russian imperial encroachment also led the British to recognize the tribal areas between Afghanistan and India as key territories.
However, this proved to be easier said than done. While Britain’s policies allowed it to manage these tribal areas effectively, it lacked enough financial resources and forces needed to control the areas located in the difficult terrain bordering Afghanistan. Since they had occupied this land against the will of the tribes that lived there, they began to incur frequent raids into their territories conducted by angry tribesmen. These raids soon became a major pain for the British administration as these tribes were better acquainted with the tough mountainous terrain than the British forces, and raiding and looting was almost a way of life for them. As Colonel H.D. Hutchinson, an active participant in the Tirah Campaign of 1897, which was an Indian frontier war during 1897–98 in Tirah region to curb the uprising of Afghan tribesmen against British, who said, ‘Bred and born amongst steep and rugged hills, and dark and dangerous ravines, inured to extremes of heat and cold, and accustomed from childhood to carry arms and to be on their guard against the wiles of the treacherous kinsmen by whom they are surrounded, it is small wonder that they are hardy, alert, self-reliant, and active, full of resource, keen as hawks, and cruel as leopards.’1 As a consequence of their hostile behaviour, these tribes stimulated a bitter response in which British began to launch punitive expeditions in Waziristan in 1850s to punish the raiding Pashtun tribes.
Later in 1878, another Anglo-Afghan war took place, the details of which we would spare as of now. After this war, the British India government finally installed a permanent political administration in Waziristan in 1894–95. The demarcation of the state’s boundary as defined by the Durand Line in 1895 added fuel to the already conflicted tribal areas when the Pashtuns refused to accept this new boundary as they believed that it infringed upon their independent status and separated them from their ethnic brethren in Afghanistan. This decade-long anger, pushed to the brink by the issue of Durand Line, finally erupted in a revolt against the British along the entire Indian-Afghan border in 1897. On 12 September 1897, 10,000 of these ferocious Pathans, a mix of two major Afghan tribes, attacked a British outpost in a place called Saragarhi, believing that there was an easy victory at hand.