by Kiran Nirvan
In order to adhere to the order of Khalsa, a Sikh had to adopt the five K’s namely kesh, kirpan, kara, kangha and kachhera. To show distinction, unity and equality among the Sikhs, baptized Sikhs were not supposed to cut their hair (kesh) and had to wear a turban which, earlier, only Gurus were allowed to wear. A ceremonial sword (kirpan) hanging from a cotton shoulder strap would be worn by all Sikhs, showing readiness to protect the oppressed, and defend against any injustice and persecution. A baptized Sikh would also wear a steel bracelet (kara), symbolizing strength and integrity. A small comb (kangha) would be paired with the kesh, representing order and cleanliness. Lastly, baptized Sikh would wear cotton boxer shorts (kachhera), denoting self-control and chastity as well as the abhorrence of adultery.
As a response to this new development and its success among the Sikhs, Mughal forces were mobilized against Guru Gobind Singh and a siege was laid to Anandpur Sahib in 1701, cutting off the fortress from all supply routes. A long blockade ensued which led to depletion of supplies in Anandpur. Eventually, the Mughals promised safe passage to Guru Gobind, who agreed to evacuate the fortress with his followers towards the end of 1704 against his better judgement. The Mughals however, broke their pact, and decided to attack Guru Gobind Singh’s convoy while he was crossing a flooded stream near Ropar.
In the din and clatter of this sudden battle, the Guru’s wife, Mata Sundri, and his mother, Mata Gujri, along with his two youngest sons, were separated from him while he and his two eldest sons managed to cross the stream and halted at a village called Chamkaur where he was attacked again. In the famous battle of Chamkaur, all those who had accompanied him and his two eldest sons gave their lives fighting. Meanwhile, Mata Sundri was escorted to Delhi by a devoted follower even as Mata Gujri and the Guru’s two youngest sons were held captive by Wazir Khan, the Mughal ruler of Sarhind. A cruel Wazir Khan put the brave young sons of the Guru to death when they refused to convert to Islam. Mata Gujri soon passed away in grief. Finally, on 7 October 1708, in the city of Nanded, the legendary founder of Khalsa Panth, the bravest of warriors and the wisest of kings, Guru Gobind Singh breathed his last.
A year later, Banda Singh Bahadur, a devoted follower of Guru Gobind Singh who had met the Guru while he was in Nanded and was commissioned by the Guru to lead the Sikhs against their oppressors, led an uprising with the support of the Guru’s followers to honour his and his family’s sacrifice. After gathering enough men and material for the revolt, by November 1709, Banda Singh Bahadur had led a daring attack on Sirhind where Guru Gobind’s younger sons were martyred, killing thousands of their enemies and razing Sirhind to the ground. He then raised more forces and conquered the entire area between the rivers Sutlej and Yamuna, fighting and winning over Mughal forces. He also introduced a new coin and a seal in the name of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. The Sikhs quickly regained their lost glory, becoming fearsome opponents of the Mughals. Alas, after several successful expeditions, Banda Singh Bahadur was finally besieged by Abdus Samad Khan in the fort of Gurdas Nangal near the present town of Gurdaspur. Ending a siege that lasted eight months, Banda Singh Bahadur and over seven hundred of his followers finally surrendered towards the end of 1715. In March 1716, they were executed in Delhi. A few of his closest associates were beheaded in front of him with the hope that he might reveal his army’s strategies and give up their collected assets but Banda Singh Bahadur did not budge. He was finally executed in June after three months of imprisonment by being tortured to death in the most brutal way possible by having the Mughals gouge out his eyes with daggers, cut off his hands and legs with hot rods and beheading him as he fell unconscious.
After Banda Singh Bahadur’s martyrdom, there was no immediate leader who rose to unite the scattered Sikhs, who then formed confederations among themselves. Later, Ahmed Shah Abdali, an Afghan ruler with the support of nearly 40,000 Afghans, came to invade India in 1759. In November of 1764, Ahmed Shah marched up to the town of Ramdaspur (now Amritsar) with his Afghan warriors and attacked the partially reconstructed Harimandir Sahib (the present day Golden Temple) which he had demolished two years earlier. Only 30 men under the leadership of a Sikh named Gurbaksh Singh stood in defence of the holy shrine. In the words of historian Ratan Singh Bhangu, ‘Bhai (brother) Gurbaksh Singh with garlands around his neck and a sword in his hand, dressed as a bridegroom with his men forming the marriage party, waited eagerly to court the bride – death.’1 As the Afghan forces drew nearer, the Sikh soldiers attacked and an unequal fight ensued, with 30 men pitted against approximately 30,000 until all of them met a glorious death in the battlefield. As an eyewitness to this episode of heroism, Qazi Nur Muhammad, a raconteur in the invading party, wrote in his accounts that when Ahmed Shah reached Amritsar with his army, they were attacked by a few men bent upon spilling their blood and eventually sacrificed themselves in a dutiful devotion to their Guru. In fear of the probable threat posed by the Sikhs, Ahmed Shah ordered their mass executions when they started to interfere with his brutal policies and fought his oppression in Punjab, looting his treasures and freeing innocent women from the clutches of his men. They fought gallantly, adopted martial arts and guerrilla tactics taught to them by Guru Gobind Singh. The Sikhs continued to face the horrors of Afghan brutality; Abdali and his forces were able to execute close to 30,000 Sikhs in a mass genocide. The massacre of Sikhs by Afghans is what stuck in the subconscious of every Sikh, serving as a century-old reason to seek their revenge.
By the end of the eighteenth century, India was introduced to the British Empire which would rule the country for another century and a half. During the same time, Sikhs started to unite under the leadership of Ranjit Singh, son of the erstwhile ruler of Sukerchakia Misl in Punjab, Mahan Singh, who unified confederations of Sikhs into one empire, becoming a Maharaja with a well-armed cavalry and troops whose training was at par with British forces. There were 300 guns in his artillery and about 20,000 trained infantrymen in 21 battalions, with a large number of Punjabis among them. As stated by the Treaty of Amritsar, the British recognized Maharaja Ranjit Singh as the sole ruler of Punjab.
The Sikh community, especially in Punjab, thrived in the early nineteenth century under his rule. He then led conquests in the former Mughal province of Lahore to expel Afghans from Multan and Kashmir and to, finally, take revenge from successors of Ahmed Shah Abdali for the years of persecution against the Sikhs. The state of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was soon stronger than many larger states in Asia. In the words of the Austrian Baron Charles Hugel, ‘The state established by Ranjit Singh was “the most wonderful object in the whole world”. Like a skilful architect the Maharaja raised a “majestic fabric” with the help of rather insignificant or unpromising fragments.’2
Before his death in 1839, Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s authority spread over territories between the river Sutlej and the mountain ranges of Ladakh, Karakoram, Hindukush and Sulaiman, which was duly recognized by the authorities of Kabul as well as by the British. By 1849, this huge empire ruled in fragments by various successors after Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death was annexed by the British after these successors became pensioners of the British India government. The ‘majestic fabric’ that was woven together by Maharaja Ranjit Singh was now worn by Englishmen. Even employed under the British, a large number of Sikh warriors who now were a part of British Indian troops, remained a dependable force – a breed of time-tested fighters with inherent qualities of both followers and leaders. The simple, humble ‘Sikh’ created by Guru Nanak had survived over several centuries despite the almost insurmountable odds stacked against him and had forged his fate as Guru Gobind’s envisioned combatant who would live and die to uphold the honour, traditions and beliefs of his community in the times to come.
1Bhangu, Ratan Singh, Prachin Panth Prakash, 1809–1841.
2Sharma, Radha and Bala, Renu, ‘Society and Culture of the Punjab’, Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University, 2011.
6
The 36th Sikhs
Havildar
Ishar Singh, post commander at Saragarhi on the fateful day of 12 September 1897, fearlessly stood upon the bastion as he peered through his service binoculars while resting a leg on the parapet. The edge of his quoit, slantingly secured to his fortress turban, shone under a bright sun. A frown was gradually deepening on his forehead as he observed the swarms of armed Afghani tribesmen carefully sneaking up the hill from all directions. Slowly, as if foreseeing his fate on this day, he looked towards the sky with a gaze of acceptance and whispered ‘Waheguru’. He then went inside the fort to break the news of these developments to his subordinates, his companions, his brothers-in-arms.
‘We will defend the post,’ he declared. ‘That is my decision and those who wish to leave, may leave now. Those who would accompany me, however – it is time for us to show these Afghans the valour that Guru ji passed on to all of us. It is time to avenge the massacre of our ancestors. They are not more than ten thousand in number, which is not even a fraction of what Guru ji expected us to fight against when he said, “It is when I make one Singh fight a hundred thousand that I am called Gobind Singh.”’
When a young soldier worriedly stated that they had been surrounded, Ishar Singh replied, ‘They may have greater numbers, but we have greater courage. Yes, we are surrounded, but remember that only lions and falcons get caged, not crows and foxes – “Kaava’n Giddraa’n nu kaun puchda hai, qaid sadaa hi baaz te sher hunde”.’
~
In almost two centuries preceding Britain’s annexation of Punjab after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikhs had made a significant mark in the history of the region. Moreover, their distinctiveness in terms of appearance, characteristics, high values and courage had been introduced to the British during the various Anglo-Sikh wars (1845–1849) fought as part of the annexation of Punjab. On learning of the vastness of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s territories and the fact that his well-trained forces comprised largely of Sikhs, it became almost necessary for the British administration to win the confidence of the Sikhs and induct them into their armies in order to exploit their prodigious skills. After the Sikhs – an entire race that was used to combat – were left with no reason to fight battles post annexation, they were convinced by the British to fight at the borders of Punjab in the vicinity of Afghan settlements, indirectly prompting them to carry out their ancestral vendetta towards the people of Afghanistan. Of course, it now becomes important for us to understand how the British were successfully able to recruit their former enemies for military service, making them their most fervent loyalists.
In the year 1857, when the East India Company was in control of administration in India, a revolt by Indian sepoys against British led to an uprising that swept across the nation. By this time, almost 3,00,000 Indian sepoys constituted the three presidency armies of Bombay, Madras and Bengal, against a much smaller British force. Several reasons could be attributed to this revolt including caste-based discrimination and grievance over issues relating to promotions, but the fuel to the fire was added by the British introducing the Enfield P-53 rifles to their arsenal. News spread among the Indian sepoys that the grease used on the cartridge of the rifle’s ammunition – which had to be bitten before use – was made from cow fat, which was offensive to the Hindus, and pig fat, which was offensive to the Muslims. Under this ‘religious frenzy’ – as the British officials put it – the sepoys under their employ united and revolted across the nation.
In this turbulent time, a point of relief for the British was that, following their reconciliation, the Sikhs refused to join the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. It was because Sikhs believed it to be treasonous to turn against someone to whom they had earlier promised their service. This unique moral code of conduct is why the British put their faith in Sikhs in the years to come, resulting in several battalions of Sikh forces being formed and thousands of turbaned and bearded Sikh men marching in the ranks of British armies. During this time, the British raised 18 new regiments consisting mostly of Sikh soldiers and making Punjab its armour against prevailing danger from outside forces. The history of the 36th Sikh Regiment can be traced back to this time.
An extract from the first Digest of Service (1887-1913) detailing the initial raising of the 36th Sikhs.
Following the revolt of 1857, the administrative and military control of India was handed over to the British government by the East India Company according to the Government of India Act of 1858. The newly formed British India government began to consolidate all regiments and legions under the British Indian Army. Therefore, in 1858, the 36th regiment was first raised as the Bareilly Levy. The class composition of the regiment during this time is unclear. Later, in May 1861, the regiment was re-designated as the 40th Bareilly Regiment of the Bengal Infantry. In October 1861, it was renumbered as the 36th Regiment of Bengal Infantry. The 36th Sikhs take its precedence in the Indian Army from this date accounting for the fact that this battalion was raised before the 3rd battalion (which was called the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs) that was created to be a police battalion in 1856 and who first appear in the army list as a regular regiment in 1864. Under the new Bengal Native Regiment of 1864, the class composition of the 36th was as follows:
(a) 2 Companies: Brahmins and Rajputs
(b) 1 Company: Jats
(c) 2 Companies: Ahirs
(d) 2 Companies: Kurmis
(e) 1 Company: All races and castes
Colours were granted to this regiment in the year 1876. In 1882, nearly 24 years after its raising, the British Indian Government decided to reduce some of the Bengal Infantry Regiments as a consequence of which the 36th regiment, along with 34th, 35th, 37th and 41st regiments, was among those chosen for reduction.
However, the regiments that underwent a reduction in 1882 were revived in 1887, including the 36th regiment as the British had to strengthen their armies due to the possibility of a Russian attack from the North West Frontier Province. They also needed more men to keep a check on the increasing tribal agitation in areas bordering Afghanistan. The 36th Sikhs of the Bengal Infantry was raised in Jalandhar by Lieutenant Colonel J. Cook vide Special Army Circular dated 23 March 1887 and a G.O.C.C1 dated 20 April 1887. It was composed of a total of eight companies of Jat Sikhs of Punjab and a total of 225 all ranks or soldiers who were transferred to the regiment from the Bengal Army and the Punjab Frontier Force. The transferred ranks consisted of one Subedar, nine Jemadars, 25 Havildars, 26 Naiks and 164 Sepoys. The British also needed to recruit more soldiers, which is why a panel of British officers that included Lieutenant Colonel J. Cook, Major T.G. Thomson, Captain H.R.L. Holmes, Captain J.F. Worlledge, Lieutenant W.D. Gordon, Lieutenant C.E. Johnson and Lieutenant Erskine, led recruiting parties to the districts of Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Lahore, Ludhiana, Nabha and Patiala from 1 May 1887 onwards. To recruit the best of the best, Captain Holmes, who was also a wrestler, followed a smart strategy in which he challenged young and well-built Punjabis to a wrestling contest with a condition that those who would be worsted would have to enlist for recruitment. Tall, sturdy and masculine Sikhs accepted the challenge and this novel method stimulated more and more Sikhs showing up at the recruitment rallies. A total of 754 recruits enlisted between 1 May 1887 and 1 January 1888. Captain Holmes later retired in the year 1892. The number of recruits during this period inclusive of transferred sepoys totalled 816. The following officers were appointed to the regiment on 9 June 1887:
Commandant: Lieutenant Colonel J. Cook (Wing Commander of the 14th Sikh);
Wing Commanders: Major T.G. Thomson (Officiating Second-in-Command of the 25th Punjab Infantry), Captain H.R.L. Holmes (Wing Officer of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs);
Wing Officers: Captain J.F. Worlledge (Wing Officer of the 7th Bengal Infantry), Lieutenant W.D. Gordon (Officiating Wing Officer of the 3rd Sikh), Lieutenant H.L. Custance (Wing Officer of the 2nd Battalion), Lieutenant C.E. Johnson (Wing Officer of the 27th Punjab Infantry), Lieutenant C.T.A. Searle, Lieutenant C.E.H. Erskine;
&
nbsp; Medical Officer: Surgeon G.H. Fink.
The first batch of officers of the 36th Sikhs
With the best recruits enlisted, a thorough training was required to turn these strapping Sikh men into efficient soldiers. Hence, under Cook’s able command at Jalandhar, rigorous drills were conducted daily along with exercises in musketry and firing until 1891. The men surpassed all expectations, as is evident from the message of the then Commander-in-Chief of India, General Fred Roberts, written in the service digest of the unit after his first inspection of it on 10 February 1890:
I saw the 36th Sikhs at Jullundur last November, and was much pleased with the setup and general appearance of the men. They are a splendid body, and the condition of the regiment reflects great credit on Colonel Cook and all concerned. In the Musketry List the regiment now stands 8th. The fire control and discipline are said to be excellent, and great praise is given by Assistant Adjutant General for musketry, to the rapid, clear-cut section volleys delivered at emergency practice.
The 36th Sikhs remained in Jalandhar under training till 10 March 1891, after which the unit moved to Delhi where it stayed for a short duration and was then sent to Manipur in March 1891 to help curtail local disturbances and restore peace. This is where the regiment earned its first battle honour ‘Manipur’. Later, after having successfully completed its duty, the regiment moved back to Delhi in September 1894.
The Sikh soldiers of 36th wore fortress turbans with a badge in the centre that was engraved with the letters ‘XXXVI SIKHS’ between two quoits atop which a crown rested with an embroidered border lining the badge. A fortress turban, usually bigger than the normal turban worn by Sikh warriors, offered a protective covering around the head with its cloth stretching for as long as twenty yards. A steel quoit, the signature weapon of the Khalsa, was secured to the turban for easy access during hand-to-hand combat. They also wore a scarlet coloured tunic with a broad patch of cloth in front. Overall, dressed in their ceremonial uniform, a soldier of the 36th was easily distinguishable from the other battalions in the British Indian Army.