125 years of Battle of Saragarhi: Tale of Sikh grit is heard from Punjab to United Kingdom

FEROZEPUR: Spread here over 8 acres, the 118-year-old Saragarhi Memorial Gurdwara is linked with the namesake fort in present-day Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province by a famous tale of "extreme bravery". Come Monday, the Battle of Saragarhi - remembered for 21 soldiers of the 36 Sikh Regiment who fought 10,000 Pathan tribesmen to death in 1897 - will be 125 years old. To this day, military historians and academics study this battle, one of Unesco's eight greatest.
Standing thousands of miles from the actual Saragarhi, the memorial continues to draw visitors every year. They come to pay respects to the valiant Sikh soldiers. The memorial gurdwara came up in 1904 after English daily The Pioneer raised money for it from across the country. Saragarhi is the only case in the history of warfare where 21 soldiers were decorated posthumously, with the Indian Order of Merit (IOM), which then was the highest British military award for Indian soldiers, equivalent to present-day Param Vir Chakra.

However, near the battle's 125th anniversary, not much is happening at the main memorial, only customary celebrations are planned. For the last five years, when the Congress-ruled Punjab, this commemoration used to be at the state level. This landmark year, there was no clarity until Saturday (September 8), whether the event will be state-level or district-level. "But we will start Akhand Path on September 10 and leave the main September 12 event to 7th Infantry (Golden Arrow) Division, which manages the memorial," said gurdwara's head granthi Bilumber Singh, adding: "We are trying to approach the descendants of those brave soldiers. A couple of them live in Jhorda,Ludhiana, and Charrik, Moga."
The real history of Kesari
To quell the disturbance in the Pathan areas, then British Indian Army's General Lockhart had sent four columns, of which 36th Sikh (Now 4 Sikh) of 21 Sikh soldiers and a cook got the task of defending Saragarhi observation post for communication between Forts Lockhart and Gulistan. In the morning of September 12, 1897, Pathans of the Afridi and Orakzai tribes raided Saragarhi.
Their demands for surrender were rebuffed by Havildar Ishar Singh, and the resultant attack prompted him to send a signal to Colonel Houghton, who asked the soldiers to hold positions. Each of those Sikhs fired hundreds of rounds, while the tribal cordon prevented any help from reaching the besieged troops. Sepoy Gurmukh Singh sent the last signal to Colonel Houghton, that he had picked up the gun, since all the soldiers were dead.
Veterans of India service in the UK military had marked the 12 September Battle Honours Day until 1947, and then with Indian independence and the 36th Sikh becoming 4 Sikh of the Indian Army, it became largely an Indian affair.