The Battle of Saragarhi is all set to find its way into the popular cinema through the Bollywood, with not jut one but two movies depicting the unmatched bravery of 21 Sikhs who guarded the Saragarhi post till their last breath.
Bollywood actor Ajay Devgan has already released the first look of the sequel of his ‘Sons of Sardaar’. Whereas, well known director Rajkumar Santoshi will be directing ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ with actor Randeep Hooda playing the lead role of Havaldar Ishar Singh.
While it seems the two movies based on the same historical event are competing against one another, there’s a famous precedence to this. Many years ago, Raj Kumar Santoshi and Ajay Devgn came together to makeThe Legend Of Bhagat Singh at the same time, Bobby Deol’s film on Bhagat Singh, Shaheed was released too.
Randeep Hooda will play the lead role in Rajkumar Santoshi directred 'Battle of Saragarhi'. Source: Battle Of Saragarhi
Ajay Devgan’s ‘Sons of Sardaar’-2 and ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ are based on the 1897 Battle of Saragarhi that saw just 21 soldiers of the 36th Battalion of the Sikh regiment of the British Army hold a marauding force of 10,000 Afghans in 1897.
The epic battle
The Battle of Saragarhi is known as one the greatest last-stands in military history and was a tremendous act of collective valour. On 12 September 1897, 21 Sikh soldiers of the 36th battalion of the Sikh regiment of the British Army, fought to their death against an army of over ten thousand marauding Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen in Khyber-Pakhtunwa area of modern day Pakistan.
Saragarhi was a communication post between two forts, Gulistan and Lockhart, built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, as there was no visual contact between both the forts. The tribes had started to revolt against the British rule over the area.
There had been several attacks on the forts preceding the great battle. However, the tribesmen decided to launch a full frontal attack on Saragarhi, that was manned by just 21Sikh soldiers, led by Havildar Isher Singh, with the design to cut off the communication between the two.
Fight to the last man
The burnt-out interior of Saragarhi where the bodies of 21 brave men of the 36th Sikhs were found on the 14th September after the seige on 12th. Source: sikhiwiki.org
On the fateful day, after the tribesmen had assembled for the attack, a message was sent from Saragarhi to Fort Gulistan about the impending attack by the mammoth army. The response from the fort was that no immediate help could be sent. But that didn’t dissuade the supremely brave Sikh soldiers from braving the force of myriad attackers. Havildar Isher Singh declined the offer of a safe passage and chose to engage the enemy, with the motive of delaying an attack on the forts.
The attack is though to have begun at 9 in the morning. Several attempts by the tribesmen to rush through the gate of Saragarhi were repelled. The attackers finally managed to breach a wall, but tThe Sikhs continued to fight the attackers for over six hours, until all but one of them fell.
tanding ovation in the British Parliament and battle honours
As information about this reached Britain, the parliament rose to give standing ovation to these brave soldiers. All of the martyred soldiers were decorated with the highest military honours, The Indian Order of Merit.
The modern Sikh Regiment continues to celebrate the day of the Battle of Saragarhi each 12 September as the Regimental Battle Honours Day. To commemorate the men the British built two Saragarhi Gurudwaras, one in Amritsar, very close to the main entrance of the Golden Temple, and another in Ferozepur Cantonment, which was the district that most of the men hailed from.
Casualty figure
Gurmukh Singh, who communicated the battle to fort Gulistan, was the last Sikh defender. He is said to have killed 20 Afghans before he died.
Having destroyed Saragarhi, the Afghans turned towards Fort Gulistan, but they had been held up at Saragarhi too long, and reinforcements arrived there in the night of 13–14 September. The Pashtuns later admitted that they had lost about 180 killed and many more wounded during the engagement against the 21 Sikh soldiers, but some 600 bodies were seen around the destroyed Saragarhi, most of those believed to be of the attackers.
