The National Identity IX: India’s Alamo

The story of India’s greatest last stand

Last stands are vital to the psyche of an army, even a nation. They evoke a sense of pride that not many other military accomplishments can match, and this has been true for time immemorial. Sparta’s 300 and the warriors at the Alamo – separated by millennia but united by the spirit of men ready to die with their hands on their weapon — and unconquered. India’s most heroic last stand has received very little attention in our press and popular culture (soon to be rectified). We don’t see it glorified and we don’t see it celebrated, possibly because of a national aversion to accepting our colonial heritage or perhaps because it came in the faraway lands of the North West Frontier Province. The men who were martyred, were however, all from Ferozepur.

On April 20 1894, the 36th battalion of the Sikh Regiment was created under the command of Colonel J Cook. In August 1897 five companies of the 36th Sikh, under Lt. Col. John Haughton, were sent to the North West Frontier Province (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), stationed at Samana Hills, Kurag, Sangar, Sahtop Dhar and Saragarhi.

Saragarhi lay mid-way between two Maharaja Ranjit Singh era forts — Fort Gulistan and Fort Lockhart. Saragarhi assumed great importance by virtue of the fact that it acted as a signalling post…