Historic Attari town fast losing its glory

The historic town of Attari near the Indo-Pak border has a special place in Punjab history as it is associated with legendary Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his great Sikh general and martyr Sham Singh Attariwala. However, it is fast losing its glory, with its heritage fading with time.

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Located just a couple of kilometres from the border and despite having the Attari-Wagah joint check-post and integrated check-post in its land, residents here feel cheated due to the “indifferent treatment meted to the village by the autorities for years”.

“Ideally, it should have been one of the model villages in the state as hundreds and thousands of visitors from India and abroad visit the Attari-Wagah joint check-post for witnessing the Beating the Retreat (flag lowering) ceremony daily,” said Shamsher Singh, a member of the panchayat. Nevertheless, the thought of its overall development and preserving the heritage hardly catches the fancy of the government representatives.

A few metres after entering the town, one sees the samadhs constructed in the memory of Sikh martyr Sham Singh Attariwala, his father Nihal Singh and other family members. Sham Singh Attariwala, a Sikh general in the army, was famous for his bravery during Anglo-Sikh Battle at Sabraon.

As per the history written on the plaque in the premises of his Samadh, he joined Maharaja’s forces at a very young age and participated in Sikh military campaigns of Peshawar, Attock, Multan and Kashmir. Later, he led several expeditions to subdue the rulers of Jammu. His daughter Bibi Nanki was married to Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s grandson Kanwar Naunihal Singh which took place in Attari on March 7, 1837. Among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony included Sir Henry Fane, Commander-in-chief of the British forces in India.

Following the demise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, he was nominated to the council of regency by Maharani Jind Kaur. After the outbreak of Anglo-Sikh wars, he was summoned from retirement by the Maharani to lead the Sikh forces to stop the advancing British troops towards Lahore. Despite being outnumbered at Sabroan on February 10, 1846, he led a valiant charge and attained martyrdom. He was later cremated at this place where a samadh was raised in his memory.

The samadh of Nihal Singh, father of Sham Singh Attariwala, was once decorated with intricate murals, but over time, these were lost to neglect and decay.

As the history goes, the village was founded by two Sidhu Jat brothers Gaur and Kaur who had migrated from the Malwa region in 1740. Gaur Singh built a three-storeyed house (Attari) in a high mound (theh) and later the village developed around this Attari. Influenced by the bravery of Sikh warriors fighting against Mugals, they were converted into Sikhs and joined Baba Gurbaksh Singh, another famous Sikh warrior at that time.

A fort built on this mound has been decaying with the passage of times. It suffered many changes as many of its portions were renovated with modern construction techniques.

US-based Harpreet Singh Attari, one of the descendents of Sham Singh Attari, rued that consecutive governments had failed to even notify the state-level programme on the occasion of the martyrdom day of the Sikh warrior.

“No government is concerned about the great history of Punjab. We had requested a number of times to the government to declare state-level programme on February 10 to mark the martyrdom day of Sham Singh Attariwala by notifying it in the government gazette, but it never happened,” he said, adding that they held the “state-level programme” on their own in this regard.

Attari is the only land route that connects India with Central Asian countries. It remained a major trade route with Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries before the bilateral relationship with Pakistan was suspended six years ago. He said several years ago, the Central Government had envisaged a plan for the development of the town but it never materialised for reasons best known to the authorities.