Buried in footnotes

Nonika Singh

The Battle of Saragarhi is one such battle of which very little is known... so proclaims the preface of the book. Indeed, had Anurag Singh’s film Kesari released prior to the book, many of us would have been oblivious to the valour of the 21 Sikhs from 36 Sikh regiment.

So what can a book do that a television series on the same subject and a film on 70 mm screen were not able to? Well, it can build a chapter-by-chapter backgrounder of the event where less than two dozen men took on the might of 10,000 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen on September12, 1897. It can give us geographical and historical details and answer ‘why, where and how’ before it begins to recount the brave sacrifices.

Kiran Nirvan’s book provides us informative nuggets such as the British policy towards Afghanistan, the Durand Line and the conflict emanating from it. It explains why the Afghan tribes bore animosity towards British India and elaborates upon the first Afghan War and the Tirah Campaign, of which Battle of Saragarhi was one. In short, the book fills the gaps.

Besides, it even offers a brief history of Sikhism, a part that is engagingly told. While those unfamiliar with the tenets of Sikhism are likely to understand what being a true Sikh means, those on familiar ground too would find the retelling of the sacrifices of Sikh Gurus engaging. Besides, our understanding of the location of different forts on this line and the significance of Saragarhi, essentially a signal relay post, in strategic defence in the North Western Frontier Province is sharpened further.

However, if fault was found with Anurag Singh’s film for not giving enough flesh and blood to all the 21 soldiers from the 36th Sikh Regiment, the same charge can be laid on this book too. We do get a character sketch of Havildar Ishar Singh who, we are informed, was impetuous, but most other descriptions (of soldiers) are, at best, just footnotes. What strikes one most is the fact that majority of soldiers who died in the line of duty were frightfully young.

If the film left the sceptics wondering about the consequences/ aftermath of the bloody Battle of Saragarhi, the author duo (yes Kiran and Nirvan are two different persons) takes us through more than one battle. The book completes the story of Tirah Campaign as it tells us what ensued after the Battle of Saragarhi and sowed the seed of inspiration among the Sikh soldiers.

Not exactly a page-turner, this tale of 21 Kesaris goes beyond the celluloid reality while offering a tribute to the martyred soldiers. While it is of keen interest to those who like to follow the action on the battlefield, this is not a racy read. However, it requires poring over to fully understand the battle lines from those times.