From Palestine hamlet Jat, tales of Haryanvi valour

Vishal Joshi

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Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, March 3

Haryana is believed to have an interesting and lesser-known connection with a small place in Israel. According to Col Yogander Singh (retd), a military historian, the area of Yanuh and Jat villages is named after soldiers from the 125th Napier’s Rifles, an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment had fought in Palestine, presently divided between Israel, Jordan and Gaza.

“In September 1918, the British government launched an offensive under the command of Gen Edmund Allenby. He led the Expeditionary Force Egypt, about 80 per cent of whom were Indians with Haryanvis being the largest in terms of numbers. The area of Yanuh and Jat villages had very heavy fighting between Indian and Turkish soldiers and the area was given the name after brave Jat soldiers,” he said.

Colonel Singh said the 125th Napier’s Rifles, later clubbed into the Rajputana Rifles, composed mainly Haryanvis, who gave an impressive account and broke through the defence of Turkish forces. He is part of an ambitious project initiated by the Kurukshetra-based Haryana Academy of History and Culture (HAHC) of compiling Haryana’s heritage in the national defence sector.

He said the role of Haryanvi soldiers during the British period in Israel, Afghanistan and other places abroad, besides in India, had been ignored. He said thousands of Haryanvi youths had fought in the two world wars for their British rulers, but their contribution had largely been missing from public records. “We are gathering information about Haryanvi martyrs since 1800. According to an estimate, about 1.8 lakh residents of Haryana had made the supreme sacrifice in about two centuries. We are collecting information from Army archives to trace the roots of Haryanvi martyrs,” said Colonel Singh. Hailing from Jhajjar district, he had served in the Dogra Regiment.

According to Prof Raghuvendra Tanwar, HAHC director and historian, historical accounts said kings had a preference for frontline fighters from the northern region, including present-day Haryana, during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. He said historical details were either presented as part of undivided Punjab or Delhi.

“The HAHC is taking a maiden initiative to compile details of Haryanvi martyrs. We are working on a comprehensive account of soldiers who were accorded gallantry awards and a chronological order of their role in various battles and wars,” he said.