The 22nd Saragarhi man

NO one, but no one in the audience packed to the rafters expected to hear about the 22nd man; that too from the Captain. He was holding stage and his startling opening tribute to the world-famous ‘Last Stand’ at Saragarhi by 21 Sikh soldiers of 36th Sikh Regiment (now 4 Sikh) was the acknowledgement that, on that day of deathless heroism on September 12, 1897, on the windswept, barren Samana Ridge, an offshoot of the Safed Koh (Hindu Kush) Range in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, one man tragically not part of historical recall — a man who was not even a soldier; just an enrolled Non-Combatant, also died fighting last-man-last-round. He thus died in the same way that the stormy petrel Havaldar Ishar Singh-led signalling detachment died. 

Advertisement

The Sikhs — by the long established Sikh military tradition — fought fearlessly, firing from their Martini-Henry single shot breech loading rifles, staving off fierce attack after attack. When their ammunition finished — each soldier had 400 rounds — they fought in close quarter combat with the tribesmen who had finally managed to inveigle their way inside after over six hours of no-quarter-asked-or-given combat, with just their 21-inch bayonets and guts, till overcome by sheer numbers and the cruel twists of the long-curved knives of the marauding, frustrated Orakzai, Afridi and Chamkani tribesmen. He was Daad; the braveheart Muslim cook from Naushera who followed the 21 Sikhs he lovingly fed, to heroic death at Saragarhi Fort, defending Naam, Namak, Nishan — honour, integrity, flag. 

Capt Amarinder Singh in his book Saragarhi and the Defence of the Samana Forts explains that the Saragarhi last stand is universally recalled in the same class of last stands as Thermopylae, 480 BCE, the Spartan-led Greek last stand against the Persians and Rezang La, the memorable last stand of Charlie Company 13 Kumaon on November 18, 1962, at the alpine heights of the Pangong Ranges overlooking Pangong Tso in Ladakh where 109 jawans, led by Maj Shaitan Singh, preferred death to dishonour. He brings out that but for mention of his name at the Fort Lockhart obelisk where brave Col John Haughton, CO, 36th Sikhs, was located, unable to rescue his Saragarhi detachment under focused attack was literally a witness to their heroic sacrifice, no other official mention exists. 

This was a grave injustice; a historical aberration that he has now corrected. The man who had volunteered to join the Army but was rejected for flat feet, joined anyway as a Non-Combatant Enrolled (NCE) — so much was his love for serving in the military. Since there were no survivors, his bravery came to light only after the Tirah Campaign ended and a peace treaty was signed with the Afridis. This is when it emerged that Daad had probably shot and/or bayoneted five tribesmen, falling as the battle itself wound down…

Bravery has many odes that highlight it but few, if any, that recall the bravery of non-soldiers who died fighting for Naam, Namak, Nishan…Wah Daad! We salute you and your sacrifice.