A controversy has erupted over plans to build a memorial to the 282 martyrs of the 1857 First War of Independence, whose remains were dug out recently from a well in a Sikh shrine at Ajnala, a border town in Amritsar district. There is opposition from various quarters to the construction of a Gurdwara.
While Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has said a memorial will be erected, some political, religious and social organisations have demanded that a Gurdwara be built.
On the other hand, the former Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, has demanded a war memorial or museum, and a military funeral to the remains of the martyrs.
However, some radical organisations have opposed the construction of any memorial.
Referring to his research, which he documented in his book The Last Sunset: The Rise & Fall of the Lahore Durbar, Capt. Amarinder Singh argues that constructing a Gurdwara would be inappropriate since none of those martyred by the British was a Sikh or Punjabi. While three formations of Indian soldiers were disarmed, those from the 26th Native Infantry Regiment revolted and left the barracks after killing two British officers at the Mian Mir cantonment near Lahore, he says.
Capt. Singh’s book, which deals with the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the annexation of the Sikh empire after the Anglo-Sikh wars, says the 26th Native Infantry Regiment, raised in Awadh, was composed mainly of Brahmins, a fact which finds a mention in accounts preserved in the National Archives. It was part of the 5th Infantry Brigade of the British Army, led by Thomas Ashburnham, at the Battle of Sobraon, in which the legendary Sikh general Sham Singh Attari laid down his life on February 10, 1846, during the first Anglo-Sikh war.
However, the book and other accounts are silent on the possibility that the same soldiers of the 26th Native Infantry Regiment who took part in the Anglo-Sikh wars in 1846 revolted in 1857. Accounts say that of the 500 who revolted at Mian Mir, 218 were killed at Dadiyan and 282 were apprehended and brought to Ajnala, where — on the orders of the then Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, F.H. Cooper — they were executed by a firing squad and the bodies dumped in the well from where the remains were exhumed earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the radical Sikh outfit, Dal Khalsa, has opposed the construction of any memorial as the remains belonged to those who had served the British till 1857 against the interests of the Punjabis and the Sikhs.
Its office secretary, Sarabjit Singh Ghuman, has said the Punjab government should not spend from the exchequer to build a memorial to those who sided with the British to bring down the empire built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose rule Mr. Badal has sworn to emulate.
On the other hand, the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Committee has criticised attempts to deny the 1857 fighters martyrdom on the basis of religious affinity.
