True lies!
Not a single bit of truth in this superficial account(ow.ly/Hty950BojfC) of the battle of #Saragarhi. 123 years and the British & Indian Army doesn't have the courage to honor those Sikhs, who died for colonialism, with truth!
Thread —
#SaragarhiDay
There were 500~ soldiers on the neighboring forts of Gulistan & Lockhort few 3-4 KM away from the post of Saragarhi. Gen Yeats-Biggs had much larger force just down the mountain.
None moved to help those 21 Sikhs, they didn't offer the "sacrifice" but were sacrificed.
Col. Haughton, commandment of the 36th Sikhs, called the outpost of #Saragarhi a "certain rotten post". He regretted its faulty construction and wrote that
“the men who put up the wooden doors ought to be left to defend them.”
More evidence that those Sikhs were "sacrificed"!
The army knew very well of the inevitable attack on the post of Saragarhi but didn't act to prevent the attack, to reinforce and fortify the post, or to move those Sikhs to safety that day.
They just watched the "sacrifice" of those 21 Sikhs from a safe distance!
British Army knows very well and all their military records mention that these Pashtuns were native Orakzais and Afridis, sons of the soil. They were fighting for their land and independence against the colonial British empire and British-Indian army.
You were the "Marauders"!
The Digest of Service of 36th Sikhs puts the number of Pashtuns between 1000 & 1500, and that given the location of the post with a cliff on one side, only 80-100 could attack the post at a time.
Easy to hide incompetence & cowardice behind cooked up stories of exaggerations!
That small party of 21 Sikhs "decided to fight and die..." but their comrades with more strength, ammunition and in strong forts didn't.
How can you not see this blatant irony!
Those Sikhs knew very well that death awaited them after their plea for help was turned down. Surrender was not an option not because they didn't want to but because they knew the rules and games of that brutal war that the British-Indian army themselves set.
Remember Winston Churchill saying “After today we begin to burn villages. Every one. And all who resist will be killed without quarter.” ?
He said it while oppressing the Pashtuns of Malakand with the help of the brutal machinery of colonial army and Indian Maharajas.
None of those Sikhs escaped to tell the account of the battle. All the accounts that the British have are actually the ones told by those "friendly" Pashtuns to the British. Even by their account, the total loss of Pashtuns were 600 men. How could you come up with 1400?
"The last Sikh soldier was said to have killed over 40 tribesmen"!?
Col.Haughton watching from Lockhort fort at a distance couldn't tell if the door of the post was set fire to or crushed but somebody could count the No. of Pashtuns killed by the bullets of the last Sikh!
Lies!
Britian should face up to its colonial past, and apologize for oppressing Pashtuns, Afghans and others, and offer reparations to all of them. There is nothing worthy of pride and celebration in the colonial past of the British army.
Bollywood released a movie "Kesari" last year to commemorate the battle of #Saragarhi. I did a thread to tell the fiction from the truth.
You can read it here.
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