Battle of #Saragarhi and Battle of #BhimaKoregaon both had Indian soldiers fighting for the British. While the Battle of Saragarhi has become a symbol of valour and courage, the Battle of Koregaon has still not got its due in history. Read the thread🧵 
There are two battles that are separated in time by almost 80 years and in space by 1,700 km —the Battle of Saragarhi(1897) and the Battle of Koregaon Bhima (1818). Only one of them got a Bollywood film, Kesari, featuring @akshaykumar
In both cases, persons of Indian origin were fighting for the British. The ‘idea of India’ was yet to be formed, so we can’t and should not brand anyone a traitor for being a part of the British army.
The Battle of Koregaon Bhima took place on 1 January 1818 at Koregaon, a small village near Pune in Maharashtra, between the British East India Company and the army of Peshwa. Peshwas had dislodged the Maratha king from the seat of actual power and were controlling the empire.
The Company contingent consisted of many Dalits, who were considered untouchables by the Peshwas. Although outnumbered by the Peshwa army, the Company battalion still won. The battle heralded the end of the Peshwa empire in India.
The Battle of Saragarhi took place on 12 September 1897 at the Saragarhi Fort in the hills of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in present-day Pakistan. Saragarhi was a small communication post of the British army, manned by 21 soldiers of 36 Sikh regiment.
The fort was attacked by a large number of Pashtun rebels because they wanted the British to leave. The battle started in the morning and continued till the evening, and all the British soldiers were killed.
Inscription on the memorial obelisk at Koregaon describes the battle as “the proudest triumphs of the British army in the East”. And all the 21 Sikh soldiers, who fought to death in Saragarhi, were awarded the Indian Order of Merit (IOM).
Neither the Peshwas nor the Pashtuns can be called freedom fighters as they were fighting their own regional battles and sided with the British when it was convenient.
The Peshwas and the Nizams sided with British many times including in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore war, which ended the sultanate of Tipu Sultan. With him dying in this battle, the hope of ousting the British from Indian subcontinent ended.
The Battle of Saragarhi is celebrated by the state and mainstream press, whereas Bhima Koregaon is celebrated only by the Dalits — and the irony is that they are persecuted for doing so. So, why this difference in treatment? I have two hypotheses to decode this dichotomy
One, Saragarhi was a battle between Sikh soldiers of the British army and the Pashtuns. So, it suits mainstream popular narrative. The most extreme form of this narrative is, in Orwellian language, anything Islamic is bad and anyone fighting against the Muslim is a hero!
Second, in Koregaon, the battle of the British was against the Brahmin Peshwas, who had dislodged the Maratha king from the seat of actual power. Fighting against them were the Mahars, who were facing the worst kind of human rights violation and oppression during the Peshwa rule.
For them, it was a battle to reclaim their dignity and rights. That is the reason B.R. Ambedkar visited the place on 1 January 1927. The narrative of Dalits rising against Brahminical forces is seen as problematic by not only Hindu nationalists but also Left-liberal democrats.
History isn’t just about what happened — it’s about how we interpret it, write it and choose to remember it.
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