Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja takes his trav­el­ling to a new height when he reaches Gal­lipoli in Çanakkale province of Turkey to pay homage to the Sikh sol­diers killed dur­ing World War I, as part of the four-year-long world­wide com­mem­o­ra­tion of their mar­tyr­dom. He urges Sikhs in Eu­rope to do more and set up a be­fit­ting memo­r­ial to the Sikh sol­diers in Gal­lipoli, as has been done by the Aus­tralian and New Zealand coun­ter­parts.

Acen­tury ago in April 1915, hun­dreds of Sikh sol­diers reached Gal­lipoli as part of the British forces to take part in the World War I. They reached there with­out know­ing the place and with very lit­tle knowl­edge of what they were in for. A lit­tle more than a cen­tury later, two days later, des­tiny took Sikh trav­eller and so­cial ac­tivist Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja to Gal­lipoli, to pay homage to those who fell there un­der the most try­ing con­di­tions.

Un­furl­ing the Sikh flag -the Nis­han Sahib, near the plaque which com­mem­o­rates the 300 Sikh sol­diers (out of the to­tal of 600 In­dian sol­diers) killed in Gal­lipoli, speak­ing on the phone line from there, Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja told WSN, “I feel that it is not me who is do­ing this. It is God and Gu­ru’s de­ci­sion and choice that I go to these places where Sikh sol­diers have laid down their lives.”

Re­count­ing the mo­ments spent at the memo­r­ial,“Hold­ing the Nis­han Sahib tightly in my hand to ward of the wind im­pact, with two city of­fi­cials from the Çanakkale re­gion, I was think­ing,  “Jhoolte Nis­han Rahe Panth Ma­haraj ke.” -May the flag of the Guru un­furl far and wide. Hold­ing the flag, I was think­ing that the Sikh sol­diers in heav­ens would be feel­ing a great sense of sat­is­fac­tion that the com­mu­nity still re­mem­bers them.”  

2018 marks the cul­mi­na­tion of the four-year-long world­wide com­mem­o­ra­tion of the deeds of the sol­diers of World War I, who trav­elled dis­tances be­yond their home­lands, to fight a bat­tle which was not theirs and died fight­ing.  Their re­mark­able story is be­ing told by archivists and schol­ars. It is a story which has been kept alive by the Com­mon­wealth Graves Com­mis­sion, un­earthing the trail and mark­ing the graves of those killed across the erst­while Com­mon­wealth.

 Also Read : Time to ac­knowl­edge Guru Nanak the trav­eller

Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja said, “Dur­ing this year and the year be­fore, des­tiny has taken me to the War Memo­r­ial in Forli, Italy, to the graves in Sin­ga­pore and the War Memo­r­ial in Bel­gium. I have had the priv­i­lege of of­fer­ing paint­ings and books re­lat­ing to the sac­ri­fices of Sikh sol­diers to diplo­mats of Eu­ro­pean coun­tries in New Delhi and to key of­fi­cials at the memo­ri­als. I feel very proud of the Sikh sol­diers and salute them.”

“I feel that it is not me who is do­ing this. It is God and Gu­ru’s de­ci­sion and choice that I go to these places where Sikh sol­diers have laid down their lives.”

Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja

In­vited by the De­vel­op­ment Agency of South Mar­mara Re­gion to pro­mote the Çanakkale re­gion of Turkey, known as the Home of Troy, of which Gal­lipoli is a part, Har­jin­der Singh rep­re­sented In­dia as an in­flu­encer in the 8-mem­ber team of 8 coun­tries. Un­doubt­edly, he has made the Sikh com­mu­nity proud through the aware­ness about the re­mark­able con­tri­bu­tion of In­dian sol­diers for free­dom on the planet, that he has gen­er­ated as a uni­ver­sally-ac­knowl­edged in­flu­encer.

A British and Eu­ro­pean Sikh del­e­ga­tion vis­ited Gal­lipoli in 2015. Since then, per­haps Har­jin­der Singh is the one who again re­called the re­mark­able mar­tial char­ac­ter and mar­tyr tra­di­tion of the Sikhs through his visit.

Prof. Pe­ter Stan­ley from the UK, who has ex­ten­sively doc­u­mented the role and con­tri­bu­tion of Sikh sol­diers through re­search in Eu­rope, Britain, New Zealand, Aus­tralia and In­dia has ap­prised us that the Helles Memo­r­ial in Gal­lipoli, has the names of all the 300 Sikh sol­diers who were cre­mated there (see video). He has also shared how the Sikh sol­diers used to in­ter­act with the Aus­tralian and New Zealand sol­diers and share Pun­jabi food with them.

“Sikhs should also gear up and fo­cus on the WWII com­mem­o­ra­tion and what more needs to be done to com­mem­o­rate their role and con­tri­bu­tion. Sikhs in Greece, other parts of Eu­rope and United King­dom need to play a big­ger role.” Sikh his­to­ri­ans and chron­i­clers also need to con­nect the dots and trace the fam­i­lies of the thou­sands of Sikh mar­tyrs of the World Wars in the Pun­jab and In­dia.”

Ac­knowl­edg­ing all this, Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja says, “Sikhs should also gear up and fo­cus on the WWII com­mem­o­ra­tion and what more needs to be done to com­mem­o­rate their role and con­tri­bu­tion. Sikhs in Greece, other parts of Eu­rope and United King­dom need to play a big­ger role.” Sikh his­to­ri­ans and chron­i­clers also need to con­nect the dots and trace the fam­i­lies of the thou­sands of Sikh mar­tyrs of the World Wars in the Pun­jab and In­dia.

The story of Gal­lipoli can­not be com­plete with­out the re­mark­able words of the founder of mod­ern Turkey Mustafa Ke­mal Atatürk. The al­lied forces of which Sikhs were a part fought the Turks, yet Mustafa Ke­mal Atatürk’s quote on the plaque at the Helles memo­r­ial is a trib­ute to his huge heart. The plaque at Ari Burnu Memo­r­ial vis­ited by Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja reads, “Those he­roes that shed their blood in the ter­ri­tory of this coun­try, you are in the soil of a friendly coun­try here. There­fore, rest in peace. You are ly­ing to­gether with the Mehmets side. You, the moth­ers, who sent their sons from far­away coun­tries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now ly­ing in the bo­som of ours. They are now in peace and will rest in peace here for­ever. Af­ter los­ing their lives on this land, they have be­come our sons as well.”

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At his hum­ble best, Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja said, “I could not have ever imag­ined that I would visit places where Sikhs have fought in the World Wars. At Gal­lipoli, I reaf­firmed that this is our his­tory and we should be proud of it. I am pleased that Guru Sahib has af­forded me an op­por­tu­nity to visit these places.  All this is God’s will and I am the in­stru­ment cho­sen by the Almighty.”