Fol­low­ing the foot­steps of his re­search in Eu­rope, arch-re­searcher Hol­land-based Bhupin­der Singh reaches the hin­ter­lands of Pun­jab to find traces of mar­tyrs who laid down lives in World War I and World War II.

The British have a tra­di­tion of ac­knowl­edg­ing those who fought un­der the tute­lage of the Im­pe­r­ial forces, what­ever the rea­sons be­ing for the sol­diers to join the army. A jour­ney through the his­toric vil­lage Sul­tan­wind, on the out­skirts of holy city Am­rit­sar added a new di­men­sion to my search and cat­a­logu­ing of the Sikh mar­tyrs of World War I.

From this his­tor­i­cal vil­lage, as many as 135 Sikhs fought WW 1 in Pales­tine, Is­rael and Basra in Iraq. 7 at­tained mar­tyr­dom. To mark this, a plaque was in­stalled in the Po­lice Sta­tion (old) by the British af­ter the end of World War 1. This his­tor­i­cal plaque of WW 1 and the proud her­itage of this vil­lage should be pre­served at all costs and as soon as pos­si­ble. The build­ing is in a very bad shape and is in a crit­i­cal con­di­tion. The fam­ily mem­bers of these Mar­tyrs should be lo­cated. The plaque should be pre­served in the Gur­d­wara Sahib or at the main gate of the Vil­lage along the Canal.

It is my hope that the proud peo­ple of this vil­lage will take a strong ini­tia­tive soon to pre­serve this great his­tory of WW 1 and of their his­tor­i­cal vil­lage.

A Plaque out­side the old po­lice sta­tion of Sul­tan­wind vil­lage in Am­rit­sar is a re­minder of the Sikhs who left home and hearth to join the im­pe­r­ial forces.

One of the sym­bols on the plaque marks the of­fi­cial sym­bol of Is­rael (the Jews). The reg­i­ment 19th Pun­jabis were raised from this vil­lage and they fought in Is­rael in World War 1. Haz­ara Singh got mar­tyr­dom in Is­rael and his grave is in Ram­leh War Ceme­tery near Tel Aviv.

Some youth from this vil­lage were re­cruited to 45th Rat­tray’s Sikhs, 11th King Ed­ward’s Own Lancers. 55th Coke’s Ri­fles etc. the dis­tin­guished Jawans of the British Reg­i­ments.

The names of Ja­gat Singh & Santa Singh of this vil­lage are recorded on Delhi Memo­r­ial and they were cre­mated to the west of the River In­dus where main­te­nance was not pos­si­ble.

Sig­nif­i­cantly 4 Sikhs from this vil­lage at­tained mar­tyr­dom in the op­er­a­tions Mesopotamia (Basra) from the Au­tumn of 1914 to the end of Au­gust 1921 and whose graves are not known but are recorded in the Basra Memo­r­ial.

Thakur Singh of this vil­lage was mar­tyred in Basra on the 8July 1943 (WW2) and his name is en­graved in Basra Cre­ma­tion Memo­r­ial.

I hope that the un­cov­er­ing of this in­for­ma­tion may lead re­searchers to look for other such rem­nants in the vil­lages of Pun­jab.

The Basra Memo­r­ial, Iraq has the fol­low­ing names of mar­tyrs:

BANTA SINGH, Se­poy, 1176. 19th Pun­jabis, attd., 24th Pun­jabis. 22 No­vem­ber 1915. Son of Ram Singh, of Sul­tan Wind, Am­rit­sar, Pun­jab. Grave Ref­er­ence: Panel 53 and 67. Sikhs in World War I, Page 886

PAL SINGH, Se­poy, 1157. 45th Rat­tray’s Sikhs. 1 Feb­ru­ary 1917. Son of Hakim Singh, of Sul­tan Wind, Am­rit­sar, Pun­jab. Grave Ref­er­ence: Panel 56. Sikhs in World War I, Page 1337

PAL SINGH, Ri­fle­man, 1159. Burma Mil­i­tary Po­lice, attd., 15th Lud­hi­ana Sikhs. 1 Feb­ru­ary 1917. Son of Hakim Singh, of Sul­tan­wind, Am­rit­sar, Pun­jab. Grave Ref­er­ence: Panel 59 and 68. Sikhs in World War I, Page 1336

SAR­MUKH SINGH, Daf­fadar, 2835. 11th King Ed­ward’s Own Lancers (Probyn’s Horse). 11 Feb­ru­ary 1918. Son of Narayan Singh, of Sul­tan­wind, Tarn Taran, Am­rit­sar, Pun­jab. Grave Ref­er­ence: Panel 45 and 65. Sikhs in World War I, Page 1444.

The Delhi In­dia Gate Memo­r­ial 1914-1918, In­dia has the names of the fol­low­ing mar­tyrs:

JA­GAT SINGH, Hav­il­dar, 1871. 1st Bn., 55th Coke’s Ri­fles (Fron­tier Force). 26 De­cem­ber 1919. Son of Jawand Singh, of Sul­tan­wind, Am­rit­sar, Pun­jab. Grave Ref­er­ence: Face 2. Sikhs in World War I, Page 426.

SANTA SINGH, Se­poy, 3738. 2nd Bn., 19th Pun­jabis. 31 May 1920. Son of Bha­gat Singh, of Sul­tan­wind, Am­rist­sar, Pun­jab. Grave Ref­er­ence: Face 2. Sikhs in World War I, Page 525.

The Ram­leh War Ceme­tery, Is­rael and Pales­tine (In­clud­ing Gaza) has the fol­low­ing names:

World War I

HAZ­ARA SINGH, Se­poy, 1786. 19th Pun­jabis. 24 No­vem­ber 1918. Son of Ash­naki Singh, of Sul­tan Wind, Am­rit­sar, Pun­jab. Sikhs in World War I, Page 1581

World War II

THAKUR SINGH, Sap­per, 8494. 2 Elec­tri­cal and Me­chan­i­cal Coy., In­dian En­gi­neers. 8 July 1943. Age 40. Son of Tehl Singh and Harro, of Sul­tan­wind, Am­rit­sar, In­dia. Grave Ref­er­ence: Col­umn 8. Sikhs in World War 2, Page 1385. Basra Cre­ma­tion Memo­r­ial.

My re­search re­veals that there are many more such plaques in other parts of Pun­jab. Two pic­tures from Sathiala and Pad­hi­ana near to Daroli Kalan are tes­ti­mony to this and there is no doubt that there are many more. Her­itage seek­ers, though few amongst the com­mu­nity should be on the look-out for these and save these vin­tage relics of in­valu­able Sikh his­tory.