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A Pilgrimage To Chillianwala

by JOGISHWAR SINGH

 

 

 

During my visit to Pakistan in March 2007,  I had not managed to visit Chillianwala, the site of a famous battle during the Second Anglo-Sikh War.

Sikh forces had given a heroic account of themselves at Chillianwala, inflicting heavy casualties on the British and their Indian cohorts. Contemporary accounts, even from British chroniclers, mention the valour displayed there by Sikh troops. Sikh gunners stayed with their guns to the last man and did not flee. They died fighting next to their artillery pieces.

What a refreshing change from what we see in contemporary Sikh society today.

I live in Switzerland where we Sikhs are a microscopic minority. This confers the role of community ambassadors on each one of us. We face increasing harassment at airports in Europe, rising xenophobia and racism in a Europe still reluctant to accept its decline in world affairs.

Being nevertheless a loyal Swiss citizen, I feel the occasional need to recharge my spiritual batteries by visiting places associated with the physical presence of my role models from Sikh history.

In 2007, I had visited Naushera where Akali Phoola Singh had fallen in battle. I had also visited Jamrud where General Hari Singh Nalwa had attained martyrdom. I had felt an intense spiritual regeneration at both these places, thinking of both these heroes and doing ardaas for our Panth.

Time constraints had prevented me from visiting Chillianwala during this visit. I was feeling an increasing need to renew my lien with my past as a Sikh by visiting it.

Waheguru Almighty has blessed me and fulfilled my wish: I was able to visit Chillianwala on 30 September, 2011.

Such visits provide me with a much needed break from what I see in modern day Sikh society: leaders motivated more by considerations of personal aggrandisement than service to the Sikh Panth; youngsters in Punjab with their brains addled by drugs and alcohol; people flocking to deras and charlatans masquerading as gurus, ignoring the sublime message of the Guru Granth Sahib; people seeking instant salvation through gimmicks and short-cuts rather than unrelenting dedication to gurbani’s message; Sikh society riddled by casteism, arrogance, crass materialism and female infanticide.

Yet, my faith in Sikhism and the Gurus’ teachings remains unshakeable.

However, it does occasionally require me to be physically present at sites associated with the lives of our Gurus and deeds of our heroes. I go to such places to bathe in the past presence of my role models.

I accompanied a close personal friend, a renowned Swiss barrister who is a former member of the Swiss Parliament, to India on 26 September, 2011. We landed in New Delhi from where we proceeded to Amritsar. My friend was fascinated by the organisation of the langar at the Darbar Sahib.

I did ishnaan there and felt sublime peace at Guru Ram Das’s abode.

My Swiss friend was quite keen to visit Lahore. He had already been several times to India but wanted to have a feel of genuine Punjabi culture. We had been discussing this over the preceding two years.

I told him that true Punjabi culture was now to be found only in the Pakistani Punjab from what I had observed there in 2007. The Indian Punjab had become Bollywood Punjab where even Sikhs were unable to speak proper Punjabi. This is why we decided that he would visit Lahore to get a taste of genuine Punjabiat and its hospitality while I would proceed to Chillianwala to fulfil my long standing desire.

However, my Swiss friend was advised by several people to avoid visiting Pakistan because of the prevailing anti-American sentiment there - the danger being that he might mistakenly be taken for an American.

With a heavy heart, we decided to abandon this plan. But my desire to visit Chillianwala was so strong that I decided to proceed there nevertheless. I crossed from India to Pakistan via the land border at Wagah on September 30, 2011 in the morning. The walk across from one gate to the other was a strong emotional experience.

Used to crossing frontiers in Europe, especially in the Schengen zone between Switzerland and its neighbouring countries (France, Germany, Italy, Austria), without any hassles, I experienced a completely different border crossing from India to Pakistan. However, privileged personal contacts on both sides of the border meant that I was able to cross over to Pakistan and return the following day to India without any administrative or other problems whatsoever. Officials on both sides were extremely helpful, kind and courteous.

I sincerely hope that the border between India and Pakistan will become like the borders of Switzerland with its neighbours where people will be able to cross freely and develop mutual relations in peace and harmony.

I was received on the Pakistani side by a retired former Secretary to the Pakistan government. Displaying unmatched hospitality, he came all the way to the border at Wagah in person instead of just sending his car and driver. We drove straight from Wagah to Gujranwala, the birth place of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and on to Gujrat, site of another famous battle during the Second Anglo-Sikh War, known as the “Battle of the Cannons”.

There is no change of landscape from one side of the Punjab to the other. Lush fields crisscrossed by irrigation channels are visible till the far horizon.

Gujranwala's main bazaar was quite crowded. All these names were quite familiar to me from my childhood when I used to listen to conversations between my parents, other relatives and friends, mostly refugees from Pakistan in 1947. In fact, I am the only member of my family born in present day India since I was born in 1951.

My elder brother who retired as Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka after a life long career in the IAS, was born in 1944 in Nankana Sahib. So crossing each city with names familiar to me from my childhood made me remember my deceased parents and my childhood memories assailed me even as I was being driven through cities and villages in Pakistan.

My Pakistani host was a man of vast administrative experience, having served at the highest levels of the Pakistani government. He was born in Jalandhar. So, by the usual irony of sub-continental history, I, the heir to a family from what is now Pakistan was being hosted by him, hailing from what is now India. He told me that he had visited Jalandhar as well as several other places in India.

After a drive lasting around two and a half hours, we reached Gujrat, a major city in Punjab. My host had spoken to one of his friends there. This person is a practising lawyer and a notable there.

We were driven to his palatial house where I was introduced to a large number of local notables. True Punjabi hospitality was on display. There were at least ten dishes on the table for a quick meal. The lawyer has a nephew active in politics in Zürich in Switzerland. He greeted me extremely warmly. He confirmed that he had arranged our visit to Chillianwala, about 40 km from Gujrat, with a local landlord whose ancestor had fought on the side of the Sikh forces against the British.

We left Gujrat for Chillianwala in a convoy of vehicles, with the lawyer’s young son driving us in his Toyota Landcruiser. We met up with our local landlord/ guide on the way in a place called Dinga, which is mentioned in accounts of the Battle of Chillianwala.

We arrived at Chillianwala around 15.30 pm. I had a feeling of intense gratitude to Waheguru for fulfilling my wish to visit this place. There is a memorial pillar in red stone, surrounded by a boundary wall. There are several graves within the walled compound. The memorial is quite well maintained. There is no mention of who maintains the compound. Cattle were grazing peacefully some distance from the walls.

Apart from the red stone pillar, there is another pillar topped by a Celtic cross just outside the walled compound. There are two stone inscriptions around this pillar. One mentions the names of the British officers and men who fell in battle here. This list contains the names of two Brigadiers General. There is no list of any names of Sikh officers or soldiers who felkl in battle here.

However, the red stone pillar inside the compound has inscriptions in English, Gurmukhi, Farsi and Urdu, mentioning that a major battle was fought here on 12 January, 1849 in which brave soldiers of both sides were killed. The graves in the compound do not have names or details marked on them.

I requested my companions to let me have a few moments by myself, so they left me alone. I did ardaas for those who lost their lives on this battlefield. I prayed to Waheguru Almighty to give our Sikh Panth similar bravery and spirit as had motivated our ancestors in those heroic times. I expressed my gratitude for all the blessings bestowed by Him on us.

An old man saw our party in the compound and walked up to us. He mentioned that all the graves were those of British officers except one triangular in shape which was supposed to be that of Sikh general, Sher Singh. This cannot be true since I have not found confirmation of General Sher Singh having lost his life at Chillianwala in either Khushwant Singh’s “History of the Sikhs” or Captain Amrinder Singh’s “The Last Sunset: The Rise and Fall of the Lahore Durbar”, which I consulted on this point.

Be that as it may, this one particular gravestone is triangular in shape.

I tried to absorb the entire surroundings. This is how I recharge my spiritual batteries by closing my eyes and imagining how our ancestors performed heroic feats at such places. I imagined the sound of horses galloping across the small hillocks and thorny bushes that adorn the surroundings of the battlefield. I imagined the sound of artillery pieces firing round after round. I felt proud to be a Sikh, inheritor of such a long tradition of bravery and heroism.

Chillianwala washed away, at least for some time, feelings of pessimism that sometimes assail me in moments of weakness when I observe the state of present day Sikh society. I was back with my role models in time.

An account of the Battle of Chillianwala in Capt. Amrinder Singh’s book, “The Last Sunset”, mentions that the then Governor General of India, Lord Dalhousie, decided to relieve the English General, Lord Gough, of his command following his inability to defeat the Sikh forces at Chillianwala. Sikh valour caused so much consternation even back in England that the Duke of Wellington - of Waterloo fame - then nearly 80 years old, appealed to Sir Charles Napier to proceed to India to take command of British troops in the Second Anglo-Sikh War, failing which he, the Duke himself, would have to do so.

This gives an idea of just how much Sikh heroism and valour on the battlefield had destabilised the British.

My host, the former Secretary to the government of Pakistan, was not very familiar with the facts about Chillianwala. I explained to him on the battlefield as much as my limited knowledge allowed. The serenity of the surroundings, with the village of Chillianwala peacefully nestling in the background, starkly contrasted with my imagination of the sounds of battle raging all around us at the place where we stood.

A local person told me that there were hardly any visitors to the site. It does not seem to be on the itinerary of Sikhs who proceed to Pakistan to mainly pay obeisance at our main gurdwaras like Punja Sahib and Nankana Sahib.

I hope that this report about my visit to Chillianwala motivates at least some readers to develop curiosity about visiting similar sites of Sikh valour and heroism.

I remembered the famous lines from Shah Mohammad's Varaa(n): “Jey hovey sarkaar taa(n) mul paavey khalsey ney jo teghaa(n) mariaa(n) nee(n); shah mohammada ik sarkaar bajho(n), faujaan jit key vi aj nu(n) haariaa(n) nee(n)” -  from his epic account of the Anglo-Sikh Wars.

We left Chillianwala after an hour or so spent on site. We visited the local farm and race horse breeding stud farm of one of our hosts, a very hospitable man, a representative of true Punjabi culture.

Hearing all my companions talking chaste Punjabi was like music to my ears. On the Indian side it is nowadays extremely rare to hear such chaste Punjabi, at least in the circles I seem to move around in. I was the only one dressed in a shirt and trousers. All my hosts, rich powerful men without an exception, were dressed in kurtas and salwars, so much more comfortable than my dress. I felt really silly at not having travelled to Pakistan in similarly comfortable clothes.

The confidence of Punjabi-speaking Pakistanis is infectious. They have no inhibitions whatsoever in speaking Punjabi. The houses that I visited were palatial. One of my companions had a house constructed on five acres of land, with several buildings in the outer walled compound. We had lavish snacks and drinks (all non-alcoholic, another major difference from the Indian/Bollywood Punjab) at this house before I continued my journey on to Lahore where I spent the night.

Accompanied by my Pakistani former-civil-servant host, we reached Lahore around 19.20 pm. At my request, we proceeded straight to Gurdwara Dera Sahib, next to the Badshahi Mosque. Dera Sahib, for those Sikhs who might not know it, is the site of our fifth Master, Guru Arjan's martyrdom. I was just in time to join the evening ardaas, followed by the subsequent procession in which Guru Granth Sahib was carried for sukh-aasan for the night. The entire sangat consisted of four persons and I was able to be the fifth.

I considered this as a sublime finale to a most remarkable day. The fact of having been able to pay my respects at Guru Arjan's martyrdom site after a day spent at Chillianwala capped a special day in my life.

I shall carry the memory all my life.

After my two visits to Pakistan, some lines in our daily evening ardaas now have a special meaning for me when, at the very end, we pray to Waheguru Almighty to bless us with “darshan deedaar” of our shrines left behind in Pakistan after the Partition of Punjab.

My visit to Chillianwala shall mark an unforgettable event in my life, one that I hope to narrate to as many Sikh youngsters as I can to make them aware of our past which could guide us in our future.

 

November 4, 2011

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