The Saragarhi Memorial Gurdwara in Ferozepur

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, September 10

The Saragarhi Memorial has so far neither been included in the list of protected monuments by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) nor has it been given the status of monument of national importance.The memorial was built in 1904 in memory of the 21 Sikh soldiers who died fighting against 10,000 Pathans while defending their post in Fort Lockhart in the North West Frontier Province on September 12, 1897.In April 2006, this monument — along with other Anglo-Sikh War sites — was identified for central protection. Following this, the matter was taken up by the then Commissioner (Ferozepur Division) Kulbir Singh Sidhu with a team of officials from the National Museum and ASI.However, the state government afterwards failed to prevail upon the Centre for its protection and development.The visiting team led by KK Chakravarty from the National Museum had submitted its report to the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs on April 20, 2006.“Even the state government gave its consent to then Director General, ASI, C Babu Rajiv on June 8, 2006, to declare these monuments as being of national importance. But no subsequent efforts were made to give those the pride of place,” said Sidhu.He said that he had also written many letters to RM Aggarwal, the then Deputy Director General, ICCR. He also took up the matter with SP Singh, the then Director (Conservation), National Museum, New Delhi, during his tenure here in 2006 to bring these memorials on the national heritage map. But after his retirement, no one followed up his efforts.Even the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) — in its report on ‘Preservation and conservation of monuments and antiquities’ which was tabled in Parliament in 2013 — had cited the dilapidated condition of protected monuments in Ferozepur.The audit paragraph on ‘Unauthorised conservation works by external organisations’ in the CAG report read: “Repeated notification and de-notification of sites in some cases had been done without any recorded reasons. These monuments were earlier in the list of protected monuments of national importance as declared in November 1918. Subsequently, these were de-protected by the ASI on April 13, 1927, and May 22, 1962, for reasons not available on record”.The Battle of Saragarhi is one of the eight stories of collective bravery published by Unesco and it has also been mentioned as one of the five most significant events of its kind in the world.The Saragarhi Memorial and Ethos Promotion Forum through its Secretary Capt Amarjit Singh Jaijee had also taken up the matter with the Director General of Archives in January 2010 to include it in the list of protected monuments. But the matter continues to be stuck up in bureaucratic wrangles.

The 36th Sikhs in the Tirah Campaign 1897-98: Saragarhi and the Defence of Samana Forts