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Chappar Chirri Battle: Panthic Bodies Seem To Be Winning as Govt Buckles
CM Badal agrees to raise a memorial at historic battle field to mark the important victory
Sach Kanwal Singh
CHANDIGARH: Efforts of some panthic organisations, Sikh intellectuals and timely intervention of heritage lovers have forced the Punjab Government to shelve plans to include the famous battlefield of Chappar Chirri in a swank golf range project.
Now, Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal has finally conceded that his government will help raise a memorial in the Chappar Chirri village to the famous victory of the Sikh forces led by warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur and his soldiers over the Mughal forces in 1710.
After a meeting with the delegation of Coordination Committee for the Memorial of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur led by its chairperson Baljit Kaur, Badal has directed the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to identify 25-35 acres of land in Chappar Chiiri for the proposed memorial.
Neither the ruling Akali Dal nor the SGPC seem keen to raise a memorial to martyrs of Indian Army's attack on Sri Darbar Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib. They have not even pressed for a memorial to the victims of genocide of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in 1984. No wonder it took so much effort and energy for panthic organisations to ensure that the Akali government does not turn the battleground of Chappar Chirri into a swanky golf range.
So far there is no proper memorial to the battle that the Sikh force won on 12 May 1710 under the leadership of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur and at the end of which Wazir Khan, the imperial faujdar of Sirhind, lay dead. Till 250 years later, there was hardly any spot to mark the victory. Around 1950 a gurdwara came up, thanks to some proactive villagers.
Now, Badal has asked the delegation to constitute an expert group involving prominent residents of the village to finalise the site plan and design of the proposed memorial to be constructed on the demarcated land. Incidentally, the tercentenary of the battle falls on May 12, 2010.
Baba Banda Singh Bahadur had arrived from central India on the personal directions of Guru Gobind Singh to fight the tyranny and oppression of the Mughal rulers. He organised an army of Sikhs and marched on Sirhind to challenge the Governor there, who had killed the younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh by bricking them alive in a wall. The Sikh forces and a Mughal detachment met in the battle field in this historic village.
The delegation impressed upon Mr. Badal to direct the GMADA for demarcation of land based on the map shown to him to identify the battlefield including the Jhiri, which has been preserved in its original form. The Jhiri was set up to assist the Sikh forces to hide their weapons for a guerilla warfare.
The delegation also sought instructions that the 30-35 feet high sand dunes which were still in their original shape be preserved, for which necessary instructions were required for acquiring the land that was not under government ownership. The Committee also demanded an immediate ban on construction on the demarcated land till the final plan for the memorial was prepared.
It is here that the Sikh forces under Baba Banda Singh Bahadur won their most important victory. Till 250 years later, there was hardly any spot to mark the turn in history. Around 1950, a gurdwara came up, thanks to some proactive villagers. Now, we are finally talking about a memorial to the glorious victory.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by Principal Secretary D.S. Guru, Special Principal Secretary, K.J.S. Cheema and Additional Principal Secretary Gaggandip Singh Brar.
The delegation consisted of president of Institute of Sikh Studies Pritam Singh Kohli, CEO of International Sikh Confederation Lt.-Gen Kartar Singh, former bureaucrat Gurdev Singh, ex-sarpanch of the village Zora Singh, sarpanch Surjit Singh, principal Tarlochan Singh Sidhu and noted historians Kirpal Singh, Dr. J.S. Grewal and Harish Dhillon.
The issue hit headlines when a recently approved master plan of Mohali sought to wipe away the battle ground where the quom punished the the subedar of Sirhind.
Sikh historians are unanimous in their observation that this was the most important victory against the Mughals as it paved the way for a number of similar triumphs across several towns in Punjab. Yet, except for a simple board, bearing a history of the place, outside the local gurdwara, there are no memorials even though the place, spread across 14-15 acre of dense forests, has been visited by many VIPs, including CM Badal, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar and his predecessor GS Tohra.
The gurdwara displays five handmade iron weapons and turban rings (chakkar) which were dug out by a farmer while installing a tubewell. ‘‘We’ve heard from our ancestors how the Khalsa forces, despite being outnumbered and ill-equipped, used the forest and guerrilla warfare tactics to defeat a far superior army,” says Zora Singh, a former sarpanch, whose ancestors’ participation in the war has been documented in books on the battle.
The forest area, located at a higher altitude than the rest of the battefield and village, used to have nearly 30/40 foot high sand dunes that were believed to have been used by Baba Banda Singh Bahadur to witness the war. These dunes were flattened in early 1990s by some people who bought part of land to set up a cooperative housing society against periphery norms of Punjab government which later put a hold on construction. On the lines of several battlefields, including Kurukshetra and Haldi Ghati which have been preserved in India, villagers now want this place to be similarly treasured with an appropriate memorial as the tercentenary of the battle draws near.
Local villagers have been up in arms to oppose the Golf Club plans drafted by GMADA. Shiromani Akali Dal's working committee member Gursev Singh Harpalpur, Palwinder Singh Saini Raipur, Akali Dal Chandigarh's jathedar Gurnam Singh Sidhu, Akali Dal, Delhi's Harmohinder Singh Dhillon, Shiromani Sikh Samaj International's Col Gurdeep Singh, Institute of Sikh Studies' Bibi Baljit Kaur Khalsa, Justice Ajit Singh Bains (retd), and many other leaders had declared they will mount the kind of pressure that the Akali Dal-BJP regime will not be able to withstand if it went ahead with golf range plans.
28 October 2009
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