The great celebration at Sharifabad when the first MVC winner was remembered! The year was 1947
The great celebration at Sharifabad when the first MVC winner was remembered! The year was 1947 and the date the people should remember is 26 October!
By: M S Nazki
They say we are poor at history but certain things need to be excavated for revelations! The bad thing is that ghost stories about Pakistan have begun to open up now!! In 1947 Jinnah sprang one up but he was already a roaming zombie in white coat then!
‘Hitler made only one big mistake when he built his Atlantic Wall, ‘ the paratroopers liked to sayat that time. ‘He forgot to put a roof on it. Similarly Jinnah Went for a Kashmir dream without realizing that the men whom he was sending in had no chance against the Indian army! They were given none and so far have not got any’!
-‘ In one of his last newsletters, Mike Ranney wrote: ‘In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I’m treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, ‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’ No,’ I answered, ‘but I served in a company of heroes.’ To be honest these are the words from Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest’!
– In my case I’m retelling a story of the Indianfighters club, where punches/dagger fights come in later but bullet exchange is a must! At Uri perhaps, within easy Company they had made the best friends they had ever had, or would ever have. They were prepared to die for each other; more importantly, they were prepared to kill for each other in case they were captured. Difficult option but still the catalyst to explode within you!’
-‘At that time one man standing at the Uri bulge would have told his men, we know how to win wars. We must learn now to win peace…’ But the barbarians were on a loot spree! They definitely were not interested in Kashmir but were interested in women and children! They still are! Now do not tell me to get to examples because I would be at my explosive best!’
-‘It all started at Uri but It could have ended up elsewhere too. Jinnah’ s Pakistan would have been a ruined fiasco there and then but someone somewhere had other plans! One little girl then but now old , remembered everything that evening at Shalteng! Maybe her imagination of things that could have happened when she was a kid, wobbling around and not knowing as to what was happening! Could be something like this, my brother remembered walking around among the sleeping men, and thinking to himself that ‘they had looked at and smelled death all around them all day but never even dreamed of applying the term to themselves. They hadn’t been living here to fear. They were not living to die. They had come to live but they were to die and they were given that stroke of destiny!The executioners were from Pakistan!’
-‘These people had to be stopped and they were! If Brigadier Rajinder Singh started it all some great finishers were here too! I would say the terminators! I mean Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police!’
-‘The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function: without mercy, without compassion, without remorse. All war depends upon it’. The place was Uri Bridge! But someone was standing there!’
-‘The date, 26 October, does not stir anything significant in the minds and hearts of the majority of this country. It is not a special birthday or a religious holiday that is etched in the conscience of India. One has to do a Google search to realise that 74 years ago, Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir signed the Instrument of Accession to India as the region was under siege from Pakistani forces.’
Brigadier Rajinder Singh and his band of warriors who died defending the Kashmir valley was the man who stepped in first as the first war after independence was unleashed by Pakistan. He was martyred the same day Maharaja Hari Singh signed that historic document uniting Jammu and Kashmir with India, a sacrifice that honoured the simple words of that contract. Brig Rajinder was the first recipient of the Mahavir Chakra in Independent India, yet this warrior is barely known to the nation he served, let alone outside the Jammu region.
On 21 October 1947, Pakistani forces besieged Jammu and Kashmir. They tried to take control of the region by force, hoping that the dominant Muslim community would support them. They entered Kashmir via Baramulla and targeted the Sikh and Kashmiri pandits, committing rape, murder and arson.
Under siege, on 22 October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh ordered Brig Rajinder, who served as the chief of army staff of Jammu and Kashmir, to defend the state ‘till the last man and the last bullet’. Maharaja Hari Singh’s son, Dr Karan Singh has Said this! It was done!Brig Rajinder Singh was given an order by my father and he just saluted and walked away, Karan Singh added!
Brig Rajinder gathered 110 soldiers and moved to Muzaffarabad to counter the invading force of over 6,000 militiamen. He used guerrilla tactics to delay their advance, blowing up the Uri bridge and stalling them in Mahura and Rampur, inflicting heavy casualties. For four days, Brig Rajinder and his brave jawans hindered the progress of the Pakistani invaders. This may have been the first time in contemporary military history where an army chief personally led soldiers in combat. As Brig Rajinder and his men fought, on 26 October, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession joining the Union of India. The Indian military rushed in to back Brig Rajinder’s brave and redoubtable stand; however, just hours away from his position, he was ambushed at Boniyar and fatally wounded. He had held fort and repelled the invaders long enough for the Indian Army to push them back, saving thousands from a brutal onslaught. He carried out his orders to the letter, setting an unparalleled example of courage and patriotism. If Brig Rajinder Singh had not stopped the Pakistani invaders, if he didn’t sacrifice his life, Kashmir may not have been a part of India, says Dr Karan Singh.
On 30 December 1949, he became India’s first recipient of the Maha Vir Chakra, India’s second highest military decoration, when he was awarded the honour posthumously by the then Army Chief Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa.
Rajinder Singh was born on 14 June 1899 in Bagoona village (now Rajinderpura, Samba district) in a military Dogra Rajput family. His ancestor General Baj Singh had died serving under Maharaja Gulab Singh. His grandfather Hamir Singh and father Subedar Lakha Singh were both war veterans. Rajinder Singh was brought up by an uncle, Lt. Colonel Govind Singh, since he was a small child. Singh passed out from Prince of Wales College (now GGM Science College) in Jammu in 1921. Rajinder Singh was commissioned on 14 June 1921, in to the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces as a Second Lieutenant. On 25 September 1947, he took over charge as Chief of Army Staff of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces from Major General H. L. Scott. For his rearguard last-stand actions, Brigadier Rajinder Singh is remembered as the Savior of Kashmir. V.P. Menon, an Indian civil servant, had said of Brigadier Rajinder: ‘He and his colleagues will live in history like gallant Leonidas and his 300 men who held the Persian invaders at Thermopylae. It was appropriate that when the Maha Vira Chakra decoration was instituted the first award should have been given (posthumously) to this heroic soldier.’
Sainik Samachar reported that on 24 October 2018 a bust of Brigadier Rajinder Singh, presented by his family, was unveiled at the Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar. Also at Badami Bagh Cantonment is the Rajendra Villa, now the Signal Regiment Officers’ Mess. The entrance of the cantonment is also named after Rajinder Singh. Sainik Samachar also reported that the family visited Boniyar to pay homage at the Memorial where Brigadier Rajendra Singh died fighting. Over the years there have been calls to posthumously honour the Brigadier with India’s highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra. In 1999, at the Rajinder Singh Pura Memorial, George Fernandes, the then Minister of Defense, had said “I am in agreement that he should have been given PVC’.But that is what military history is all about! But the daughter of Brig Rajinder Singh, independent India’s first recipient of the Maha Vir Chakra was felicitated by ChinarCorps Cdr on the occasion of ‘Re-enactment of Battle of Shalateng’ at Sharifabad.The lady was there and as usual smiling and remembering her father because he was the man who stood out along with his band of brothers and perhaps the first jolt to the Pak invaders or should Isam savages with animal instincts! Both words sound appropriate!
If your enemy offers you two targets, strike at a third. Perhaps the Brigadier knew that and stopping them at Boniyar was the only option! He successfully did that!
