LAHORE: An attempt has been made to dispel the common impression that Punjab welcomed the foreign invaders and supported them in a conference on “Resistance Movements in Punjab During Colonial Times” at the Lahore Museum on Saturday.

Various speakers spoke on the role of Punjab, especially related to the War of Independence of 1857.

“Regarding Lahore, the most important event was Ajnala massacre near Amritsar city when about 600 soldiers of 36 infantry regiment had defected from the British Army, they killed the British officers and tried to reach Delhi. Near Ajnala, the local chief informed Deputy Commissioner Fredrick Cooper about it,” Talha Shafiq, a researcher from the Govt College University (GCU), said during a session titled, Role of Lahore in the War of Independence of 1857’.

Giving further details of the incident, he said with the help of police and his own men, the local chief followed the defecting soldiers. Some of them died, about 282 others crossed the Ravi and reached an island in the river until Cooper reached there. According to Cooper’s account, published in his own book, 245 soldiers were disposed of at Ajnala, 35 drowned and 150 were killed by the police, two soldiers were executed, 45 were sent to Lahore who were later blown up by Lord Montgomery.

He admitted disposing of the bodies of 282 soldiers into a well. In 2014, the well was excavated where a gurdwara was built and remains of the soldiers, belonging to Hindu, Muslim and Sikh religions, were covered, Shafique said.

Shafiq said Punjab had always been ignored with reference to the War of Independence of 1857, compared to Meerut or Delhi.

“While there is a myth that Punjab had favoured the invaders and it was the favourite child of the British, Ahmed Khan Kharal is remembered for his fight against the British, but nobody talks about the area in which Lahore was situated.” Giving the historical background, he said, there was a time of chaos after the death of Ranjit Singh. He said when the British came to Punjab, they came to rule, not to trade as it happened in the rest of India.

“When the resistance started in Meerut on May 10 (1857), it slowly started spreading to the rest of India. In Punjab, skirmishes started on May 13. Nana Sahib, a main figure of 1857 war had visited Punjab. The correspondent of Times in Punjab had written that Nana Sahib had come to Punjab with Azimullah Khan and tried to move the people against the British colonisers.”

Shafiq said in Lahore, the freedom fighters had a plan to capture the Lahore Fort to get hold of weapons and then move towards Ferozepur. It would have been hard for the British to save India, had the resistance fighters got hold of weapons in Lahore. However, the British had an efficient communication system and they got news and countered the plan. The local soldiers in the regiments in Lahore were disarmed, as were those in Gurdaspur, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Amritsar, while the British gathered ration for six months. A new regiment was formed consisting of European soldiers. The soldiers who left the British army and tried to go to Delhi were captured and were blown away after being tied in front of the cannons at Anarkali, in the public.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Lahore Museum Director Muhammad Usman said the museum had launched a series of talks and meetings and the conference had been organised by the museum in collaboration with the Rational Dialogue Forum. “The topic is important because for a long time there has been a narrative that Punjab has always welcomed all invaders from the east and paved their way to reach Delhi,” he said, adding that the conference might help the audience understand both aspects of the narrative.

He said it was pertinent to ask that how much of this narrative was true that Punjab didn’t resist the invaders, as well as the question that who built this narrative and what were the reasons for it. He asked whether the historical data supported the narrative against Punjab or not.

To counter the narrative on his own, Mr Usman pointed out that the British rule had started in the rest of India at the end of the 18th Century or at the outset of the 19th Century, but in Punjab it did not happen until the 1848/49 (the fall of Sikh Empire). He claimed that Hyder Ali and later his son Tipu Sultan of Mysore, who had put up great resistance against the British until their own people conspired against them, resulting in the victory of the British, had Punjabi roots.

“There is a small village near Hafizabad, called Tibba Shah Behlol and locals say that it was named after the grandfather of Hyder Ali,” he said, adding that regardless whether it was a myth or real story, it had been proven that Hyder Ali’s ancestors were from Punjab, though it’s not known they were from Jhang, Chiniot and the Pindi Bhattian area. Usman insisted that Punjab played a big role in the resistance against the British colonisers.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2023