Records, proof of martyrdom traced, World War-I soldiers from Moga village named in new memorial
This stone was believed to have been established by the British and later renovated by some village residents.
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The new memorial with soldiers’ names inaugurated Sunday. (Express Photo)
‘From this village, 26 men went to the Great War. Of these, seven gave up their lives.’ This line, etched on a colonial-era slab in Badduwal village of Dharamkot sub-division in Moga, was – Till November 25, 2018 – the only tribute to 26 men who went from this village to fight in World War-I.
This stone was believed to have been established by the British and later renovated by some village residents. However, as there was no proof or written record of the men who were martyred, their names were never written.
Now, 100 years after World War-I ended in November 1918, Badduwal village has inaugurated a memorial in memory of 26 of its soldiers (of which seven were martyred and the others injured) after getting proof and other records of their martyrdom. Names of four martyrs have been written on the new memorial whose martyrdom has been ‘proved’ with documents after 22 years of search which is still ongoing to find the other missing names. Majority of 26 men were from 15th Sikh Ludhiana Regiment.
Karamjit Singh Kaila (70) whose grandfather Lt Ram Singh Bahadur, along with his two brothers Sham Singh and Inder Singh, fought in the war and were injured, said efforts to trace names of all 26 soldiers who went from Badduwal, began in 1996 to ensure that proper record of martyrs from their village is maintained and they are given a befitting tribute. “After 22 years, we have proof of five of the seven martyrs,” he says.
“We are still unaware of at least 14 names. However, after much research from records that we were able to procure, we have managed to trace names of five of seven martyrs. My grandfather and his two brothers were injured in the war. We started efforts nearly 20 years ago and now we know that five martyrs from our village were Banta Singh, Bhan Singh, Sujjan Singh, Uttam Singh and Khazan Singh. The name of Khazan Singh is yet to be written on the new memorial as we got document proof of his martyrdom on Sunday, when the new memorial was ready for inauguration,” he said.
Kaila whose family has spent money to get the memorial ready, added, “The old stone slab was erected by British and many such stones were erected in villages from where many Sikh soldiers went to fight in WW-I from Punjab. But it is for first time that we have a memorial with names now in our village,” he said.
Kaila added that it took so long to get the names and other documents as even the later generations of the soldiers, still living in the village, could not recollect names of their elders and even if they did, they had no documented proof of the same. “We had to do a long search, from books to records of graveyards where soldiers were buried, we did not want to put names without document proofs. We also took help of Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Some families are still in the village but they cannot recollect exact names of their elders who went for WW-I. Half of the names are still missing but we will confirm them soon. Of seven martyrs, we have document proof of five now and new memorial has been inaugurated,” he said.
“Every country remembers their martyrs of WW-I each year with great respect but for Sikh soldiers who gave up their lives, no concrete step has been ever taken either by Punjab or central government. So we decided to do it for our village at least. We will soon trace all 26 names and their descendants,” he added.
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