The Battle of Rezang La, and why Ahir community is protesting upcoming Farhan Akhtar film on it

From the ashes of his fathers,

And the temples of the gods.”

The first four lines of the epitaph at the Rezang La War Memorial in Chushul, Ladakh borrow from Thomas Babington Macaulay’s poem Horatius. The words chosen are apt: Horatius is the story of three Roman heroes who mount a heroic last stand against the Marauding Etruscan army at the Sublician bridge on the Tiber.

In 1962, a 120-strong company of Indian soldiers of the Kumaon Regiment put up their own last stand at Rezang La against a numerically superior and far better-equipped Chinese force. The odds were stacked against these bravehearts, and all but six defenders were killed in action. But their valiant defence changed the course of the war, and saved the entirety of Ladakh from Chinese occupation.

The Farhan Akhtar-starrer 120 Bahadur, set to hit theatres next month, will tell this story. But even before its release, the film faces protests from the Ahir community to which the soldiers belonged.

A heroic last stand

The shadow of the 1962 war with China looms large over India’s military history. The Chinese invasion of Ladakh and the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA, now Arunachal Pradesh) was swift, and their victory decisive. For New Delhi, silver linings were few and far between.

The Battle of Rezang La, fought on November 18, 1962, was perhaps one such bright spot. The battle saw the Charlie Company of 13 Kumaon, comprising some 120 Indian soldiers without artillery support, take on 3,000-5,000 Chinese infantrymen to defend the strategic Rezang La height.

The Rezang La Memorial at Rewari, commemorating the Ahir soldiers’ sacrifice. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

While the overwhelming Chinese numbers eventually prevailed, the 120 valiant defenders gave India a much needed strategic victory, thwarting the Chinese advance, protecting the vital Chushul air base from capture, and as a result, preventing a possible Chinese occupation of the entirety of Ladakh.

“…[Just] 120 infantry soldiers succeeded in stopping the largest standing army of the world…,” author Kulpreet Singh wrote in The Battle of Rezang La (2021). “…[They] were hugely outnumbered, out-gunned and out-weathered, but each one of them fought like a true hero and proved to the world that determination, grit and belief are much bigger than any material odds.”

The Chinese halted their advance through Ladakh the day after the Battle of Rezang La, and announced a unilateral ceasefire on November 21.

To the ‘last man, last bullet’

Rezang La is a massive 16,000-foot-high feature overlooking the Spanggur Gap, a strategic mountain pass on the Line of Actual Control. Its defence is vital for protecting the forward air base at Chushul, and the overall defence of Ladakh: if the Chinese were to establish a strong presence in the sector, they would effectively have a free run to Leh.

The India-China war broke out on October 20, 1962 when the Chinese carried out well-coordinated attacks on Indian posts in Ladakh and NEFA. The all-Ahir Charlie Company of 13 Kumaon, led by Major Shaitan Singh, was tasked with defending the Indian post at Rezang La.

But the Company was ill-equipped: the men lacked proper high altitude clothing, rations, and weapons and ammunition. Moreover, given the geography of their, artillery support was out of the question.

“The Charlie Company only had Lee Enfield .303 rifles (600 rounds of ammunition per rifle per soldier), nine LMGs, three 2-inch mortars (one with each platoon), two 3-inch mortars and hand grenades (around 500, authorised at the rate of two per soldier and the rest as reserves),” Kulpreet Singh wrote.

After days of anticipation, the Chinese attack finally came in the early hours of November 18. Even as Indian LMGs, mortar fire and Lee-Enfields mowed down wave after wave of Chinese intruders, more enemy soldiers kept on arriving over the horizon. Over time, the sheer force of numbers, supported by enemy artillery and machine gun fire, began taking its toll.

“Chinese forces bombarded the company position with heavy artillery, mortars, and small arms fire before launching an all-out assault in many waves,” states the official citation of Major Shaitan Singh, who would posthumously be awarded with the Paramvir Chakra.

But every man fought till the bitter end. When their bullets ran out, they fought with bayonets and bare hands, and killed “four or five men for every man [India] lost”. Major Shaitan Singh led by example.

A statue honoring Major Shaitan Singh in his hometown Jodhpur, Rajasthan. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

“Throughout the action, Major Shaitan Singh moved at great personal risk from one platoon post to another while raising the morale in his platoon posts. He was gravely wounded while doing so, but he continued to encourage and lead his soldiers, who, inspired by his bold example, battled gallantly and inflicted numerous casualties on the enemy,” his PVC citation reads.

In total, 114 of the 120 Indian soldiers of the Charlie Company were killed in the battle. But the Chinese casualties were much worse: Indian estimates suggest upwards of 1,300 Chinese KIA. Every jawan had made his sacrifice count.

As the winter set in, the battlefield at Rezang La froze in time; the full scale of the fighting was discovered months later.

Major General Ian Cardozo in his book Param Vir, Our Heroes in Battle (2003) wrote: “When Rezang La was later revisited dead jawans were found in the trenches still holding on to their weapons… every single man of this company was found dead in his trench with several bullets or splinter wounds. The 2-inch mortar man died with a bomb still in his hand. The medical orderly had a syringe and bandage in his hands when the Chinese bullet hit him… Of the thousand mortar bombs with the defenders, all but seven had been fired and the rest were ready to be fired when the (mortar) section was overrun.”

Caste pride & the Army

The Ahirs are a community of pastoralists from northern India, most of whose members use the surname Yadav today. The British identified them as a “martial race”, and thus pushed for recruitment of soldiers from this community.

But unlike many of the other martial races, the Ahirs never got their own regiment (like the Jats or Sikhs). Rather, they were hired into other regiments, most notably the Kumaon Regiment (formerly Hyderabad Regiment). Over the years, Ahir leaders have long clamoured for their own regiment.

Among other things, they frequently cite the heroism of the 120 Ahir soldiers in the Battle of Rezang La as justification for Ahirs having their own regiment. That popular retellings of the battle have often focussed on the personal exploits of Major Shaitan Singh have always been a sore point for Ahirs.

“The character (Farhan) Akhtar plays did lead the hundred-plus Ahirs but our sacrifice should not be forgotten by promoting only the Chauhan community,” one BJP leader at a recent Ahir demonstration in Manesar said. While the demonstration was largely geared towards changing the name of the film, those attending said it was a precursor to once again reawaken the demand for a separate Ahir regiment, The Indian Express reported.

But in recent decades, successive governments have refused to raise any new regiments on caste and class lines, and worked towards imbuing the Army with a more national character.

A 2023 answer in Parliament by Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt stated: “Proposal for the raising of Ahir Regiment is not under consideration. As per Government Policy on the subject, all citizens irrespective of their class, creed, region or religion are eligible for recruitment in the Indian Army. After Independence, it has been the policy of the Government not to raise any new Regiment for a particular class/community/religion or region”.

This does not mean, however, that the Army has not recognised the Ahirs’ sacrifices. The war memorial in Chushul is also called Ahir Dham, with a plaque containing the names of all 114 Indian soldiers who fell at Rezang La; there is also a memorial commemorating the Ahir soldiers’ sacrifice in Rewari, Haryana, the region most of the Company hailed from.