Hi, I'm the History Guy. I have a
degree in history and I love history, and if you love history too
this is the channel for you. On September 12, 1897, 21 soldiers of the
Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army were attacked in a small
mountain fort by more than 10,000 Afghan tribesmen. The nearly forgotten
Battle of Saragarhi along the famed Khyber Pass is one of the greatest last stands in
history and it deserves to be remembered. The history of the British Empire, along
what was called the northwest frontier, on the northwest side of British India,
was long and frequently bloody. British officers who fought there in the 19th and
20th centuries referred to it as, “The Grim”. British interests in Afghanistan began as early
as the 18th century and Afghanistan became a centerpiece in what was called, “The Great
Game” which was a political and military contest between the British Empire and the Russian
Empire for influence in Central Asia. Between 1849 and 1947 the British fought three
wars with the Afghanis, and there were numerous other small conflicts and punitive expeditions.
And a lot of that had to do with the disputed lands between the frontier of British India, in
what is now modern day Pakistan and Afghanistan. This high mountain region was inhabited
by tribes of the Pashtun people, Pashtuns are fiercely independent, militaristic islamic people, who would sometimes
ally with the British, and sometimes go to war with them. The famed Khyber Pass is
the high mountain pass through this region. After a tribal uprising and punitive expedition in
1891, the British decided that they should fortify and garrison the Khyber Pass. They built two chief
fortifications, Fort Gulistan, which was on the western end of the pass, and Fort Lockhart, which
was in the center of the pass. The two forts were just three miles apart, but they couldn't see each
other, because in between was a tall mountain. And so the British built a small signaling post on
top of that mountain, so that would facilitate communication between the two forts, usually
using a system of flashing mirrors that was called heliography. That small fortification on
top of the mountain was called Fort Saragarhi. In 1897 these fortifications were garrisoned by
five companies of the 36th Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army. Sikhs are followers
of a pantheistic religion called Sikhism and they're concentrated in the Punjab
region of India and the Sikh regiments were recruited from among this population.
They were known to be fierce warriors. In August of 1897, there was a general
uprising of the Pashtun tribes in the area, and Fort Gulistan and Lockhart came under the
attack of more than 10,000 Afghan tribesmen. At that time the forts in the area were garrisoned
by just around 500 members of the 36 Sikhs. The forts came under sporadic fire but there
wasn't an all-out attack until mid-September, and because the two forts could reinforce
each other, the Afghans were unable to get to the fortifications. And so on September 12th,
they decided to focus their attention on Fort Saragarhi, manned by just 21 soldiers. One
sergeant and 20 troopers from the 36 Sikhs in hopes of cutting off communication between
the two forts. The attack could be viewed from Fort Lockhart and they counted seven different
banners among the Afghan tribes, which allowed them to estimate how many Afghans were attacking
Fort Saragarhi, somewhere between 10 and 12,000. Because the ground between them was open,
there was little that the garrisons in Fort Gulistan and Fort Lockhart could do to
help the soldiers on Saragarhi, because any reinforcements would have had to fight their
way through the 10,000 Afghanis. But there were reinforcements coming from farther down the
pass, and so the 21 troopers decided that instead of trying to escape or surrendering, that they
would fight and hold out as long as they could, fight to the last in order to give the most time
for those reinforcements to come, even though they knew that that decision was suicide. Now
because it was a signaling post, they were able to use their heliograph to inform the troops
at fort lockhart of the details of the battle. The attack commenced around 9:00 am. The
fort was only stone and mud but it was tall, it was on top of a mountain, so the Afghanis
could not bring their numbers to bear and the defenders who could concentrate their fire
were able to repulse several attacks, but that they were slowly being reduced by casualties
and they were running out of ammunition. After two determined attempts to force the
door were repulsed, the Afghanis finally became frustrated and set fire to the brush in
the area, and they were able to move under the cover of the smoke to one of the walls that
couldn't be observed and undermine the wall, creating a breach. They stormed in and became
bloody hand-to-hand fighting to the end. The last defender left was the one who had been
running the heliograph, and since he was up on a tower, he could observe what was going on down
below. And from Fort Lockhart they could see him shooting into the Afghanis. They assumed he
killed as many as 20 before the frustrated Afghanistan set fire to the tower and let him
die in the flames. By then it was after 3 p.m and the defenders of Saragarhi had held out for more
than six hours, and that gave the reinforcements much time to come. By the time that the Afghanis
could turn their attention back to Fort Gulistan, it was able to hold out until reinforcements
arrived. When those reinforcements got to the ruins of Fort Saragarhi, they found more than
600 dead Afghan tribesmen around the fort. The reinforcements were able
to drive off the attack with artillery and save the forts.
The british responded with a huge punitive expedition that involved more than 30
thousand troops, it was called the Tirah Campaign, and it was a very bloody campaign with lots of
casualties on both sides, but eventually the british stomped around the valley burning all the
villages and destroying all the fortifications, until the tribes were forced to sue for peace.
It was just another inning in ‘The Great Game’. But the brave defense of Saragarhi was told
around the world and all the way to the Queen and all 21 defenders of Fort Saragarhi were
awarded the Indian Order of Merit, which was the highest award for Indian troops in the British
Indian Army, the equivalent of a Victoria Cross. The battle is still remembered every year
on the 12th of September as Saragarhi Day among Sikh units of the Indian Army but it is
largely forgotten everywhere else. And of course that is a tragedy because the heroic defense
of Fort Saragarhi deserves to be remembered. I'm the History Guy. I hope you
enjoyed this edition of my series, five minutes of history, short snippets of
forgotten history five to ten minutes long. If you did enjoy it then please go ahead and click
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