Ghaloo-Ghara

[Jungee]

The below article was written by a friend of mine who intends to make this in to a movie. it is a true story. we were able to record this from one of the survivors. teh event is based around of LOYALTY and TRUST Between Sikh Brothers, Hindu Brothers, and Mulsim Brothers.

( Regardless of there beliefs and values, they were tolerant of each other. unlike some sikhs of today, who use our dharam as a sheild to preach there insecure beliefs based around confusion and phanaticism.)

remember Education and Compassion is the way to destroy Ignorance.

any way enough jabbering.. read the below summary written by my friend kamal krishan

Ghaloo-Ghara

(A Punjabi term meaning Great destruction, loss of life in the battle of Sikhs with Ahmed Shah Abdali in which the Sikhs sustained a loss of many thousand lives. There are two Ghaloo-Ghara recorded in the history of the Sikhs)

based on a True Story of Sikh cavalryman in the First World War.

One hundred Indian troops of the

British Army have arrived at Kabul,

Afghanistan, after a four months'

march from Constantinople. The men

were captured in Flanders by the

Germans and were sent to Turkey in the

hope that, being Mohammedans, they

might join the Turks. But they

remained loyal to Great Britain and

finally escaped, heading for Afghanistan.

They now intend to join their

regimental depot in India, so it

is reported.

New York Times, July 1915

Had Ranjoor Singh and his men been Muhammadans their accomplishment

would have been sufficiently wonderful. For Sikhs to attempt what

they carried through, even under such splendid leadership as Ranjoor

Singh's, was to defy the very nth degree of odds. Amid the echoes of the roar of the guns in Flanders, the world is inclined to overlook India's share in it all and the stout proud loyalty of Indian hearts. May this tribute to the gallant Indian gentlemen who came to fight our battles serve to remind its readers that they who give their best, and they who take, are one – Ted Mundy

In the first world war, during the campaign in Flanders, France, a regiment of Sikh Cavalrymen, or what was left of them, some 323 men, was stranded behind enemy lines and captured by Central (Germany) forces. Risaldar Major Ranjoor Singh commanded the regiment after the death of their English Officer. Seen as Muslims, they were given a choice either to fight against the allied forces on the Turkish front at Gallipolis or to perish in POW camps (coal mines). It was not a choice after all, even when their sense of honor and loyalty were discounted. To fight against the British meant that they would never see India and hence their families again. Coalmines were a quick death and oblivion. Turkey, to them was a death with dishonor (NAMAK HARAMI).

After some thinking Ranjoor Singh asked them to trust him and sign the paper forswearing their allegiance to Great Britain and claiming allegiance to the Germans, in the hope that once at Gallipolis they would cross over to the British. They were transported through though Axis controlled areas of Austria and Poland by train and some of the way across Danube by Steamer. A German officer by the name of Fritz Tugendheim was attached to the regiment to over seer. He knew Hindustani and the regiment was fore warned.

The Germans wanted the Sikh Muslims, as they put it to their consternation, to be used as propaganda to exhort the Muslims and Indians fighting with the British to switch sides.

Let me throw some light on the political situation in that part of the world, which the Sikhs endured:

The German monarch at the time was intent on carving out an empire of his own. His eyes fell on the America and the Raj-British India from Khyber to Rangoon. The Khalipha Anwar Pasha of turkey was with him. It was optimistically believed by Turkish and German leaders that Muslims from French North Africa to British India would spontaneously revolt against their infidel masters( GERMAN KAISER HAS CONVERTED TO ISLAM was one of the a million rumors bandied around to hoodwink the gullible Muslims). The Czarist Russia also had an eye on the Raj but their plans were less threatening for the time being as they had joined the British in the Great War. The whole area was the hotbed of German agents provocateurs. Many of the tribal warlords were listening to them. They exhorted the Indian soldiers to join the Jihad against the British, if they were Muslims and throw the yoke of two hundred years of British slavery, if they were Hindus or Sikhs.

In early 1915, Wassmus, German head spy, was sent to Iran as German consul. On his way through Southern Iran, during the following three years, he was able to cause such widespread mayhem in the area that he became known as the "German Lawrence." Anticipating the rapid defeats of British forces in Mesopotamia, he decided to open a corridor from the southeastern reaches of the Turkish Empire to India to be used as a prospective route for an invasion of the Raj. At that moment in time, the Busher-Shiraz road was in total control of Qashqai Tribe, even if the Shah of Iran wanted something passed through, he had to pay. But before our Sikhs could reach Basher-Shiraz, they had to contend with the marauding Turkish and Kurdish tribes for whom loot, plunder and massacre were just another day at the job.

Not to mention the regular forces who were stung by their audacity.

As history would have it no uprisings took place, chiefly because Iranian and afghan rulers remained neutral to the war and Indian soldiers remained loyal to their masters, for whatever reasons. But it was not for want of German trying.

Ranjoor Singh knew the odds he was up against and he could only share it with his at the risk of their own peril. So he kept a brave face.

Yet was difficult for the regiment to trust their commander as they saw doom every which way.

Risaldar Major kept his plans to himself, if he had any.

What followed after they reached Istanbul is a tale of such bravery against such odds, a tale of such leadership and honor that it must be dusted out of the archives and retold.

What the Risaldar had in mind was to keep an open mind that looked for an opportunity to escape after they reached Istanbul.

Going over to British at Gallipolis was not an opportunity but suicide. The British were not expected to be too trustful of a bunch of bearded men who might be Sikhs, charging from the German side in German uniforms to have held their shells and rifles.

He devised to commandeer a small steamship at Istanbul and escaped with his men to land some way off. Rasaldar’s men would outride the Turks, outwit the Kurds, outfight them, and

outdare them all.

They passed through Syria, Kurdistan, Iraq, Persia and and Afghanistan to reach at the Khyber Pass.

It took them more than three months and two thirds of their strength.

It was a miracle that they could achieve this feat at all.

Savage and lawless Turks, Kurd and Persian cutthroats in all their tribal glory infested their entire path, all the more brutal in the frenzy of war.

When they landed from the steamer with Tugendheim and a Greek doctor as hostages, all they had was German mousers Rifles and some ammunition.

And when they reached Afghanistan all the survivors were mounted on horses, having purchased their way from a tribe of Qashqai all the way through Persia with 25 Kg of German gold.

It required more than bravery. Ranjoor Singh employed great cunning, sometimes ruthlessness but never without honor.

They witnessed the genocide of Armenian Christians and barbarity of Kurds and Turks.

hope u guys enjoyed that..just wanna end this with saying

Bravery is a individual trait than hereditary and is tested only when one faces the strong than the meek.

( a Sher walks with honour, Gidrs roam in packs )

read your history,learn about the Nihangs, the heros of old and read about the traiters, the confused phanaticis who did more damage than good, learn to recognise these Gidrs today.