Martyrs’ project courts first row- MP wants cut-off date advanced from 1657 revolt to Anglo-Sikh wars:Veteran Prabhjot Sngh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Martyrs’ project courts first row.
MP wants cut-off date advanced from 1857 revolt to
Anglo-Sikh wars.
Aditi TandonTribune News Service
New Delhi, February 3The National Registry of Martyrs project today
courted its first controversy, with Rajya Sabha member Tarlochan
Singh objecting to the fixing of 1857 as cut-off date for the inclusion
of martyrs to the list.
Demanding that the same be advanced to 1846 when the British took
over Punjab and the Sikhs fought Anglo-Sikh wars, Tarlochan Singh
said the last most historic battle against the British rule was fought
under General Sham Singh Attariwala, who died a heroic death in
the battlefield.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in charge of Culture
Ministry, which is handling the project, the MP, who had once
interrupted former President APJ Abdul Kalam’s joint address to
Parliament to raise the demand, said: “While 1857 should be respected,
it will be improper to ignore those who laid down their lives before that.”
He today sought PM’s intervention to raise the issue with the Indian
Council of Historical Research -- executing the project for the ministry.
But documents in possession of The Tribune show that the Culture
Ministry, in a note on the scope of the project, clarified that 1857 should
be the cut-off date for the project, which will for the first time name
martyrs along with the primary sources that mention them. The
ministry based its view on an expert committee meeting, which director
general, National Archives, convened for this purpose on November 2,
2007. The committee agreed that “the national character of the freedom movement emerged cohesively after 1857”, and hence 1857 should be
the cut-off date.
Furthermore, historians opine that if Anglo-Sikh wars were to be
treated as cut-off dates, similar arguments could apply to the Battles
of Plassey, even Vellore Mutiny of early 1800s, which some South
Indians claim as the first real war of Independence.
Speaking to The Tribune, lead researcher on the Martyrs project and
current fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, PK Shukla,
clarified why 1857 should be the cut off date: “Elements of Indian
nationhood emerged in 1857, which was the first genuine national
uprising against British imperialism. It spread across from Salem in
Tamil Nadu to Kolhapur across to Dibrugarh, north and Chittagong.
It even had repercussions outside India. Interestingly, Karl Marx was
the first scholar to use the term “First War of Indian Independence”
for 1857. It was also during this war that terms like ‘Watan’ and
‘Hindustan’ emerged.”
The 200 proclamations of the Sepoys of 1857 confirm Shukla’s thesis.
They are replete with references like “Watan” (for India) and
“Hindustan”; and are written in different languages from Persian to
Marathi, exhibiting unity.
“The 1857 episode was the first symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. Most
sepoys who fought for the Rani of Jhansi were Muslims; she was cremated
by a Muslim. The post-1857 British documents show how wary the British
had become of Indian unity; their policy of divide and rule had roots in
this wariness,” adds Shukla.
Historians agree: “The Sikhs may have fought wars against the British in
1846, but the question a historian must ask is why they fought those wars.
At no time before 1857 do we find evidence of any battle that so powerfully symbolised the distinction between Indian identity and British
imperialism. It first emerged in 1857,” said another historian.