Sunday 18 November 2007

Panjabi-Sikh Community Pay Tribute To Sikh War Veterans

West Midlands Panjabi-Sikh Community Pay Tribute To Sikh War Veterans


Sarabha Panjab News
www.SarabhaPanjab.blogspot.com

17 November

More than 200,000 Sikh veterans of World War I and II have been officially recognised by members of the Handsworth community at a special event.

The special event was organised by the Sikh Community & Youth Service UK to pay tribute to all the Sikhs involved in World War I and II.

Spokes person for the event said: “The Sikh contribution and involvement in the war is often overlooked. “This event will serve as an important and poignant reminder to today’s generation of the sacrifice our forefathers made while fighting for Britain. The contribution of over 200,000 Sikh Servicemen in World War 1 and 2 and the various other wars that the Sikh servicemen have served in should be covered in the National curriculum to ensure that the younger generations both Sikh and wider communities are aware of the sacrifices made by the Sikh people”


LEST WE FORGET
For Peace and Freedom

Today we remember with honour and pride our fallen comrades



From the founding days of the faith, Sikhs have been enjoined by their Gurus to confront social injustice as an integral part of their spiritual expression and advancement.

The reputation of the Sikh soldier as one of the world’s finest has its origins in the creation of the Khalsa in 1699 by Guru Gobind Singh.

Guru Gobind Singh’s dramatic founding of the Khalsa was attended by tens of thousands of Panjabis, and trained warriors who became the brothers and sisters of an unprecedented spiritual people’s army – Akal Purkh Ki Fauj

The original Khalsa initiates were never territorial soldiers or mercenaries; soldiering was part of their spiritual make-up as defenders of religious freedom "for all faiths" What the Guru succeeded in doing was to convert the Sikhs from humble peasantry of the Panjab into some of the greatest and most noble warriors in world history.



I have seen only two races in the
world who really like fighting, the
Sikhs and the Gurkhas. In
peace-time the Sikhs are difficult
men to command : but put them in
a hot corner, and they live up to
their title of Singh, which
means lion. In Mesopotamia in
the last war the Arabs called
them Black Lions. Martial India,
F. Yeats-Brown, 1945.












Sikh Soldier
of the 11th Sikh
Regiment with a
captured Nazi flag in
Italy at the end of the
Second World War






WE FOUGHT ALONG WITH
AUSSIE SOLDIERS AND
DIED IN GALLIPOLI.
Sikhs in the trenches of
Gallipoli in 1914. The allies
suffered very high casualties in
this major battle of World War I.
Sikhs in Flander in 1916,
another famous battleground
which inspired the famous poem
'Flanders Fields'.
Authenticated by an Aussie
World War One Veteran




A photograph from October
1914 shows a wounded Sikh
soldier being loaded into an
ambulance in France.












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In loving memory of Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha

Revolutionist Kartar Singh Sarabha, was just nineteen years old when he became a Shaheed in the name of freedom and justice. He appeared like a storm, ignited the flame of revolution and tried to wake up a sleeping Panjab. Such courage, self-confidence, and dedication is rarely found. Of the Panjabis who can be called revolutionaries in true sense of the word, Kartar Singh's name comes at the top.
Revolution lived in his veins. There was only one aim of his life, only one desire, and only one hope - all that held meaning in his life was revolution.
“REVOLUTION IS WRITTEN IN BLOOD”