From the dawn of human warfare to the present few areas of the world have been as highly contested as the mountainous region straddling the border of present-day India and Pakistan. In 1897 the region was known as the North-West Frontier Province of British India. On September 12 of that year, in what became known as the Battle of Saragarhi, 21 soldiers of the 36th (Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry of the British Indian army fought a last stand against thousands of besieging Pashtun tribesmen. Theirs is a story of bravery in the face of overwhelming odds.
That year, in an effort to exert control over the traditionally volatile North-West Frontier, the British garrisoned a line of existing Sikh “forts”—really little more than makeshift mud-and-stone shelters. Among them were Fort Lockhart, atop the Samana Ridge, and Fort Gulistan, a few miles west in the Sulaiman Mountains. The two were not visible to one another. Midway between them was Saragarhi, a signal outpost that linked the forts using heliographs, tripod-mounted mirrors that directed reflected sunlight to communicate Morse code. The 36th Sikhs, which traced its origins to 1858, had been reformed at Jalan-dhar, Punjab, in 1887. In December 1896 the regiment was sent to the North-West Frontier, dispersed among the forts and tasked with quelling rebellious local Pashtuns. In early September 1897 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen twice attacked Fort Gulistan. A relief column from Fort Lockhart helped repel both assaults.
