Lt. Gen (Retd) Bhopinder Singh
A couple of years back, the author had made a repeat attempt through this publication to suggest branding Jammu as the “The most valourous city of India”. A stirring and powerful title that would have been factually correct given the unprecedented number of gallantry award winners from the Duggar Land (even if unbeknownst to most of India, or even to someDogras), and one that would have been unique, riveting, and unshared. Surprisingly, for a land of such unmatched sacrifices and bravery for centuries, it remains inexplicably diffident and reticent.
I did make an outreach with hard facts of the long roll of honour (beyond the unmatched and under-recognised heroics of the legendary Zorawar Singh in the national imagination) from Maj Somnath Sharma PVC, Brig Rajendra Singh Jamwal MVC, Subedar Bana Singh PVC, Captain Vikram Batra PVC, Maj Ajay Jasrotia AC, Captain GS Salaria PVCetc., to many well-known Dogra personalities in public sphere, but invariably drew a blank.
Some incredously even dropped names of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana or even Uttrakhand to be more legitimate claimants for valour – as good ‘marketing’ over the years have definitely associated valour onto these states. However, I repeat like a stuck record that none of these states collectively match the embarrassment of richness in terms of gallantry awards for Duggar lands, not even remotely closely. Do the count. Are we then surprised that if a simple mathematical count of gallantry awards cannot convince the Dogras of their own feat, as to why, a ‘Zorawar’ remains unknown and supremely unvalourised amongst the rest of citizenry of India. Had the facts of Zorawar’s exploits been in the hands of ‘others’, they would have gone hell for leather in presenting, scaling and valuing his heroics to be in the league of Maharana Pratap, Maharaja Ranjit Singh or Chhatrapati Shivaji.
But what one got in return was timid and deflective alternatives of insisting on Jammu as ‘City of Temples’, ‘City of Culture’ and suchlike generalities, which are certainly true but perhaps lack the sharpness, martial bluntness and patriotic zing that only and only a Duggar land (with Jammu as its historical, emotional and spiritual epicenter), could rightfully appropriate. In terms of basic marketing logic and common sense, would a Jammu exceed (not match, as matching would not allow a USP) its credentials of religiousity or divinity via-a-vis Varanasi, Madurai, Dwarka, Haridwar or now even Ayodhya? This is not to diminish the lustre of Jammu’s own temples or spiritual underpinning but only to suggest an alternative brand essence of ‘Valour’ or bravery which has deep resonances, in the times that be.
Alas, the efforts to affix ‘Most valourous city of India’ effectively fell on deaf ears, and Jammu remains the proverbial ‘and’ adjunct to the hyphenated J&K without much clarity or perception for Indians at large – this despite the continuous rain of supreme sacrifices and gallantry medals (a couple of years back, Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Babu Ram from Poonch got the highest gallantry award in peace times i.e., Ashok Chakra – just how many are aware of the same??). The efforts to valourise identities have to go beyond the standard political/partisan goad of creating a separate State (detached from the Valley) – as there is no end to cutting oneself towards misplaced thinking that you are solving a problem. Already Zorawar’s Ladakh is a UT, other conquered lands are under Chinese and Pakistani control, and Duggar sensibilities and Dogras reside in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. So, the challenge is to go beyond aspiring for a separate state as that is the wasted distraction that politicians will continuously feed – what is important is to celebrate Dogra valour, whether a person is from from Gurdaspur, Chamba, Poonch, Udhampur or Jammu, knowingly fully well that it all embellishes the multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-caste identities of the noble and gallant Dogras. And the collective Dogra identity dovetails into Jammu, singularly.
It is with this sense of persistent frustration; I was incredibly pleased to see a Bollywood movie with leading actors with Dogra surname and the backdrop of Jammu in the narrative! Remember, popular movies tend to affix names that seemingly suit a character, and unsurprisingly a dashing, swaggering and devil-may-care fighter pilot called Shamsher Singh Pathania, or ‘Patty’, as is the Air Force call-sign culture. Befittingly or rather serendipitously, the movie was also called ‘Fighter’! A closer enquiry into the credits of the film perhaps explains the situational referencing (the writer is one, Ramon Chibb!). Nonetheless, the naturalness of a Dogra warrior (from any religion, caste, or ethnicity) in any ‘Uniformed’ setting is so surprisingly unseen or unromanced in a wider audience, outside of cantonments and barracks. To that extent, the repeated allusion to ‘Pathania’ or ‘Jammu’ (even at the cost of what at times felt like force-fitting) was still refreshingly welcome!
Historically so also, the legend (again, underappreciated and underrecognized) of Group Captain Virendra Singh Pathania, Vrc (Vir Chakra), VM Vayu Medal, who ought to be famous for the first shooting down of the Pakistani Air Force fighter plane (F-86) in an aerial dogfight in 1965 – as also murmurs of the last and lone downing of yet another ‘kill’ of Pakistan F-86 in the Western Sector should have elevated him far far higher in the pantheon of our national consciousness – but it hasn’t. Just like the case earlier, of Lt Colonel Raghubir Singh Pathania, OBI or Order of British India (2nd Jammu & Kashmir Rifles) who went down fighting in the finest traditions of soldering against Germans, in the Battle of Jassin. His commander, Brig JL Rose had commented, “A glorious one falling as the head of his men fighting for his Chief, King and the Country” – reconfirming and reiterating a ‘normalcy’ that would be (as is still ensured) by scores of Dogras who serve the nation with such elan and valour.
Specifically, about the ‘Pathanias’ theImperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Punjab Vol 2 describes Pathankot town (in Lahore Division) as “The Capital of this state was Nurpur in Kangra, but Pathankot must have been a place of some importance, a from it the Pathania Rajputs of Nurpur take their name. It was from ancient times held by a life of Rajput chiefs, of whom the most noted are Raja Bakht Mal, who fought for Sikandar Suri at Mankot; Bas Deo, who rebelled against Akbar; Suraj Mal, who rebelled against Jahangir; and Jagat Singh, who rebelled against Shah Jahan and accompanied Dara Shikoh to Kandahar.”
Even the role of Mian Ram Singh Pathania as a fearless freedom fighter who revolted against the British East India Company, hardly finds any adequate traction or mention whenever the freedom struggle is posited. The Government’s site celebrating 75 years of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav of unsung heroes notes about Ram Singh Pathania, “Mia Ram Singh along with Maharaj Singh did not lay down arms but instead continued tactical warfare against the British. Following a tip, he was apprehended in December 1849. He was first sent to Allahabad before being transferred to Calcutta. Mohammad Shah, a chartered ship, transported Bhai Maharaj Singh and Mia Ram Singh to Singapore in 1850. He had been deported for life. He was imprisoned in solitary confinement at the Moulmein prison, where he died in a dark and dingy cell in 1858”.
The ‘Pathanias’ are just one of the so many Dogra clans who have routinely paid the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ for the dignity and sovereignty of the Tiranga and India. It is time to introspect and re-trigger debate about affixing the tag/brand of the “Most Valiant city of India” onto Jammu and to its extrapolated identity of representing Dogras as the spiritual fount of that identity. You have history, you have a continuing legacy, and you have a necessity to stand for a befitting identity – all that is needed is acknowledgement, adoption, and efforts to normalise Jammu as ‘The most Valourous city of India’, with matching pride, boldness, and patriotism.
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