Destruction of the Battlefield of Sabraon Date: Thursday, 18 December, 2008
By Amarpal Sidhu
Some of the Sikh defences erected by the Sikh army before the
battle of Sabraon during the First Anglo Sikh war remarkably still survive in a
badly faded state. However parts of these are being quickly destroyed by local farmers
who are rapidly appropriating any remaining uncultivated areas. Unless any
government action is taken swiftly no visible scar of the conflict will be left
on this famous battlefield.
During my recent visit to the battlefield I found farmers
had already expanded their farms right up to the banks of the Sutlej at many
points destroying and levelling any remaining evidence of the battle. This
battlefield like the others of the Anglo Sikh Wars has no protection from the Punjab
Government. Other battlefields like Mudki and Ferozeshah are in heavily
populated areas and all superficial evidence of battle has long ago been
destroyed. However I found a small section of the Sikh entrenchments close to
the Sutlej that has not been discovered, and appears, till lately to have been
reasonably undisturbed. Sabraon was the only battle where these sort of extensive
field works were dug, in this case by the Sikh army. This piece of defence
works was the westernmost of the Sikh entrenchments close by the river as shown
on the map.
The Battle at Sabraon
Before the 10th of February 1846, the day of the
battle, half of the Sikh army had been ordered across the Sutlej by Tej Singh
and had dug in round the right most section of the giant bend in the river
north of the villages of Chote Sabraon and Rhodewalla. They had organized defences and trench works
round a perimeter of around 2 miles in length. The defences included fascines (wooden
defences) and epaulements (bags filled with earth like sandbags) in some areas. However Tej Singh had left the defences
around the western side where a sizeable nullah flowed through the Sikh lines very
weak and manned mostly by irregular troops, the least able to stop a determined
British assault. No heavy artillery was placed here, only the much lighter Zambarooks
or camel guns. The fact that this area was by far the weakest had been
communicated to the British by the Sikh Commanders.
The camp itself was too small for the whole army and most of
the cavalry and considerable portions of the infantry and artillery stayed
camped on the north bank of the river unable to take part in the battle. This
left less than half the army facing a much reinforced British force on the
south bank. Even had the whole army crossed, it would have been impossible from
a logistics point of view to supply the approximately 40,000 men and 20,000 horses
with their daily rations and ammunition via a single boat bridge. The position the
Sikh commanders had put the Sikh army in was an extremely weak one.
A matter of weeks after the battle of Sabraon and the end of
the first Anglo Sikh war, the British destroyed the wooden fortifications round
the southern and eastern portions of the Sikh entrenchment erected by the Sikh
army. This may quite possibly have been to stop the site turning into a place
of pilgrimage - up to 10,000 Sikh soldiers had lost their lives here including
General Sham Singh Attariwalla.
What's left at Sabraon
The sections of the trenches dug in the extreme northwest that
still survive are surrounded by cultivated land and live a tenuous existence
awaiting only the nearby farmers to level them for farming at some near point
in the future. I had followed the exact position of the line of the outer Sikh
fortifications from the south eastern
side along the Sutlej all along the path it had taken up to the northwest end
where it met the Sutlej again. I found nothing left of value by the local
farmers as far as the outer Sikh defence line was concerned apart from these
faded trench works to the north of the nullah flowing through the extreme
northwest of the Sikh lines. These defensive works were exactly where they should
have been according to British maps. The fact that they were so close to the
river had protected them for these last 150 years.
In fact remnants of the first Sikh line of defence, the
bridgehead to protect the bridge of boats built to cross the river also
survived till a few years ago. However I found the bridgehead defences had now
been just recently been destroyed and the trenches and foxholes levelled by
farmers. If the battlefield had had any
Government protection, the defences could quite easily have been saved and
turned into a major visitor attraction as interest in the Anglo Sikh wars runs
deep within the Punjabi people. As I
walked around the interior of the Sikh lines I found circular pits badly faded
over time. Gough and Innis in their
book, "The Sikhs and the Sikh wars"
among other sources describe how the Sikh army had dug large pits
capable of holding around 30 men" . In
fact the Akalis in the Sikh army
excelled in these fieldworks. Some of these pits are still apparent on the east
side of the nullah. No pits survive closer to the river as this area has been
levelled by famers.
In fact till a few
years ago, most of the Sikh entrenchments area on the south side of the river, just
over 0.5 square miles of land had not come under cultivation as the area here
is so prone to flooding. Earlier this
year during the flooding of the Sutlej, this entrenchments area was under
several feet of water. However, regardless of flooding, in the last few years,
farmers have swiftly taken around 70-80% of this area. Only the most
unpromising areas, traversed by nullahs and streamlets difficult to level have
been left - mainly in the eastern portion of the entrenchment.
Images of the remnants of the Battlefield:
Image 1 - Dugout
Image 2 - Foxhole
Image 3 - Trench
Image 4 - Farmers
Image 5 - River view
Image 6 - Nullah
Description of the fortifications
The most obvious of the defences was two giant rectangular
dugouts - each slightly less than 50m by 30m in length. A third rectangular defence can be seen
although largely been destroyed by farmers. These could have protected several
hundred men from a cannonade or could have served as a cavalry trap for
charging British horsemen while the Sikh soldiers manned a trench just behind
these rectangular dugouts. On three sides of the central square were normal
circular dugouts or foxholes capable of holding 2-3 men each. In total I found seven
circular dugouts still surviving all built near to the bigger rectangular
dugouts.
All these manmade defences have suffered from flooding of
the river and general erosion over the years and are heavily filled with soil
due to flooding. In the case of the rectangular dugouts the local farmers have
started planting crops inside them despite their lower level than the
surrounding fields. One still hasn't
been used. These dugouts were interconnected so soldiers could move from one to
another without being exposed to British fire. Behind the rectangular dugouts
were two trenches, again much faded after 150 years of neglect but still very
obvious along with some circular dugouts.
On their own initially from ground level they did not appear
to make sense. Taken together and
mapped, these dugouts and trenches form a fascinating image and detailed map of
the defences made by the Sikh army at its weakest point and where the British
would break through.
See Figure 1 - Map
The map is the only detailed representation of any
of the Sikh defences at Sabraon. I don't expect these defences to last more
than a few weeks or months given the rapid level of encroachment by local
farmers.
An explanation of the map is as follows.
Point A
This was a large dugout surrounded by cultivated fields.
This may have been part of the defences. Each of the rectangular dugouts in the
centre had small trench exits visible leaving them connecting them to the other
areas. The trenches leaving the central rectangular dugout at points B and C
suggest there may have been more trenches or dugouts to the west.
Point D
Only the southernmost edges of this dugout can be seen,
the rest of it has been levelled by the farmer. An entrance at point H can be
seen as an entrance from the middle dugout to dugout D.
Point E
There's evidence of a trench here leading from foxhole F
to foxhole G as an entrance from the middle rectangular dugout leads away at
point E eastwards but there is no traces of this trench now.
Points J and K
At these two points, the trench running from north to south widens somewhat.
Point L
A second trench here leaves the main trench and reaches the nullah allowing Sikh troops to cross the nullah without stepping out of the trenches on the western side.
Point M
The British general in charge of this section, Sir Robert Dick was killed in the attack on the attack on the Sikh defences. Lord Gough, the British Commander had placed the HM 53rd regiment at the extreme left of his lines i.e. opposite these trenches
Weakness of this Sikh position
These defences should ideally have been placed behind the nullah, the nullah's 8 to 9 ft high bank's making it much more difficult for the attacking British troops. Instead they were placed in front, perhaps another piece of treachery by the Sikh commanders. Forces led by General Dick on the British left flank overpowered these weakly manned defences fairly quickly. With the Sikh right flank compromised, the British were only 500 meters away from the bridge of boats and the heart of the Sikh camp. Regardless of the situation in the south and east, the Sikh lines would have had to pull back towards the river to avoid being attacked from the rear by Dick's forces.
The Sikh Bridge of boats
During my stay there, I believe I definitively located the position of the Sikh bridge of boats and which tallies with British maps and firsthand accounts. The location lies close to where the nullah shown in the map connects with the Sutlej. This place really cries out for a monument of some sort to the 10,000 or so Sikh soldiers who died here trying to re-cross the river to the north bank. In fact this is possibly one of the loneliest and quietest spots in Punjab, far away from any village.
Attitudes of the local farmers
Little can be expected of the local farmers. Hungry for more
land, any area with trenches or hillocks is now quickly flattened. As an
outsider I was met with not a little suspicion as I went around taking
photographs of the Sikh camp area. Few if any people visit this battlefield,
along with Ferozeshah, probably the most famous battlefields in the Punjab if
not India. No official signs exist and no memorials apart from the ageing British
obelisks mark the important areas. The locals tended to assume the worst during
my visit, that I must be a government official who may order seizure of their
land if I find anything of interest there. Outsiders taking photographs of the land tend
to make them very anxious.
The British demolition of most of the Sikh defences was an
effort to destroy the importance of the Sikh Sabraon camp. Their efforts seemed
to have exceeded their expectations. Few
locals realize this stretch of land I was exploring was the site of the
battlefield. They assume the village of Chote Sabraon was where the battle took
place and that the Sham Singh Attariwalla Gurdwara close
to the village was where the great general died. In fact Sham Singh commanded
the eastern end of the entrenchment and died fighting bravely within the
entrenchment.
All the battlefields need urgent attention. However I
believe only Sabraon out of all the battlefields has evidence of Sikh field defences remaining now
and these shown in this article may disappear in the next few weeks or months
as farmers quickly level what they believe is ‘waste ground'. Only quick
intervention by the Punjab Government can save the last evidence of the Sikh
entrenchments.
