Jimmy Fallon

Today is Saragarhi Day. On 12 September 1897, just 21 Sikh soldiers of the 36th Sikhs, British Indian Army, under Havildar Ishar Singh, defended the isolated signalling post at Saragarhi on the North-West Frontier. Against them came an estimated 10,000 Afghan/Pashtun tribesmen, principally Afridi and Orakzai, part of the tribal uprising against British rule. The 21 were offered surrender. They refused. For hours they held the post against repeated assaults, fighting with rifles and finally at close quarters until every defender was dead. All 21 were posthumously awarded the Indian Order of Merit, the highest gallantry decoration then available to Indian soldiers. Twenty-one Sikhs against roughly 10,000 men. Saragarhi is one of the great last stands in British military history and a reminder of something too easily forgotten: Sikh soldiers served the British Empire with extraordinary courage and distinction. Their blood is part of our shared history. Today Britain should remember them.