The excavation work which was being carried out at Punjab’s Anjala town ended on Sunday evening, after the remains of 282 Indian soldiers, who were killed during 1857 revolt, were exhumed from the site after 157 long years.
Few local NGOs lamented the fact that for 157 years, neither the Indian Government nor the Government of Punjab, attempted to extract the bodies of the martyrs and perform the last rites and restore the honour of the soldiers of the first freedom struggle.
However, Punjab Government has agreed to sanction permanent land, to set-up a museum in the memory of the martyrs of the 1857 mutiny. Ravi Bhagat, Deputy Commissioner Amritsar said that the Chief Minister of Punjab has assured the local Gurudwara management head, Amarjit Singh Sarkaria about the sanctioning of land, over telephone.
The digging of the well, located inside the premises of Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj here, 30 km from Amritsar, started on Friday, preceded by Sikh, Hindu and Muslim prayers.
Scores of volunteers were involved in digging the well, which was earlier called kalian wala khu (well of the blacks). While khu means a well, the word kalianwala has been derived from kale (blacks), as the colonialists used to call the Indians. It is now referred to as the shaheedan wala khu (well of the martyrs).
“The excavation work ended on Sunday evening. We have taken out the remains of 282 martyrs from the well,” historian Surendra Kochhar, who was actively engaged in the digging process, said on Monday.
“After three days of digging, we recovered 90 skulls, 170 jaws, over 5,000 teeth and hundreds of bones. Besides, we were able to find coins of the British era, gold items, medals and other items,” Kochhar said.
“These were our freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the First War of Independence. The British pushed them into the well here and let them die,” said Amarjit Singh Sarkaria, president of Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj.
The Gurdwara came up at the site as a tribute to the martyrs. The dead were Indian soldiers from the 26th Bengal Native Infantry posted at Mian Mir cantonment near lahore who revolted against the British and were marching towards Ajnala after hearing reports of the mutiny in Meerut and other places in 1857. These soldiers, around 500 in numbers, challenged the British Empire by killing two British officers at Mian Mir Cantonment in lahore.
The soldiers then swam across the Ravi River to reach Anjala, town of Amritsar to face the British. The then British deputy commissioner of Amritsar, Fredrick Cooper, ordered action against the troops in which around 218 mutineers were killed by the colonial army at Dadian Sofian village.
The remaining 282 were captured and brought to Ajnala in cages.Many were killed due to asphyxiation and thrown into the well while others were pushed into it alive. A 10-foot layer of soil was put on them later.
It was an emotional moment for the people of Ajnala town when the skulls and bones were taken out. The Gurdwara committee and others engaged in excavation said a suitable memorial and a museum would be built at the site to honour those who laid down their lives for the country.
A high level team of Cultural Department of Punjab would visit the spot and lay out proper plan to make build the museum which will keep the memories of atrocities and selfless devotion of the first Indian freedom struggle during the British era, said Bhagat.
The committee will record the mortal remains of the martyrs found during the excavation to keep is as a proof in the museum, after which cremation will be done and later a museum will be erected in their memory.