The Battle of Chillianwala: When the Sikhs Defied the British

Words by Maarij Ali Tarar

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The first flight that ever resembled what we now know as cargo service was back in 1911 when aircraft was used to transport only mail. However, after WW1 Britain wanted to build a cargo plane that can transport soldiers and equipment. The Vickers Vernon aircraft (shown in the images and poster) was delivered to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1921 but it wasn't until two years later that the aircraft was deployed to transport 280 Sikh troops from Kingarban to Kirkuk in Iraq, helping to quash a Kurdish uprising against the British mandate in the region. This was the first time in the regiment's history that troops had been deployed by air and therefore the first ever military airlift operation. Their journey received worldwide attention. Here is a poster of the front page of the French newspaper Le Petit Journal from May 6, 1923 which features the first British air trooping operation. (Available now as print)

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Recommended Reads:

Polish Refugees in India during World War II

Decolonizing Narratives of South Asian Soldiers in the World Wars

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The Battle of Chillianwala: When the Sikhs Defied the British

The Battle of Chillianwallah on 13th January 1849 during the Second Sikh War

England was in uproar. There was great outcry at the news coming in from the east: a British army had been fought to a bloody draw — with a fifth of it wiped out — by “wild Indian people."

Everyone from the lowest tavern tactician to Queen Victoria herself castigated the conduct of the British commander. Within 48 hours of the arrival of the dreadful news, it was decided that the redoubtable Sir Charles Napier should be sent to take command of the British forces.

Such was the gravity of the situation that the Duke of Wellington — Britain’s greatest living soldier, the man who ended the Napoleonic menace — said to Napier, “If you do not go, I must.”

But who were these ‘wild Indian people’? And how did they defeat the army of an empire on which the sun never set?