Remembering The Param Veer Of Indian Army Subedar Joginder Singh On His Birth Anniversary
96 years ago today, the Param Veer of India and Indian Army took birth in a small village of Moga. He was an ordinary child born in an ordinary family of enslaved India but what he did in his life is not only triumphant but also gave a new definition to valor and courage.
Subedar Joginder Singh, who got commissioned into Sikh Regiment of British Indian Army, was sent to Burma soon after his training got completed. On 15th August 1947, when a huge nation like India attained independence from the treacherous rule of British, his regiment was shifted to Indian Army where he was sent to tension struck area of North Western Frontier Provinces after Pakistani Tribals launched an attack on Kashmir to detach it from India. He along with his men stood strong against those Tribals and didn't let them take control over Kashmir.
But the real test of his exuberance and firmness was pushed to test in the Indo-China War of 1962. The then 41 year old Subedar Joginder Singh, on the verge of his retirement, was as fit as a 16 year old and ready to go for battle in the service of nation. Being unacclimated to the terrain Subedar and his few men got the marching orders to NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh), where they were given charge of Twin Peaks and IB Ridge in Bum La Axis of Tawang Sector. This feature was crucial for Indians so as to strategically counter any objectionable activity by the larger neighbor, China.
He and his platoon took control of the feature where they were right in front of a humongous Chinese PLA (People’s Liberation Army). Taking advantage of their numbers, Chinese launched psychological attack on their Indian counterparts nearly everyday but due to sheer motivation and inspiration provided by Subedar, the Indian soldiers were unabated and didn’t bend their knees in front of those attacks. Later in October 1962, the frustrated Chinese finally launched a full-fledged attack on India. Subedar and his men, in retaliation, opened fire against the Chinese PLA and even though they were lesser in number, crushed their two waves one after the other.
Up to this moment, Indian soldiers were out of their ammunition. Half of the soldiers were already martyred and they had even got orders from their company Commander to come back, but Subedar and his few men denied the orders and faced third wave of Chinese PLA with their bayonets. Defeat was inevitable for Indians but that didn’t shake their courage. Even after losing all his men and taken into custody by Chinese, Joginder Singh denied taking treatment by the enemy and finally achieved martyrdom on October 23, 1962.
Seeing this unprecedented courage, he was awarded by country’s highest gallantry award – Param Vir Chakra (Posthumously). After this announcement even Chinese realized the bravery of this man and returned his mortal remains to his family in India. To mark respect to the extraordinary valor shown by him, a war biopic is currently in the making by Seven Colors Entertainment, due for release on April 6, 2018.
