Shabeg Singh Explained

Honorific Prefix:Major General
Shabeg Singh
Native Name Lang:ਸੁਬੇਗ ਸਿੰਘ
Honorific Suffix:PVSM, AVSM
Birth Name:Shabeg Singh
Birth Date:1 May 1924
Death Date: (Age 60)
Birth Place:Khiala Kalan, Amritsar, Punjab, British India
Death Place:Akal Takht, Amritsar, Punjab, India
Allegiance:

Sikh Militants
Branch:
Serviceyears:1942 - 1977, 1984
Rank:Major General
Unit:Garhwal Rifles
3/Parachute Regiment
11 Gorkha Rifles
Memorials:Gurdwara Yaadgar Shaheedan, Amritsar
Commands:GOC, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and parts of Odisha; Defence of the Akal Takht, Amritsar
Battles:Second World War
Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948
Sino-Indian War
Indo-Pakistan War of 1965
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Operation Blue Star
Awards: Param Vishisht Seva Medal
Ati Vishisht Seva Medal
Sikh Shaheed[1]
Relations:Mehtab Singh Bhangu

Shabeg Singh, PVSM, AVSM (1 May 1924 – 6 June 1984), was an Indian military officer. He had previously served in the Indian Army but later joined the militant movement of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

He is well known for his involvement in the training of Mukti Bahini volunteers during the Bangladesh Liberation War.[2] He had fought in other major wars such as World War II, 1947 Indo-Pak War, Sino-Indian War,[3] and 1965 Indo-Pakistan War.[4] Later, Singh joined Sikh movement for rights in Punjab, named Dharam Yudh Morcha.[5] [6]

Early life and education

Singh was born in 1924 in Bhangu Jat Sikh family of Khiala village (earlier known as Khiala Nand Singhwala), about nine miles (14 km) from the Amritsar-Chogawan road. He was the oldest son of Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur, and had three brothers and a sister. He enrolled in Khalsa College in Amritsar, and later in Government College in Lahore. Shabeg was a descendant of Mehtab Singh who killed Massa Ranghar after he captured the Golden Temple.[7]

Military career

British India

World War II

In 1942, an officer-selection team visiting Lahore colleges recruited Singh to the British Indian Army officers cadre. After studying in the Indian Military Academy, he was commissioned in the Garhwal Rifles as a second lieutenant. Within a few days the regiment moved to Burma and later to Malaya. In 1945 when the war ended, Singh was in Malaya with his unit. His battalion reportedly captured freedom fighter Prem Sahgal and he ordered him not to be shot and instead taken to trial.

India

Indo-Pakistan War of 1947-1948

After the partition of India, when the Indian regiments were reorganized, Singh joined the 50th Parachute Brigade of the Indian Army. He was unofficially sent for service in the 1947 Indo-Pakistan War in Kashmir along with Maharaja Yadavindra Singh's Akal Regiment.[8] He was noted to have snuck past Pakistani lines and gave information to the Akal Regiment about the Pakistani plans.

Sino-Indian War of 1962

In 1962, during the India-China war, he was a Lt. Col. in IV Corps and fought in Bomdi-La.

Indo-Pakistan War of 1965

Promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 2 June 1965,[9] he later commanded the 3rd Battalion, 11 Gorkha Rifles, and was given command of a brigade on 4 January 1968.[10]

Soon after the 1965 operations, Singh became Col G.S. of an infantry division, after which he was given command of the crack 19 Infantry brigade in Jammu Sector.

Naga Insurgency

With his leadership qualities and use of daredevil tactics he was greatly successful in handling the counter-insurgency operations in that region and crushed the Naga Insurgency, for the next four years there were no terrorist incidents. Singh was promoted to colonel on 12 June 1968 and to substantive brigadier on 22 December.[11] [12]

Indo-Pakistan War of 1971

Singh was a notable figure with the press for his service in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.[13] On 6 July 1972, he was appointed GOC, MPB & O Area, with the acting rank of major-general,[14] and promoted to substantive major-general on 2 April 1974.[15]

The Emergency

In 1975 Shabeg Singh was asked by Indira Gandhi to suppress the Bihar Movement through harsh measures and arrest Jayaprakash Narayan.[16] Shabeg Singh wrote a letter back stating that the Indian Army should not be involved in political matters. Shabeg Singh was assigned a command at area headquarters in Bareilly. Later the Indian Army threw charges under special clauses which were never invoked in the British Indian Army and has been invoked in the Indian Army only in his case, the case was related to him buying a Jonga on proxy.[17]

Shabeg Singh was stripped of his rank without court-martial and thus denied his full pension.[18] Two charge sheets in an anti-corruption court were brought against him in Lucknow by India's Central Bureau of Investigation. Singh sought redress in civil courts, and was acquitted of all charges on February 13, 1984.[19]

Dharam Yudh Morcha and Operation Blue Star

See main article: Operation Blue Star.

During the Asian Games in 1982; Shabeg Singh, Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, Lt. Gen. Harbaksh Singh, Parkash Singh Badal and Air Marshal Arjan Singh were all forced to leave the premises of the complex as they were Sikhs, in fact all Sikhs but a few were allowed to remain in the complex.[20]

Shabeg Singh was mentioned in a speech by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale while highlighting injustices to various Sikhs in 1983. He participated in the Amritsar Rally in the Golden Rail Morcha where over 10,000 ex-servicemen participated.

He joined Sikh militants, where he served as Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's military adviser. Singh had said that he had joined Bhindranwale due to the alleged humiliation he had received, which included being stripped of his pension. Counter Intelligence reports had reported that three leaders of the Khalistan movement were Major General Shabeg Singh, Balbir Singh Sandhu and Amrik Singh.[21] In December 1983, the Sikh political party Akali Dal's President Harcharan Singh Longowal had invited Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to take up residence in the Golden Temple complex.[22] Singh and his military expertise is credited with the creation of effective defences of the temple complex that made the possibility of a commando operation on foot impossible.[23] He organised the Sikh forces present at the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar in June 1984. Indian government forces launched Operation Blue Star in the same month.[24] Four weeks before Operation Blue Star, Shabeg Singh had an interview with Telegraph Calcutta near Shahid Ganj Baba Deep Singh outside the Golden Temple.At the later stages of the operation, Singh was killed in firing between the Akal Takht and Darshani Ḍeorhi. The amount of Indian casualties his defenses incurred are debated, but considered to be higher than Indian Army officials initially expected before the operation.[25] His body was later found and identified when the operation was over. Singh was cremated according to Sikh rites and with full military honours.[26] [27]

Notes and References

  1. News: Shaheedi Samagam Organised at Sri Akal Takhat Sahib . 2022 . Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee . 4 September 2022 . en. ...the Sikh warriors, taking guidance from history, resisted the enemy army and attained martyrdom.
  2. Book: Mahmood, Cynthia Keppley. Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Armed forces . University of Pennsylvania Press. 81. 1996. Series in Contemporary Ethnography. 978-0812215922. 30 May 2009.
  3. Book: Kaul, B. M. . 1967 . The Untold Story . Allied Publishers . 420.
  4. News: 2021-12-13 . 1971 war hero helped Bhindranwale as he wanted to avenge sacking insult, say kins . The Times of India . 2023-05-24 . 0971-8257.
  5. Book: Danopoulos . Constantine Panos . Watson . Cynthia Ann . The Political Role of the Military: An International Handbook . 1996 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-313-28837-1 . 184 . registration . Recent examples of senior officers seeking recourse in civil courts are the cases of Major General Shabeg Singh ... [He] was dismissed from service without a court martial a day before he was due to retire and therefore lost part of his pension. He had to seek redress in civil courts, and later joined a camp of Sikh militants in Punjab..
  6. Book: Holt, James D. . Understanding Sikhism: A Guide for Teachers . 2022-12-29 . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-1-350-26319-2 . en.
  7. Book: Sandhu, Amandeep . Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines . 2022 . Penguin Random House India Private Limited . 978-93-5492-859-8 . en.
  8. Web site: 2023-01-17 . Defence of Srinagar 1947 . 2023-05-24 . Indian Defence Review . en-US.
  9. News: Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) . 584 . 13 November 1965 . The Gazette of India.
  10. News: Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) . 172 . 2 March 1968 . The Gazette of India.
  11. News: Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) . 53 . 18 January 1969 . The Gazette of India.
  12. News: Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) . 376 . 19 April 1969 . The Gazette of India.
  13. Book: Axel . Brian Keith . The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh "Diaspora" . 2001 . Duke University Press . 9780822326151 . 124 . 22 August 2019 . en. Bhindranwale drew a wide range of people to his side who could provide support for strategic military action, including two retired major-generals from the Indian army, Jeswant Singh Bhullar and Shabeg Singh (who was a national hero of the 1971 Pakistan War)..
  14. News: Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) . 95 . 27 January 1973 . The Gazette of India.
  15. News: Part I-Section 4: Ministry of Defence (Army Branch) . 553 . 19 April 1975 . The Gazette of India.
  16. Book: Sandhu, Amandeep . Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines . 2022 . Penguin Random House India Private Limited . 978-93-5492-859-8 . en.
  17. Book: Jaijee . Inderjit Singh . Politics of Genocide: Punjab, 1984-1994 . 1995 . Baba Publishers . 978-1583672129 . 229 . en . 9: INFORMATION / COMMUNICATION . The Indian Express investigated his past and found that two charge sheets filed against him by the CBI in an anti-corruption court in Lucknow had been disproved and he had been acquitted. . 22 August 2019.
  18. Book: Critchfield . Richard . The Villagers: Changed Values, Altered Lives: The Closing of the Urban Rural Gap . 1995 . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group . 9780385420495 . 383 . Stripped of his rank and denied a pension, he had bitterly nursed a grievance ever since and it was he who taught Bhindranwale's men how to use modern weapons, most of them smuggled across the border from Pakistan. Kirpekar had not seen Shabeg Singh for thirteen years, but he had once been a popular figure with the press as well as a national hero..
  19. Book: Sachchidanand . Sinha . Army Action in Punjab: Prelude and Aftermath . Singh . Jasvir . Sunil . Reddy . G.K C . G. K. C. Reddy . Samata Era editorial team . 1984 . G.K.C. Reddy for Samata Era Publication . New Delhi . 56 . en . 6: Role of the Media and Opposition Parties . Shuhbeg Singh was described as the one who was dismissed from the Army on corruption charges. But it was unfair not to inform that he was acquitted by a special court on February 13, 1984 of the charges against him in both cases filed by the CBI. The media was only indulging in unjustified character assassination of Bhindranwala, Shuhbeg Singh and others (that were corrupt, smugglers, robbers, thieves, rapists) in order to justify the Army action. . 22 August 2019 . https://books.google.com/books?id=pdMtAAAAMAAJ&q=corruption+charges&pg=PA56.
  20. Web site: New worry for govt as high-ranking Sikh ex-servicemen get involved in Akali agitation . 2023-05-24 . India Today . en.
  21. Book: Kiessling . Hein G. . Faith, Unity, Discipline: The Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan . 2016 . Oxford University Press . 155–156 . 978-1-84904-863-7.
  22. Book: Khushwant Singh . 2004 . First published 1966 . A History of the Sikhs . Oxford University Press . II . 2nd . 337 . 978-0-691-00804-2.
  23. News: Tully . Mark . 3 June 2014 . Wounds heal but another time bomb ticks away . The Times of India . 15 June 2018.
  24. Web site: Interview Lt Gen PC Katoch . live . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/AxitMTQK-GE . 2021-12-21 . 11 June 2018 . Operation Blue Star - The Untold Story by Kanwar Sandhu - 4.
  25. Book: Deora, Man Singh . Aftermath of Operation Bluestar . 1992 . Anmol Publications . 978-81-7041-645-6 . en.
  26. Book: Jaijee . Inderjit Singh . Politics of Genocide: Punjab, 1984-1994 . 1995 . Baba Publishers . 978-1583672129 . 229 . 22 August 2019 . en. Because of his acquittal and his distinguished service, the highly decorated Shabeg Singh was cremated with military honours.. 9: INFORMATION / COMMUNICATION.
  27. Chopra . Radhika . Commemorating Hurt: Memorializing Operation Bluestar . Sikh Formations . 6 . 2 . 2010 . Taylor & Francis . 119–152 . Bajwa said the Army officers agreed to cremate the bodies of Sant Bhindranwale, Shabeg Singh, Baba Thara Singh and Bhai Amrik Singh according to Sikh rites at his personal request while the rest of the bodies (more than 800) were cremated en masse.. 10.1080/17448727.2010.530509 . 144432496 .