Punjab: The historic town of Attari near the Indo-Pak border has a special place in Punjab’s history as it is associated with the great Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his great Sikh general and martyr Sham Singh Attariwala. However, it is fast losing its glory, and its heritage is fading with time. Located just a few kilometres from the border and despite having the Attari-Wagah Joint Check-Post and Integrated Check-Post, the residents here feel cheated due to the “indifferent treatment meted out to the village by the authorities over the years”. “Ideally, it should have been one of the model villages in the state as hundreds and thousands of visitors from India and abroad visit the Attari-Wagah Joint Check-Post daily to witness the Beating the Retreat (flag lowering) ceremony,” said Shamsher Singh, a panchayat member. Yet, the idea of its overall development and preserving the heritage hardly attracts government representatives. A few metres after entering the city, one comes across the mausoleums built in memory of Sikh martyr Sham Singh Attariwala, his father Nihal Singh and other family members. Sham Singh Attariwala, a Sikh general in the army, was famous for his bravery during the Anglo-Sikh War at Sabron.
According to the history written on the plaque in the premises of his mausoleum, he joined the Maharaja’s army at a very young age and participated in the Sikh military campaigns of Peshawar, Attock, Multan and Kashmir. Later, he led several campaigns to subdue the rulers of Jammu. His daughter Bibi Nanaki was married to Kanwar Naunihal Singh, grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, on March 7, 1837 at Attari. Among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony was Sir Henry Fane, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in India. After the demise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, he was nominated to the Council of Regency by Maharani Jind Kaur. After the Anglo-Sikh Wars began, he was called out of retirement by the Queen to lead the Sikh army to stop the British troops advancing towards Lahore. Despite being inferior in numbers, he led a valiant attack and was martyred at Sabron on February 10, 1846. He was later cremated at this very spot, where a mausoleum was built in his memory. The mausoleum of Sham Singh Attariwala’s father Nihal Singh was once decorated with intricate frescoes, but over time, these were lost due to neglect and decay. As history tells, the village was founded by two Sidhu Jat brothers Gaur and Kaur, who migrated from the Malwa region in 1740. Gaur Singh built a three-storey house (attari) on a high mound (theh) and later the village grew around this attari.
Impressed by the bravery of the Sikh warriors fighting against the Mughals, he became a Sikh and was joined by Baba Gurbaksh Singh, another famous Sikh warrior of the time. The fort built on this mound has deteriorated with the passage of time. It has undergone many changes as many of its parts have been renovated with modern construction techniques. One of the descendants of Sham Singh Attari, Harpreet Singh Attari, who lives in the US, regretted that successive governments failed to notify a state-level programme to mark the martyrdom day of the Sikh warrior. “No government is concerned about the great history of Punjab. We had requested the government several times to declare February 10 as a state-level programme by notifying it in the official gazette to mark the martyrdom day of Sham Singh Attariwala, but it never happened,” he said. He said that they organised a “state-level programme” on their own in this regard. Attari is the only land route that connects India with Central Asian countries. It was a major route for trade with Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries before bilateral ties with Pakistan were suspended six years ago. He said that many years ago, the Central government had conceived a plan for the development of the city but it could never be realised because of reasons known to the officials themselves.
