April 23 has a special meaning for all Proud Indians. On this day in 1930, the British rulers asked Garhwal Rifles to march forward and crush an agitation on SALT SATYAGRAHA by the Balooch people (PATHANS) in Peshawar. Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali refused to open fire on the demonstrators and he ordered a cease-fire instead.
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23 April 1930 at Peshawar, a part of a battalion of The Royal Garhwal Rifles mutinied and did not open fire against nationalist satyagrahis who were were protesting for the unlawful arrest of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. The soldiers of the 2/18 Garhwal Rifles under the leadership of Chandra Singh Garhwali refused to fire upon the non-violent Pathan demonstrators, in spite of the communal instigation by their British officers. A total of 67 soldiers and others were punished, some receiving life imprisonment. A court martial found 17 Garhwali troops guilty and these were sentenced to various terms of transportation for life and lesser forms of imprisonment. This incident galvanized the entire freedom movement.
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Legendary Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali was followed by a large number of the soldiers in his action. He was tortured and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment by the Britishers along with 59 other serving soldiers. Barrister Mukandi Lal went from Lansdown to Peshawar fought his case and saved him from the death penalty.
Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali will be remembered for posterity as a brave soldier and a revolutionary, who had shown great courage, patriotism as a freedom fighter while serving as a soldier. He was born in 1891 in Rauni Sera village of district Garhwal (now in district Chamoli). This great soldier and freedom fighter died on 1st October 1979 at the age of 88 years.
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23 April 1930 at Peshawar, a part of a battalion of The Royal Garhwal Rifles mutinied and did not open fire against nationalist satyagrahis who were were protesting for the unlawful arrest of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. The soldiers of the 2/18 Garhwal Rifles under the leadership of Chandra Singh Garhwali refused to fire upon the non-violent Pathan demonstrators, in spite of the communal instigation by their British officers. A total of 67 soldiers and others were punished, some receiving life imprisonment. A court martial found 17 Garhwali troops guilty and these were sentenced to various terms of transportation for life and lesser forms of imprisonment. This incident galvanized the entire freedom movement.
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Legendary Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali was followed by a large number of the soldiers in his action. He was tortured and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment by the Britishers along with 59 other serving soldiers. Barrister Mukandi Lal went from Lansdown to Peshawar fought his case and saved him from the death penalty.
Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali will be remembered for posterity as a brave soldier and a revolutionary, who had shown great courage, patriotism as a freedom fighter while serving as a soldier. He was born in 1891 in Rauni Sera village of district Garhwal (now in district Chamoli). This great soldier and freedom fighter died on 1st October 1979 at the age of 88 years.