By C.N. Vaze
Chartered Accountant
17th January, 1872. A historic event in the struggle for India’s freedom. Most deplorable manifestation of the cruelty of the British Government.
Fifty persons, ardent followers of Shri Ramsingh Kuka, were to be shot dead in one go! It was in a village called Malerkotla in Ludhiana. The freedom fighters rejected the British Officer – Coven’s proposal to wrap their faces and shoot them from the back. They insisted that they would prefer to be shot from the front with their eyes wide open.
Many British families had assembled to watch this incident as ‘entertainment’. Coven ordered firing at 49 individuals one by one. The last one was a 12-year-old kid. Coven’s wife had lost her son of that age. She could not bear this scene and requested her husband to leave him. Coven offered to leave him if he left Ramsingh Kuka’s movement. However, since he used bad words about Kuka, the boy jumped in anger and held Coven’s beard tightly, so much so that the soldiers had to cut his hand to relieve Coven! The inevitable outcome was that Coven ordered the boy’s killing too!
Who was this Ramsingh Kuka?
He was born in 1816 at Baini Village in Ludhiana. His father, Jassasingh, had a small business, and his mother, Sadan Kaur, was a pious lady. Jassasingh was a respected person in the locality. Ramsingh got married at the age of 7, according to the prevailing custom.
Ramsingh’s maternal uncle Kabulsingh was a soldier in Ra
