Kesari thrusts a forgotten battle into popular consciousness: What it means

Practices of remembrance and the legacy of Saragarhi have transformed the martyrs into mythical figures

Havildar Ishar Singh has been rescued from the oblivion that he had been consigned to for more than a century. There are no photographs of the sergeant or the handful of Sikh soldiers he led at a small outpost in one of modern history’s bravest last stands. A stone bust at his native village of Jhorran in Ludhiana district, too, lies in obscurity. However, with this week’s release of Akshay Kumar-starrer Kesari, the memory of Ishar Singh and the other martyrs is being recast at a time when episodes from military history such as the Battle of Saragarhi are getting