The Battle of Saragarhi Had Its Own Live Reporter

In 1897 — Using Sunlight

On 12 September 1897, just 21 soldiers of the 36th (Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry defended the isolated post of Saragarhi against an overwhelming tribal force on the Samana Ridge.

Led by Havildar Ishar Singh, they fought until the post fell and every defender was killed. The 21 men were later awarded the Indian Order of Merit posthumously.

But Saragarhi was not simply a small fort.

It was a communications relay.

Nearby stood Fort Lockhart and Fort Gulistan. Because the rugged terrain prevented reliable direct visual communication between them, Saragarhi helped relay messages using a remarkable piece of 19th-century technology:

the heliograph.

A heliograph used a mirror to reflect sunlight in controlled flashes, allowing soldiers to transmit coded messages across long distances — effectively Morse code sent with sunlight. Saragarhi was an important signalling link between the forts.

During the battle, Sepoy Gurmukh Singh continued operating the heliograph while the fighting closed in around him.

His messages were received at Fort Lockhart, allowing officers there to follow the battle as it unfolded.

That is what makes Saragarhi extraordinary.

Normally, when every defender of a position is killed, much of the exact story disappears with them.

At Saragarhi, it did not.

The defenders were effectively reporting their own last stand in real time.

Help was nearby, but the scale of the attacking force and the difficult terrain prevented the post from being relieved in time. The 21 Sikhs chose to hold their position rather than surrender.

So more than a century before smartphones, satellites or battlefield radios, Saragarhi had something remarkably close to live reporting from the battlefield.

The reporter was also one of the soldiers fighting it.

And his messages travelled across the mountains on beams of sunlight.

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