Raised on 1 October 1941 at Jullundur as the Mazhabi and Ramdasia Sikh Light Infantry, the regiment took its present name on 23 June 1944.
Jullundur, 1 October 1941
The 1st Battalion of the Mazhabi and Ramdasia Sikh Light Infantry was raised at Jullundur on 1 October 1941. The 2nd followed at Peshawar on 1 July 1942, and the 3rd at Sialkot on 15 August 1942. On 23 June 1944 a royal proclamation shortened the name to the Sikh Light Infantry.
The regiment's descent runs through the Sikh Pioneers, the 23rd, 32nd and 34th, which trace their origins to 1857 and drew on Mazhabi and Ramdasia Sikhs. In 1922 they were amalgamated as the 3rd Sikh Pioneers, renamed the Corps of Sikh Pioneers in 1929. The Pioneer regiments were disbanded in 1932 and 1933. The new regiment took over the Pioneers' traditions, and its recruitment is still from Mazhabi and Ramdasia Sikhs.
Its first battle honours came in the reconquest of Burma: Defence of Meiktila, Rangoon Road, Pyawbwe and Sittang 1945, with Burma 1942-45 as the theatre honour. The regimental centre has been at Fatehgarh since 7 May 1976.
Kalidhar and OP Hill, 1965
Lieutenant Colonel P. K. Nandagopal took 6 Sikh LI against the Kalidhar ridge in the Chhamb sector in the autumn of 1965. On 5 October the battalion took Trig Point 3776, and Nandagopal received the Maha Vir Chakra. The honour Kalidhar went to the battalion.
A month later, on the night of 2 to 3 November, 5 Sikh LI attacked OP Hill, a feature Pakistani forces had occupied. Lieutenant Colonel Sant Singh commanded. The citation for his Maha Vir Chakra describes hand-to-hand fighting on the first objective, through mines and artillery fire, and the clearing of a second under heavy fire. Naik Darshan Singh of the same battalion, advancing through the mines, received a posthumous Maha Vir Chakra. Sant Singh won a Bar to his MVC in 1971 as a sector commander on the Eastern Front, when his force advanced about 38 miles and secured Mymensingh and Madhupur in eight days. He is one of six Indian Army officers decorated twice with the MVC.
Fatehpur and Parbat Ali, December 1971
Fatehpur, between Amritsar and Lahore, was a diamond-shaped post with high bunds on all four sides, which Pakistan had taken early in the war. 8 Sikh LI, under Lieutenant Colonel Harish Chandra Pathak, attacked at 2300 on 11 December 1971. Bravo and Charlie Companies led, with Alpha and Delta behind them.
An account by a veteran of the battle, then Second Lieutenant I. N. Rai and later a Brigadier, gives 46 men killed that night. Among them were Second Lieutenant H. P. Nayyar and Captain Karam Singh. Major Tirath Singh of Alpha Company reached the head of the diamond and called down artillery fire on his own position; he died there. A truck carrying medical supplies hit an anti-tank mine, and nursing assistant K. C. Mathew burned to death in it. Pathak received the Maha Vir Chakra after holding the post against two counter-attacks, and the battalion the honour Fatehpur.
In the same week, on 12 to 13 December, 10 Sikh LI under Lieutenant Colonel Basant Singh took Parbat Ali in the Sind desert. The action brought the honour Parbat Ali and the theatre honour Sind 1971. Also in 1971 came 2 Sikh LI's assault on Durgabarkati on 6 December, under Lieutenant Colonel A. B. C. D'Mello, which brought a sector honour.
Jaffna University, 12 October 1987
13 Sikh LI had only just arrived in Jaffna from Gwalior when it was ordered into the helidrop on the Jaffna University ground on the night of 11 to 12 October 1987. About 360 men were to follow 120 commandos of 10 Para. They were general infantry, with no training in heliborne operations. The airlift was halted after the Mi-8s were damaged, and only 30 of the battalion had landed, in the fourth and fifth shuttles, under Major Birendra Singh of C Company and Subedar Sampuran Singh.
They came under fire on disembarking and the radio operator was shot by a sniper soon afterward. By 1130 on 12 October three men were left. With no ammunition, they made a bayonet charge. Two were killed. Sepoy Gora Singh was taken prisoner, the only survivor of the 30. The LTTE laid out the dead at the Nagaraja Vihar temple and cremated them. Press reports claimed the party had been dropped 2 km from the landing zone. An inter-services court of inquiry found the pilots had made no error.
Major Birendra Singh was awarded the Vir Chakra, as were three of his men, posthumously. The university was captured on 24 October. The battalion holds an Ardas and Akhand Path every year on 12 October.
At a glance
- Raised: 1st Battalion raised 1 October 1941 at Jullundur, as the Mazhabi and Ramdasia Sikh Light Infantry; renamed 23 June 1944
- Regimental centre: Fatehgarh, Uttar Pradesh (since 7 May 1976)
- Motto: Deg Tegh Fateh
- War cry: Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal