Land of brave Soldiers

Himachal is land of proud brave soldiers. Many Himachalis participated in the freedom struggle and contributed to the freedom of our country. The Mandi conspiracy was carried out in 1914-15 under the influence of the Gadhr party. Meetings were held in Mandi and Suket states in December 1914 and January 1915. Important freedom fighters of Himachal during this period included Dr. Y.S. Parmar, Padam Dev, Shivanand Ramaul, Purnanand, Satya Dev, Sada Ram Chandel, Daulat Ram, Thakur Hazara Singh, Pahari Gandhi Baba Kanshi Ram, Munshi Saje Ram, Thakur Devi Singh, Thakur Shiv Chand, Jangi Ram, Bhag Saran and many more. The Independent India too has witnessed and is witnessing the bravery of Himachali Soldiers. The first Paramveer Chakra ( Highest bravery award of Independent India) was awarded to our brave Major Somnath Sharma during the Kashmir war in 1947. He fought bravely and was instrumental in preventing Pakistanis from taking over Srinagar. Other Himachali braves who were awarded with Highest bravery award Paramveer Chakra are Lt. Col. Dhan Singh Thapa (1962 China war), Captain Vikram Batra (1999 kargil war) and Rifleman Sanjay Kumar ( 1999 Kargil war). During Kargil war four Indian braves were awarded with Paramveer Chakra and our of those four, two were from our land of braves Himachal. The immense contribution of our Himachali braves in unparalleled as total 527 brave Indian soldiers were martyred during Kargil war and out of those 527 braves, 52 were from Himachal Pradesh. And this is when we are just a sub-zero fraction of the total population of India. We love and respect our braves and a big salute to Land of braves.