Bearing Witness to the Unseen

A Review of Shaheed Nama Singhan

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In Shaheed Nama Singhan, Dr. Jasbir Singh Sarna has performed a profound act of Panthic seva, preserving an essential yet underexplored chapter of Sikh history with care, scholarly rigor, and deep moral responsibility.

This meticulously documented volume, encompassing 448 pages of eyewitness testimonies, archival references, and hard-won field-work, illuminates the devastating and heroic experiences of Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir during the cataclysm of 1947, a tragedy too often submerged under the larger narratives of Partition.

As a scholar of Sikh studies, I have long felt that the pain and resilience of the Sikh community during the Partition in the region of Jammu and Kashmir remain insufficiently acknowledged in contemporary historiography. Dr. Sarna has courageously stepped into this gap, visiting villages, speaking to survivors, retrieving the voices of women, children, and elders who bore witness to brutality, displacement, and martyrdom, and weaving them into a historical and spiritual tapestry.Dr. Sarna carefully contextualizes the political climate of Jammu and Kashmir during 1947, tracing its history from the Lahore Darbar under Maharaja Ranjit Singh to the Dogra rule of Maharaja Hari Singh. His crisp exposition of the political hesitations, the tribal invasions supported by the Pakistani state, and the urgency that led to the accession to India, provides readers-especially the younger generation-with a clear understanding of why the massacres and forced migrations occurred, and how these geopolitical forces impacted Sikh lives and faith in the region.