"Badluram ka badan / Zaminke neechay hain
Toh humein uska ration milta hain!
Sabash! Hallelujah! / Toh humein uska ration milta hain!"
("Badluram's body / is buried underground
So we get his ration!
Bravo! Hallelujah! / So we get his ration!")
— The Regimental Song of the Assam Regiment, Indian Army
The history of Indian Army is one of valour and sacrifice — but sometimes, it's also one of defiant, spartan humour. The story behind 'Badluram Ka Badan' — the iconic regimental song of the Assam Regiment of the Indian Army — is a great example of how soldiers find solace and the courage to carry on in sardonic humour even in the worst circumstances.
According to Indian Army legend, Badluram was a rifleman in the 1st Battalion, Assam Regiment of the British Indian Army during World War II. In 1944, the 1st Assam Regiment was deployed in and around Kohima — the capital of present-day Nagaland — and were part of the first line of defence between the rapidly advancing Japanese 15th Army, a formation of the Imperial Japanese Army led by Lt. Gen. Renya Mutaguchi, and the rest of British India. Between March and July, 1944, the Assam Regiment and the Japanese 15th Army were engaged in the Battles of Imphal and Kohima — in what would come to be known as 'Britain's Greatest Battle' according to the National Army Museum, London, in 2013. The Battles of Imphal and Kohima saw weeks of intense skirmishes and guerrilla warfare in the north-eastern hills followed by months of siege. Earl Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Southeast Asian theatre, called these battles the 'British-Indian Thermopylae'.
Badluram died from a gunshot wound in the early days of the Battle of Kohima — termed the 'Stalingrad of the East' by authors such as Martin Dougherty and Jonathan Ritter. After Badluram's death, however, the Quarter Master did not remove his name from the rations roster, as is Army regulation, and the company continued to draw rations in Badluram's name. By April 6, 1944, the Japanese troops of the 15th Army had taken Kohima under siege, and British-Indian supply lines were cut. Major Boshell, the commander of 'B' Company, 1st Royal Berkshires, in the 6th Infantry Brigade of the British Indian Army wrote in his report that, "water was short and restricted to about one pint per man per day (...) Air supply was the key, but the steep plain and narrow ridges meant that some of the drops went to the Japs". The Japanese also brought anti-aircraft guns with them, disrupting the British Indian Army supply chain even more.
For Badluram's company, the surplus rations drawn under his name proved to be life-saving during the siege of Kohima and helped the company survive while cut off from regular supplies. The siege was finally broken in June, 1944, when the Japanese 31st Division led by Kōtoku Satō was forced to retreat under attack from the British 2nd Division advancing down the main Imphal-Kohima road and the Indian 7th Infantry Division moving through the rough terrain east of the road using mules and jeeps.
On June 22, 1944, the leading troops of the British 2nd Division finally linked with the main body of the Indian 5th Infantry Division advancing north from Imphal at Milestone 109, 48 kilometres to the south of Kohima. The siege of Imphal was over, and truck convoys quickly carried vital heavy supplies to the troops to relieve them.
During the Battle of Kohima, the British and Indian allied forces lost 4,064 men — killed, missing, and wounded. The memorial at the War Cemetery in Kohima, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, honours their sacrifice.
In 1946, Major M.T. Proktor wrote and composed the song 'Badluram Ka Badan' in honour of Badluram and set it to the tunes of legendary American marching songs 'John Brown's Body' and 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic'. The song has since become the regimental song of the Assam Regiment and is sung by recruits at their attestation parade in Shillong.
Listen to the song here.
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