Bollywood film 120 Bahadur highlights a forgotten battle from the 1962 India-China war

A recent Bollywood film has put the spotlight on a largely forgotten battle from the 1962 war between India and China.

Called 120 Bahadur – Hindi for brave hearts – the film tells the story of Indian soldiers who bravely fought to defend the Rezang La pass in the frozen Himalayan mountains of Ladakh.

The film, with Farhan Akhtar as Major Shaitan Singh, failed at the box office but succeeded in promoting a war that is often described as the only silver lining in a war that India was losing.

“We felt it was very important that this story should be told by him, we wanted to honor the people who lived the story,” dialogue writer Sumit Arora told the BBC. “We took some cinematic liberties, but our film stayed true to history.”

The war came as relations between India and China worsened over border tensions and meetings to resolve the disputes were unsuccessful. Beijing is also not happy to give India a safe haven Dalai Lama who fled to Tibet after the 1959 uprising.

A month-long war began on October 20 in which China attacked India. Beijing said it was “a counter-attack in self-defense” and accused Delhi of “aggressively encroaching on China’s territory and violating China’s airspace”.

By the time China declared a unilateral ceasefire a month later – withdrawing troops and releasing prisoners of war – India had lost around 7,000 soldiers and 38,000 sq km of territory. The two countries are later separated by an obscure 3,440km (2,100-mile) Line of Actual Controlmarked by places of rivers, lakes and snowcaps.

Beijing has said little officially about the war, beyond claiming that its troops eliminated all Indian positions in the conflict zones, and has never commented on the battle of Rezang La.

Fought at over 16,000ft (4,900m), it was one battle in a wider war that China won. In India, however, it is remembered as an “epic battle” and “one of the greatest last stands” and has inspired books and films.

The battle took place on the night of 18 November from 3:30am to 8:15am.

The pass is near the Chushul airstrip, which is the “main nerve center at a time when the road network connecting the region to the rest of India is not very good”, Yadav said.

Only five of the 120 men survived. Major Singh, who was among the dead, was posthumously awarded India’s highest military honor Param Vir Chakra for his bravery and leadership. Twelve other soldiers received gallantry medals.

But initially when the survivors told their superiors about their daring last stand, “sadly, no one believed them”, said Kulpreet Yadav, a former navy officer and author of the 2021 book Battle of Rezang La.

“Morale is low, we are bitterly defeated in the war, thousands of our soldiers, including a brigadier, were taken by China as prisoners of war. Therefore, no one believes in such a heroic last-stand as possible,” he added.

It is widely believed that the soldiers stationed at Rezang La either ran away from the war or were captured in the war.

“It was only three months ago when the war was behind us, that a shepherd chanced upon destroyed bunkers, empty shells, spent gun-cartridges and bodies frozen in the snow. And for the first time, an accurate account of the war could be created.”

The soldiers – from C (Charlie) Company of 13 Kumaon battalion – were deployed on the route under the command of Major Singh.

His superiors advised him to consider a tactical retreat if they ran out of ammunition, but when he spoke to his men, they told him, “We will fight to the last man, last bullet”, Yadav said.

“When the Chinese soldiers attacked the pass, C Company prepared for a fight. But the Indian post was soon overwhelmed.”

It was a battle of opposites: 120 men against thousands. While China has not declassified the 1962 war documents, Indian estimates suggest that at least 3,000 Chinese troops attacked the pass.

“They have access to the best weapons and are well equipped, while the Indians are poorly equipped with semi-automatic rifles and a limited supply of 600 rounds of ammunition for each soldier,” he said.

In her 2014 book on Major Shaitan Singh, journalist Rachna Bisht says that C Company, from the plains, had never seen snow and lacked time to acclimatise.

Subedar Ram Chander, a survivor, recalled, “The weather was terrible; we lacked proper winter clothes and shoes.

“The jerseys, cotton pants and light coats given to us can barely keep us warm in the freezing wind. The soldiers get headaches and the nursing assistant rushes from post to post to give the medicines,” he said.

On the night of the battle, with snow falling and the temperature around -24°C, Subedar Ram Chander told BBC Hindi earlier, “I told my superiors that this is the day we have been waiting for.”

Bisht wrote that C Company repulsed the first wave, but Chinese mortar fire destroyed bunkers and tents, causing heavy casualties. The deadly third wave wiped out most of the men.

Subedar Ram Chander’s account of Major Singh’s bravery is heartbreaking.

“He took several bullets in his stomach. As he lay bleeding, in great pain and drifting in and out of consciousness, he gave me instructions on how to continue the fight.

“Then he told me to go and join the battalion. I told him, I’m not leaving you. ‘You have to go. This is my order,’ he said.”

In February 1963, after the bodies and bunkers were discovered, a senior army officer led Red Cross personnel and media to Rezang La, finding the battlefield “as it was, frozen in the snow”.

Writing about the discovery in his book, Bisht says, “Every soldier they found was dead from multiple bullet wounds, shell wounds or splinters. Some were lying dead in their bunkers, buried under boulders, others still clutching the butts of blown rifles.

“The nursing assistant had a syringe in his hand and a roll of bandages, the soldier operating the mortar was holding a bomb. Major Shaitan Singh was lying on a rock, a blood-stained bandage on his left arm, his stomach was punctured by a machine gun blast.”

In a battle “mostly remembered with shame,” Bisht wrote that Major Shaitan Singh and his men achieved great glory. C Company was later renamed Rezang La Company and a memorial was erected in Rewari – the town where the soldiers came from.

After the ceasefire, the pass became a no-man’s land and it was part of the disputed territory.

Yadav says if C Company had not fought bravely, the map of India would have been very different today.

“If it wasn’t for these soldiers, I think India would have lost half of Ladakh. China would have captured the airfield and Chushul.

“This war was the only silver lining for India in the 1962 war.”