Sajjan Singh Rangroot May 2026

The water was freezing, up to his chest. His turban unraveled slightly, trailing in the icy sludge. But he and a handful of other “Rangroots” emerged on the German flank. They didn’t fire volleys; they fought with the kirpan (dagger) and the brutal short sword of the khanda.

This is the story of , a name that became synonymous with a rare and controversial title: Rangroot . The Anatomy of a Slur To understand Sajjan Singh, we must first understand the word Rangroot . In the British Indian Army, it was a derogatory term for a fresh recruit—literally translating to “color of the root” or, more cruelly, “raw, unseasoned meat.” It was a label given to green soldiers who hadn’t yet tasted battle. But in the cauldron of the Great War, the word transformed. From the Dust of Punjab to the Snow of Ypres Sajjan Singh was a Jat Sikh from the village of Mahla in Ludhiana district. He belonged to the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, a regiment with a ferocious pedigree. In 1914, like thousands of his countrymen, he boarded a ship to Marseille, leaving behind the golden wheat fields of Punjab for the frozen, shell-pocked hell of the Western Front. sajjan singh rangroot

The men pointed to the mud-caked, shivering Sikh with frozen beard. “Sajjan Singh, sir. The Rangroot.” The water was freezing, up to his chest