Nizam Lohar

Nizam Lohar was born in 1835 during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to a poor Muslim family in the Tarn Taran district, which is located in between Lahore and Amritsar, part of British India at that time.[2] By profession, he was a blacksmith who used to make weapons for the government and lived with his mother and a sister. From an early age, he opposed British governance in India. His family and friends were not very happy about this and advised him to stay away from such kind of ideology.

British imperial expansion in the form of the East India Company caused hatred and opposition among many natives, including Nizam.[3] During this period, momentum of freedom fighters and their plans of waging a unified struggle against the foreign and pro-foreign rule elements were gaining considerable grounds.[4] It is believed that Nizam once got into an argument with a British official who insulted India and as a result, the quarrel heated up and Nizam ended up killing him after which he joined Jeet Singh and Malkeet Singh, both prominent proponents of the Babbar Akali Movement.[5] He supported the movement by producing and providing required weapons and also started attacking government personnel and pro-government rich people and distributing their money and valuables to the local poor people, just like the Robin Hood, who was a heroic outlaw in the English folklore.[6] As a result, his strict surveillance was started by the British police on the denouncement of his activities of meeting and supporting rebels of 'Tehreek-e-Jang-e-Azadi' or the Independence Movement, which led him to stay outside of his home most of the times and sometimes evaded the authorities through the use of the Changa Manga (based on the names of the two dacoits, Changa and Manga, who escaped British prison and disappeared in the forest, looting travellers) jungle as a safe haven.[7]

One day, in his absence, several weapons were taken into possession from cellar in his home by the police. It is also suggested that the police captain Coll had raped his sister, which led her mother to death and Nizam to murder Captain Coll next night at the police station along with the murder of SP Ronald and other officers after few days. Soon he became a local hero and received support from the community. Later he freed Jabru (who belonged to Kasur) and Sooja Singh from British captivity who became his friends. They started a movement together called ‘Punjab Se Jao (Go From Punjab)’, which attracted many outlaws and rebels, and planned for a bloody revolution against the 'servants' of the British targeting large sum of officers in fairs and gatherings across Punjab.[8]

Meanwhile, Nizam went to see Sooja’s ill mother, who he considered as her own mother and came to know of Sooja’s affair with a Machan which was affecting Sooja's attention towards his mother and the movement. Nizam confronted him with anger and had a row over his passions affecting the movement and his own personal life. Machan started provoking Sooja’s integrity over Nizam's perceived authority upon knowing this, leading Sooja to denounce Nizam’s whereabouts and intentions at a police station.[9]

Acting upon Sooja's piece of information, the police surrounded Nizam's place and there was a crossfire between police and Nizam for 48 hours and later he died. Furious with anger over the betrayal of his son, Sooja’s mother murdered him in front of Jabru and told him to remain a witness of this murder and the motive behind. Due to a huge number of people willing to attend, it is believed that British authorities set a fee of 2 rupees per attendee on Nizam's funeral and gathered a revenue of 35000 rupees at that time.[10]

The story of Nizam Lohar has appeared many times, in many different variations, in popular modern works. The following are some of the notable depictions in film and television:

• Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal
• Bhagat Singh