Fateh Burj, Chappar Chiriਫਤਿਹ ਬੁਰਜ, ਛੱਪੜ ਚਿੜੀ

Where is Fateh Burj?

Fateh Burj, the Victory Tower, rises over the village of Chappar Chiri in Sector 93 of SAS Nagar, just outside Mohali on the Banda Singh Bahadur Road, about 20 kilometres from Sirhind. At 328 feet, or 100 metres, it is the tallest victory tower in India, taller than the Qutub Minar in Delhi, and it stands on the very field where one of the most consequential battles in Sikh history was fought in 1710. The tower is the centrepiece of the Baba Banda Singh Bahadur War Memorial, spread over about 20 acres.

What happened at Chappar Chiri in 1710?

On 12 May 1710, Banda Singh Bahadur led the Sikh army against Wazir Khan, the Mughal faujdar of Sirhind, who had marched out to block the Sikh advance on his city. Wazir Khan was no ordinary opponent: he was the official who had ordered the execution of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's two younger sons, and avenging them stood at the heart of the campaign Guru Gobind Singh Ji had blessed. The battle at Chappar Chiri was decisive. Wazir Khan was killed, his army was routed, and two days later the Sikhs entered Sirhind itself. Within a year Banda Singh Bahadur had established the first Sikh Raj, with his capital at Lohgarh, issuing coins and land reforms that abolished the zamindari system.

The commander on the Sikh side had been sent north for exactly this work. Banda Singh Bahadur, born Lachhman Das and once a Bairagi ascetic named Madho Das, met Guru Gobind Singh Ji at Nanded in 1708 and was dispatched to Punjab with the Guru's blessing, his hukamnamas to the congregations, and a small party of Sikhs. His campaign gathered force town by town: Samana fell, then Sadhaura, and with each victory the peasantry rose against the Mughal officials. Chappar Chiri was the campaign's hinge, the battle that broke the power of Sirhind, the city Sikhs remembered for the martyrdom of the Guru's sons and of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's era of persecutions under its officers.

For nearly 250 years the battlefield had no monument. Only in the 1950s did the twin villages of Chappar Chiri join to raise a gurdwara, Gurdwara Baba Banda Bahadur, by the link road; it is now managed by the SGPC. The great tower came much later, built by the Punjab Government for the battle's tercentenary and completed on 30 November 2011.

Why does the tower have three tiers?

The tower is an octagonal structure of reinforced concrete with steel-supported walls, pierced by small triangular openings like the loopholes of a fortress. It climbs in three great tiers, and each tier is a victory measured in height: 67 feet for Samana, 117 feet for Sadhaura and 220 feet for Chappar Chiri itself, before the final section carries it to the full 328 feet. The eight sides carry arches that look over a water body at the base, and the whole is crowned by a dome topped with a stainless steel khanda. From the top the view runs across the flat battlefield to Mohali and, on a clear day, toward the Shivalik hills.

The war memorial around the tower

Around the tower, the memorial grounds recreate the world of the battle in sculpture: mounds carry statues of Sikh warriors in the postures of the fight, and the open parkland gives the tower room to dominate the skyline as it was meant to. School groups and families come from across the Chandigarh region, and the site has become the standard backdrop for commemorations of Banda Singh Bahadur each May.

The tower is formally dedicated to what the victory made possible: the establishment of Sikh rule across a large part of Punjab in 1711, the first time the Khalsa held territory in its own name. That is why, although it marks a single battlefield, Punjabis treat Fateh Burj as a monument to sovereignty itself, and why its white silhouette has become the landmark by which travellers on the Mohali to Sirhind road measure their journey.

Visiting Fateh Burj

The memorial is free to enter and keeps daytime hours, roughly 10 AM to 7 PM. Late afternoon is the best time, when the white tower turns gold and the statues on the mounds cast long shadows. Combine it with Sirhind and Fatehgarh Sahib, a short drive west, where the story that began at Chappar Chiri reached its most sacred ground.