“The Lion of Naushera” by Ziya Us Salam and Anand Mishra
Within weeks of India gaining independence, Kashmir resembled a battlefield because of Pakistan’s repeated incursions to capture the Muslim-dominated princely state. Towering among the soldiers who fought with grit and gumption to foil Pakistan’s designs was Brigadier Mohammed Usman, who chose to remain in pluralist India. Sadly, he lost his life twelve days shy of his thirty-sixth birthday, fighting Pakistani forces. The newly born nation saluted the fearless warrior conferring on him the sobriquet ‘the Lion of Naushera’ for his bravery.
While some heroes have been duly and gratefully feted, others have not always got their due. The Lion of Naushera is an attempt to clear some of the debts we owe to Brigadier Usman. Not only does it tell the story of the brave soldier, it also presents a multifaceted narrative of India – of how people of all faiths, castes and regions fought for the independence of the country and protected its borders.
Read an extract from the book on Moneycontrol. It has been published by Bloomsbury India.
Ziya Us Salam is an eminent journalist and a widely published author. A literary and social commentator, Salam has examined critical subjects through his books Women in Masjid: A Quest for Justice (Bloomsbury 2019), Nikah Halala: Sleeping with a Stranger (Bloomsbury 2020) and Being Muslim in Hindu India: A Critical View (HarperCollins 2024). His other books include Of Saffron Flags and Skullcaps: Hindutva, Muslim Identity and the Idea of India (Sage 2018), which deals with challenges to the idea of India, and Lynch Files: The Forgotten Saga of Victims of Hate Crime (Sage 2019), which focuses on the victims of hate and violence.
Anand Mishra is currently a political editor. As a senior journalist who has travelled across north India to cover key political developments and elections, tracking the evolution of political parties across the spectrum — left, right and centre — in the national capital and the states in the Hindi speaking belt.
Hailing from Gaya in Bihar, Mishra is an English literature graduate. His poems have been published in national and international publications.
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