Boota Singh sometimes spelled as Buta Singh, was a

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

ex-soldier of the British Army who served at the

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

front under the command of

Lord Mountbatten Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He is popularly known in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

for his tragic love story with Zainab, a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

girl he rescued during the communal riots in the time of

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

in 1947. They both fell in love and got married. Later, being a Muslim, Zainab was deported by Indian authorities and sent to the newly created

. Singh illegally entered Pakistan to reinstate contact with Zainab, but she ended the marriage under pressure from her family. In 1957, after the failure of the marriage, he committed suicide by jumping before an upcoming train near Shahdara station in Pakistan along with his daughter, but she survived. The love story of Singh's life is widely adapted in films and books on both sides of the border. A Punjabi film

Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh ''Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh'' is a 1999 Indian Punjabi-language feature film based on the real-life love story of Boota Singh and Zainab, starring Gurdas Maan and Divya Dutta in the lead roles. The film is directed by Manoj Punj and pro ...

(1999) is entirely based on the story. Ishrat Rahmani wrote a novel, Muhabbat, based on the story. The story also influenced many other films including a 2007 Canadian film

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

and a 2001 Bollywood film Gadar and the 2004 Bollywood film Veer Zaara.

Burial

In his suicide note, Singh expressed his last wish to be buried in Barki village where Zainab's parents resettled after partition. The autopsy of Singh's body was conducted in a hospital in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

and was taken to the village on 22 February 1957 for burial but the villagers did not allow that and Singh was buried at Miani Sahib, the largest graveyard of Lahore.

In popular culture

In 1999,

Manoj Punj Manoj Punj was an Indian Punjabi film director. He directed the hits in Punjabi Cinema. After graduating with a degree in arts, and experiencing theater in Chandigarh, he assisted Prof. P. S. Nirola who made corporate and documentary films. He ...

directed a Punjabi feature film,

, entirely based on the life story of Boota Singh. The movie stars

Gurdas Maan Gurdas Maan is an Indian playback singer, songwriter and actor mainly associated with Punjabi and Hindi language music and films. He gained national attention in 1980 with the song "Dil Da Mamla Hai". Since then, he had gone on to record over 3 ...

as Boota Singh and

Divya Dutta Divya Dutta (born 25 September 1977) is an Indian actress and model. She has appeared in Hindi and Punjabi cinema, in addition to Malayalam and English-language films. She has received many awards including a National Film Award, a Filmfare Aw ...

as Zainab. The music was composed by

Amar Haldipur Amar Haldipur is a noted music director or composer of Indian music industry. He composed music for number of Bollywood as well as Punjabi movies including Shaheed-E-Mohabbat and Channa Sachi Muchi. His sons Siddharth Haldipur and Sangeet Haldip ...

. It was an international hit and won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Punjabi at the

46th National Film Awards The 46th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1998. Ceremony took place on 15 ...

and was also screened at many national and international film festivals including the 1999

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...

and

International Film Festival of India The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually, currently in the state of Goa, on the western coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common pla ...

. Ishrat Rahmani wrote a novel on the love story, titled Muhabbat. The story is also have some details in an English book,

Freedom at Midnight ''Freedom at Midnight'' (1975) is a non-fiction book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre about the events around the Indian independence movement and partition. It details the last year of the British Raj, from 1947 to 1948, beginning with t ...

by Larry Collins and

Dominique Lapierre Dominique Lapierre (30 July 1931 – 2 December 2022) was a French author. Life Dominique Lapierre was born in Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime, France. At the age of thirteen, he travelled to the U.S. with his father who was a diplomat ...

and also influenced a 2007 Hollywood film,

, written by Patrica Finn and

Vic Sarin Victor Sarin (born 1945) is an Indian-born Canadian/American film director, producer and screenwriter. His work as a cinematographer includes ''Partition'', ''Margaret's Museum'', '' Whale Music'', '' Nowhere to Hide'', ''Norman's Awesome Exper ...

, starring

Jimi Mistry Jimi Mistry (born 1 January 1973) is a retired British actor. He is known for appearing in numerous films such as '' East Is East'' (1999), '' The Guru'' (2002), ''Ella Enchanted'' (2004), '' The Truth About Love'' (2005), '' Blood Diamond'' (2 ...

and

Kristin Kreuk Kristin Laura Kreuk (; born December 30, 1982) is a Canadian actress. Debuting on teen drama '' Edgemont'', she became most known for her roles as Lana Lang in the superhero television series ''Smallville'' (2001–2011), also as Catherine Chand ...

in lead roles.

References

{{BritishIndia-mil-stub Punjabi people 1957 deaths People from Jalandhar district Indian Sikhs Indian Army personnel of World War II Partition of India Suicides in Pakistan Year of birth missing Burials at Miani Sahib Graveyard 1957 suicides Suicides by train