Recently, after 20 soldiers killed in LAC China standoff, when media houses reported the news using word "killed" instead of Martyr or Saheed, a lot of people outraged on social media calling media houses Anti National.
Although sometimes media house use word killed sometimes Martyr. It was always a matter of debate, blaming.
If we see the defination of word martyr on wiki we can see the word relates to relgious background.
History
Both Martyr and Saheed are religious terms related to Christanity and Islamic history.
Martyr word is originated from ancient greek & is related to christanity. In that era Martyr is originally applied to the apostles who had witnessed Christ's life and resurrection. Later it was used to describe those who, arrested and on trial, admitted to being Christians.
By the middle of the second century, it was granted to those who suffered execution for their faith in christanity and fought for it.
Shahid, or Shaheed (šahīd, plural), originates from the Quranic Arabic word meaning "witness" and is also used to denote a martyr in Islam. The word shahid in Arabic means "witness".
Later, In South Asia, "shahid" has now become synonymous with patriotic martyrdom in general, regardless of faith
In Shia Islam Shaheed refres to the violent and tragic deaths of many of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad during the first three centuries of Islam and most especially to the martyrdoms of the fourth caliph ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (reigned 656–661) and his younger son al-Husayn (d. 680)
Modern Usage
Today it is a norm to call soldiers who died fighting a martyr, otherwise it would be thinked that a soldier is being disrespected and that his sacrifice is not being acknowledged by this ungrateful nation & Simply using the literal word for death might even be considered not respectful enough.
Stance of Army and Ministry of Defence?
- There is no term as ‘martyr’ or ‘Shaheed’in the Army or the police.
- A soldier killed in action is called a ‘battle casualty’
- A policeman killed in action is called ‘operations casualty’.
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| Economic Times (July 11 2018) |
- Religious history
- Constitutional values
- A soldier is not ‘martyred’ or achieves ‘shahadat’ for a religious cause, but makes the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ for India.
Thankyou for reading.