Last Saturday, April 13, marked the 426th anniversary of the birth of the Khalsa Panth or Sikhism. The day coincides with the start of the Indian new year and the harvest festival in Punjab. The importance of ‘Visakhi’ as it is locally called (the word relates to the month of Vaisakh in the Indian calendar) is known to every Punjabi, but it takes a spiritual leader to underline its value for the rest of India.
Among the Visakhi text and video posts I received from friends and family, I found one quite striking. Describing Guru Gobind Singh and his Khalsa army as the “iron shield of India”, Anandmurty Guruma, in a few lines, not only encapsulated the contribution of Guru Gobind Singh to India, but also gave a vivid description of the fear and oppression that reigned in the country during the Mughal rule. Here is paraphrasing what she said:
During the Mughal rule, Hindus were not allowed to ride a horse, Guru Gobind Singh and followers kept and rode horses; Hindus were not allowed to beat drums, Guru Gobind Singh made ‘nagara’ part of the daily life of Sikh gatherings (each nagara beat signifying a different meaning); Hindus were not allowed to carry arms, the guru commanded his followers to keep arms and turned them into an army that would later overthrow the Mughals; Rajputs were prohibited from using ‘Singh’ , their second name, Guru Gobind Singh gave that name to every man who came to his fold.
For 200 years, from 1640 to the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the khalsa guarded this country, and had Guru Gobind Singh not created the Khalsa, India would have met the same fate as Afghanistan (where the Hindu population was either wiped out or converted to Islam).
As I forwarded Guruma’s post to friends and family, I was overcome with deep reverence for Guru Gobind Singh. There is so much that we take for granted about Guru Gobind Singh: his valour, his piety, his spiritual energy, his supreme sacrifices and those of his family and followers. It takes a post like the one referred to above to refresh one’s memory about who he really was, and his himalayan service to Hindu dharma.
It is true that but for Guru Gobind Singh and the establishment of Sikh religion, there would be no Purohit, Sharma, Singh (a Rajput friend of mine), Kaur or Jha to share posts with today. The Mughal design to convert Hindu India to Islam with brutal force was clear from the time of Jahangir, under whose rule Guru Arjan Dev was martyred in 1606, followed by the beheading of Guru Teg Bahadar in 1675 and the bricking alive of Guru Gobind Singh’s two young children in 1705, during Aurangzeb’s rule.
That the followers of Islam are foxed at their historic failure at the designed Islamisation of Hindus, despite hundreds of years of Mughal rule in India, is evident from this incident narrated by Dr Subramaniam Swamy at a talk show. After a lecture at Harvard, where he was a visiting professor, Dr. Swamy was asked by a student from Saudi Arabia about this “intriguing” historical fact. He did not say what his reply to the student was, but Dr Swamy underlined to his audience the awe-inspiring role played by Guru Gobind Singh and the deep debt India owed him.
Indeed, the founder of Sikh religion was not just a rare and valiant historical figure. He, along with his entire family, of father, mother and four sons, and his countless followers, represented a phenomenal spiritual force that continues to energise people across religious boundaries till date.
The day celebrating the establishment of the Khalsa Panth in 1699 is a day to reflect upon the spiritual power and glory of the gurus in the lineage of Nanak, and to delve into the true meaning of Sikhism, which is synonymous with courage, sacrifice and service.
The more I think about the life and struggles of Guru Gobind Singh and those of his family and followers, the more I am convinced that he was one of a kind in the political and spiritual history of our country.
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