Why supreme and unprecedented martyrdom of Sahibzadas can’t
be Veer Bal Diwas
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
The decision of the Government of India headed by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi to officially observe an important event from the Sikh
calendar is highly appreciable.
The supreme and unprecedented martyrdom of two younger sons
of Guru Gobind Singh, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh, aged about eight years, and
Sahibzada Fateh Singh, at about six years, who were bricked alive on the order of
Sirhind Governor Vazir Khan, is the most tragic and at the same time the most
inspiring event not just for the Sikhs but every person on earth fighting
against tyranny of the rulers and the repressive regimes.
The then rulers used both allurement and torture to convert
them but failed to make them submit. Earlier, they had been detained and confined
to the open tower (Thanda Burj) along with their grandmother Mata Gujri after
their domestic servant Gangu informed on them to the authorities with whom they
had stayed for the night. Guru Gobind Singh was fighting the combined armies of
the Mughal and the Hindu rulers at that time.
The tradition in this region since then has been that people would
sleep on the floor during anniversary week of this tragedy beginning with
martyrdom of the two elder sons of the Guru, Sahibzada Ajit Singh and Sahibzada
Jujhar Singh while fighting the uneven battle at Chamkaur Sahib.
One can’t find parallel example in known history of the two
younger Sahibzadas having faced such torture at such a tender age.
In the Sikh ethos, they are not referred to as brave children
but as Babas.
Their example of unprecedented martyrdom can’t be reduced to
an event of bravery.
Veer Bal Diwas does not convey the supreme sacrifice. The appropriate
nomenclature is Sahibzade Shahadat Diwas.
This in brief is about the nomenclature.
The announcement to observe this event was made by Modi in
January last and since then, several Sikh organisations including the Akal
Takht and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee have been reacting to it.
Here is brief background as to how this event has attracted
national attention now although the anniversary has been organised since 1888.
The idea had originated with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara
Management Committee that recommended at a function on January 16, 2018 to the
Union Government to observe this event as Bal Diwas. The president of this body
that was with the Shiromani Akali Dal at that time was Manjit Singh GK with
Manjinder Singh Sirsa as the general secretary. Present on that stage at that
conclave on January 16 was Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and the
party was in alliance with the BJP with Harsimrat Kaur Badal as the cabinet
minister. Sirsa is with the BJP now. Even earlier, while being of president of
the DSGMC from the Akali Dal, he was BJP MLA.
It may be mentioned that officially, it is November 14 that
is celebrated as Children’s Day and this day happens to be birthday of India’s
first Prime Minister Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru. The present regime at the Centre has
been at odds with the legacy of the first prime minister who was a product of
the freedom struggle.
This idea emanating from the second most powerful elected
Sikh body that too in country’s capital to observe this even relating to Sikh
history as official event suited the thinking of the present rulers in this
context.
There is yet another dimension.
The political line of the BJP and its parent body the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh has anti-minority overtones.
However, the RSS treats the Sikh minority as part of the broader Hindu
family.
The Sikh Gurus had come into confrontation beginning with
Founder of the Faith Guru Nanak with the then rulers who happened to be
Mughals.
The Fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev and the Ninth Guru, Guru Tegh
Bahadur, were martyred by the Mughal rulers. So were the two youngest
Sahibzadas.
However, this is not the entire truth. Guru Gobind Singh had
first come into confrontation with the neighbouring Hindu kingdoms at Anandpur
Sahib. Unable to defeat the Guru, they had sought help of the Mughals.
“Guru Gobind Singh was raising an army, which the
neighbouring hill kings were not comfortable with. In 1699, Guru Gobind Singh
had established the Khalsa, which the hill kings and the Mughal empire saw as a
threat. The kings had several battles with the Sikhs in the last decade of the
17th century but had been unable to dislodge them from Anandpur
Sahib. The fateful attacl of 1704 was led by Bilaspur’s king Bheem Chand and
Handuria’s king Raja Hari Chand. They cordoned off Anandpur Sahib with support
from Mughal empire”. (The Indian Express, December 27, 2022).
The two youngest Sahibzadas and their grandmother had got
separated from the main body while crossing river Sirsa after leaving Anandpur
Sahib.
These kings had attacked Anandpur Sahib six times in five
years.
The way the Sikhs were tortured by the Mughal administrators,
of course, is part of history.
The Sikhs ultimately got mobilised under Baba Banda Singh
Bahadur and counterattacked and laid the foundation of the Khalsa Raj that led
to Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
It is pertinent to mention that the RSS had made entry in a
planned way in Punjab at a massive scale during tercentenary of the Khalsa in
1999 that was rebuffed by non-Shiromani Akali Dal Sikh bodies including Akali
Dal (Amritsar) and the Dal Khalsa. That was the design to change the Sikh
narrative.
Senior Akali Dal leader and former SGPC general secretary Bibi
Kiranjot Kaur, while stating “No to #VeerBalDiwas” has said, “ Both the Muslims
and the Hindus have been villains on these pages of history and the
sympathisers too have been both Hindus and the Muslims”.
And rightly so. Sikh events can’t be weaved into broader
design of the Sangh Privar.
The government should organise such events but in proper
context.
In this case, the Veer Bal Diwas nomenclature degrades this
supreme martyrdom by reducing the same to just an act of bravery. Here is case
of supreme commitment to Faith and human values.
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