Guru Teg Ba­hadur Sahib, his wife, his son, and four grand­sons sac­ri­ficed their lives fight­ing tyranny and in­jus­tice. Au­rangzeb, one of the most pow­er­ful rulers of  Hin­doostan, was nei­ther able to con­vince the Ninth sov­er­eign to sur­ren­der to his de­mands nor was he able to cap­ture the Tenth mas­ter. The Epis­tle of Vic­tory –Za­far­nama, in the Per­sian lan­guage writ­ten by Guru Gob­ind Singh, shat­tered the men­tal state and logic of re­li­gious fa­nati­cism of Au­rangzeb. WSN colum­nist Gurmeet Singh pre­sents Guru Sahib’s life from the prism of Za­far­nama, where the choice of words and the in­her­ent mes­sage is rel­e­vant in to­day’s cur­rent state of af­fairs across In­dia and the world.

SINCE AU­RANGZEB, THE RULERS HAVE CHANGED, trans­fer of pow­ers has hap­pened, yet the at­ti­tude and work­ing of the state have not moved an inch.  Myan­mar, Sri Lanka, China, Spain, Pak­istan, the US, Rwanda and many more have been more tyrant and bi­ased to­wards their pop­u­la­tions in­clud­ing Sikhs, Kash­miris, Na­gas, Ro­hingyas, Tamils, Uyghurs, Cata­lans, Iraqis, Tut­sis and other mi­nori­ties and na­tion­al­i­ties. State Per­se­cu­tion has grown in the last cen­tury and more ag­gres­sively in the last 50 years.

ਬਬੀਂ ਗਰਦਿਸ਼ੇ ਬੇਵਫਾਏ ਜ਼ਮਾਂ ਕਿ ਬਗੁਜ਼ਸ਼ਤ ਬਰ ਹਰ ਮਕੀਨੋ ਮਕਾਂ
B-been Gardish-E Be-wafay-e Za­maan, Ke B-Guza­sht Bar Har Ma­keen-O Makaan (108)
This in Za­far­nama means, “look at the un­faith­ful­ness of the world that every­one is cross­ing the house of oth­ers with­out any re­stric­tion, forcibly snatch­ing pos­ses­sions of oth­ers.”

In­dia has not changed since Au­rangzeb. Ma­jori­tar­i­an­ism and fas­cism are in the air. In­dia has re­lin­quished the core prin­ci­ple of gov­er­nance of the peo­ple – Va­sud­haiva Ku­tum­bakam -a San­skrit phrase found in Chap­ter 6 of the Maha Up­an­ishad, which means “the world is one fam­ily”.

This verse of Maha Up­an­ishad is en­graved in the en­trance hall of the Par­lia­ment of In­dia, but his­tory stands as tes­ti­mony to the fact that de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally elected gov­ern­ments have held this prin­ci­ple in the breach.

The de­mar­ca­tion of Pun­jab on lin­guis­tic lines, dis­tri­b­u­tion of river wa­ters as per ri­par­ian law, the at­tacks and geno­cide of 1956, 1982, 1984, 1988, 2020, ex­tra­ju­di­cial killings of Pun­jabis and Kash­miris, de­mo­li­tion of Babri Masjid, the Naga Ac­cord, the an­nul­ment of Ar­ti­cle 370 in Kash­mir, for­mu­la­tion of NRC, CAA and the most re­cent of all, the three Farm Bills are some point­ers to the mis­ad­ven­tures of the In­dian state in to­tal vi­o­la­tion of the guid­ance from the Maha Up­an­ishad. Not to speak of the dis­grace­ful and to­tal fail­ure of the gov­ern­ment in han­dling the cur­rent Covid19 pan­demic and sav­ing peo­ple’s lives.

It is a long list of tyranny, in­jus­tice, killings, rapes, loot and plun­der. Yet, there is a ray of hope. Hope to fix things, hope to fight against the tyrant and un­just, against the cur­rent ruler and for hu­man­ity.

The Sikh peo­ple, the fol­low­ers of Guru Tegh Ba­hadur con­tinue to im­bibe the teach­ings of the Gu­rus and have held aloft the ban­ner of ser­vice to hu­mankind, rais­ing dis­sent and re­bel­lion against in­jus­tice. Time and again, Sikhs have risen to pro­tect the rights of peo­ple and have voiced their sup­port for the op­pressed. They have en­dan­gered their own lives for self­less ser­vice and pro­tec­tion of the op­pressed, the poor and the needy.

Why should­n’t they do it? The light of the Ninth Mas­ter glows in them. The two his­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras -Gur­d­wara Sis Ganj Sahib in front of the Red Fort and Gur­d­wara Rakab Ganj Sahib in front of the In­dian Par­lia­ment House in Delhi stand tall to epit­o­mise the Sikh right and com­mit­ment to stand and speak against the tyranny and in­jus­tices of the po­lit­i­cal throne of Delhi, who­ever be the in­her­i­tor.

While Sikhism flour­ished in South Asia, in the times of the ten Nanaks, Mughals reigned in the sub-con­ti­nent and were at the helm of the Delhi throne of po­lit­i­cal power. Au­rangzeb, the last ef­fec­tive ruler of the Mughal dy­nasty, ruled over for a pe­riod of 49 years from 1618 to 1707 AD. He was an ex­pan­sion­ist. He was noted for his re­li­gious piety, had mem­o­rized the en­tire Quran, stud­ied ha­diths and strin­gently ob­served the rit­u­als of Is­lam.

Em­peror Au­rangzeb worked with zeal­ous fer­vour to change In­dia, then Hin­doostan, into a land where ‘Sharia’ would rule with the aim that Is­lam would be the only re­li­gion of In­dia. So, he ex­e­cuted the plans of con­vert­ing Hin­dus to Mus­lims, did not al­low new Hindu tem­ples to be built and or­dered them to be torn down and re­placed by mosques.

To ex­pe­dite this, a plan was hatched to force the much-re­spected Kash­miri Pan­dits to ac­cept Is­lam, with the de­sign that if they con­verted, the rest of the Hin­dus would fol­low. Kash­miri Pan­dits were con­sid­ered the most learned and the brain of the Sanatan Dharma. Au­rangzeb and his ad­vi­sors were very clear that once they con­vert, oth­ers would fol­low with ease. The ma­jor­ity com­mu­nity was at the re­ceiv­ing end with no one to help. Their re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal lead­ers, the kings and chief­tains, did not come to their res­cue. All their ef­forts failed as every­one turned a blind eye.

The Hin­dus, the ma­jor­ity com­mu­nity had no op­tion but to em­brace Is­lam or face death. In 1675, Pan­dit Kirpa Ram led a del­e­ga­tion of Kash­miri brah­mins to the Dar­bar of Guru Teg Ba­hadur at Chak Nanaki, now Anand­pur Sahib.

Four cen­turies back, the House of Nanak ex­em­pli­fied the con­cept of ‘Manas Ki Jaat Sabhe Ek Hi Pahchan­bo’  Recog­nise all mankind as One. Our goal of Sar­bat da Bhala -Wel­fare for one and all, has been the bea­con-light of our self­less ser­vice model in­di­vid­u­ally and col­lec­tively. This is the legacy that keeps the Sikhs go­ing.Your Quote Here

The Ninth Mas­ter Guru Tegh Ba­hadur was the pi­o­neer of the Sikh faith like his pre­de­ces­sor Gu­rus. The Kash­miri Pan­dits were high caste Hin­dus, with a di­a­met­ri­cally op­po­site pre­cept and prac­tice. Dur­ing the in­ter­ac­tion, Guru Sahib silently ab­sorbed their re­quest and said that the sit­u­a­tion war­rants the sac­ri­fice of a pi­ous soul. Si­lence pre­vailed.

The Ninth Gu­ru’s son, nine-year-old Gob­ind Rai in­ter­ceded, “Who would be bet­ter than you to de­fend the poor Brah­mins?”, leav­ing every­one shocked and Guru Teg Ba­hadur im­pressed.

ਮਨਮ ਕੁਸ਼ਤਹ ਅਮ ਕੋਹੀਆਂ ਬੁੱਤ ਪਰਸਤ ਕੇ ਓ ਬੁੱਤ ਪਰਸਤੰਦੋ ਮਨ ਬੁੱਤ ਸ਼ਿਕਸਤ
Manam Kushteh Am Koih-aan Butt Prast Ke O Butt Pra­s­tando Mann Butt Shikast (95) in ZA­FAR­NAMA, means, I am also the an­ni­hi­la­tor of the hill ra­jas, the idol wor­ship­pers. They are idol wor­shipers and I am the idol breaker. Sec­ond, Guru Tegh Ba­hadur de­cided to stand up for the right of free­dom of wor­ship and re­li­gions and told the del­e­ga­tion to con­vey to Au­rangzeb that if he could con­vert Guru Tegh Ba­hadur to Is­lam, they would gladly con­vert. The pro­posal was sent to the em­peror in Delhi, “If you can con­vince Guru Tegh Ba­hadur, the Ninth Sikh Guru, who is now seated on the throne of Guru Nanak to ac­cept Is­lam then all the Kash­miris will ac­cept your faith.”

So be­gan the course of events that led to the mar­tyr­dom of Guru. He was chained and im­pris­oned in a cage and tor­tured. To ter­rorise him to sub­mit be­fore the state, three of his devo­tees -Bhai Mati Das was sawn alive, Bhai Day­ala was boiled in a caul­dron and Bhai Sati Das was roasted alive, be­fore the Guru. Guru Ji was given three op­tions, first to show his mir­a­cles, sec­ond to em­brace Is­lam and third to choose death. He chose death. In his Baani, Gu­ruji says, “Bhaey kah­hoon ko det neh, na bhae maant aan” -One should not frighten any­one, and should not be afraid of any­one.”

Jab se humne suna mar jaane mein zindagi hai, sir pe kafan baand­hey qatil ko dhoondtey hain
..since I heard that life lies in lay­ing down one’s life, I am in ever-readi­ness, look­ing for one who would want to kill me.

This was a unique sac­ri­fice in the world which was done for oth­ers, for a re­li­gion which was op­po­site in teach­ing and prac­tice, for the rights of a peo­ple, who them­selves ran away. Saina­pat, a con­tem­po­rary poet of Guru Gob­ind Singh’s time, men­tions it as “Pra­gat bhaye Guru Teg Ba­hadur, Sa­gal Shrist Pe Dhapi Chadar” -Emerged Guru Teg Ba­hadur and re­lieved the world. This sac­ri­fice was self­less, with­out any pre­sent or fu­ture po­lit­i­cal, so­cial or fi­nan­cial gains. It was out of love for the Lord and hu­man­ity, for the right of re­li­gious free­dom, for the very essence of hu­man mankind.

On those very streets where the Guru and his three beloved Sikhs were mar­tyred, his Sikhs are run­ning Oxy­gen Lan­gars for Covid19 pa­tients, solemnly cel­e­brat­ing Guru Teg Ba­hadur’s 400th Birth An­niver­sary.

Had the Guru not come for the res­cue of the Kash­miri Pan­dits, the re­li­gio-so­cial-po­lit­i­cal-ge­o­graph­i­cal de­mo­graph­ics of cur­rent-day In­dia per­haps would have been dif­fer­ent.

In the last mil­len­nium, so­ci­ety has de­gen­er­ated with dis­crim­i­na­tion on the ba­sis of caste, creed, sex, re­li­gion, com­mu­nity and ter­ri­to­ries. This de­gen­er­a­tion is in­vari­ably to help the rulers. To rule, and for be­ing in power, they sup­pressed, they kept aside all hu­man val­ues and norms, acted as deadly dic­ta­tors, killed and tor­tured com­mon folks and looted in the name of taxes. Ear­lier it was the kings and mon­archs and nowa­days it is be­ing done by even the de­mo­c­ra­tic gov­ern­ments of the world.

The UN De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights, for­mu­lated in 1948 was a doc­u­ment that en­com­passed a world fra­ter­nity be­yond the ge­o­graph­i­cal shores of re­spec­tive coun­tries.

The recog­ni­tion of the world as one fam­ily makes the Sikhs be­lieve and prac­tice that all hu­man be­ings are equal. Every tur­ban-wear­ing Sikh be­holds, “We are sons and daugh­ters of the One Almighty” and Sikhs treat all peo­ple of the world on an equal foot­ing. No gen­der, racial, so­cial, etc dis­crim­i­na­tion is ac­cepted or tol­er­ated.

On those very streets where the Guru and his three beloved Sikhs were mar­tyred, his Sikhs are run­ning Oxy­gen Lan­gars for Covid19 pa­tients, solemnly cel­e­brat­ing Guru Teg Ba­hadur’s 400th Birth An­niver­sary.

It would not be wrong to say that the genes of Nanak are so strong and pow­er­ful that they rise within in­di­vid­u­als and these liv­ing leg­ends ‘walk the talk.’

Four cen­turies back, the House of Nanak ex­em­pli­fied the con­cept of ‘Manas Ki Jaat Sabhe Ek Hi Pahchan­bo’  Recog­nise all mankind as One. Our goal of Sar­bat da Bhala -Wel­fare for one and all, has been the bea­con-light of our self­less ser­vice model in­di­vid­u­ally and col­lec­tively. This is the legacy that keeps the Sikhs go­ing.

ਤੂ ਬਾ ਜ਼ਬਰ ਆਜ਼ਿਜ਼ ਖ਼ਰਾਸ਼ੀ ਮਕੁਨ ਕਸਮ ਰਾ ਬ-ਤੀਸ਼ਹਿ ਤਰਾਸ਼ੀ ਮਕੁਨ
Tu Ba Jabr Ajiz Kharaashi Makun, Kasam Ra B-teesheh Taraashi Makun (109), in this quote from the Za­far­nama, Guru Gob­ind Singh boldly and un­equiv­o­cally tells Au­rangzeb, “Stop us­ing your force to tor­ment and maim­ing (the in­no­cents). Do not op­press these hap­less peo­ple on (false) oaths.”

On the 400th Parkash Purab of the Ninth Sov­er­eign, in the face of suf­fer­ing all around In­dia, the Sikhs of Guru Tegh Ba­hadur, in In­dia and the world are telling the In­dian rulers what Guru Gob­ind Singh told Au­rangzeb in the Za­far­nama, “If you are strong, tor­ture not the weak, And thus lay not the axe to thy em­pire.”