Nis­han Sahib is the name for the tall Sikh Flag which marks all Gur­d­waras and other re­li­gious premises of Sikhs.  Nis­han is a Per­sian word with mul­ti­ple mean­ings, one of these be­ing a flag or stan­dard. Sahib, an Ara­bic word with the ap­plied mean­ing of Lord or Mas­ter, is here used as an hon­orific. Nis­han Sahib in the Sikh tra­di­tion means the holy flag or ex­alted en­sign.  A syn­onym term is Jhanda Sahib– im­ply­ing a flag or a ban­ner.  The re­cent por­trayal of Nis­han Sahib atop the his­toric Red Fort and the den­i­gra­tion, with­out un­der­stand­ing, by gov­ern­men­tal au­thor­i­ties, a vast sec­tion of the me­dia and even by the Kissan Ekta Mor­cha lead­er­ship has hurt many as every ar­gu­ment has been bi­ased and out of con­text.  In­ter­na­tional train­ing coach Harpreet Kaur Ahluwalia tells us what the Nis­han Sahib is and what it stands for.

THE SIKH PEN­NANT, made of Kesri -light yel­low coloured cloth, oc­ca­sion­ally out of blue coloured, mainly in the case of Ni­hangs, the cloth is tri­an­gu­lar in shape, nor­mally each of the two sides be­ing dou­ble than the shorter one. The pen­nant is stitched to the mast sheath at the top which is also of the same cloth. On it is com­monly printed or em­broi­dered the Sikh em­blem com­pris­ing Khanda -two-edged sword and a Chakar –edged cir­cu­lar weapon, or disc or Quito, and two kir­pans which cross each other at the han­dles, with the blades flank­ing the Chakar.

One end of the sword sym­bol­izes di­vine jus­tice while the outer edge sym­bol­izes free­dom and au­thor­ity gov­erned by moral and spir­i­tual val­ues. On the out­side of the two-edged sword, one ob­serves two swords -on the left is the sword for spir­i­tual sov­er­eignty –Piri -while on the right the sword sig­ni­fies po­lit­i­cal sov­er­eignty =Miri. The bal­ance be­tween the two is em­pha­sized by the Chakar– cir­cle in­side, de­not­ing one­ness, unity of jus­tice, hu­man­ity and im­moral­ity.

Some­times the flag would have in­scribed on it Ik Onkar, the term in the Mool Mantra, sig­ni­fy­ing the Supreme re­al­ity. The flagstaff has steel Khanda fixed on top of it. The two flags stand­ing ad­ja­cent to each other be­twixt the Har­man­dar Sahib and the Akal Takht at Am­rit­sar are, ap­prox­i­mately 40 me­ters high. Nis­han Sahib is hoisted ei­ther in the com­pound of a Gur­d­wara or on the top of the build­ing it­self.

Out­side the Gur­d­wara, Nis­han Sahib is seen car­ried at the head of Sikh pro­ces­sions. In such pub­lic marches, which gen­er­ally take place on re­li­gious oc­ca­sions, five Sikhs des­ig­nated as Punj Pi­are, carry one each of the five Nis­han Sahibs in front of the palan­quin in which the Sri Guru Granth Sahib is seated. Sikh pub­lic con­gre­ga­tions open with the flag hoist­ing cer­e­mony in which Nis­han Sahib is un­furled by an em­i­nent mem­ber of the Panth or a Sikh de­vout.

In the times of Guru Gob­ind Singh and dur­ing the eigh­teenth cen­tury, the Sikh armies, when on the march or in the bat­tle­field, had the Sikh stan­dard car­ried in front by nis­can­chis –stan­dard flag bear­ers.

The ori­gin of Nis­han Sahib is traced to the time of Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib, who hoisted a flag over the Akal Takht in 1606 at Am­rit­sar. The flag, the first of its kind in Sikh tra­di­tions, was called Akal Dhuja -the im­mor­tal flag or Sat­guru ka Nis­han- stan­dard of the true Guru. The flag on top of the Har­mandir Sahib was first in­stalled by Sar­dar Jhanda Singh of Bhangi clan in 1771.

Why should one get of­fended by the Nis­han Sahib -the ban­ner of Sikhs, as Sikhs have stu­diously main­tained that this is the ban­ner of the unique char­ac­ter of their re­li­gion with­out un­der­min­ing any other re­li­gion or po­lit­i­cal thought?

Nis­han Sahib rep­re­sents the val­ues of the Sikh faith. It is shown re­spect by Sikhs as it sym­bol­izes the in­her­ent val­ues, tenets of the Sikh ethos -the one­ness of God, equal­ity of all, love, com­pas­sion, self-re­spect and pro­tect­ing the self-worth of all and lead­ing a life of ser­vice and ded­i­ca­tion for hu­man­ity.

It’s not only a phys­i­cal marker of the Sikh place of wor­ship but is also a spir­i­tual marker of Sikh iden­tity and phi­los­o­phy. It’s not merely a sym­bol of sov­er­eignty but also spir­i­tual sov­er­eignty.

It pro­claims the fun­da­men­tal rights of Sikhs to prac­tise their faith and lead their lives ac­cord­ing to the tenets of Sikh Gu­rus and be­ing free from per­se­cu­tion and in­ter­fer­ence of oth­ers. It’s a sym­bol of Sikh faith not lim­ited to the In­dian sub­con­ti­nent where it orig­i­nated, but across the spec­trum.

Nis­han Sahib rep­re­sents the val­ues of the Sikh faith. It is shown re­spect by Sikhs as it sym­bol­izes the in­her­ent val­ues, tenets of the Sikh ethos -the one­ness of God, equal­ity of all, love, com­pas­sion, self-re­spect and pro­tect­ing the self-worth of all and lead­ing a life of ser­vice and ded­i­ca­tion for hu­man­ity.

Why should one get of­fended by the Nis­han Sahib -the ban­ner of Sikhs, as Sikhs have stu­diously main­tained that this is the ban­ner of the unique char­ac­ter of their re­li­gion with­out un­der­min­ing any other re­li­gion or po­lit­i­cal thought? The flag colour be­ing Kesri -light yel­low is iden­ti­fied with sac­ri­fice and mar­tyr­dom.

Gen­tly flut­ter­ing of the Nis­han Sahib is a call to the needy and all those who are turned away, re­jected, scorned, met with dis­dain, that they are most wel­come.

Nis­han Sahib is a sym­bol of pride for all Sikhs. It un­furls in our heart and our mind. It is there wher­ever a Sikh up­holds the dig­nity and re­spect of the unique re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal dis­tinc­tion of the Sikh faith. It pro­claims peace, equal­ity and re­spect, not just for the Sikhs but for every­one who chooses to be un­der its refuge -in peace and in war.

Harpreet Kaur Ahluwalia is a cor­po­rate coach and men­tor, a ma­jor in eco­nom­ics, a pub­lic speaker on cor­po­rate af­fairs and an ex­pert ad­vi­sor in Em­pow­er­ment, En­tre­pre­neur­ship, Re­la­tion­ship Man­age­ment and Ado­les­cence chal­lenges.