Why did the Gu­rus and Sikhi emerge in 15th cen­tury Pan­jaab? How did they im­pact the peo­ple of Pan­jaab? What was the Gu­rus’ vi­sion of Pan­jaabi life and Pan­jab? Where are we to­day? Jagdeesh Singh shares a ten­der set of thoughts on what he sees as the in­di­vis­i­ble link be­tween Sikhi and Pan­jaabi­ness. He adds to a grow­ing di­a­logue on Pan­jaabi-Sikh con­scious­ness.

Sikhi in­spired Pan­jaabis in a trans­for­ma­tive and up­lift­ing way. Truth, jus­tice and kind­ness are the very core and pul­sat­ing essence of Sikhi. These cen­tral qual­i­ties are man­i­fest in the great em­bed­ded prac­tises of Sikhi, from shared lan­gar to shared bap­tism to shared liv­ing.

The Gu­rus en­gaged and en­tered into the soul of the Pan­jaabi peo­ple, em­brac­ing its past and its in­trin­sic qual­i­ties; util­is­ing and in­fus­ing those with the tonic of Sikhi, to tackle head-on the crip­pling poi­sons of caste, fe­male sub­or­di­na­tion, Hindu su­per­sti­tions and men­tal im­pris­on­ment.

It is by no ac­ci­dent or co­in­ci­dence that this Sikhi was ini­ti­ated, ex­pressed and demon­strated with full vigour and force in the land of the five rivers, amongst the in­dige­nous hearts and minds of the raw Pan­jaabi peo­ple. The af­fec­tion and love for Pan­jaab, its in­dige­nous lan­guage of thou­sands of years, its en­dur­ing cus­toms, its vi­brant and ex­pres­sive an­nual new year of Vaisakhi from the ear­li­est times, its peo­ple, food and land­scape. This was demon­strated by the Ten Gu­rus, in all that they did.

“The Gu­rus re­sus­ci­tated and em­pow­ered us to be­come alive and con­fi­dent through a pos­i­tive code of con­duct, a solid sense of shared com­mu­nity, a col­lec­tive car­ing and shar­ing.”

The first true king, whilst trav­el­ling across many lands and con­ti­nents of the world for 30 years of his mon­u­men­tal 70-year life, shar­ing Sikhi with the world; af­ter each of these four unique jour­neys, re­turned to his heart-felt Pan­jaab. He set­tled back per­ma­nently in Pan­jaab, spend­ing his fi­nal years of life farm­ing and grow­ing food in the soil and air of rugged Pan­jaab and amongst his na­tive peo­ple, at a place that we now fa­mously know as Kar­tarpur Sahib.  The Gu­rus specif­i­cally chose the in­dige­nous New Year of Va­saikhi, to make ma­jor an­nounce­ments to the Pan­jaabi peo­ple and be­yond. The most fa­mous of these be­ing that of 1699, in the heart of Pan­jaab -‘Madhr Des’ (Guru Gob­ind Singh, Dasam Bani, Ang 71), no less.

The Tenth True King, whilst born in dis­tant Patna in Bi­har, felt a yearn­ing for Pan­jaab. He vested his life’s en­er­gies, strug­gles and bat­tles in Pan­jaab, adding enor­mously to and fi­nal­is­ing the trans­for­ma­tive mis­sion of the nine kings be­fore him. He warned Au­rangzeb, in his fa­mous evoca­tive let­ter ‘Za­far­namah’  -the ‘Epis­tle of Vic­to­ry’, that he would not let him or his armies ‘drink the wa­ter of my Pan­jaab’ and would ‘burn fire un­der the hoofs of their hors­es’ if they dared to tread that way. From Nanded (Ma­ha­rash­tra), Guru Gob­ind Singh sent Banda Singh Ba­hadur, not just to de­liver jus­tice on the tyrants of Sirhind, but to over­turn the ex­ist­ing im­pe­ri­al­ist power sys­tem in Pan­jaab and re­place it with a Khaalsa-based Pan­jaabi na­tional state.

The Gu­rus in­vari­ably chose Pan­jaab as the cen­tre and bas­tion of their lives, set­ting up new pri­mary cen­tres of na­tional con­scious­ness and sym­bol­ism. For ex­am­ple, Am­rit­sar, Ha­ri­mandir Sahib, Akaal Bunga, Anandgarh and many more, in this raw, bru­talised land, They re­jected en­tirely the pre-ex­ist­ing ma­jor cap­i­tals and cen­tres of the world -Mecca, Varanasi, Harid­war, Dheli, Bagh­dad, Rome, etc. The Gu­rus em­braced Pan­jaab, and Pan­jaab em­braced the Gu­rus. It was no ac­ci­dent that the first and most of the Gu­rus were born in the heart­land of Pan­jaab, where they grew as chil­dren, mixed with the peo­ple, spoke its vi­brant lan­guage, ate its food, farmed its lands, breathed its smells and swam in its rivers.

“What if the Gu­rus had not come? How would the last five cen­turies have been for Pan­jaab?”

The Gu­rus brought this re­ju­ve­na­tion through their ten life-forms, into our morally bro­ken and down­trod­den Pan­jaabi hu­man­ity. They re­sus­ci­tated and em­pow­ered us to be­come alive and con­fi­dent through a pos­i­tive code of con­duct, a solid sense of shared com­mu­nity, a col­lec­tive car­ing and shar­ing. A will to de­fend, fight and strug­gle, to form in­de­pen­dent peo­ples’ courts of jus­tice. We went on to form in­de­pen­dent armies, to de­fend and re­sist op­pres­sion. We evolved the will to be free, in­de­pen­dent and sov­er­eign. We demon­strated the re­spon­si­bil­ity and benev­o­lence to be able prac­ti­tion­ers of ter­ri­to­r­ial power and sov­er­eign gov­er­nance.

What if the Gu­rus had not come? How would the last five cen­turies have been for Pan­jaab? Pan­jaab would most prob­a­bly as a so­ci­ety, hu­man­ity and a peo­ple; be vastly frac­tured, dis­ori­en­tated and op­pressed. We would not be on the world map. Our lan­guage would not be known. Our iden­tity as Pan­jaabis would sim­ply not ex­ist. We would be a sub­ju­gated na­tion in mind and body; with no self-con­fi­dence, self-es­teem and no self-iden­tity.

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Let us demon­strate and de­liver our com­mit­ment as true Khaalsa pa­tri­ots. Let us give to the yearn­ing heart of Pan­jaab! “Great­ness of the house of the Gu­rus re­sides in Pan­jaab! -Bal­lad –Vaaran of Bhai Gur­d­was Jee, 24; Ang 11.