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.

 If you like our stories, do follow WSN on Facebook.

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.