The True Enemies of Sikhism - Part 2
by Balwinder Singh
CAUTION: The following article contains graphic details of violence to which Sikhs and Hindus were subjected. However, they are historical facts and no matter how gory, must be presented.

(Continued from last week...)

Not too far from the hotel in Lahore where the Jamaat-E-Islami was spreading vicious poison in the minds of hundreds of misguided Sikh youths, there lies the Lahore Railway Station. It was here that Sikhs were provided the most memorable form of "Support" from the Muslims of Pakistan. Perhaps the shameless spokespersons of Jamaat-E-Islami do not know their own history or perhaps they have forgotten and simply need to be reminded. If only the ignorant Sikh youth who listened to the Muslim declaration of support, could have witnessed the depth of that "Support" over fifty years ago.

If they had, then like the countless Sikh victims of Partition living in India today, who cannot sleep at night because of the flashbacks, the nightmares and the haunted memories of those gestures of "Support" , they too would have cried in pain.

In 1940, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League shocked India by demanding in no uncertain terms, the creation of a separate state for Muslims. It would be a "pure" state cleansed of the Kafir non believers and would thus be called Pakistan (Land of the Pure). Any area of India where Muslims formed the majority would go to Pakistan. The outrageous demands of Jinnah and his Muslims would ensure the seizure and forcible occupation of the Sikh homeland, namely Punjab. Even though the Sikhs populated every single district of Punjab, because of the fact that they were spread out over the districts instead of being concentrated, they were officially considered the "minority" in the provinces.

On August 16th 1946, the Muslim League declared Direct Action Day, the day where all Muslims were exhorted to show their support for the "pious" idea of Pakistan. Explaining the implications of Direct Action Day threat, Liaqat Ali Khan, general secretary of Muslim league said "Direct action means resort to non-constitutional methods that can take ANY form which suits the conditions under which we live. We cannot eliminate any methods. Direct Action means any action against the law." Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar spoke in more forthright terms: "Pakistan can be achieved only through shedding blood of others. Muslims are no believers in Ahimsa. Emboldened by these vitriolic words, Muslims poured out on the streets of Calcutta and other northern cities of India in a frenzy of rioting, violence and looting. A private army called Muslim National Guards had been created by the Muslim League especially for momentous occasions such as these. Immense caches of weapons had been secretly amassed, gasoline stored and swords, bludgeons, pistols of all shapes and sizes hoarded for just such an opportunity. Special volunteers had already been given training in the art of stabbing, arson, and shooting, all in the privacy of Mosques. At the same time reams of Muslim propaganda flowed from the Urdu newspapers.

The volcano churned on and on August 16, 1946, it erupted. Swarms of bloodthirsty Muslim mobs tore their way through Calcutta, stabbing, slashing, burning, & massacring every Hindu and Sikh man, woman and child in sight. Thousands of women had their ears and noses chopped off their faces even as they were raped in the presence of their husbands, fathers and sons. Wives, mothers and daughters watched in horror as their menfolk were seized and their genitals mutilated, their extremities chopped off, their eyes gouged and their heads beheaded. For four long endless days, Calcutta burned. In the end the "City of Joy" was littered with the stench of death emanating from the amassed corpses, all Hindus and Sikhs, bloodied victims of the Muslim's "pious" Jehad.

An estimated FIFTY THOUSAND Hindus and Sikhs were massacred and over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND had to flee for their lives. Then on 2nd September in Noakhali and Tippera, Muslims showed their commitment to Allah yet again in a inhuman frenzy of murder and rapine on thousands of Hindus and Sikhs. It was the Sikhs who took the lead in assembling their Hindu brothers and sisters to defend themselves against the ungodly Muslim hordes. Enraged at the role of the Sikhs in protecting the Hindus, Muslims trained their sights on the hapless Sikhs in West Punjab.

In March 1947 almost the entire Sikh population of millions in Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujranwalla, Lahore and hundreds of other areas in West Punjab, were dragged out of their homes by the Muslims. The women were forced to spread their legs. The Kirpans were seized from the Sardars and thrust into their women's vaginas. The followers of Allah turned the Kirpans and twisted them from side to side within the womens' wombs. As the screams of internal bleeding and horrific pain filled the air, they were drowned out by screams of "Allah-O-Akbar". The men had their genitals chopped off and Chilli powder was sprinkled on the wounds. As the victims writhed in pain, chunks of meat were carved out of their children and stuffed into their mouths. Within two weeks, the ENTIRE collective Sikh population of Rawalpindi had been massacred or driven out of the district. Even as the refugees fled towards the East, thousands of Muslims shouted bloodcurdling cries of "Jihad, Jihad" A "Holy" war had been declared against all the Sikhs and Hindus. Countless Gurdwaras and temples were demolished overnight as the shops and houses of Punjab went up in flames.

It was during the dawn of August 12, 1947 that Sikhs of Lahore too got a taste of the memorable Muslim "support". It was a calm morning with slightly overcast skies. The night before Hardyal Singh, a small time businessman had gone to his Muslim neighbour Murtaza's house next door, in order to partake of dinner. Hardyal confided to his friend Murtaza that he was afraid for his life because his relatives who lived in Rawalpindi had been massacred brutally just a few days ago. Murtaza took out a copy of the Holy Quran, shaking it out of the silken green folds in which it was wrapped so carefully. He placed his hand on the Quran and swore by Allah, that he would protect Hardyal and his family to the end. Hardyal was gratified at his Muslim friend's concern and moved to tears. Having partaken of the meal, he bid leave by enveloping his friend in a bear hug. The next moment Hardyal felt a deep agonizing pain in his back. As he instinctively recoiled in pain to hold his back, Hardyal noticed a warm, moist and sticky substance on his fingers. As he looked up, Hardyal Singh's eyes glazed over with terror at the sight of Murtaza's hands holding a curved dagger stained with blood. As he screamed in pain, the last sound Hardyal Singh heard was the voice of Murtaza shouting in bloodcurdling tones, "Allah-O-Akbar, Kill the Kafirs".

By the first ray of sunlight, Lahore was drowned in Sikh blood. Hundreds upon hundreds of Muslims poured out on the streets in droves slicing through the Sikhs, like butchers carving flesh. The bloodied, carved corpses and body parts were meticulously carried and loaded onto trains headed for Amritsar. The men's ears, eyeballs, genitals and noses were chopped off and made into garlands. Livers were strung like festive banners fastened to the windows. The genitalia of women were tattooed with knives. The bloody tattooed messages were clear, that there was no place for "Kafir" filth in "pure" Pakistan. As the trains streamed into Amritsar station, the Hindus and Sikhs were horror struck to see a macabre scene of such repulsive proportions as has surely been never seen before in history. Mangled flesh, blood, hair and bones poked out of every window and door of that train.

The stench was so overwhelming that hundreds fainted. Young teenage girls, their bodies completely naked, their genitals tattooed in bloody, gory detail, their hair trailing in the wind, were piled on the seats. Babies with their entrails hanging out of their stomachs, old women with their eyes gouged out, Men with their ears and noses strung around their neck were sprawled in an obscene mockery of all principles of humanity. All over the windows, paper banners fluttered with the slogans of Islamic Pakistan, "Pakistan's Gift to Hindustan" the words leered. A mountain of Sikh turbans tumbled out as the doors were opened. Within each Turban, the Pakistani Muslims had placed with judicious care, the severed hands of hundreds of their victims. Some still had the Sikh Karas dangling helplessly from them.

As the outrage and horror rose in the city of Amritsar, Muslims of Amritsar took out well organized processions. The areas near the Golden Temple were besieged by Muslim rioters. Their objective was clear; to seek out and strike at the very heart of Sikh culture.

The Harmandar Sahib or Golden Temple as it is known is the single most sacred pilgrimage center of the Sikh religion. Amritsar is the holiest city of the Sikhs primarily due to its historical heritage. Amritsar is not an ordinary city. It was built around a sacred lake of water known for its curative properties. Bhagwan Shree Ramachandra himself spent a part of his exile in the forest around the lake To this day that area is known as Ram Tirth Sthan. Even the indefatigable Hindu warriors, the Pandavas had taken holy water from the sacred lake to sprinkle on Bhima and bring him back to life. The great Hindu sages, Valmiki and Veda Vyasa who composed the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata respectively, lived nearby in the areas of Ram Tirth and Hari-ke-Pattan.

Sikh history tells us that when the site for Harmandar Sahib was being dug, the pick-axes and the shovels unearthed the body of a hermit sitting in a meditative posture as if still in deep communion with the divine. This tank, built by the fifth Guru, Arjan Dev, was named Amrit Sarovar (lake of nectar). Later, the township around the temple derived its nomenclature from this and came to be known as Amritsar. From Guru Nanak Dev to Guru Ramdas, from Guru Hargobind to Guru Arjan Dev, Amritsar and Harmandar Sahib have been sanctified by the blessings of Sikh Gurus and Hindu saints from time immemorial.

Countless generations of Muslims have tried and failed to destroy this sacred space. In 1762, the Harmandar Sahib was blown up by a heap of gun powder by the Afghans and the resplendent tank of nectar was filled with sewage, human waste and mutilated Sikh bodies, the victims of the Muslim oppression. Towards the beginning of 1767, Ahmad Shah Abdali made a final bid to assault the Harmandar Sahib and destroy the heart of the Sikh religion, but like countless other times, the hallowed temple withstood the assault.

As the Muslims advanced towards this very holy spot in a determined bid to deal a mortal blow to Sikhism once and for all, a handful of Sikhs and Hindus under Jathedar Udham Singh Nagoke faced the menacing mob. In what must surely go down as one of the greatest chronicles of courage in history, this handful of warriors showed the Muslims what Kshatriya spirit truly means. Armed only with their Kirpans and a few Lathis, the brave warriors blocked the progress of the seething, fulminating Islamic mob which was armed to the teeth with daggers, short swords and a few pistols. A miraculous blaze of immortal courage must have erupted within those young men as their cries of "Wahe Guru da Khalsa.....Wahe Guru di Fateh" resonated through the streets of Amritsar. Like fierce lions possessed with indomitable courage, the youths fended off the Muslim mob of thousands single handedly. They kept them at bay until other Sikhs and Hindus could arrive to tackle the enemy. As help arrived, the Muslims, finding themselves outnumbered, began to flee, but by then the floodgates of rage had burst open. The Sikhs and Hindus of Amritsar gave a fitting reply to the Muslims in the trains that went back to Lahore and other parts of Pakistan that day.

Despite the best attempts of Jamaat-E-Islami and other Muslim terrorists of Pakistan, the Sikhs have NOT forgotten Partition and will never forget. The scenes of carnage, rape, pillage and destruction are etched with blood in the heart of every true Sikh. It was this legacy of history given to us by the Muslims which motivated them to be the proudest, fiercest defenders of the nation during the 1965 war with Pakistan.

During the war, in the border districts, the Sikh population rose to a man to meet the crisis. It stood solidly behind the Indian Army and assisted them at every step. It provided guides to the newly inducted troops and offered free labor and vehicles, country carts, tractors and trucks to transport war supplies to the forward-most trenches. Instead of fleeing in panic , Sikhs right up to the frontier stayed fearlessly in their homes, plying their ploughs and tending their cattle.

When the main approach routes to the front were assigned, they set up booths serving refreshments to the soldiers. When Pakistani parachutists glided down to Indian lines, the Sikhs swooped down upon mercilessly. Every time the villagers saw the parachutes opening up in the blue skies, they grabbed their ploughs, their lathis, their axes and swords and surrounded the Pakistani enemy even before he had landed.

From Kutch to Baltistan , from Himachal to Ladakh, Indian Army's most senior commanders in the Punjab sector were always Sikhs. Lieut-General Harbakhsh Singh, with his chief of staff, Major-General Joginder Singh, commanded the entire Western zone and was, as such, the principal architect of India's victory. Lieut-General Joginder Singh Dhillon, Brigadier Parkash Singh Grewal, artillery commander, Brigadier S.S. Kalha, comandeered the brilliant strategies implemented in Punjab and Rajasthan. North of the Ravi, Major-General Rajinder Singh 'Sparrow', commanding an armored division, recorded a marvelous feat in the history of tank warfare by a lightning putsch towards Sialkot, Narowal, his Centurions humbling Pakistan's prestigious American gifted Pattons and Chaffees. The Khem Karan sector was turned into the graveyard of the Pakistani Patton tanks. South of the Sutlej, Brigadier Bant Singh, commanding an independent brigade group, defended stoutly an extensive border covering the entire Ferozepore and Ganganagar districts. Both at Hussainiwala and Fazilka, Sikh battalion commanders held fast to their positions despite intensely heavy shelling by Pakistan artillery. The Indian Air Force, under the command of the Sikh Air Chief Marshal, Arjan Singh, made devastating strikes and surprised military experts the world over by decisively outpacing a far better equipped, force.

Today even as Pakistan pursues its fruitless endeavor to illegally occupy Indian land, Hindus and Sikhs are fighting side to defend this Motherland of ours. The spirits of Bhai Banda Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh, of Arjuna and Abhimanyu are living again within the warriors in Kargil. The incredible forbearance of Bhai Banda Bahadur even as his body was hacked to pieces, the perseverance of Abhimanyu even as he was surrounded by the Kauravas, all these immortal qualities that define the identity of Indianness, are living and breathing today in the indomitable courage of these soldiers. Kshatriyahood in all its splendor burns in the heart of every defender of this nation whether he be Sikh, Hindu, Jain or Buddhist.

It is this unity that the Muslims of Pakistan want to undermine. But in their haste they have forgotten that the vast boundaries of Mother India have nourished, nurtured and sustained this culture of unity eons before the Prophet of Islam was even born. During the macabre story of Partition, it was in the village of Thoh Khalsa, Pakistan that the supreme instance of this bond was demonstrated. Over One thousand Sikh and Hindu sisters joined hands, their heads covered with their Chunnis, and with one cry, jumped into a well to save their honor from the Muslim mob that was descending upon them. The honor of the Hindu and the Sikh are so intricately tied together that none can unravel the threads which bind them.

Is the shared heritage of Hindus and Sikhs so cheap that it could be forgotten for a few sweet words spoken with a poisoned tongue? Do the Muslims of Pakistan think that the very same Hindus and Sikhs on whom they effected genocide for centuries could forget the very reason for their resistance?

It was the defense of the Sanatan Dharma from these very same Muslim invaders, which prompted the supreme sacrifice of every Sikh Guru and millions of Sikhs.

For centuries the followers of Islam have tried their best to separate these two inseparable sons of sacred Mother India.

There is no element in the universe which can forge the blade that could cut this bond asunder.

For the bond between the Hindus and Sikhs is that of oneness. The two are none other than reflections of the same Self rooted in the eternal soil of India, the Supreme Self of the Vedas and the Wahe Guru of the Granth Sahib.

Sikhism is all about learning.
What have you learned as a Sikh?

by Balwinder Singh

The True Enemies of Sikhism - Part 1
On June 25, 1999, the Sikh religion was subjected to an
incredibly cruel and insulting joke, when members of
Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami, addressed
a vast gathering of Sikhs in a hotel in Lahore. "Do not
consider yourselves alone in the fight for freedom. All the
Muslims of the world
are with you." thundered Maulana Aslam Sheikh. "Keep
Khalistan alive"!thundered the Muslims, as the bewildered
young Sikhs from UK, US and
Canada looked on. It was a "Sang Sabha" organized by the
Jamaat-E-Islami,Dal Khalsa, Babar Khalsa and International
Sikh Youth Federation to revive
the "Khalistan" movement for a state independent of India.
Urdu Poets spouted "now Jamaat-e-Islami and Sikhs have
become one." even as former ISI chief Hamid Gul wrote
articles saying "Now is the time the Kashmiri Mujahideen
established contacts with Khalistanis". The young Sikhs of
that audience who have been reared and raised in lands
thousands of miles away from Punjab, listened in
uninterrupted rapture to the obscene distortion of truth.
For decades their impressionable minds
had been poisoned with anti-India venom, their brains had
been stuffed with anti-Hindu poison, their heritage and
family history had been
distorted and twisted to an unrecognizable extent. They did
not know their own identity, how could these youths know
what was the truth about their own religion and culture. For
if there had been a single true Sikh in that audience, he
would have screamed in protest at the insult that was taking
place; a violation of the honor and heritage of every Sikh
took place that day in the dark confines of a hotel in
Lahore. If even one Sikh among those hundreds had known of
the centuries of hatred, oppression, genocide and rapine
that these very same Muslims, who said "All the Muslims of
the World are with you" effected on generations of Sikhs
before, he would have cried in shame and rage at the hideous
irony of that statement. He would have reminded the Muslims
of the millions of Sikhs who died by Allah's sword. He
would have remembered the
vision of Guru Tegh Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh, Guru Arjan
Dev, Bhai Banda Bahadur and hundreds of the world's most
revered Sikh leaders being sawn, burnt, boiled, quartered
and torn alive by the same Muslims. Perhaps if he knew
anything about his own history he would also have remembered
what happened to Sikhs at the hands of Muslims in the very
same city of Lahore about three hundred years ago. In 1716
AD, Zakaria Khan,
the son of the Muslim Governor of Lahore was chopping off
the heads of thousands of Sikhs and loading them onto carts
to carry them as a GIFT to
the Muslim emperor of Delhi. The "gift" consisted of SEVEN
HUNDRED CARTLOADS carrying the beheaded heads of Sikhs,
along with thousands of prisoners in chains including Bhai
Banda Bahadur. The soldiers at the front of the procession
carried the heads of beheaded Sikh warriors impaled on
wooden pikes. As the procession of death reached Delhi,
Farukhshiyar ordered his Minister Mohammed Amin Khan to
prepare a fitting celebration in reception of the gift. On
the 29th of February, 1716, the Muslims of Delhi lined the
streets in full force in anticipatory delight of the
fabulous show that was going to unfold. The crowd cheered as
the front guard walked up with 2,000 soldiers each holding a
Sikh warrior's head impaled on his gaily decorated upright
spear. The heads of the murdered Sikhs were stuffed with
straw, and stuck on Bamboo spears, their long hair streaming
in the wind like a veil, and along with them to show that
every living thing in
Gurdaspur had perished, a dead cat on a pole.
[Image]
The Great Sikh Warrior
Bhai Banda Bahadur

Immediately following this was Bhai Banda Bahadur's
elephant. Banda Bahadur bruised and bleeding sat in an iron
cage. He was bedecked out of mockery with a gold-laced red
turban and a blinding crimson robe of brocade draped on his
tattered body. The heavy robe of brocade was
decorated with pomegranates. Behind him stood a mail-clad
officer with a drawn sword. After him came thousands of Sikh
prisoners strapped in pairs
to camels' backs without saddles. Every one of their faces
had been colored black by soot and pointed sheepskin or
paper caps were dangling
their heads in mockery. Each of them had one hand pinned to
his neck, between two pieces of wood. The rear flank
followed with the Muslim
Commanders, Mohammed Amin Khan, his son Kamar-ud-Din Khan,
and his son-in-law Zakaria Khan.
Even amidst this grotesque celebration of inhumanity, the
Sikhs faced the pain and humiliation with heads held erect
and proud. Not a single Sikh's face showed the slightest
sign of agony or defeat. In the words of Islamic historian
Mohammed Harisi, author of the Ibratnama, who saw the
spectacle with his own eyes, "The crowds were pressing
forward to get a better view. The road to the palace, was
lined with troops and filled with exultant crowds, who
jostled forward to have a chance at mocking the Sikhs. They
spat on the prisoners and Banda Bahadur and laughed at their
grotesque appearance. The Muslims shook their heads and
poked and prodded the Sikhs as they passed. "HU! HU! infidel
dog worshippers your day has come. Truly, retribution
follows on transgression, as wheat springs from wheat, and
barley from barley!! " Such were the cries that arose from
the pious followers of the Quran. Yet their triumph was
incomplete. For the Sikh warriors took all the insults with
a smile. In a surreal scene, the warriors displayed not a
single sign of fear or shame, they rode on, calm,
cheerful, singing songs of their beloved Gurus. They were
happy to die the death of martyrs. "Kill me first, O
Deliverer" was the cry on every
Sikh's lips as they reached the execution platform.
[Image]
Sikh warriors were beheaded and their heads impaled on
poles. It took SEVEN days to behead and murder all the Sikh
prisoners. The
corpses were loaded on wagons and taken out of town to be
thrown to the vultures. Their severed heads were hung up on
trees and on stakes near the
town square as celebratory symbols decorated with ribbons
and bright banners.
For three months Banda Bahadur and his men were tortured to
reveal where they had hidden the treasures which funded the
Sikh resistance. Not one of them uttered a word of betrayal.
It was on Sunday, 9th June, 1716 almost exactly 283 years
ago from the day that Jamaat-E-Islaami made the obscene
statement in Lahore, that Banda's cage was again hoisted on
top of an elephant, and he was dressed in mock attire of an
emperor, with a
colourful red pointed turban on his head. His 4 year old son
Ajay Singh was placed on his lap. Twenty Sardars marched
behind the elephant as the
procession passed through the streets of Delhi, and headed
for the Kutub-ud-din mausoleum of Bahadur Shah, near Kutab
Minar. On reaching that graveyard, the captives were again
offered a final
ultimatum: conversion to Islam or death. None of them
hesitated even a second to choose Death. Each one of the
Sikh Sardars was subjected to
incredible tortures before being executed. Their heads were
then impaled on spears and arranged in a circle around Banda
who was now squatting on
the ground. As thousands of spectators watched, a short
sword was thrust into Banda Bahadur's hands and he was
ordered to kill his own son Ajay
Singh. As the king of warriors sat unperturbed, the
executioner moved forward and plunged his sword into the
little child slashing him into two.
Then pieces of flesh were cut from his son's bloodied corpse
and thrown in Banda's face. The dead child's liver was torn
out of his stomach along with other entrails and stuffed
into Banda Bahadur's mouth. The father sat still as a stone,
not a flicker of emotion crossing his face to betray any
trace of horror. Mohammed Amin Khan then seized Banda by
the hair and barked: "From your manner so far you appear to
be a man of virtue, who believes in God, and in doing good
deeds. You are also very intelligent. Can you tell me why
you are having to suffer all this here ?"
Banda's reply was, "When the tyrants oppress their subjects
to the limit, then God sends men like me on this earth to
mete out punishment to them. But being human, we sometimes
overstep the laws of justice, and for that we are made to
pay whilst we are still here. God is not being unjust to me
in any way." At this the infuriated Mohammed Khan gestured
to the executioner to step forward. The executioner grabbed
Banda Bahadur's head in his rough callused hands and with a
bloodcurdling shudder thrust the tip of his razor sharp
dagger into Banda's right eye, twisting and turning into the
socket as he slashed the optical nerves and gouged out the
eyeball. The second eye met the same fate. Throughout the
torturous
moments of unimaginable agony, Banda Bahadur sat motionless
like a rock. His spirit had taken him beyond the physical
barriers into the realm where
one can feel no pain. The Muslims cheered in their bloodlust
as the executioner slashed off
Banda's left foot, then both of his arms. Then a pair of
red-hot pincers were brought and chunks of Banda's flesh
were torn off his frame. But
Banda Bahadur did not budge. In the final moment before
attaining Samadhi, the glorious warrior smiled in a final
mocking gesture at his torturers. Trembling with fear at the
surreal detachment of the man, the Muslims slashed at his
body with their swords, mincing it into thousands of little
pieces as if afraid that even the severed pieces of blood
soaked flesh would arise any minute and fight back. Every
detail of the preceding event can be found in the accounts
of
writers such as Khafi Khan, Mohammed Harisi, Thornton,
Elphinstone, Daneshwar and others.

Was there not even one Sikh who remembered the significance
of this very June in Lahore as the Jamaat-E-Islaami insulted
the memory of Banda
Bahadur and thousands of Sikhs? Was there not even one who
shuddered at the insult to the memory of his ancestors when
the Jamaat-E-Islami mouthed such hideous lies? The Muslims
of Pakistan want to fool the Sikh into denying his very
identity. They want Sikhs to forget thousands of past
incidents like the Murder of Bhai Banda Bahadur. They want
Sikhs to forget that their very lives are tied to the soil
of India and to the eternal values of Hinduism.
It is the Sikhs who are the true Kshatriyas; the warriors
who stake their very lives to protect DHARMA. That is why
the color of Punjab is Kesari.
Sikhs cannot and will not forget the memories of horror
which were etched onto their souls by the very same Muslims.
>From Abdali to Akbar, from
Aurangzeb to Jinnah, the story has always been the same. The
ultimate mantle of bloodletting and genocide of Sikhs rests
squarely on the
followers of that most cruel and intolerant of creeds;
Islam. It was for the purpose of fighting this same creed
that the very concept of Sikhism was born. The sword of the
Khalsa was formed to rid the world of the cancer of
intolerance and oppression. A holy oath was taken to rid
India of the oppressors, it was for this very reasons that
the five symbols or Kakkars of Sikhi - Kesh, Kara, Kanga,
Kirpan, Kacchera were created. Each one of these symbols
represents an ideal of resistance against the Muslim
conquerors and reinforces Hinduism as the source of Sikhism.
1. Kesh - the tradition of Kesh meaning the long hair which
is not cut. The Sikh follows this tradition of Hindu
warriors who vowed never to
cut their hair until the Muslim aggressors were thrown out
of India. Their hair is the symbol of the vow which is never
forgotten. In Hinduism the
cutting off of hair represents fruition of a duty or task.
For the Sikhs this task is never finished as they are
forever the protectors of the
eternal Dharma of India, therefore the hair is never cut.
2. Kanga - the tradition of the Kanga meaning the
wooden/ivory comb is the symbol of constancy and alertness,
as it reminds the Sikh never to be complacent. It means that
Sikhs must nurture and constantly nourish the fire of
warrior spirit that burns within them, just as they must
always keep their long hair combed in order for it to be
clean and manageable.
3. Kara - the tradition of the Kara meaning the metal
bracelet, symbolizes immovable determination. The courage
and detachment of Banda
Bahadur and millions of Sikh warriors was rekindled whenever
they looked at their Karas and were reminded of the
willpower and strength inherent in their tradition. The
bracelet is also an indicator of the Hindu concept of Jiva
and Atman, where the bracelet represents the material form
of the Soul and the metal represents the commonality of the
spiritual essence of
all living beings, the Atman.
4. Kirpan - the tradition of Kirpan meaning the sword,
symbolizes the defense of the oppressed. It is the
representation of the fierce ideals of a Kshatriya race
which has pledged its life to protecting Dharma and
defending the land of its forefathers from foreign invaders
who threaten its culture. It also reminds the Sikh warrior
of the Hindu concept of the fleeting temporary nature of
life, and focuses attention on the immortal glory of the
Self or Brahman who lies beyond the fragile nature of this
life.
5. Kachha - the tradition of Kachha meaning the short
minimal clothing, symbolizes the highest Hindu concept of
renunciation. The Sikh
is a Kshatriya whose life is pledged to the fight against
injustice, therefore renunciation is a key element as it
makes the warrior detached
from the material aspects of life and focuses his attention
on to his Dharma or duty.

It is these symbols of their origins that make Sikhs the
proudest, dignified patriots of India. It was the Sikh
Gurus who preached the fact
that Ram is everywhere, it was they who lovingly gave Ram
the name "Wahe Guru".
The Sikh has not forgotten the words of Guru Tegh Bahadur
who was dragged to the court of Aurangzeb and forced to bow
at the Muslim emperor's feet.
It was then that the valiant Guru said in a message that has
echoed down to every Sikh warrior through the centuries:
"As a Sikh I must protect the Dharma. If you can succeed in
converting this Tegh Bahadur, then believe me, every Hindu
child of this country will
accept Islam. But you will fail. Because God's Justice
ensures that every community will have the right and the
freedom to practice its religion." It was at these words
that his disciples Bhai Mati Das was sawn alive and
Bhai Sati Das wrapped in cotton to be burnt alive even as
the Quranic verses were read aloud. It was at these eternal
words that Guru Tegh
Bahadur was beheaded alive.
It is this identity that the Muslims of Pakistan want Sikhs
to forget. This article has been written in dedication to
that living, breathing
heritage of Sikhism. Perhaps the Muslims of Pakistan do not
realise that for a Sikh, India is the cradle of his
identity. It was for the soil of
India and the values and ideals of the eternal Sanatan
Dharma that so many Sikhs gloriously martyred themselves.
There may not have been a single true Sikh to protest the
insult to his heritage on that day in Lahore, but
there are countless proud ones who know the true meaning of
Sikhi and will not fall for such lies.
Next week I will describe the details of how the Muslims
have always "supported" the Sikhs by describing the history
of genocide which was
perpetrated on the Sikhs by them during the Mughal reign,
during Independence, during the horror of Partition and even
today as Gurudwaras
are being taken apart brick by brick in Pakistan.

Balwinder Singh