The Source Book On Sikhism

Chapter Forty-Four

Sikh Freedom Fighters In The Age of Revolution

By

Siri Daya Singh and Gurubanda Singh Khalsa

As all students of Western History know, the American Revolution of 1776 was just one in a wave of revolutions, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which changed the prevailing order of the Western World. It is little known in the West, however, that during roughly the same period, the so-called Age of Revolution, a nascent Sikh state was fighting for its freedom from foreign domination and religious oppression, which was secured for a brief interval around the turn of the century.

To understand this period fully, it is necessary to begin with the passing of Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Master of the Sikhs, in 1708. The Guru had left his general, Banda Singh Bahadur, in charge of the struggle against religious persecution in the Punjab. Banda Singh took it upon himself to redress the wrongs committed against his Guru by the oppressive Moghul empire. In the process, he freed much of the Punjab from the dominion of petty rulers and aristocrats who were supported by the Moghul government in Delhi. A radical reformer, he abolished the exploitative zamindari system, returning control of the land to those who actually tilled the soil. Striking out at the rigid system of class, he frequently placed downtrodden menial workers in the position of local leaders.

In 1711, Banda Bahadur proclaimed an independent Sikh state in Northern India. He claimed rulership, not in his own name, but in the name of the Guru, and struck coins in the name of “Guru Nanak-Gobind Singh", with the seal of "Deg. Teg. Fateh" inscribed on each. Shortly, the vast Moghul power turned its forces against the emerging nation. On December 10, 1710, the Moghul Emperor, Bahadur Shah, issued an edict ordering that all Sikhs, wherever found, be immediately and unhesitatingly destroyed. Thus began a period of systematic extermination of the Sikh people which was to last fifty years. For the Sikhs, there was no question but to resist against all odds. Yet it is a great credit to the Gurus’ teachings that the Sikh nation, in its official response to Bahadur Shah’s edict, specifically disavowed any hatred or prejudice against the religion or ethnic character of their oppressors.

“We do not oppose Muslims or

Islam, but only tyranny and

usurpation of power.”

Banda Bahadur and his army, on account of their will and bravery in battle, were feared throughout Northern India as virtual supermen. Nevertheless, the overwhelming numbers of the Moghul armies proved to be too much for the inspired rebels. Banda Bahadur and his forces were surrounded, nearly starved to death during a prolonged siege, and finally were captured in 1716. Banda Singh Bahadur was cruelly tortured to death and made to witness the brutal execution of his young son. Yet neither he, nor any of his companions were recorded to have lost their faith, even to the last breath.

It has been held by some historians that Banda Singh was cruel to his enemies, and that he held a personal hatred toward Muslims. The first point appears to have some validity. Certainly when he razed Sirhind, the city of the notorious Wazir Khan, murderer of the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, Banda Bahadur displayed a vengefulness and cruelty hardly worthy of a Sikh of the Guru. But the truth of the second charge can hardly be substantiated. It has been recorded by historians of the time that Banda Singh appointed several Muslims to posts in his government. He also accepted the service of a large number of Muslims in his army: they were given equal pay and status with the other soldiers, and were allowed to say their prayers in accordance with their religion. Viewing the period of Banda Singh’s leadership in perspective, we see that he laid the foundation for the future unification and independence of the Punjab, by inspiring the people with the possibility of popular rule, free from tyranny. Keenly aware of his place in history, Banda Bahadur, on the day of his death, addressed his captor in these words:

“Whenever men become so corrupt and wicked as to relinquish the path of equity and abandon themselves to all kinds of excesses, God never fails to raise a scourge like me to chastise those who are so depraved. But when the measure of punishment is full, then He raises men like you to bring him to punishment.”

In the years following Banda Singh’s death, the Sikhs were subjected to wave after wave of persecution, its aim being their complete and total annihilation. A price was placed on the head of anyone bearing the long hair and beard of the Faith of Nanak. Each day, the heads of hundreds of Sikhs were carried on the tips of spears to Delhi for bloodmoney. Year by year, the list of martyrs grew. Bhai Mani Singh, the revered scholar and sage, was cut limb by limb. Others were sawed, broken on the wheel, or had their scalps chiselled from their skulls. Women and children were thrown into dungeons, tortured and given hard labour. Sikh women were forced to watch their children slaughtered, and then made to wear their bleeding limbs as cruel ornaments. Through it all, they kept their faith, and refused to grant their tormentors the satisfaction of hearing even a sigh of sorrow.

Dispossessed of their homes and their land, the Sikhs took to the saddle, and found shelter in the hills and forests. They partook of meagre rations, and plundered the caravans of invading armies for support and sustenance. The years of struggle and privation only strengthened their faith and resolve: “the numbers of the Sikhs continued to swell, and no amount of persecution could keep them down. Throughout the northern plains echoed the call, never before heard in that corner of the world.” Death or Liberty! Death or Liberty!

The year 1733 marked a brief break in the hostilities. The Moghul rulership in Delhi offered a jagir, a gift of land, and the honourary title of “Nawab” to the leader of the Sikhs “as a means of appeasement”. The representatives of the Khalsa, who were meeting at the Akal Takhat, considered the proposal, but none of them would accept it. Their hearts were set on political self-determination, not on feeble compromise. Finally, after continued assurances of the government’s good intentions, they agreed to offer the title and the jagir to some deserving Sikh as a reward for his servicefulness. Kapur Singh of Faizullapur, who had been waving a large fan over the assembly was nominated. Yet this humble Sikh would not accept the gift until the land had been blessed by the touch of the feet of five “Khalsa Sikhs.”

During this short period of relief, the Sikhs afforded themselves of the opportunity to reorganize their military forces, dividing them into two divisions, called dals. The Buddha Dal was composed of the older, seasoned fighters, led by the same ‘Nawab’ Kapur Singh, while the Taruna Dal was composed of the younger soldiers. Viewing these signs of increased vigour among the Sikhs, the Delhi government withdrew its jagir, and fighting was renewed afresh. In the years that followed, the Sikhs were forced to defend themselves, not only against the Moghul Empire in the south, but against the invading Pathan Empire under the leadership of Ahmed Shah Durrani, in the north. They fought fiercely, often inflicting heavy losses upon the enemy, despite all odds. In February of 1762, Ahmed Shah marched upon the Sikhs with a huge army, taking more than ten thousand lives, mostly women, children and old men. In April of the same year, he ordered Harimandir Sahib, the Sikhs’ principal place of pilgrimage, filled with gunpowder and destroyed. Yet the Sikhs rebounded with a series of victories until, later that year, Ahmed Shah was forced to return home to attend to domestic disturbances. The Sikhs took little time in beginning the reconstruction of Harimandir Sahib, and in re-establishing their power in the Punjab. In 1763, under the leadership of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, they captured the Pathan stronghold of Sirhind. Ahmed Shah Durrani made one further attempt to crush the Sikhs but, unable to force them into a direct confrontation, he returned home disappointed.

With the withdrawal of the Pathan power, and the continuing decline of the Moghul rule, the Sikhs were relatively free to establish their military dominance in the Punjab. In 1765, they succeeded in capturing Lahore, and once again, a coin bearing the inscription "Deg, Teg, Fateh”, used by Banda Singh Bahadur, was struck. But the hegemony of Sikh forces in the Punjab was hardly equivalent to the formulation of an independent Sikh nation. The Sikh military forces had been divided into a dozen misals, or confederacies, each one having its own popular leader, and possessing local dominance. Within each misal, a rough democracy prevailed, with each member possessing equal rights, and the local chief ruling by popular support. But the Sikh warriors, after so many years of guerrilla fighting, had become fiercely independent and naturally suspicious of centralized authority. Although they continued to cherish the ideal of the universal brotherhood of the Khalsa, their primary loyalty remained to their local leaders. As a result, once the flood of oppression had receded from the Punjab, several of the misals fell to squabbling and fighting amongst themselves.

Unity and true nationhood finally came to the Punjab through the efforts of one truly remarkable man: Ranjit Singh. On account of his superior tactical and political understanding and his broad vision of a unified Punjab state, he succeeded in gaining leadership of all the local confederacies. In 1799, at the request of the local citizenry, he took possession of Lahore. Shortly he extended the Sikh dominion to include the provinces of Kashmir, Multan and Peshwar to the north, thus rendering the Punjab relatively secure against Afghani invasions which had for so long plagued that area. He was hailed as a defender of the people, and, on Baisakhi Day, 1801, was proclaimed “Maharajah of the Punjab.”

Those whose primary experience has been life in western democracies may find it hard to understand why the Punjabi people, after such a long and costly struggle against tyranny and oppression, so easily accepted a monarchy. This question deserves sympathetic consideration. First of all, there had been no previous experience with large-scale republican democracy anywhere in India. In smaller democratic communities, such as had existed in the Punjab, the people put their trust in elected officials from their own communities. In large democratic states, on the other hand, the people’s trust is placed not so much in national leaders as in the vast systems of government themselves. The American people, for example, do not find it contradictory to maintain faith in their national government, even when they have no trust or respect for their president; they trust and respect their system of government. Such a concept would have been quite difficult for the Punjabi people, who had never known a national government at all, in the early 1800ís. Divided by differences of religion, geographical and hereditary allegiances they could only unite behind a strong figure of the genius and character of Ranjit Singh. We might also remember that the American people, despite their long experience with modern democracy, still turned out in large numbers to crown George Washington king, after the Revolution.

Within the limitations of a monarchical government, Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s reign was imbued with a democratic spirit unsurpassed in the history of nations. A true Sikh at heart, he embodied in his governance the values taught by the Gurus: strength, tolerance, brotherhood, service, compassion and humility.

He forged an unusual blend of king and peasant leader. He wore no emblem of royalty in his simple turban, and refused to sit on a throne. He stamped coins with the image of Guru Nanak rather than of himself. Neither did the seal of government bear his name. His court came to be known as the Darbar Khalsaji, The Court of the Brotherhood of the Pure Ones. He felt himself to be an instrument of the Khalsa, and rather than distance himself from the masses in the tradition of all previous monarchs, he never lost touch with his people.

Soon after his coronation, Maharajah Ranjit Singh initiated government programs unheard of under a monarchy. He established an entirely separate court system for Muslims involving their own traditional legal code. All Muslims were free to use either these courts or those maintained by the state-appointed judicial officers. To serve the people, free medical dispensaries were opened throughout the capital city of Lahore.

Maharajah Ranjit Singh would spend at least an hour every afternoon listening to the reading of the Adi Granth. Though he was a devoted Sikh, he did not hesitate to take part in both Muslim and Hindu festivities. His respect for these faiths was genuine, and he always strove to make his activities reflect this. He often spent great sums in repair of mosques. On one occasion, when he was praised for his broad-mindedness, the Maharajah, who was blind in one eye, replied, “God wanted me to look upon all religions with one eye, that he took away the light from the other.”

His willingness to embrace all faiths within his kingdom reassured the people that he was not forging an exclusive Sikh kingdom, but rather a Punjabi state where all men would be equal under the law. The Maharajah’s success was probably due more to his respect for other faiths than to any other single factor. His government and his army included Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, and even Englishmen. While he chose individuals largely according to their capabilities, he was keenly aware of the need to involve the various Punjabi peoples in the state in order to unify them.

Unification was always of prime importance to Maharajah Ranjit Singh. His plan to unite the land included the subdual of various unaccommodating leaders throughout the Punjab. He never failed to treat these dispossessed chieftains with as much fairness as one could expect in such situations. Their militias were incorporated into the state army and each leader was always granted a sizeable estate, largely for the purpose of maintaining troops for the state. Even after defeating certain leaders several times, his consideration toward them did not change. He was always eager to pardon his foes, and although his methods might today be viewed as harsh, they were generally tame in comparison to many of the practices common at the time.

Maharajah Ranjit Singh established a monarchy that was more responsive to the populace than many governments that are supposedly democratic. The people of the Punjab held him in high esteem throughout his reign. The extent of his popularity was very evident in Amritsar. Ownership of the city had been divided among almost a dozen powerful families when the Maharajah was asked by several of the leading citizens to take it over. He did so, with nominal resistance, and the citizenry was jubilant as he rode through the streets on his elephant. After taking Amritsar, he bathed in the tank at the Siri Harimandir Sahib and made a grant from his own treasury for the temple to be rebuilt in marble and gold leaf.

The Maharajah strengthened his popularity by always maintaining a close relationship with the men in his army. He spent several hours a day with his troops, often rewarding a soldier for good performance. He would personally lead his men into battle, and in this way he was able to inspire them to acts of bravery. Such acts of bravery were often rewarded with lands and pensions. His own feats of courage earned him the title, “Lion of the Punjab.”

His empathy with the common man kept him from sustaining resentment toward those who had wronged him. He avoided inflicting punishment, never once sentencing a man to death, not even his would-be assassin.

There are several recorded instances in which Maharaja Ranjit Singh demonstrated his humility by publicly admitting his fallibility. He requested that two of his aides, as a check upon his own misjudgement, withhold for amendment any order issued by himself or his chief ministers, should it appear to be inappropriate. The Maharaja, in another instance, had an exquisite canopy fashioned, to be hung above Guru Granth Sahib in the Golden Temple. Bowing before the Guru, the Maharaja was observed to gaze up with pride at his beautiful gift, inlaid with gold and jewels. As a result of this lapse in consciousness, the Maharaja was brought before the Sangat, censured, and heavily fined. He accepted it gracefully and paid the fine.

Much has been said about the less saintly side of Ranjit Singh. He engaged in activities, in his personal life, which no true Sikh could condone. Yet, in his public capacities, he did set a bright example of the possibility of enlightened government based on the principles of the Khalsa. Through him, the Punjabi people were, at least for a time, unified and fortified against invaders. Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs worked together in the land they shared. Maharajah Ranjit Singh was, above all, responsive to the needs of those within his domain. And no government, no matter how egalitarian its structure, can serve its people if its leaders do not have this quality.

The lifetime of the Punjab national state, Darbar Khalsaji, was short indeed. After Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s death, the agents of British imperialism systematically assassinated his legitimate successors, and fermented internal dissent which led to the nation’s collapse under British attack in 1846. Nonetheless, the spirit of freedom and the vision of a righteous society, taught by the Ten Gurus, continued to inspire the hearts of the Sikh people. When, in the early twentieth century, the British government’s repressive measures ran to excess, Sikhs were in the forefront of the Indian resistance movement. By virtue of their persistent efforts, alongside their Hindu and Muslim brethren, the yoke of British domination was thrown off. With God’s Grace, the Sikhs of the True Guru will continue to lead the way in the ongoing struggle for freedom and human dignity.