Certain aspects of one’s psyche, culture and behaviour are innate reflections of one’s upbringing and influences. ‘Punjabiyat’ and ‘Sikhi’ have been my heritage, bestowed on me by the collective consciousness of Sikhism. Having been brought up in the typically heterogeneous, secular and typified environs of army, I may not have been aware of it in a conscious manner in my early years. However, though I held dear the olive-green values as the greater cultural connect of my life, the tenets of my faith have been a guiding beacon during the journey.
In my childhood, every day at dusk, we used to surround our mother as she recited the Rehras Sahib, a prayer from our scriptures. We understood little, but by repeatedly listening to it, portions of this prayer got embedded in our minds. My Nanaji (maternal grandfather), a pious man, was in service as an office superintendant during the Raj period in Rawalpindi. One fine day he just resigned from his job, saying that he would from that moment onwards be in the service of Wahe Guru. At the time of Partition, he, along with his family, migrated to Patiala. In childhood we often spent our holidays with them. His letters to me, written in English, were very inspiring. When I was growing up, I recall that Nanaji, whom we used to respectfully address as Khalsaji, always encouraged me to speak in the gurdwara on occasions like Gurpurab, on religious subjects such as ‘the life of Guru Nanak’. He made a great contribution to my spiritual evolution. These childhood convictions in the Gur Baani or the holy scriptures, and Rehatnama, the code of life for the Sikhs, played a great role in my understanding of the value of being a ‘warrior for the cause’.
Imbibing certain intrinsic values, the most fundamental amongst which was to be a good human being, was a part of growing up. My spiritual study is anything but profound but there are certain endearing universal values of Sikhism that guide me during difficult times.
Sikhism was founded and evolved by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century. It evolved as a distinct faith with its own cultural and physical identity and ideology through the teachings and legacy of ten gurus till the end of the seventeenth century. The term Sikh is derived from shishya, a Sanskrit word meaning a disciple or follower. A majority of Guru Nanak’s disciples were from the peasantry of Punjab, the fertile ‘land of five rivers’ lying between the rivers Indus and the Sutlej. His followers were from both the dominant religions of the times, Hinduism and Islam, mainly because of the simplicity of his message, and its appeal to humanity. Guru Nanak was always accompanied by two of his ardent and highly devoted followers, one of whom was a Muslim named Mardana, a proficient rebaab1 player, while the other was Bala, a Hindu.
Deeply etched in my mind is Guru Nanak’s philosophy based on the three basic precepts of ‘naam japo’, ‘kirat karo’ and ‘vand chako’. The first enables man to link all dimensions of life to the omnipresent God, and helps him purify his mind and heart and face the vicissitudes of life with courage and fortitude. The second exhorts the Sikhs to balance the spiritual and physical aspects of existence, and live a full life with a sense of creativity and dynamism, while remembering God. The third envisions a social order in which one shares the God-given bounties with others in a spirit of love and service.
When the guru’s end was near, as a story recounted in Khushwant Singh’s comprehensive and authoritative History of the Sikhs puts it: ‘Said the Mussalmans: “we will bury him”; the Hindus: “we will cremate him; Nanak said: “You place flowers on either side, Hindus on my right, Muslims on my left. Those whose flowers remain fresh tomorrow shall have their way.” He asked them to pray. When the prayer was over, Baba pulled the sheet over him and went to eternal sleep. Next morning when they raised the sheet they found nothing. The flowers of both communities were fresh’.3 Guru Nanak is still reverently looked upon and remembered as, ‘Baba Nanak Shah Faqir – Hindu ka Guru, Musalman ka Peer’ (learned Nanak, the King of Fakirs – Guru of the Hindus and Sage of the Muslims).
Guru Nanak Dev and his two disciples (From Japjee: The Sikh Morning Prayer.2)
Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth guru, compiled the scriptures called ‘the Adi Granth, containing more than 7000 hymns rendered lyrically’,4 the precursor to Granth Sahib in its final form. His spiritual period of twenty-five years also saw the emergence of Amritsar as the seat of Sikh religion. Amritsar, which means ‘amrit sarovar’ (lake of nectar), was chosen by his father, Guru Ram Das, to build the Harmandir Sahib (House of God). Jehangir, son of Mughal emperor Akbar, was intolerant of the secular preachings of Sikhism, unlike his father, and he arrested Guru Arjan Dev and had him tortured to death in 1606. This resulted in a tumultuous period of transformation and evolution of Sikhs in the next 150 years. They were compelled by circumstances to take up arms and become a ‘race of warriors’ to defend their nation, faith, community, fertile lands and their freedom. Guru Arjan Dev’s son, Hargobind, became the guiding force for developing Sikhs into a formidable martial community to protect the Sikh faith and beliefs. By the time of his death in 1644, Guru Hargobind had rallied the community and also formalized the institution of the gurdwara – ‘the abode of the guru’, the Sikh house of piety and prayer, with the Granth Sahib consecrated in it.
Under the Muslim rulers, especially during the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the Hindus and the Sikhs were the targets of many indignities as they were seen as ‘kafirs’ – non-believers. Forcible conversions were the order of the day. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru, took a stand to protect the Kashmiri Pundits and others. He stands as a stoic symbol of unwavering faith and supreme sacrifice for a just cause. He is deferentially referred to as ‘Sarbansh Daani’, one who sacrificed his whole family – his father as well as four sons attained martyrdom. Two of his minor sons were ‘bricked’ alive in Sirhind when they refused conversion. It was Guru Gobind Singh who formalized the transformation of Sikhs into the Khalsa (the pure) or Singhs (lions). The guru ordained his followers to always possess the five ‘K’s: ‘kesh’, uncut hair and beard; ‘kirpan’, the sword; ‘kara’, the iron bangle; ‘kanga’, the comb; and the ‘kachha’, the shorts. In addition, the turban became an integral part of the Khalsa attire. Guru Gobind Singh composed ‘deh shiva bar mohe’, a classic ‘baani’ (spiritual words) in the form of a ‘shabad’ (devotional poetry), so as to inspire and motivate his Khalsa followers and the Sikhs to live by his principles, fight against injustice, be victorious in every endeavour, and when the time came, to lay down their lives fighting courageously. This remarkable transformation of peasants into warriors had a profound impact on the history of the Punjab.
Eventually, it was Guru Gobind Singh’s vision and wisdom that just before his death in October 1708, he consecrated the ‘Granth Sahib’, as the eternal guru of the Sikh faith, the guiding force for personal and ethical conduct. The Guru Granth Sahib is the compilation of the ‘baani’. Thus, Sikhism became a religion with a sacred Book. Qualities like courage, bravery, determination, initiative, sacrifice, and selfless service for the community became ingrained amongst the Sikhs. As recounted by Patwant Singh, ‘ “a will was created in the ordinary masses to resist tyranny, and to live and die for a national cause”, as two Sikh historians have it’.5 Sikhism emerged not as a synthesis of established religions but as an alternative to them, characterized by its cultural and conceptual distinctiveness, which allowed equality between men and women and a classless society, a precept which has still not been addressed by cross-sections of Indian society.
The formidable Khalsa Empire was established by Maharaja Ranjit Singh between 1801 and 1839 in the Punjab (see Sketch 1.1). The Khalsas were quite a match even for the well-trained British Indian Army, as evidenced by the closely contested battles during the Anglo-Sikh wars, and the high attrition taken by both sides. The Sarkar Khalsaji, as the government of Ranjit Singh was called, held sway over the entire stretch of territory from the Hindu Kush and the trans-Indus areas, including Kashmir, and going right down to the Sutlej river. He established Lahore as his capital, which was the heart of the civilization of the Punjab.
Once in place, the Sikh Empire effectively blocked the route of the invaders who poured in through the Khyber and Bolan passes, and brought peace to the Punjab for a few decades. Hari Singh Nalwa, a famous general of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, carried the banner of the Khalsa Army far and wide, and had the awesome image of a ruthless warrior. However, after each Anglo-Sikh war, the Sikh Empire was clipped, till it completely fell apart because of the ineptitude of the rulers, palace intrigues and a disunited army. Not losing any opportunity to cut the Sikhs down to size and employing Machiavellian strategies, the British became masters of the whole of the Punjab by 1849. Even though they had succeeded in their strategy, the innate potential of the Sikhs as warriors was not lost sight of by the British. As a masterstroke, they got them on their side.
Well before a number of French and other officers were inducted into the Sikh army to train and organize this force on the lines of contemporary European armies, Captain A.H. Bingley wrote in 1818 that Ranjit Singh’s ‘battalions were a formidable body of troops, well disciplined and steady. Their endurance was remarkable and it was not unusual for whole regiments to make 30-mile marches often for days at a time’.6 The courage and resilience of Sikh soldiers was underlined when twenty-one of them, from a single unit (the 36th Sikhs) and in a single day, fought to the last and were posthumously given the highest military decoration – Member of the British Empire (MBE) – that Britain could bestow on soldiers of the Indian Army. This action took place on 12 September 1897 at Saragarhi in North West Frontier Province, and is acknowledged as a feat of gallantry and sacrifice unsurpassed in the annals of military history.
The ‘warrior’ in my psyche has a lot to do with the Sikh history, tradition and culture. In one of my fantasies, I see myself as a ‘Sikh warrior’ of yore, on a mission to wreak havoc against the savage and cruel invaders who came frequently from the northwest frontiers of Hindustan, and whose primary objectives were conquest, pillage, abduction, rape and plunder. Our band of warriors has pledged to fight for the defence of the dharma and our lands, and save our countrymen from slavery and tyranny of the conquering forces. With revenge on our faces, we would swoop down on the camps or caravans of the returning alien forces, and play ‘merry hell’ with them. Much like the nineteenth century Sikh cavalryman described brilliantly by Major General Sir George Younghusband in Philip Mason’s book, A Matter of Honour, ‘Some of our men lost their turbans … A Sikh, with hair long as a woman’s streaming in the wind, bending low and hard forward, yelling like a fiend and bringing his curved sword down on all and sundry, with a soft whistling drawing cut, is like a demon of dark dreams. There was no mercy for those fleeing enemies than they would have shown themselves.’7
We would rescue many hostages and prisoners and recover as much of the ill-gotten booty as possible. In particular, we would endeavour to rescue the women and children who would have otherwise been sold as slaves somewhere in the bazaars of Peshawar, Kabul, Kandahar or Central Asia. This was an essential part of my wandering surreal thoughts. But the ‘reverie’ wouldn’t end at that. When we asked the liberated women or children as to where they came from, and whether or not they would like to be escorted back to their families, they said that they would rather stay with our folks as there was no question of their being accepted back, not even by their parents. The traditional norms of Hindu and Muslim society of that period were very harsh. As per the strictly enforced rules, such unfortunate women and girls who had been violated, were no longer pure, and therefore, were unwelcome. So, we had another challenge ahead, that of rehabilitating these victims of destiny. Eventually, most of these destitute women and children made a new life for themselves in the vibrant, hard-working, secular and egalitarian communities of the Punjab, where they were given shelter and protection.
Historians who have written about the Punjab during this period have described these types of guerilla tactics used by Sikh bands against invaders carrying ill-gotten booty and slaves. This role – of some kind of a knight in shining armour – has been enshrined in my psyche, and therefore has become a part of me.
Sikh Warriors (Painting by Smyth, courtesy Imperial Hotel, New Delhi).
I have derived my inspiration and pride as a soldier from the exemplary leadership and saga of sacrifice of our gurus, warriors and military leaders such as Guru Gobind Singh, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Rana Sangha and generals like Hari Singh Nalwa, Lachit Borphukan, Tipu Sultan and Zorawar Singh.
I imbibed certain values as part of growing up. I don’t profess to have a profound knowledge of Sikhism, but I sincerely endeavour to be a good Sikh in my own way. My god has never failed me and has answered my prayers. At the same time, I have always cheerfully accepted whatever has happened in my life as my destiny. But most importantly, faith and religion for me are issues that are very personal. All through my career these did not have any place in my professional life, and have been an intensely private matter for our family. The spiritual strength derived from my faith has given me the confidence to stand on my feet and face the ups and downs of life.
1 Rebaab is a traditional stringed musical instrument. Mardana, the closest disciple of Guru Nanak, was always seen with it.
2 Japjee: The Sikh Morning Prayer, Himalayan Books, p. 34.
3 Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Vol. I, Oxford University Press, p. 35.
4 Patwant Singh, The Sikhs, Rupa & Co, p. 36.
5 Ibid., p. 72.
6 Ibid., p. 133.
7 Philip Mason, A Matter of Honour, EBD Educational Private Limited, Dehradun, p. 367.