4. The following is an selection from a book "Dateline Punjab - Lifeline Sikhs" by Shiv Lal, which shows the diversities in the Sikhs during the post-guru period and somewhat corresponds to the above article of Mcleod..
CHAPTER XI Punjabi Unity Vs. British Politics
The respite from the usual turbulence that the Misl administration or Maharaja Ranjit Singh's rule provided to Punjab had covered a century-long period from 1748 onwards.
The most baffling question that the historians are faced with, is the methodology of the administration of the Misls. They were a kind of twelve district states, each enjoying a measure of independence with a Sardar chief to manage its internal affairs. For matters external and defense, there was some unwritten agreement among the chiefs to help each other during eventualities. So, the Misls acted as a confederacy. They held meetings of their representatives periodically. Such meetings of the MisI chiefs were called 'gurmattas' which had religious overtones with gurus' name attached. Their resolutions were considered binding on the parties. The sanctions were moral which religiously bound down the actions of the Misls. Once accepted, the contents of the gurmattas were never questioned and there were no disputes ever reported later on the issues once resolved.
Was Guru Alive in 1748?
Who organised these gurmattas? It also is amazing and more amazing is the fact hinted at by two famous historians of Punjab*, that the first gurmatta was perhaps addressed by Guru Govind Singh himself.
Well, if Guru Govind Singh had addressed such a meeting, after 1748 it automatically is a reiteration of our earlier expressed hunch** that Guru Govind Singh had lived long after the so-called date of his death in 1708*** and his role as Banda Bahadur**** (if he really played that role himself as suspected) was, therefore, quite important in the establishment of these Misls and in their administration later on.
Another interesting fact about Banda Bahadur may be mentioned here. Some historians are of the view that the Banda had escaped from Sadhaura fort and the person reported captured and brought in a cage to Delhi was a dummy and not the real Banda.
* History of Punjab' by Hari Rain Gupta and K.S. Narang, p.279.
** See Shiv Lal's articles in Indian Progress 1971.
~ Ibid.
~ See Shiv Lal again. One view is that because Guru Govind with his armies had helped Bahadur Shah to win the throne of Delhi, Bahadur Shah or others had given him out of respect the name o fBanda-i-Bahadur which Guru Govind did not mind using as a disguise.
This saved the Sadhaura Nawab's skin from the wrath of the Mughal king who had imposed an embargo on the date and time of Banda's capture. The failure of the Nawab would otherwise have cost him his life. So, one fellow was presented engaged along with a group and paraded and killed in the centre of the capital near Fountain, Chandni Chowk, Delhi. They named them all the Banda's armies, otherwise according to Sir Gokal Chand Narang*, who had visited Jammu, and had traced the lineage of Banda and the last of his progeny. Inciden-tally, Ajit Singh was the son of Banda; Ajit Singh was the son of Guru Govind Singh too, and Ajit Singh was also the "adopted son" of Mata Sundari whose son Hathee Singh had a seat established later in Meerut. All intriguing facts these. These point to the facts of another history of Punjab,** which suggested that the sons (at least one son, Ajit Singh) of Guru Govind Singh had been got whisked away from Sirhind by Mata Sundari, or had been got relieved of the clutches of the Sirhind Nawab by the said Banda Bahadur, whom he had annihilated and thus taught a befitting lesson.
Ranjit Singh, they say, had got built the Sachkhand Gurdwara of Nander, after Guru Govind Singh's real date of death. Earlier, after 1708, he was forbidden to think of any commemorative monument and, therefore, the Maharaja did not take steps to build the sacred place before a certain date. That also implies that Guru Govind Singh must have lived perhaps incognito for others but known to the Maharaja himself who delayed the construction of the Gurdwara until long after Guru Govind Singh's so-called date of death. If Ranjit was forbidden, he was forbidden for a period for such a commemoration could not take place during the Guru's lifetime.
According to Bhai Kahan Singh of Nabha (who incidentally was an interpreter of the great writer of Sikh History, Macauliffe), Guru Govind Singh had perhaps lived under an assumed name as Ajay Pal Singh and expired at a ripe age of almost 150 years at Nabha. The Gurdwara of Ajay Pal Singh of Nabha may be a testimony to the memory of Guru Govind Singh, thus. Bhai Kahan Singh has left a detailed note on Baba Ajay Pal Singh as told to him by his grandfather whose father had served Ajay Pal Singh who he says was suspected to be either someone connected with the Guru or was the Guru himself. This Ajay Pal Singh came with horses and other paraphernalia suddenly one day and settled in the jungles in the outskirts of Nabha which now have been engulfed by the city limits and around it are thickly populated 'mohallas'.
* Transformation of Sikhism. ** Published from Pakistan.
A hukamnama by Guru Govind Singh issued to Triloka and Rama of Nabha and Patiala* is a pointer to the suggestion that the hukamnama was issued much later than 1707 or 1708.
So, we were talking about the tranquillity that was brought about in Punjab in the post-Guru Govind Singh or the post-Banda or the post-Mata Sundari period while the spirit of Guru Govind reigned supreme in Punjab.
We now enter the year 1848-49, that ill-fated annexation date when Punjab was made a part and parcel of the British empire and was merged into India without any trace of its past independence. Posterity would not remember that Punjab ever was state or Punjabis were ever a nation!**
Guru's Spirit
Ranjit Singh's death, in fact, brought about a good deal of confusion. The Punjabis were struggling and like the encaged birds fluttering their wings in futility. Every now and then some or the other person got up and claimed himself to be a representative of Guru Govind Singh and wanted, therefore, to be recognised as a leader of the Punjabis, for the Punjabis really cared for the Gurus and did a fig for others. Only the Guru's appointed sage could attract attention of the masses and better fight the new enemy - the British Government!
The British endeavoured to scotch the rumours of the Guru having appointed any one. The British publicised Prahlad's Rahitnama in which was mentioned about the passage of gurudom to Granth Sahib***. The Punjabis on the other hand, offered one after another a leader who claimed the Guru's blessings and thus the peoples' following.
A Dairy in Debris
Who was right and who was wrong? The propaganda machinery of the British, who supported the Singh Sabha and who, in turn, were supported by it, was rather strong and the Singh Sabha virtually won its point of view. The claimants to gurudom no doubt continued their efforts in vain and their efforts died at long last.
Besides the Namdharis who were formidably placed among them all there were more sects or individuals claiming the stated leadership, at one time or another. * Tera Ghar so Mera Ghar (Your house is my house). ** Pre-historic excavations at Harappa suggest the links of Punjab with Central Asia Sumer, Iran and Mesopotamia, etc. At Punjab, which was called Pontapotamia had probably the headquarters of the entire area because the ancient most civilization with the biggest palaces is located in Punjab and at no other place. In our times, even a folk song was sung proudly saying: 'Deshan wichon desh Punjab ni sahyo' (Oh friends! Punjab was the best of best of "nations"). *** "Guru manio granth".
Guru Govind Singh himself in a hukamnama had named Sangat Singh as Satguru on whose head he had put his own turban and the "kalgi" while leaving Chamkor saheb, enjoining upon the sangat to treat Sangat Singh as the Guru. Sangat Singh died in Chamkaur itself.
The Banda Bahadur and Mata Sundari also enjoyed the same status.
Ajit Singh, who was the adopted son of Mata Sundari or according to some historians, the real son of Guru Govind Singh, who was got whisked away from Sirhind along with Mata Sundari to Delhi where Farakh Sayyer, a Mughal king, is supposed to have been financially supporting them.
Then, there are Guru Gulab Rai Sodhi, Guru Sahib Singh Bedi, Guru Maharaj Singh, Guru Harnam Singh and Guru Balak Singh
Guru Ram Singh's companion, named Kile Wale, has his seat at Meerut. This sect still believes Guru Ram Singh to be their Guru.
The reverence as they offer to their forefathers is offered to Guru Ram Singh and the present Guru Jagjit Singh Namdhari.
I met the late L.Abnashi Ram, the occupant of the seat at Meerut. He had told me that he was a Namdhari but did not have 'keshas'. He was humble in appearance but dignified in approach.
Then, there was Guru Ganga Singh. Guru Bhai Nand Lal who was recognised only by a negligible number of people is now almost extinct.
Ajay Pal Singh who is under reference need not be elaborated further.
Any movement for the independence of Punjab could never be expected to succeed unless it was associated with the Gurus. That much was the reverence and esteem that the Hindus and the Sikhs together owed to the Gurus, then. The leaders mentioned above worked in the name of the gurus, organised anti-British meetings silently or openly.
A diary found in a debris in Bulandshahr makes a mention of the pre-mutiny days when some leaders used to move round and incite people to rise against the British. The diary says that one tall Sikh saint from Punjab and a blind Hindu sadhu from Mathura had come together on such a mission to excite the villagers. Who were these two persons? The description given tallies with Guru Ram Singh and Swami Virja Nand, as is suggested by some, because these two together thought of the revolution concept similarly. Swami Virja Nand's pupil, founder of Arya Samaj, Swami Dayanand, found Punjab to be a fertile land for the propagation of swadeshi, non-violent civil disobedience and non-cooperation which was accepted as a principle by Guru Ram Singh, first. Then these policies were also adopted by Mahatma Gandhi for the emancipation of India as a whole*, later on. So, on the one hand, the Punjabis were trying to liberate themselves from the clutches of the foreign rule while the British, on the other hand, were endeavouring to curb the movements for liberation.
The British Worry
One thing they found seriously affecting adversely the British, was the name of the Guru being used by certain persons and groups as an electrifying attraction for bringing hordes of people together under one banner. The British, therefore, thought it proper to wean away such people and groups from such banners. It was found handy for this purpose for them to publicise the less publicised view that the gurudom had been passed on to Granth Saheb which was so far known as Punjpothi**.
A properly codified Granth Saheb was, therefore, got reprinted in England, in this process, whose 1,25,000 copies are said to have been distributed free throughout Punjab in those days.. This, more or less, settled the issue particularly after Prahlad's famous rahitnama that already was less known to the Punjabis till then.
Another step that the government took was to raise Sikh regiments in the army and employ Punjabi Hindus to whatever caste they belonged,after having declared them as Sikhs. There was no resistance from, for instance, a Ramchander being called Ram Singh***; for there was no difference between the Hindus and Sikhs. The lure for a job naturally brought wonderful results. The British had something up their sleeves for trans-forming the Sikh ethos.
They succeeded. The shapes of the headgear and the beard were changed. Prior to the British interference, the Sikhs were enjoined to wear their head-gears after the style of the gurus. They were also forbidden from tying their beard after applying fixo as was done after the British influenced their lives.
The British rulers were still not satisfied because the Hindus and Sikhs were living like brethren together in villages. These rulers, therefore, invented methods by way of which the various communities could be separated from each other.
* Dr. Rajindcr Prasad's article as referred to earlier. ~ Sayings of five gurus. There is very little about the ninth guru and almost nothing about others. The sayings of the tenth guru, Dasam Granth is not regularly recited in gurdwaras except the Sachkhand gurdwara of Nander (Mahaashtra). Some go to the extent of questioning the veracity of Dasam Granth at least some portions of it. *** Minority Politics by Baldev Raj Nayyar quoting Garret
As stated earlier, the Arya Samajis and Sikhs probably had a mind to work together for throwing off the yoke of slavery from Punjab. Important movements were organised by the Sikhs and Hindus - the Akalis, the Kookas and the Arya Samaj is, all demanding the independence of Punjab, in unison.
Punjab was really an abode for the swadeshi movement, the civil disobedience and the non-cooperation ideas, which took birth under the leadership of Arya Samajis and the Kooka Sikhs.
Arya Samaj Founded by Sikhs
Another fact must be brought to the notice of our readers is that the Arya Samaj was initiated by the Sikhs on this very land. Ditt Singh and Jawahar Singh are the first known initiators of the Arya Samaj offices in Amritsar and Lahore. But the British perhaps manipulated a rift between these two communities and got established what later on was known as the Singh Sabha, a non-Hindu body in order to lead the Sikh exclusively, in contrast to the Arya Samaj, which exclusively remained a Hindu organisation inimical to the Sikhs for all time to come.
On page 42, Shiv Lal writes under the heading, MILITANCY LEGITIMISED
The purpose of explaining all this is that the lessons of militancy, which had been continued amongst the Punjabis since ages, were legitimised by Guru Govind Singh for a certain noble cause.
Guru Govind Singh was, thus, a phenomenon, which overcast the horizons of Punjab with formidable influence for centuries to follow.
During his life-time, he really did not succeed finally in accomplishing the task but disappeared from the scene in 1708.
That he died at Nander in October of the year mentioned, is a moot point because the evidence of his having escaped for a bigger cause, from Nander is also available.
You know Guru Govind Singh asked his followers to sit with their backs to a tent pitched for the so-called self-cremation occasion one evening. He entered the tent with a horse and a dog. He was fully armed and had enjoined his followers to lit the pyre of sandalwood which he had especially got erected for himself. The Sikhs kept on waiting and wailing until the morning and after they searched for the ashes of their Guru, they found nothing left out of that pyre. On further evidence, we learn that Guru Govind Singh met on the way of his final "departure" a few sadhus and a woodcutter who came and assured the Sikhs that the Guru would return one day. They remembered how he had also declared that he would go from here and would come back. So nobody knows to which destination Guru Govind Singh went. He, perhaps, lived incognito at some places working for a cause. One is likely even to imagine how Banda Bairagi, who came to Punjab and did wonders through his war exploits might be Guru Govind Singh himself in reality. There is also a suspicion created in the minds of historians how Mata Sundari reached Delhi and guided the Sikhs from there secretly. The Sikhs appeared to have achieved a lot under the leadership of Banda Bairagi on the one hand and Mata Sundari on the other, leading one to believe that Guru Govind Singh himself was wearing the garb of that great Banda. Anyway we need no go into this controversy.
We cut it short here simply by the statement once again reiterating that the fight for the independence of the Punjabis that Guru Govind Singh had visualised, was continued and pursued by fits and starts by his followers. This, first of all, brings us to the establishment of the formidable Punjabi State under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The Maharaja was so powerful in his management of the affairs that the British Empire, which had spread its tentacles over the whole of the Asian world and particularly each and every part of India, was kept at bay by the Maharaja's armies without even a fight. His diplomacy and his military strength resulted in keeping the British rulers scared of the Sikh Raj. It was only long after Ranjit's death exactly a decade afterwards - that Punjab was made part of India. The fight once again for the independence was restarted after the British took over and the contribution of the Punjabis is no mean.
