|
 Without
any doubt, Sikh women had played an
equal part in the struggle to keep alive
the Khalsa ideals and beliefs. Sikh
women worked as a silent majority in
the background and sometimes as in the
case of Mai Bhago exceeded the Khalsa
men in warfare. But the most important
part of Khalsa women was to raise the
Khalsa children who kept the Khalsa
alive. In Punjabi society, most often
children hear stories by their grandmother,
mother, aunts, etc. This builds up their
character. Chhote Sahibzade, ( younger
sons of Guru Gobind Singh) were raised
on the stories of sacrifices of their
great grandfather Guru Arjan Dev ji,
their grandfather Guru Tegh Bahadur
by their grandmother Mata Gujri ji(mother
of Guru Gobind Singh ji, Tenth guru).
When their turn came they happily sacrificed
their lives, eventhough they were only
7 and 9 years old. This alone was the
most amazing, glorious, sad and defining
moment of the future of Sikhs. Seven
and Nine years old were following the
Will of God as dictated by Guru Nanak
dev ji. After this incident, Sikh women,
men, children put their whole effort
to save their ideals and beliefs of
Guru Nanak. Mughals had two point of
administration in Punjab, Sarhind and
Lahore. Mughals who ruled from Delhi
appointed two governors at Sarhind and
Lahore, under these governors there
were many Nawabs, like Malerkotla, Faridkot,
Bahawalpur, etc,. Under the Nawabs there
were many Parganahs i.e. Zamindars,
or landlords who would hold many villages
as their land, on these villages farmers,
ironsmith, carpenters, etc work and
were taxed 67% of their income.
In 1748 A.D. Mughals appointed Meer
Mannu as Governor (Subedar) of Lahore
and also as a Nawab of Multan. Meer
Mannu in order to pacify Hindus appointed
a Khatri Hindu of Lahore named Kaura
Mall as his Diwan or minister. Then
he ordered 30,000+ army of Mughals at
Lahore to finish Sikhs. Mughal Army
swept the countryside and killed any
Sikhs they found. Thousands Women, Men
and Children were arrested and brought
to Lahore. At that time Sikh population
was so small that it affected their
numbers. A decade earlier, when similar
thing had happened (governor had decided
to kill all Sikhs) At that point people
thought that all Sikhs are finished,
but Bhai Gharjha Singh and Bhai Bota
Singh came out of hiding and fought
with Mughals, just to show them that
Sikhs were far from finished.
Meer Mannu started deploying his terror
tactics. First of all, he ordered that
all Sikh women in Jails to be provided
with specially made to be three times
heavy (1 1/4 Mann) a flour grinding
instrument named Chakki. Sikh woman
hapily would sing the Shabads of Nanak
and grind flour whole day but not accepting
conversion to Islam as the condition
for their freeddom. Then Meer Mannu
ordered that all Infant Sikhs who were
with their mothers at the jail above
to be killed right away, only those
were to be spared who accept Islam as
their new religion. 300 or so Infant
Sikhs were killed by Mughals and their
dead bodies given back to their Khalsa
mother, not even single mother embraced
Islam. The atrocities committed on the
Sikh women by the upholders of "Islam"
were so great that in 1750 A.d. Chief
of Buddha Dal, Kapur Singh Virk and
his 500 or so Khalsa attacked Lahore
in disguise of a Sufi Saints to kill
Meer Mannu but he escaped. In 1753 A.D.
Meer Mannu died a very horrible death
after suffering in bed for a whole month.
In 1753 A.D. Kapur Singh Virk attacked
Lahore again and this time he was able
to free all the prisoners at these jails.
The sacrifice of these Khalsa women
was so great that it became a part of
Daily Ardaas in 1760's. Even today Sikhs
everyday pay homage to the "Singhnian
jinna ne sawa sawa mann de pisne peese,
bachiye de tota galean vich pavaye,
par Dharm na haariya" Sikh Women
who happily grinded 60 kg Chakki, had
to put garlands of the dead bodies of
their children around their necks but
did not let pass the ideals of Nanak.
Salute to Sikh Women!! Our pride and
our inspiration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Copyright © Harbans Singh "The
encyclopedia of Sikhism."
|
