Baisakhi the first day of the Indian month Baisakh which coincides with 13th April of the Gregorian Calendar has not only a great seasonal significance in the northern parts of India but is also reminiscent of many an important landmark that led to the social regeneration and political awakening in the country as a whole. Eulogistic terms such as ‘Granary of India’ ‘Sword-arm of the country’ and the land of sages and Martyrs’ that are applied to Punjab owe their origin to this Day of days.
Baisakhi marks the advent of the harvesting season. The fields of ripened wheat appear to glisten like gold. The sturdy virile and hardworking peasants of the Punjab give vent to their uninhibited rejoicings through fold dances to the accompaniment of the rhythmic beating of drums. Bhangra the popular fold dance of the Punjab which is acclaimed all over India symbolizes the brisk activities of the farmers during the harvesting season as they reap the ripened corn thresh and winnow it.
Religious Significance
A mythological tale Amrit Manthan (churning for nectar) describes the religious significance of Baisakhi. In the ancient past the gods and demons joined hands to churn the ocean to obtain the nectar from it. After the success of this grand operation the nectar was stored in a pitcher or Kumbh as it is known in Sanskirt. But the gods decided not to share the nectar with the demons as had been originally agreed upon because they feared that if the latter become immortal after sipping it they would dominate the former forever. Therefore the god Sun was entrusted with the task of outwitting the demons. He asked the gods and the demons to stand in separate rows facing each other and poured the drops of nectar into the mouths of the former but cheated the demons by inverting an empty ladle when they opened theirs to receive their share. Rahu and Keitu two demons detected the Sun’s ruse and quietly switched over to the other row. The Moon tried to caution the Sun but it was too late Both Rahu and Keitu managed to put their lips to the nectar-dipped ladle. To protect themselves the Sun and other gods ran with the pitcher towards their resorts in the Himalayas with the demons in hot pursuit. In the ensuing hide-and-seek a few drops of nectar fell into the River Sipra near Ujain later into the confluence of the Ganga and the Jamuna and last of all into the Gangas near Hardwaron the days of Maghi (the first day of the Indian month Magh) and Baisakhi respectively and since almost all the demons with the exception of Rahu and Keitu had failed to earn immortality they were killed. Bul even Rahu and Keitu were seriously injured and so could not chase the gods beyond Hardwar Since some of the nectar fell into the confluence of the Ganga and the Jamunaat Allahabad and into the Ganges at Hardwar on the days of Maghi and Baisakhi respectively a dip in these waters is supposed to win Salvation. The fair held on these occasions is called Kumbh.
Reason for Eclipses
And since Rahu and Keitu have not forgotten the ruse played on them by the Sun and the Moon the first two attack the last two occasionally in revenge resulting in the eclipses-solar or lunar depending on the object of their attack.
The priestly class had been encouraging many such superstitious beliefs and thereby exploiting the ignorance of the people. The Sikh Gurus led a crusade against this exploitation and discouraged blind faith. Guru Nanka proclaimed:
“If salvation could be achieved through a dip in holy tanks and rivers the frog which is an aquatic creature would have been saved from the cycle of birth and death. O mortal in spite of your pilgrimages you will remain subjected to this cycle like the frog.”
Asa Kabir
He also preached that truth is great but greater still is the truthful way Of living. The latter does not lie in shunning society by taking refuge in forests and mountains but by leading a moral life purely free from vice and superstition.
Gobind Singh’ w Dispensation
Accordingly Guru Gobind Singh chose the day of Baisakhi in 1669 to found the Khalsa ‘the pure’ at Anandpur. He termed this initiation which aimed at the physical as well as moral transformation of his followers as Amrit Chakna (parking of nectar). In the new order established by him all castes were abolished. His followers were enjoined to address one another as brother Bhai. Belief in superstitions was forbidden and religious rituals were declared unnecessary. Under the new dispensation one was to believe in one eternal God and extend the utmost tolerance and deference to all faiths. All pilgrimages were declared superfluous because a pure noble and useful household life extending due respect to the women folk and blessed with a spontaneous urge to help the weak and protect the oppressed was prescribed as the holiest conduct.
While baptizing his first five chosen ones Guru Gobind Singh denounced the personality cult in very severe terms. He convinced the people that real power belonged to them and thereby introduced democratic traditions into religion and other spheres of life.
Social and Political Impact
The impact of these teachings on Indian society led to a social and political revolution. Nationalism the first casualty of the caste system began to develop on our soil. Up to then invaders from the north-west easily trampled this land ransacked her religious places dishonored her women and humiliated her people. But after the birth of the Khalsa the tide turned its course. The sanctity of honest toil led to wonderful economic advancement in the Punjab. The new conception of personal sacrifice in the interest of communal prosperity inspired the followers of the new faith to become saint’s sages and martyrs.
On the 13th April 1799 exactly a hundred years after the foundation of the Khalsa Ranjit Singh conquered Lahore and founded the first independent kingdom in the Punjab after centuries of slavery and exploitation His rule has been quoted by many political thinkers to illustrate their theories and praised by historians not only for its secular basis but also for its solicitude for the welfare of the masses. Anecdotes relating to the Maharaja’s keen sense of justice generosity and unfaltering devotion to duty have become proverbial in Punjabi homes.
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
It was again the day of Baisakhi in 1919 when General Dyer perpetrated the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar. More than 20000 people had assembled there to express their resentment against the Rowlatt Act the repressive provisions of which legislation had even disillusioned in the words of Mahatma Gandhi himself a staunch loyalist and cooperator like him into an uncompromising disaffection’s and non-cooperator with British rule in India. He had earlier supported whole-heartedly the Empire during the Boer was in 1899 the Zulli Revolt in 1906 and the First World War (1914-1918) in the belief that this support might win full equality for his countrymen within the Empire. But the Rowlatt Act which conferred extraordinary powers on the Government of India empowering it either to confiscate the property of any Indian considered dangerous of to punish him through a summary trial threw an open challenge to every Indian patriot. Gandhiji described the Imperialist rule in India as a crime against humanity unequalled in history.
On March 18, 1919 the Mahatma issued an appeal to his countrymen to carry on a peaceful and non-violent agitation against the Rowlatt Act till this black legislation was withdrawn. A call for a general strike was given for 30th March but it was later postponed to April 6.
400 People killed
Amritsar had been placed under Martial Law because the British regime wanted to teach the lesson of loyalty to the people through the brutal use of force. The law was being prostituted and charges against the patriots were being trumped up. The Jallianwala Bagh firing in which according to the admission of the British officers themselves about 400 people were killed and more than 2000 injured was followed by public floggings and other indescribable humiliations perpetrated throughout the Punjab. These unprecedented acts of cruelty and repression disillusioned even the moderates in India who had been acclaiming British rule as a blessing.
Rabindranath Tagore was so horrified by these atrocities that he renounced his knighthood conferred on him by the British Government in recognition of the Nobel Prize awarded to him in 1911.
Political Awakening
The martyrdom offered by the people of Punjab in the Jallianwala Bagh roused the revolutionaries all over the country and the early twenties of this century witnessed an unprecedented political awakening. Just as the destiny of India changed after the tenth Guru founded the Khalsa on the day of Baisakhi in 1669 similarly the political climate in India underwent a profound transformation after the precious blood of martyrs at Jaltianwala Bagh had soaked the sacred soil of Amritsar and enriched it
Only recently it was on the day of Baisakhi in 1968 that the Punjab Government introduced Punjabi as the official language of the State at all administrative levels. That was a red-letter day because a wronged and neglected but rich language earned recognition for the first time.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 12, 1991
