BY: Choor Singh Sidhu

continued from last issue She wrote: “Banda ko Khijmat de, de Patshahi nahei

De Patshahi Panth nij, ap sache Patshahei”

(Panth Prakash, page 189)

Incidentally, what better evidence could there be than the words of the Guru’s widow, written within six years of his death, confirming that Sin. Guru Gobind Singh had bestowed Patshahi on his Khalsa.

The result of Mata Sundn’s intervention was that half of Banda’s followers sided with Mata Sundri, left Banda’s force and started calling themselves “Tatva Khalsa.” Those who remained loyal to Banda were henceforth known as “Bandai Sikhs”. Professor Gupta is also not correct in his statement that the Raj Karega Khalsa couplet was composed by Banda Bahadur. It appears in Tankhah Namah which was written before Banda came into the picture of Sikh history.

After the defeat of Banda Bahadur in 1716, the Sikhs were almost wiped out. The Mughal Emperor Faruk Siyar issued an edict according to which every Sikh was to be arrested and offered only one option, cither Islam or the sword. He was to be executed then and there without hesitation or loss of time. This order was carried out with great zeal; with the sentence of death on their heads the Sikhs withdrew to the Punjab hills where they sought refuge in the jungles. Safe in these inaccessible jungles, they sang Raj Karega Khalsa for the fulfillment of their aspirations and bided their time.

Tyranny can never last long and tyrants always perish under the weight of their own sins, Nine foreign invasions from the North by the dreaded Nadir Shah and his General Ahmad Shah Durani, and one Maratha incursion, caused the gradual but total collapse of the Mughal rule in the Punjab. When this happened, the Khalsa left the jungle on the hills and descended into the plains of the Punjab, carrying fire and sword everywhere. They humbled the Mughals and formed independent principalities known as mists on the ashes of the Mughal Empire. They exercised sovereignty in the Punjab and sang Raj Karega Khalsa with every justification. In the words of Khushwant Singh, “Ranjit Singh hammered these warring Sikh factions (the misls) into a nation and made the nation strong and prosperous. The Sikh nation became not only the strongest Indian power but also one of the most powerful sovereign States in Asia” (A History of the Sikhs, Vol.2. page 3).

Indians who now become irritated on hearing Sikhs claiming to be a nation forget or choose to forget that the territories of the Sikh nation extended from the borders of China and Tibet in the North to the deserts of Sindh in the South and from Afghanistan in the Northwest to the river Ganges in the East. Present day Indians also forget that it was the Sikh nation that pot an end to the foreign invasions of India from the North West which had been going on for a thousand years. The Sikh nation, which possessed the most powerful and disciplined armies in the whole of Asia was highly respected even in Europe. Louis Philippe of France and King William of England sent presents to the Sikh monarch, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, all the way from Europe.

Ranjit Singh named his government, “Sircar-e-Khalsa,” but it was hardly the government of the Khalsa Panth, Ranjit Singh had so many non-Sikh Ministers, Generals and other non-Sikhs in positions of power that in the end it was these non-Sikhs who brought about the dissolution of the Sikh Raj.

The true standard bearers of the Khalsa Panth, reared from the beginning on are publican principle, were the Khalsa misls, which fought against the greatest conquerors of all time to save the Panth from extinction.

Whereas Ranjit Singh showed great kindness to the British, almost to the extent of becoming subservient to them, the misls showed scant respect to the British, On January 3,1791, they captured Lt.Col. Robert Stuart, in charge of Anupshahar Cantonment on the Ganga. They kept him as a prisoner at Thamesar for 10 months and released him only when Lord Comwallis, the British Governor General, paid a ransom of 60 Thousand Rupees for his release. (Gupta Volume 4 page 389). Such was the courage and might of the misls. Ranjit Singh not only unceremoniously liquidated all the misls in order to become an autocratic monarch but also destroyed all the institutions of the Khalsa, such as the Gurmata, the Sarbat Khalsa and the Khalsa Dal. He surrounded himself with a coterie of sycophants comprising Dogras, Brahmins and Muslims and forgot that it was on the strength of Khalsa arms that he came to power. The stalwarts of the Panth, such as General Sham Singh Atari, General Hari Singh Nalwa, Baba Sahib Singh Bedi of Una, a direct descendant of Shri Guru Nanak and Akali Phula Singh, the Jathedar of the Akal Takht were all distanced away and tactfully, but without fail, eliminated from all effective voice in the counsels of his government. He raised the alien hill Dogras, Dhyan Singh, Khushal Singh and Gulab Singh, almost from the gutter to positions of supreme authority in his government. The insignificant Purbia Brahmins, Tej Singh and Lal Singh, were granted such great influence that eventually they were raised to the supreme command of the Khalsa Army. By doing all this and forgetting, as did Banda Bahadur, that the Guru had bestowed the Patshahi (sovereignty) on the Khalsa Panth, “Ranjit Singh dug his own grave, the graves of his descendants and paved the way to the eventual enslavement of the Sikh people “ (Parasaraprasna, page 239).

Dispossessed of their territories by the British by foul means, the Sikhs have become a dispossessed nation like the Jews, who were in a similar position until the creation of Israel. With so much of adverse publicity against the Sikhs these days, it is time to remind the world that not very long ago, the Sikh nation ruled over the whole of North India and that Sikhs are not just a bunch of insignificant rowdy little rebels as they are made out to be. They are the descendants of brave, mighty warriors who put a stop to all foreign invasions of India and can therefore rightfully walk tall, wherever and whatever their situation may be. As the former rulers of Punjab, the Sikhs have every right to aspire for political power in the Punjab by all lawful means. The singing of Raj Karega Khalsa at every congregational Ardas (supplication) is both a reminder and an affirmation of the sovereignty of the Khalsa Panth (nation) bestowed on it by Shri Guru Gobind Singh. The Sikhs reverently thank God for this blessing at every prayer session. Just as the Jews believe that they are God’s chosen people, likewise, the Sikhs believe that it is their destiny to rule the land of their ancestors. To others, this may appear to be blatant wishful thinking, but for Sikhs this belief is an affirmation of their faith in the words of their last Guru. At every Ardas, the recital by the congregation, of Raj Karega Khalsa, echoes and resonates within the four walls of every Gurdwara in the world.

In 1830, when asked by Capt. Murray, the British Charged Affairs at Ludhiana, as to from what source the Sikhs derived their earthly sovereignty, for the rights of treaty or lawful succession they had none, Bhai Rattan Singh Bhangu, replied promptly and accurately.

“Dhur dargaahon hum lei Patshaahi Sri satgur ke mukh te pahi, Singh hoe raakhaon kim kaan, Aerey gacrey ka sangch furmaan”™. (The Sikhs’ right to earthly sovereignty is based on the Will of God as authenticated by the Guru, and therefore, other inferior sanctions are unnecessary) Rattan Singh Bhangu Prach in Panth Prakash.

The sovereignty of the Khalsa is a gift received from God through the blessings of their Guru and no one can take it away, Although the Sikhs have been deprived of their nationhood for some time, it cannot be forever, The ghastly civil war in Yugoslavia demonstrates what happens when a federation fragments and old blood feuds break out again. French, Gertnans and Britons have fought in two world wars since 1914, Spain had a civil war, Italy fought both against the Germans and with them, and the Germans, French and British all lost their empires, by defeat in blame or economics. All this in less than a century, And in very much less time, the mighty Russian Empire, which straddled over most of Europe and Asia, has torn itself apart and disintegrated into 16 independent sovereign States. When their time arrived, States which had been governed with an iron grip became sovereign in a matter of days, in fulfillment of their destiny.

So much has happened in the last 100 years, who can predict what will happen in the next hundred? In any case, what is a hundred or a few hundred years in the life of a nation? Sikhs, especially the devout Khalsas, who revere the words of their last Guru as the revealed truth, firmly believe that the time will come when their Raj Karega Khalsa prayer shall be answered, their aspirations will be fulfilled and an asli (true) Sirkar EKhalsa will rule Punjab, the sacred land of their ancestors. The best is yet to be, and will be, for it is an article of faith with the Sikhs that they are, by Divine sanction, a sovereign nation destined to rule Punjab. This explains why no prayer session of the Sikhs is complete without their singing “Raj Karega Khalsa” to remind themselves that with the Patshahi (political sovereignty) bestowed on the Khalsa, by their Guru, they are a sovereign people. Temporary setbacks there have been and may well be in the future, but the Khalsa is sovereign and sovereign for all time. Time is on the side of the Sikhs. What has been ordained by the Guru must come to pass. In the meantime Sikhs should keep praying and singing Raj Karega Khalsa for the fulfillment of their destiny.

Editorial Note

This is an abridged version of a Paper on Raj Karega Khalsa, by Justice Choor Singh, read at a Conference on Sikh Studies held by the European Institute of Sikh

Studies in London on November 1, 1992.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 19, 1993