Ghallugharas are etched in Sikh consciousness. It is a Panjabi phrase coined in the eighteenth century when the Sikhs were targeted and killed en masse amid the establishment of the Raj. Ghallughara implies destruction, devastation, or apocalypse. It's akin to genocide or holocaust for global relevance, but it is much more. Ghallughara is not about remorse for the Sikhs; it is a reminder to continue the struggle for the Raj, which was commenced by Guru Nanak Sahib, the founder of Sikhi.‍

1746 Origin of Ghallughara

Came to Parol, Kathuha, and Basohli in the Jammu district.
A very big Ghallughara, the first one, occurred.1.

The above couplet is recorded by Bhai Ratan Singh Bhangu (1785-1846) in an episode titled “Sakhi Ghallughare ki”¹ (Eye-witness account of Ghallughara) in Sri Gur Panth Prakash (Revered Guru Panth’s Illumination). This is the first known written instance of the word Ghallughara.

The episode details what is popularly termed Chota (smaller) Ghallughara in 1746. The caste card, vow to exterminate the Sikhs and belittling of Guru Granth Sahib and Guru Khalsa Panth were at play. It specifies names, delegations, and places related to the Mughal rulers, the Hindu Hill Rajas, and the Sikhs.

There are separate episodes that cover the scenario and context of the times.

In 1737, Bhai Mani Singh organized the Divali gathering in Sri Amritsar Jiu; the Lahore governor, Zakariya Khan Bahadur, taxed the gathering at 5,000 rupees. The Bhai informed the Sikhs not to come when he discovered the governor dispatched soldiers to annihilate the Sikhs. He was arrested, tried, tortured, and cut to pieces, joint by joint.

In 1739, Zakariya offered rewards for information on Sikhs, cutting their hair or killing them. Their homes were plundered; anyone sheltering them was executed. Hundreds of Sikhs were cordoned off, chained, imprisoned, and publicly executed at Lahore’s horse market, later termed Shahidganj (martyrs’ treasure).

In July 1739, the defiance of Bhai Bota and Garja Singh shined. They proclaimed the sovereignty of Khalsa and collected a toll tax from each passerby near Tarn Taran. Zakariya sent 1,000 soldiers with 100 horsemen to apprehend them; they died fighting after seven days.

Zakariya prevented the Sikhs from accessing the Sri Amritsar Jiu complex. His military commander, Massa Ranghar, occupied and desecrated the complex with drinking alcohol and dancing girls. In 1740, Bhai Mehtab Singh and Sukha Singh from Rajasthan, disguised as revenue officials, killed Massa.

In 1745, Zakariya sent soldiers to the Phula village, where Bhai Taru Singh supplied food and resources to the Sikhs. He was arrested and imprisoned in Lahore. When he refused forceful conversion to Islam, his hair was scraped from his scalp, and the 25-year-old was left to die.

In 1746, Bhai Sukha Singh and Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluvalia (supreme leader of the Dal Khalsa) arrived at Eminabad. The Emindabad Faujdar (military commander along with judicial and land revenue functions), Jaspat Rai, was killed in an encounter. His brother Lahore Diwan (revenue minister) Lakhpat Rai vowed revenge: Eliminate all Sikhs. With the new Lahore governor Yahiya Khan’s consent, Lakhpat organized the genocide of the "infidel" Sikhs. Every Sikh of Lahore was executed; the count was in the hundreds. Lakhpat ordered the sarovar (pool) at Sri Amritsar Jiu to be filled with sand. At Kahnuvan forest near Gurdaspur, Sikhs were surrounded, attacked, and killed with canons. Heavily outnumbered and under-equipped, many died. Some escaped to the Himalayan foothills under pursuit. Caught between Hill Rajas and Lakhpat’s armies and running out of food, the Sikhs suffered heavy casualties. Several died crossing and recrossing the rivers Ravi, Beas, and Satluj. A few reached the Lakhi Jungle.

The next short ‘episode continues’ with details of how the Sikhs were treated in the domains of Hindu Hill Rajas. Bhai Bhamgu calls them traitors from the beginning because of their treatment of the Gurus. The episode mentions the towns of Parol, Kathua, Mandi, Kullu, and Kiratpur and describes which Sikhs survived.

The next very short ‘episode continues’ details how many Sikhs were martyred. In it, Bhai Bhangu mentions survivors in the Majha forests, captured and killed at Parol, exhausted in the hills, jailed at Basoli, beheaded, and filed up prisoners taken to Lahore. It mentions that 2-3,000 Sikhs survived under Bhai Sukha Singh’s command with negligible horses. It mentions some say 40,000 Sikhs were killed, only 6-7,000 survived. Some say 40,000 of 50,000 Mughals were killed. Bhai Bhangu wrote what he heard from his father; there was no way to do an actual head count. He ends the episode with:

In Sammat eighteen hundred and three,
A big Ghallughara committed by Turks on Singhs.8.

1803 Sammat is 1746 CE. Turks refer to the Mughals due to their Turkish ascendants. Singhs refer to the Khalsa Panth, the Sikh Collective.

In 1746, Ghallughara, the Sikhs were cordoned off and searched. They were targeted under a genocidal campaign by the Mughals aided by the Hill Rajas. The Sikhs battled and resisted.

In 1747, the Sarbat Khalsa (legislative body-like Sikh Collective gathering) at Sri Amritsar Jiu on Vaisakhi day passed Gurmata (resolution on behalf of the Guru Khalsa Panth) to build the Ram Rauni fort.

Bhai Ratan Singh Bhangu

Bhai Ratan Singh Bhangu’s account in Sri Gur Panth Prakash is dated 1841. When the British Empire was scheming to annex the kingdom of Panjab, American-born Major-General Sir David Ochterlony was tasked to understand how the Sikhs gained their sovereignty. Captain William Murray was charge-de-affairs of the East India Company at Ludhiana in Panjab. The Captain’s dialogue with the Bhai, who was his instructor to learn about the Sikhs and the Panjab since 1809, recorded the question of the legitimacy of the Sikh Rule.

The General wanted to understand how the Sikhs captured political power and became sovereign. In that context, the Captain questioned, “Tell me this: How did the Singhs acquire Raj, and which Sovereign bestowed it?” The Bhai answered, “The sovereignty was granted by the eternal Shah.” The Captain further asked, “Which eternal Shah?” The Bhai continued, “Shah Nanak.”

Bhai Bhangu was a known general of the eighteenth century. He was the paternal grandson of Sardar Mahtab Singh Mirankotia. He was the maternal grandson of Sardar Sham Singh, head of Misl Karor Singhia. Sardar Gurtej Singh provides a context on why Bhai Bhangu’s account matters so much to the Sikhs:

Rattan Singh is at his best while relating the story of the two holocausts or ghallugharas. His informants are his father, maternal grandfather, two uncles, Sukha Singh and perhaps some others who had participated in the battles. His account tells us that the Sikh constituted a greatly disciplined force and the manner in which they behaved both in assault and retreat, in triumph and defeat, would be of much interest to a military historian. Bhangu and the Sikh history gives an indication of what really makes men worthy heroes on battlefields and what draws the best out of them under adverse circumstances. He is able to piece together a blow-by-blow account straight from the battlefields. [...] In the smaller ghallughara, many Sikhs were killed just because they expected the Hindu population of the hills to support them (394.59,60; 395.63,64; 397).²

Bhai Bhangu chronicled the history of the Panth, not a single man. He preserved what was until then being carried in the Sikh bosoms. He had access to the insider’s views and witnesses, the primary sources of the eighteenth century. He lends legitimacy to the events and details as they happened from the Sikh lens. His focus was on the rise and spread of the Panth. In that context, the episodes of Nawab Kapur Singh, Sultan-ul-Qaum Jassa Singh Ahluvalia, Bhai Mani Singh, Bhai Mahtab Singh and Sukha Singh, Bhai Bota Singh and Garja Singh, Bhai Taru Singh, Diwan Kaura Mall, Bhai Gurbaksh Singh, and Sardar Baghel Singh, and others, are of utmost importance. They form the Sikh historical canon remembered in the daily Sikh Ardas of the bloodiest and darkest, yet illuminating and the golden era of Ghalligharas and Raj.

1762 Ghallughara 

Bhai Ratan Singh Bhangu opens a long episode, “Sakhi Ghallughare au Malerahi au Kuparhirai ki” (Eye-witness account of Kup-Rahira-Malerkotla Ghallughara) with:

Listen to the utterance about the Singhs, and how Shah³ crushed them. 
He was exhausted crushing and killing, but Khalsa remained alive.
Khalsa remained alive like the spring, the source of a river.
They continue to march forward, as the water quickly flows.
Satigur⁴ enlarged Khalsa, all utter and acknowledge.
Those enemies of Khalsa disintegrate like rotten cacti.1. 

Ahmad Khan Shah Durrani (aka Abdali because of his tribe), founder of the Durrani empire and father of modern Afghanistan, assumed reign in 1747 and invaded the Indian subcontinent nine times (1747-1769). At least five times when crossing Panjab, he targeted the Sikhs.

For almost two decades after the 1746 Ghallughara, the Sikhs were constantly in a cycle of battle and survival. In 1747, the Lahore governor, Shah Nawaz, in alliance with Durrani, re-started extermination campaigns against the Sikhs. The desecration of historical places, especially Sri Amritsar Jiu, as well as the arrest, torture, and execution of the Sikhs, including women and children, was the norm.

Between 1748 and 1753, the Lahore governor Mu'in ul-Mulk (aka Mir Mannu) continued extermination campaigns. He captured 500 Sikhs at Ram Rauni fort with help from the Jalandhar commander Adina Beg. He ordered shaving Sikh heads and beards. Hundreds were paraded to Lahore and publicly executed in the horse market now Shahidganj, including on the festival of Eid. His Sikh sympathizer minister Kaura Mall, stuck a peace deal with the Sikhs. The deal broke when the Lahore artillery attacked the Dal Khalsa Sikh forces under Sukha Singh. Durrani captured Lahore, and Kaura Mall was executed by Adina Beg.

As governor under the Afghans, Mir Mannu resumed the Sikh persecution. 900-men artillery was assigned to hunt “infidel” Sikhs. They were rewarded with 10 rupees for a Sikh head. Sikh women and children were arrested and tortured. The imprisoned women were forced to grind 46 kg of grain a day. They were beaten, and while thirsty and hungry, they sang Sabads from Guru Granth Sahib. Instead of extermination, the Sikhs’ faith strengthened. "Mannu is our sickle; we the fodder for him to mow. The more he cuts, the more we grow."⁵

In 1756, Durrani looted Delhi and enslaved thousands of Hindu women. The Sikhs attacked him as he crossed Panjab, freed slaves, and retook the loot. Durrani escaped and vowed to revenge. He attacked Sri Amritsat Jiu, demolished Sri Harimandar Sahib (aka Golden Temple), and desecrated sarovar. A Sikh scholar, Baba Dip Singh, left Sri Damdama Sahib to rebuild Sri Harimandar Sahib. Many Sikhs joined him along the 160-km journey to Sri Amritsar Jiu. At Tarn Taran, 5,000 Sikhs prepared to embrace death. General Janam Khan’s 20,000 soldiers were deputed from Lahore. Baba’s 15-kg Khanda (double-edged sword) beheaded the general. 75-year-old Baba sustained many wounds in the fierce battle. He continued to march toward Sri Harimandar Sahib. He breathed his last at the parkarma (periphery). The Sikhs gathered on 1757 Divali day and celebrated Bandi Chor Divas (prisoners freedom day) at Sri Amritsar Jiu.

In 1761, after defeating Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat, Durrani entered Panjab with 2,200 enslaved Hindu Marathi women. The Sikhs harassed him from river Satluj to the Indus to free the women. The Sikhs also defeated Jalandhar Faujdar, plundered Sarhind and Malerkotla, and defeated a 12,000-strong army led by the Lahore governor between June and September. Durrani decided to exterminate the Sikhs and capture Panjab. Sarbat Khalsa at Sri Amritsar Jiu on Divali day passed Gurmata to establish independent Raj by capturing Lahore and eliminating Durrani supporters, informants, and collaborators, including Niaranjani Hindali sect leader Aqil Das of Jandiala. The Sikhs attacked and briefly captured Lahore and issued a coin. The Lahore ruler, Ubaid Khan, didn’t fight back.

In 1762, the Sikhs converged at Jandiala, 18 km from Sri Amritsar Jiu. Aqil messaged Durrani for help. Aqil’s and Durrani’s envoys met at Rohtas, where they were planning an invasion to exterminate the Sikhs. They rerouted to Jandiala. By the time they arrived, the Sikhs retreated to Malva for their families' safety.

The Sikhs encamped near Malerkotla at Raipur, Gujjarawal, Kup, Rahira, Dehlon, and Gurm villages where the Sikhs inhabited. This was largely an uncultivated, waste or open land used as a pasture surrounded by dunes and forests.

The Malerkotla ruler Bikhan Khan informed Durrani and allied with Sarhind Faujdar Zain Khan and Sarhind’s Commander Jahan Khan against the Sikhs. Zain and Bikhan attacked the Sikhs but were neutralized. The locals in Durrani’s army hung green leaves from their turbans to distinguish themselves from the Sikhs.

Durrani reached the Malva region from Lahore, covering 200 km in two days, crossing two rivers with light cavalry. About 150,000 Sikhs were in the area: 50-60,000 infantry and cavalry.

Zain’s deputy Kasim Khan and Tahman Khan Miskin attacked the Sikhs who retreated towards the Sutlej river. Both didn’t succeed and came back to Malerkotla.

On 5 Feb 1762, Durrani and his allies surprised mostly non-combatant 30,000 Sikhs at Kup, 12 km from Malerkotla. What followed came to be known as Vadda (larger) Ghallughara.

The Dal Khalsa’s 11 Misldars (Misl Chiefs) of the Sikh Confederacy and the Malva Sikh chiefs assembled. Outnumbered four-to-one, facing three hostile armies and the Afghan heavy artillery, the Sikhs decided to fight even if they all were to die. Bhai Bhangu records:

Realized unselfish Singhs fight. Learned Singhs don’t refrain from death.
Understand the honor of Guru Panth. Battle for din and mazhab⁶.55.

Durrani divided the army into two, one under his command and the other under Wazir (minister) Shah Wali Khan. He ordered the extermination of the Sikhs. Wazir’s deputy, Qasim Khan, attacked the encamped Sikh families; most were killed, and many women and children were imprisoned. Jahan and Buland battled the Sikhs at Satluj. Zain and Bhikhan slaughtered non-combatant Sikh vahir (procession), mostly women and children, between the villages of Kup and Rahira.

The Dal Khalsa forces fighting Durrani's army heard about the slaughter; they dispatched a group to fight Zain and Bikhan. They also freed enslaved Sikhs by Wazir, who rejoined the main Afghan army. Wazir and Zain commanded 4,000 cavalry and 4,000 mounted archers, respectively. Diwan Lachhmi Narayan accompanied Zain. The surviving vahir continued to Barnala.

The main Dal Khalsa force withdrew from Sutlej, attacked the main Durrani army as well as Zain and Bikhan, who kept attacking vahir, and eventually reunited with the vahir at Kup-Rahira. Some Sikhs surrendered and were arrested from Kup-Rahira.

Charhat Singh wounded Buland Khan. Jahan Khan wounded Charhat Singh. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia wounded Jahan Khan.

After the Sikhs defeated two armed contingents allied with Durrani, he attacked with his own four contingents, each with 12,000 soldiers. This attack separated the Dal Khalsa force and vahir.

Charhat Singh’s strategy was a square formation of forces: four misls directly facing the Durrani’s army, two misls to protect vahir, and the rest as a reserve. Jassa Singh Ahluvalia’s strategy was to unite all misls as a single force directly facing the Durrani’s army while protecting vahir; this was agreed to and implemented.

They expected their ally, Sardar Ala Singh of Phulkian Misl, to come to their rescue. Sardar failed by staying neutral. He had to pay "five lakhs of rupees as a tribute and a hundred and twenty-five thousand rupees more for permission to appear before him with his long hair intact" to placate Durrani. Sardar was detained but released after paying an annual tribute to the Durrani who made him Raja.

Durrani was surprised by how gravely and mortally injured Sikhs, who were drenched in blood, would continue to fight. This was amid sandy mounds, with little or no water for hydration. Anyone left behind was abandoned. Anyone who fell was trampled by the horses’ hooves. When the Sikhs witnessed their women, children, and elders being mercilessly slaughtered when vahir's defense was breached, it reinvigorated their fighting spirit to protect the survivors from the same fate. Bhai Bhangu records:

Jassa Singh sustained twenty-two wounds.
          Even then, the revered Singh kept fighting.
They heard Jassa Singh was wounded.
          Hearing, all Sirdars’⁷ heads persevered.89.
All arrived and stood at the contingent.
          The ones from Bhangi, Ghaniya, and Ramgarhia.
Nakai, Nishanvalia, and Dallevalia.
          Kapur Singhia and Ahluvalia.90.
Sukerchakia, all from Sham Singhia.
          Nihangs from Shahidvalia and Guru’s loved ones.
Amritsaris and Anandpuris.
          Ramdasie, Rangrete, and Masands.91.
Bedis, Sodhis, Trehans, and Bhallas.
          Those who joined Khalsa survived.
Becoming Shahids and getting wounded.
          Fighting—sometimes standing, sometimes striding.92.

Zain Khan failed to breach vahir from the front. Bhai Bhangu records Durrani questioned Zain:  You have 20,000 combined cavalry; did Singhs kill them? You also have Malle Riya Pathans of Lachmi Narayan. Even then, you can’t encircle these kafirs (infidels). If you can hold them for four gharis⁸ (96 minutes), I will finish them all. Without surrounding them, it is not possible to kill them. Zain responded: It is not possible to besiege from the front. They seem very few, but too many during the fight. Bhai Bhangu records:

The gun of Sardar Charh Singh earned him fame in the world.
As he kills from a short distance, so he does from a long distance 109.
Marching agilely, fighting, and dying, the procession moved another koh.⁹
Then Ahmad Shah himself raided and attacked the Singhs.110.

Durrani’s army broke vahir’s protection multiple times and slaughtered Sikh women, children, and the elderly. The Sikh forces continued to regroup and fight back. Eventually, the Afghan army broke the pattern, slaughtering multiple thousand Sikhs from “the twilight hours and continued until the afternoon.” Bhai Bhangu records:

The army forcefully disrupted Singhs.
          Surrounded the procession with many great Tumman.¹⁰
Marching amid them were two Granths.¹¹
          One Amritsari, other Damdami.111.
They (the army) surrounded them (Singhs) from the front.
          Divined them into separate sections.
Majhails¹² fought after placing the Granth.
          They used to keep weapons with them.112.
They fought for a ghari, then were killed.
          Then the sword was placed on Damdamis.¹³
They fought for three-fourths of a ghari.
          What could they have done without weapons?¹⁴113.
Understood it to be the battle for din and mazhab.
          Struck powerfully with clods and sticks.
How can they (the army) be killed with clods and sticks?
          They split them (Singhs) into two with swords. 114.

The fighting cavalcade reached a dhab (pond) at Kutba. The bloodshed stopped; adversaries needed water and rest. The hostility ceased. Jaikaras (battle cries) of “Jo Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal” (those who answer the call will be gratified, Eternal Revered Timeless-Deathless) resounded. The Afghans retreated, hearing Jaikaras, realizing the upcoming area of Panjab was heavily dominated by Sikh-populated villages, and their attacks weren’t successful anymore. Bhai Bhangu records:

Twenty-thousand reached there.
          Others died or were dispersed.
People say Singhs were 100,000 in total.
          50,000 survived, and the rest died.143.
My father told me 30,000.
          Died, and the rest who survived came.
Both father and paternal uncle were in it together.
          I said what I heard from them.144.
No count of horses and camels.
          In this Ghallughara.
Some say less, some say more.
          I said, as per my father’s convention.145.

Jassa Singh Ahluvalia and Charhat Singh sustained 22 and 16 wounds, respectively. The original Damdami Sarup of the Guru Granth Sahib, compiled by Guru Gobind Singh and inscribed by Bhai Mani Singh, was lost.

In February 1762, Ghallughara, the Sikhs were again cordoned off and searched. They were targeted under a genocidal campaign by the Afghans, aided by the Mughals and their allies. The Sikhs battled and resisted.

In March 1762, Durrani reached Lahore with fifty carts full of slaughtered Sikh heads, which were erected outside Delhi Gate. Hundreds of Sikhs in chains were also brought as captives.

In April 1762, Durrani demolished Sri Harimandir Sahib in Sri Amritsar Jiu on Vaisakhi day, which was rebuilt after the 1757 attack. Sarovar was desecrated.

In May 1762, the Sikhs reassembled and fought the Afghans in the Battle of Harnaulgarh near Sarhind. Dal Khalsa forces defeated Zain Khan. He paid 50,000 rupees.

In 1763, Jalandhar governor Sadat Yar-Khan gave in to the Dal Khalsa forces without a fight. They also defeated Malerkotla Nawab Bhikhan Khan.

In 1764, the Dal Khalsa forces entered upper Ganga Doab to stop the ill-treatment of the Hindu women by Delhi administrator Najib ad-Dawlah.

In 1765, the Sikhs captured Lahore and re-established their Raj.

1984 Ghallughara

In Sikh collective memory, 1984 is the 20th-century Ghallughara. “Bluestar,” “Woodrose,” and “Shanti” were some of the operations by the Indian government. Estimates of dead range from 40,000-100,000. Several Sikhs fought back. It is also termed the Third Ghallughara. In 1984, all Sikhs felt the pain and condemned India, regardless of their politics or affiliation. The Sikh narrative of 1984 is the Ghallughara narrative; its battles are very much part of the Sikh tradition. 

Sikhi starts with IkOankar, the 1 creative and pervasive Force. That means the unity of all human beings, in today’s terms, all 8.2 billion people. It translates into a policy of zero inequality and inequity. This 1-Ness paradigm was institutionalized and practiced via Love and Justice. To make this policy a reality, six of the ten Sikhi founder-Gurus were either jailed, targeted to be killed, tortured, or assassinated-martyred. Once the Tenth Guru left this earth, for the next 57 years, there were multiple genocidal campaigns by imperial authorities to eliminate all Sikhs. In those decades of the eighteenth century, a Sikh narrative of Ghallughara was coined. Sikh populations were cordoned off, killed en masse, and annihilated. All self-identified and visibly identified Sikhs were targeted, and all those who joined their resistance. But even in those exterminations of high magnitudes, there was never a victim mindset. There was exceptional optimism, that’s the context of Charhdi Kala, to address injustice at all odds. There was a vision of Raj.

What does this Sikh vision look like as 2024 ends?

The Sikh Charter Guru Granth Sahib documents: “[Guru] Nanak started the Raj, built the fort of Truth by laying a firm foundation … Affirmed the intellect of the supreme Wisdom of the immanent 1-Divine through the sword with power and courage, having given the gift of divine life.”¹⁵ Bhai Ratan Singh Bhangu elaborated the Sikhs were granted sovereignty by Guru Nanak Sahib, not by any earthly authority like a ruler or priest.

The Sikhs, through the Khalsa, continue to exercise Guru-granted sovereignty, always as a nation, cyclically as a nation-state. 

Between 1710-1765 there were multiple campaigns to exterminate the Sikhs. Why? Because it was about the Raj. Banda Singh Bahadar declared the Khalsa Raj in 1710. Jassa Singh Ahluvalia reclaimed the Raj in 1765. Between the 1710-65 reclamations of Raj by the Sikhs, there were multiple extermination campaigns and two Ghallugharas during those 55 years. Raj and Ghallugharas are interlinked.

In the eighteenth century, the Kingdom of Panjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh was established over a hundred years. Recall Ranjit Singh’s grandfather, Sardar Chahrat Singh, fought and was wounded in the 1764 Ghallughara battles. 84 years after the 1765 Raj establishment, Panjab was annexed in 1849 by the British Empire. Since then, the muddiness remains.

1984 must be seen in the same context of Raj and Ghallughara; that’s the Sikh lens. Not the victim mindset, but the victorious attitude based on the experience of Nam—Identification with the 1—that brings the exceptional optimism of Charhdi Kala. The rulers and their allies change, as do ran-bhumi (battlefield) and ran-niti (strategy). 

What must be done by 2084?

Sirdar Kapur Singh reminds the Sikhs and the State:

Ever since 1721, the Golden Temple with the complex of attached structures, has remained the centre of the Sikh world, the Sikh history, the Sikh politics, and the Sikh theophany. Throughout the last 250 years, whether the Sikhs were declared as outlaw by the State, whether the Golden Temple and its adjuncts were reduced to mass of ruins or they were forcibly occupied by the State, whether the Sikhs were a sovereign people or politically subjugated, they have never abandoned or compromised the position that (1) the Golden Temple and its adjuncts are the hub of the Sikh world, not as a matter of concession by any worldly power, but as the inherent right of the Sikh people, sui generis and inalienable, and (2) there is no ultimate dichotomy in the true Sikh doctrine between this world and the next, the secular and the religious, the political and the spiritual.¹⁶

The aforesaid must be centerfold for all times to come, especially for the next 60 years.

At the advent of 2025, the Sikhs globally are subjected to the political realities of democracies and dictatorships in society. Sirdar Kapur Singh examines and recommends:

In a democratic society, the Sikhs need not encounter any contradictions between their own collective convictions and the requirements of the state to which they owe allegiance. If, therefore, there are frictions, the fault must be found somewhere in the sphere of implementation of true democratic processes and the persons who implement them. A satisfied and properly integrated-to-the-nation Sikh people can be an invaluable and lasting asset to any state, more so to India in the soil and traditions of which they are rooted, just as a frustrated or suppressed Sikh people can be an obvious weakness in the strength of the nation.¹⁷

Though the aforementioned was articulated before 1984 Ghallughara by Sirdar, his deductions and insights are very relevant for Sikhs in all nation-states. How shall the Sikhs further their sovereignty in the pragmatic global reality without losing sight of the ideals? The work is cut out!

2024 ends with opportunities at Sri Amritsar Jiu. The Akalis and non-Akalis, the Sikhs in Panjab, Inspora, and Diaspora with their Misls and groups must engage seriously. The vanishing Sikh of the Guru must be Sabad-fragranced. The Jathedars must be Nam-drenched. The Guru’s promise of Raj shines with Gian-Kharag (Wisdom-Sword)!

On the next trip to Panjab, visit the memorials of 1746, 1762, and 1984 Ghallugharas.

A hundred years after 1984, 2084 ought to be about the establishment of the next iteration of Guru Nanak Sahib’s Raj!

References

¹    Sakhi (episode) title has variations in different versions. See “Sakhi (Chote) Ghallughare ki” (Dr. Balwant Singh Dhillon, ed. Sri Gur Panth Prakash. S. Ratan Singh Bhangu. Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 2004. p. 289) and “Sakhi Ghallughare Parol Kathuhe ki” (Dr. Jit Singh Sital, ed. Sri Gur Panth Prakash. Bhai Ratan Singh Bhangu Shahid. Amritsar: Shiromani Gurdwara Parabandhak Committee, 1994. p. 388) seem to provide context of which Ghallughara because of later Ghallughara. Sakhi numbers also vary.

²    Gurtej Singh, trans. Sri Gur Panth Prakash: History of the Rise and Spread of the Khalsa Panth, Vol. I, Bhai Rattan Singh Bhangu. Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 2015. pp. xliv-xlv

³    The Afghan invader Ahmad Khan Shah Durrani aka Abdali.

⁴    Literally Eternal-Wisdom, refers to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib.

⁵    Folklore in Panjabi cited today in most protests including in recent Farmers’ Protest: “ਮੰਨੂ ਸਾਡੀ ਦਾਤਰੀ ਅਸੀਂ ਮੰਨੂ ਦੇ ਸੋਇ। ਜਿਉਂ ਜਿਉਂ ਮੰਨੂ ਵੱਢਦਾ, ਦੂਣ ਸਵਾਏ ਹੋਏ।”

⁶    Din is broader term for religion and principles where mazhab is specific term for organized and school of thought. Both are from Arabic.

⁷    Leaders or chiefs of Misls or groups.

⁸    Indic unit of time, about 24 minutes.

⁹    Indic unit of distance, about 3 km.

¹⁰  Ahmad Shah Durrani’s army was in groups of 12,000 soldiers.

¹¹  Two sarups (beautiful forms) of Guru Granth Sahib; they were scribed at Sri Amrisar Jiu and Sri Damdama Sahib.

¹²  Majhails were carrying the Amritsari sarup.

¹³  Malvais were carrying the Damdami sarup.

¹⁴  Amrtisari and Damdami were teachers and students of Guru Granth Sahib; Amritsari ones used to carry weapons whereas Damdamis didn’t.

¹⁵  See original text “ਨਾਨਕਿ ਰਾਜੁ ਚਲਾਇਆ ਸਚੁ ਕੋਟੁ ਸਤਾਣੀ ਨੀਵ ਦੈ ॥ … ਮਤਿ ਗੁਰ ਆਤਮ ਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਖੜਗਿ ਜੋਰਿ ਪਰਾਕੁਇ ਜੀਅ ਦੈ ॥,” Guru Granth Sahib, p. 966

¹⁶   See pubisher’s note which says the article first appeared in 1974. Sirdar Kapur Singh. The Golden Temple: Its Theo Political Status. Patiala: Academy of Sikh Religion and Culture, 1984. pp 5-6. 

¹⁷   Ibid, p.22