There is a land in India which has been the center of spiritual, worldly and religious activities since the Vedic period, which is popular by the name of Sapta Sindhu. Vedic land Sapta Sindhu was known as the land of seven rivers which are Saraswati, Sindhu, Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Jhelum and Chenab.
This Sindhu region includes the northwestern Indian subcontinent from Gandhara, (Afghanistan) to Kurukshetra, which in the present map is a part of Punjab, (India-Pakistan) , Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Chandigarh. Through the route of the Sindhu region, India spread its entire knowledge to the entire world. Just as good and bad are two sides of the same coin, in the same way, through the knowledge-enhancing Sapta Sindhu route, the foreign invaders first set foot on the land of India. Being a culturally pluralistic nation, India accepted foreign religious culture, but the sword of the theistic theory of religious mentality was heavy on the nation of India, especially the culture of Sapt Sindhu, due to which, despite opposition, anti-national forces established rule over the Punjab region, but they could not change the nationalist ideas of Punjab. In ancient times, Punjab kept enlightening the whole world with its Vedic knowledge and in medieval times, the Gurbani of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji kept showing the path to the society.
Mother of Guru-disciple tradition
Saptasindhu region Punjab has been adorning India with the title of Vishwa Guru since ancient times by making India famous in the whole world with the light of its knowledge. With the arrival of bad foreign ideology in the ideology of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the tree of knowledge of Punjab started to die just like termites hollow out a tree. In a society lacking effort and knowledge, spirituality was just a word, in reality the effect was of superstition and ostentation. In such a state of ignorance, to uplift the society, Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji appeared as the sun of light in the form of knowledge, who gave the message of harmony and coordination in his teachings. When the Mughals broke the idols and demolished the temples, Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji spread the message of Brahma worship in which the God within oneself was inspired to meet the Supreme God.
Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji also opposed the atrocities of Babar from the social point of view, which is written in Asa Raag on page 360 in Shri Guru Granth Sahib:
Khorasan Khasmana Kiya Hindustan Daraya. Ape doss Na deyi karts, jamu Kar Mughal chadaeya,
Eti Maar payi kurlane, the ki dard Na aaiya.
In these lines, Guru Nanak Dev Ji used to describe the tortures inflicted by the Mughals not only on Punjab but on the whole of India during that period. Due to the gruesome atrocities of the Islamic rulers, the local Hindus had forgotten their worship system. Guru Nanak Dev ji travelled in all the four directions to establish spirituality, as a result of which a large number of people started living their lives by following his teachings. Thus, the foundation of Sikhism was laid by following the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev ji.
The second Guru Shri Guru Angad Dev ji used the Gurumukhi script to save Indian knowledge and spiritual system from the Mughals. The main reason for this was to save the written scriptures from being distorted because in the past society there was no one who knew the Gurumukhi script, due to which the Mughals could not manipulate the religious scriptures. Through this script, the Vedic supernatural knowledge of the whole of India was preserved and the various sections of the society were tied together in the thread of brotherhood like a garland, so that unity and coordination could be established in the society and spiritual progress could be achieved through the religious system with equality.
As a result of the knowledge of Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji, the fifth Guru, Shri Guru Arjan Dev ji became the first Guru to attain martyrdom for the protection of the society, due to which the word martyrdom got a place in the medieval history of Punjab, as a result of which the society of Punjab became ready to do religious work with great effort.
Taking the knowledge of spirituality from the Vaishnav sect and the knowledge of bravery and scriptures from the Shakta sect, the sixth Guru Shri Guru Hargobind Ji wore swords called Miri-Piri, which were for the protection of society and religion. This valiant tradition was kept alive by his sons, ninth Guru Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji and tenth Guru Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, by continuous practice.
Just as Kashmiri Hindus became victims of Islamic terrorism in 1999, similarly Kashmiri people were facing crisis during the period of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji also. When Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji appealed to Mughal ruler Aurangzeb to stop it immediately, then Aurangzeb, enraged by this, asked Guru Sahib to choose either Islam or death. But fearless in front of Islamic sword, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji accepted to follow the path of religion, due to which, being insulted, cruel Aurangzeb put him and his two disciples Bhai Matidas and Bhai Dayal Das to death by giving them inhuman torture. Seeing the death of his followers, Guru Sahib followed the religion with more determination and accepted to get his head chopped off but did not leave the religion.
The tenth Guru Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji has described this incident in Bachittar Natak in the following manner
Tilak Janju Rakha Prabh Taka, Sisu Diya Par Si Na Uchri. Dharam Het Saka Jining Kiya, Sisi Diya Par Sirar Na Diya.
Meaning, to protect the talaq and the youth in the society, Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji abandoned his head but did not abandon his religion.
As a result of this incident, the tenth Guru Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, along with his family, faced the Mughals, for which he established the Khalsa Panth in Sri Anandpur Sahib on the day of Baisakhi in 1699. The main objective of which was to protect the society from Islamic fundamentalism. Before the creation of Khalsa, he also performed the ritual of Shakti Yagna. Guru Sahib Ji wished that
Sakal Jagannath mo Khalsa Panth gaje. Jager dharam Hindus, Turk dund bhaje
That is, the Khalsa Panth should reverberate in the whole world, Hinduism should rise and the troubles caused by the Turks should end.
During the creation of Khalsa, our first five beloveds also belonged to different places of India, such as Bhai Dayaram from Uttar Pradesh, Bhai Dharamdas from Hastinapur Delhi, Bhai Himmat Rai from Puri, Bhai Mohkam Chand from Dwarka and Bhaisaheb Chand from Karnataka. Guru Gobind Singh Ji, who had lost his children in his lifetime, attained martyrdom in 1708. In her last days, the female Guru Gobind Singh Ji gave the complete form to Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and dedicated it to the society and gave it the status of a Guru.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh and British cunningness
By the end of the 18th century, Islamic rule had ended in Punjab and many Sikh kings established their rule, of which Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the most powerful. The logic of the fact that all the people of the Sikh sect of that time were related to the ancient cultural roots of India was clear from the first question of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s official military manual in which the figures of Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma and Goddess Lakshmi were inscribed in the sacred OM of Hindus.
The life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, famous as Sher-e-Punjab, was also inspired by Sanatan culture. Following the teachings and traditions of the Sikh Gurus, he gave protection to the Brahmins in his rule and also prescribed death penalty for cow slaughter. Under several military planes, he freed the Pandits in Kashmir from the cruel Islamic rule, asked the Afghans to return the doors of the looted Somnath temple and brought back the country’s heritage and rare Kohinoor diamond to India from the Islamic rulers.
He died on 27 June 1839, then in his will he asked to offer this Kohinoor at the feet of Lord Jagannath in Puri, but due to British cunningness, even today that diamond is present in the crown of the Queen of Britain. To establish their rule in India for a long time, the British adopted the policy of divide and rule, the victim of which was Punjab after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The only heir of the then Sikh Empire, Yuvraj Dilip Singh, was made the king at a young age. The British separated the child Dilip Singh from his mother Maharani Jindan Kaur and sent him to London and converted him and by giving him the title of Sir, distanced him from the culture of Punjab and India.
British cunningness and Macauliffe’s influence
The feeling of equality is found in the teachings and traditions of the ten Gurus, the British wanted to break the brotherhood inspired by it in the then India for their evil purpose. The British had understood that in the Sikh and Hindu society, a person like Syed Ahmed Khan would not be found who betrayed the society like the Muslim society, that is why the British selected people like Max Arthur Macauliffe and Max Muller to spread their fundamentalist ideas. In a planned manner, Macauliffe was made to join the administrative service in 1862 and was sent to Punjab in 1864. To make him trustworthy of the Sikhs, he also converted to Sikhism.
In this regard, the famous writer Kushwant Singh writes in his book Sikhism and Guru Volume One, it is said that the British rule did not have any evil intention behind the appointment of Max Arthur Macauliffe. After usurping the Sikh empire, Lord Dalhousie found that at that time Sikhs and Hindus were rapidly supporting each other. Dalhousie and the British administrators felt that the situation would be in their favour only if the Khalsa Sikhs were encouraged to have their distinct and separate identity.
In the same period, Max Arthur Macauliffe translated the holy book Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji into English with the help of Bhai Kan Singh Nabha. Later, he also wrote other books including the six volumes of The Sikhs, Their Religion Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors. Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha’s book Hum Hindu Nahin was published in 1897-98 which is also the basis of present Khalistan. The conspiracy of the British continued to work in a very creative way to separate the Sikh society from the cultural mainstream of India.
With the help of the British, due to the two-nation theory of Syed Ahmed Khan, a large section of the Muslim society had separated from the Indian freedom movement. Not only this, in the same period, the feeling of separation had awakened among the leaders of the Sikh community, as a result of which the idols of Hindu deities were also being thrown out of many Gurudwaras of Northern part oh India.
At that time, due to the politics of appeasement, the Muslim society had already been divided from the Punjabi society, but some Macauliffe’s poisonous books and some prominent intellectuals divided the Punjabi society into Sikh and Hindu against the teachings of the Gurus. The result of which was seen in the form of a huge separatist movement in Punjab after independence.
Sapta Sindhu Punjab, which was the center of spiritual and martial arts for the entire Indian nation, due to whose bravery Punjab was also called the melon of India. Being a Vedic land, the Vedas and Vedanta were considered the basis of knowledge. But in the medieval period, the basis of knowledge was the mixture of all the Vedas and the souls of the people, Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in the form of the knowledge of the people, from where the entire Punjabi society was threaded in the garland of brotherhood. Till the end of the century, various foreign powers attacked India and corrupted the culture and civilization, as a result of which poisonous seeds were sown in brotherhood, the effect of which was borne by Punjab for about three decades, which is written in black letters in the golden history of Punjab. Even in the present times, the efforts of many political parties and separatist organizations to again spread violence in Punjab must be thwarted by the entire Punjabi society so that the foundation of a safe and developed society and nation can be laid.
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