December 25 is Christmas, while December 26 is Veer Bal Diwas, commemorating the martyrdom of the Chaar Sahibzaade (Four sons of Guru Gobind Singh Ji). Yet today, many people in Punjab are gradually forgetting Veer Bal Diwas, distancing themselves from their own history, and immersing themselves in Christmas and New Year celebrations. Thousands of videos are emerging where Sikhs are seen celebrating Christmas at the cost of their own true history.
This is not only shameful but deplorable. On the other hand, their luminous martyrdom is being quietly pushed to the margins of public memory under the noise of seasonal festivity. Such a disconnect when Punjab turns away from the soul of Punjab can no longer be ignored. Punjab cannot allow its cultural and spiritual landscape to be silently usurped, especially when this happens at the expense of remembering the radiant sacrifice of the Char Sahibzade.
To understand the differences and similarities between the two, Christianity stresses on one Jesus and evangelism. Sikhism teaches the oneness of God or that-which-is is realised through His remembrance in cycles of birth and death. In Punjab, the Sikhs consider Christianity like any other way or religion devoted to the same Oneness of God. Seva in Sikhism flows from its foundational principles of One Reality and Kirat Karo (honest work), Vand Chhako (sharing what one has) and Nam Japo (remembrance), so that service is not only to the needy but is a holistic orientation of life, work and worship. In contrast, the Christianity charitable service to others is often offered as a tool of religious conversion which is rapidly happening in Punjab.
Sikhism accepts other religions not by reluctant coexistence or forced tolerance but as an extension of its belief in the oneness of God. Therefore, it co-exists with all other religions organically. Guru Gobind Singh fought against the Mughal empire but never against Islam. Guru Nanak would hold dialogues with Hindu Muslim Scholars, Sufi Pirs, Pandits and would walk freely into temples and mosques and went up to the Mecca to listen to and understand the core belief of Islam. Then, he firmly recognised that in all these religions there is the same Divine and all are equal within the ‘Oneness of God’, and that ‘one oneness of the God’ and ‘Thy Name is True’—Ek Onkar Sat Nam.
Following the same spiritual traditions of coexistence, Guru Arjan Dev built a four-door architecture at Sri Harmandar Sahib at Amritsar, making it open to all religions and from all directions, and installed Adi Granth Sahib, which carried the Baani of Gurus and hymns of Hindus and Muslim saints, making it a collective scripture of humanity. The sacrifice of Guru Tegh Bahadar for protecting the religious freedom of humanity, and Guru Gobind Singh described ‘humanity as a single caste of beings’ despite losing his whole family-father, four young sons and the mother. Even to this day, every Sikh Ardas ends with Sarbat Da Bhala (welfare of all), and Langar is served to everyone without discrimination of class, caste or creed in one pangat, that everyone eats as ‘equals’ therefore, coexistence is built into the DNA of the Sikhs.
The wide-hearted Punjabis, whose martyrdoms far outnumber that of any other community, had undergone countless martyrdoms, massacres-Chhota Ghallughara, Vadda Ghallughara, the gory massacre of partition of Punjab, a genocide in 1984 and religious discrimination at every step to date, but have never let their plural character disappear in the memory of all these scars.
India’s genius lies precisely in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the Mahavakya from the Mahopanishad, which states that the world and the entire earth is indeed one family. The deep genius of this Mahavakya lies precisely in the space Sikhism occupies. Because seeing all humanity as one is exactly the spiritual ground on which Sikhism stands. For nearly ten millennia, this land has grown into a plural garden of faiths where civilisations and faiths anchored themselves to make Bharat into a continent of countless religious streams flowing side by side without willing to erase one another.
Hindu dharma is not a religion with one Book but a confluence of many currents held together in that one togetherness. Like one universe holding many stars together. However, most distinctly, Sikhism took shape at the luminous core, binding the scattered wisdom of this civilisation into the oneness of the Divine—Ek Onkar Sat Nam — bound at its core.
To say that Sikhism is the living example of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam would be true. This Mahavakya has been lived upon by the Sikhs more than any other. Sikhism stands as a living, concrete expression of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—“the whole world is one family”—not just as a slogan, but as a discipline lived through sacrifice. The principle was given by Guru Nanak, institutionalised by Guru Arjan, who sacrificed himself for compiling the various streams in the Adi Granth, and then sealed in blood by Guru Tegh Bahadur, and embodied again by Mata Gujri and the Chaar Sahibzade. Ek Onkar, Satnam—is precisely this–one truth that holds all together.
Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom was for the Kashmiri Pandits’ right to their dharma, because they believed that all are streams of oneness; the Chaar Sahibzade were martyred for refusing forced conversion, because they knew that the true name is the only one. Therefore, Sikhs never fought any religion but only regimes and systems.
Sikhism is not an expansionist religion, while Christianity is. Gurdwaras across India and the world are visited by devotees belonging to all religions who outnumber Sikh devotees. One finds new types of evangelism incarnate every day in Punjab unabatedly, but it doesn’t matter to Sikhs that some expansionist evangelists are going to outnumber them in future. Therefore, it is hard for others to understand why evangelism is rising exponentially in Punjab and targeting economically weaker sections.
Historically, when Christian missionaries arrived in Punjab after the fall of the Sikh Empire, their evangelising generated anxiety, giving rise to the emergence of a strong Singh Sabha renewal. The Sikhs did not take to violence, but their response was primary education, Gurbani, and Gurdwara.
Morning processions (Prabhat Pheri) in December often culminate into Hindu homes for refreshments, thus revealing the depth of the pluralism and oneness. In December, one finds that the Shaheedi Jor Mela exhibits its magnetic field — the story of the four Sahibzades is narrated to children of the Sahibzades’ age.
Guru Nanak was a true visionary who articulated the idea that the planet is a single spiritual landscape in which myriad faiths and religions coexist, not a battlefield where one religion seeks to exterminate the other.
Sikhism has never denied the dignity of any faith; rather, it has stood as the living embodiment of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, where coexistence flows naturally from the recognition of the One Divine Reality. Yet coexistence must not come at the cost of self-erasure. Remembering the martyrdom of the Chaar Sahibzade is not an act of exclusion but of remembrance of courage, conscience, and resistance to forced conversion.
Punjab’s strength has always rested in its rooted pluralism, where openness walked hand in hand with self-awareness. The danger today lies not in celebrating another’s festival, but in forgetting one’s own civilisational anchors. True sanjhivalta does not demand amnesia of sacrifice; it demands clarity of identity. As Punjab moves forward, it must rediscover this balance—honouring its martyrs, protecting its spiritual inheritance, and engaging the world without losing itself. Only then can the timeless Sikh proclamation of Ek Onkar, Sat Nam continue to illuminate a world that still seeks unity without uniformity.
