October 30th: Sikhs of Guru Nanak Dev Ji

[SanmukhKaur]

“Guru Nanak Dev Ji once stopped a boulder with one hand, can’t His Sikhs stop one train?”, was the daring question asked by Bhai Karam Singh Ji. The train in question would be carrying participants of a non-violent march to assert the right to felling trees to use as fuel for stoves used to cook Guru ka Langar from the uncultivated land attached to Gurudwara Guru Ka Bagh in Amritsar District. At first the Sikh volunteers were arrested and tried for trespassing, then when the Sikhs did not yield and continued to take back firewood, they were beaten. Finally the government had to intervene to stop the brutal beatings and the arrests of the innocent Sikhs, once again began. Sikhs were arrested, tried and then sent to distant jails by a special train.

One of these special trains left Amritsar of 29 of October and the Sikhs of Panja Sahib decided they would feed the Sikhs on the train when it passed through the local station on the 30th of October. The station master informed Bhai Karam Singh Ji that they train was not scheduled to stop at the station but the sangat was determined to feed the Sikhs langar. The tried to plead and reason with the station master that such trains in the past have been stopped and the prisoners fed, to please allow them the same right. But their pleas fell on deaf ears, the station master and people in charge refused. The Sikhs seeing no other way to stop the train led by Bhai Karam Singh Ji and Bhai Pratap Singh Ji sat down in the train tracks. That day much of the sangat, regardless of the fact they were male or female, joined determined to feed the Sikhs.

The train operator blew the whistle signaling for the Sikhs to move out of the way but the Sikhs refused to pay heed to the warning. The trained was forced to halt at the station but not before it had mauled over eleven members of the sangat. The worst mauled were Bhai Pratap Singh (24) and Bhai Karam Singh (30) but they refused any medical attention or any help till the Sikhs in the train were feed. The Sangat first feed the prisoners with great love, without imposing the sacrifice they made to feed them and only then did they turn their attention to the injured. Bhai Karam Singh Ji and Bhai Pratap Singh Ji both received martyrdom due to the extensive injuries.

For 25 years, between 1922 and 1947, every year a special 3 day religious fair was held in the memory of these brave and determined Sikhs. The partition has ended the fair but lets not let it bury their memory. Sikhs will never forget the many brave souls that served Khalsa Panth even at the cost of their lives.