What Made Sikhs Such Great Soldiers

[yubacitysingh]

what was their mind set 21 sikhs that took on 10 000

or how sikhs could take on so much torture and not break

[ks55]

Gurbani / naam bhagtee = shakteee

sant aspect -----transforms to sepahi aspect -- which is unbreakable

however it can years or lifeforms to get from one stage to the next- however some lucky sould endure both sides in one life form

[fortunate]

What Made Sikhs Such Great Soldiers?

They were great soldiers because there Guru was the Greatest!

[Lion of Punjab]

Gurbani !!!

[HSD1]

Killing loads of the enemy before they killed you.

[pedrorizzo]

They were physically tough. Most were rural physical people and worked the farms or did some kind of manual work. They had alot of pride (anakh) and always felt that they had alot to live up to, ie their forefathers had a fearsome and courageous reputation so they thought that they had to maintain it.

They drew inspiration from Sikh history and all the great stories about soormay permeated their lives and shaped their mentality and their values.

They were practical people. They enjoyed the adventure, prestige, honour, glory and financial reward of being a soldier.

The above I believe are the main reasons to be honest.

[pedrorizzo]

I know that we as Sikhs like to paint a rose tinted view of ourselves as being pure, spiritual naam jaaping warriors but I'm not convinced that most Singhs were like that.

When you read historical accounts that others have written about us, it sounds like there was a big variety.

Many historical accounts paint the picture that Sikhs were very aggressive and fanatical fighters. Particularly accounts by the British suggest that Singhs were pretty dirty fighters. They would often show little mercy and butcher the wounded. Sometimes they would pretend like they have surrendered, and when the opponent turned their back would stick them from behind. Singhs would often mutilate the bodies of their enemies as a warning and as a way to intimidate them.

Of course there were some singhs who had a great jeevan and did lots of simran, bani etc and that would have contributed to their warrior prowess. However, I think that most of the time, they were basically just normal guys but extremely fierce and aggressive as fighters.

[Pyara]

F A I T H !

I feel that we have become massive cynics, sceptics and almost athiest in our outlook on life. This dip has effected our competance as a warrior race. If you have already mentally made up your mind that you have been beaten than there's no chance of fighting any physical battle, let alone winning it!

I think the modern Sikh has developed a habit at talking themselves out of doing sewa..

[Mehtab Singh]

I know that we as Sikhs like to paint a rose tinted view of ourselves as being pure, spiritual naam jaaping warriors but I'm not convinced that most Singhs were like that.

When you read historical accounts that others have written about us, it sounds like there was a big variety.

Many historical accounts paint the picture that Sikhs were very aggressive and fanatical fighters. Particularly accounts by the British suggest that Singhs were pretty dirty fighters. They would often show little mercy and butcher the wounded. Sometimes they would pretend like they have surrendered, and when the opponent turned their back would stick them from behind. Singhs would often mutilate the bodies of their enemies as a warning and as a way to intimidate them.

Of course there were some singhs who had a great jeevan and did lots of simran, bani etc and that would have contributed to their warrior prowess. However, I think that most of the time, they were basically just normal guys but extremely fierce and aggressive as fighters.

Do you have any sources, i.e. any reliable and authentic web links, books, journals, articles written/documented by verified sources?

[Bundha]

Historical accounts should be viewed within their context and can be very biased. The musllmans used to call Sikhs dogs and that we fought like dogs. Many accounts of Baba Banda Singh give a very biased and negative view, when writing about the enemy then it the account tends to be a little askew. If you read Jangnama although it too calls Sikhs dogs but within the text the writer cannot but admire the Sikhs also.

It was one of the codes of conduct of the Sikhs that they never struck anyone from behind, or struck a defenceless person or unarmerd and were renound for not touching the females of the enemy. These were drilled into theSiks be Guru Gobind Singh Ji himself, so I find it a little difficult to accept that these practices existed or were the norm.

When a Sikh takes amrit he becomes amar (immortal) and any shahidi will take him/her to Guru Sahib Ji, hence the fearless do or die attitude of the Sikhs plus they were very much naam-abihaasi with tonnes of naam which helped then overcome so much adversity.