Sikh History

[Big_Tera]

Are Sikhs overly concentrating on the the negative events of Sikh History to much. Ie The Mughals/Muslims in India.

It seems that young Sikhs are brought up with so much hatred for Mughals, that we are inadvertently giving them more power in our minds. ie once you concentrate on something so much it can then actually start to control you to a certain degree and gives them more power then they actually had.

Should we not just forget about the Mughals and just try and concentrate on Sikhism? What the Mughals did to Sikhs, Hindus and even their own people was very bad. But we must not become overly obsessed with this notion. Instead we should focus our energy in spreading Sikhism.

There is a saying.

'The Lion Does not acknowledged the lowly Hyena'

I think the main History that needs to be taught is that Sikhs were victorious in many battles with the Mughals against all odds and drove them out of Punjab.

And obviously about how our Gurus guided us in doing so,

They they did not single handily do this, the Hindu Martha empire contributed to this enormously also.

In fact if it was not for the Hindu Warriors of the various empires they controlled, all of India have become Muslims. I think we need to drop the stereo type of Hindus being cowardly people who just let the Mughals rule without putting up a fight. There may have been some that converted but the overwhelming majority of Hindus did not convert to Islam and fought very courageously to keep their faith.

The main battles and rivals that the Mughals had were infact the the Hindu Maratha Empire who inflicted great damage to the Mughals. Aurangzeb Tried his best to convert all of India but he could not defeat the Maratha's in the Deccan and hence lost the war and his empire. We should give credit where credit is due. The Maratha's did very good for India and helped keep Islam out.

[Mehtab Singh]

You're right, Hindu Marathas were indeed brave and fought fiercely. In many cases even Hindu Rajputs. But none of them took the battle to the home of the enemy in Kabul and brought them on their knees on their own turf. Only the Khalsa achieved this glory. There is no doubt there were brave warriors from the Hindu religion, only thing is that the point of entry for foreign invasions was in almost all cases Punjab, and that is where the Khalsa once and for all locked the gates of entry to any foreigner.

The magnitude of fear those foreigners had for the Khalsa was much more than what they had for other Hindu martial races. You will never hear of Afghans putting a price on the head of a Maratha or Rajput. The tales of valor which the Singhs are known for is something those others could not even dream of.

Its not always victory that counts, but how quickly were we able to get back on our feet even after being hit by the worst types of onslaughts. Its not always victory that counts, but how justly/fairly/honestly the Singhs fought their battles.

Lets also not forget the root cause of conflict. For Marathas and Rajputs it was almost always about land and kingdom. For the Sikhs, ever since the times of Guru Sahibaan, it was fighting injustice and tyranny.

We had/have Guru Sahib to lead us, first in His human form and then in His Shabad Guru roop. Who do they have? I am not denying that there have been brave Hindu warriors who fought Mughals/Afghans fiercely and achieved victories. But we have to remember that the Singhs were able to achieve much more than them in much worse circumstances. The Singhs were able to get back on the battlefield much quicker after getting hit. Marathas had their back broken after 3rd battle of Panipat, but the Khalsa was/is resilient and refused to give up. Rajputs even ended up having matrimonial alliances with Mughals to end conflict, Khalsa on the other hand refused any kind of Nawabi offered to them and choose to win it in the battlefield.

Fighting battles is one thing. Winning them is something else. But its our Khalsa standards of integrity and Gurmat ideals of our character that made us outshine everyone else.

[sikhiseeker]

From the 1 guru onwards it was martial.It did not start with sri guru hargobind sahib Ji.

WJKK WJKF,

Dhan Dhan Baba Buddha Sahib ji smashed the onion with his fist and said to mata Ganga Devi, your child will be strong and be able to smash the enemies of guru nanaks house as I have smashed this onion.

The first Sikh armies and arms were raised by Shiri Guru Hargobind, he made Sikhs a Martial race. Our other gurus ji's were not martial as no war was physically thought between two sides. It was Shiri Guru Hargobind who took on the Mughal Regime due to the martyrdom of Shiri Guru Arjan Dev Ji.

[WaljinderSingh]

From guru Nanak dev Ji onwards sikhi has been martial.The first guru wore a Sri sahib,chakar,spear etc.These can be found at takht Sri Patna sahib.Guru nanak dev ji created shastar vidiya and taught it to baba budha ji.The second guru opened a wrestling school.Then obviously the sixth guru wore the Miri piri.Who taught guru hargobind sahib Ji shastar vidiya?It was baba budha Ji.Where did baba budha Ji learn it?From Sri guru Nanak dev Ji.Even in gurbani guru Nanak dev Ji has always been martial in a way.So the whole of sikhi is martial.

Dhan Guru Nanak dev ji Tuhi Nirankaar.

[RanaBhaaratVaasi]

It seems that you have forgotten that many Rajputs took amrit... you cant compare sikhs and rajputs as there are rajput sikhs... and there are sellouts in all peoples, so dont malign the rajputs because of the actions of a few people.

[S1ngh]

Good factual reply by Mehtab Singh.

[Mehtab Singh]

It seems that you have forgotten that many Rajputs took amrit... you cant compare sikhs and rajputs as there are rajput sikhs... and there are sellouts in all peoples, so dont malign the rajputs because of the actions of a few people.

Who me? When did I malign anyone? Rajput Sikhs are one community who have, among others, been at the forefront when it came to giving Shaheediyaan for the Panth. My reference was to the Rajasthani Hindu Rajputs who no doubt are a brave qaum but also had matrimonial alliances with Mughals. I am no one to say why, or if that was a good or bad thing to do. And you're absolutely right, all fingers are not the same. While Bhai Roop Chand became a Shaheed serving Guru Sahib, his brother Jagat Singh was a traitor.