Childrens' gatka wound incident in Slough last week - replacing shastarvidiya with gatka is poor and dangerous, very detrimental to the chardikala of panth!

[ipledgeblue]

I was at the Slough Singh Sabha gurdwara last week.

I think he was a teen, a tall young Singh got a deep gash wound on his arm from gatka, somewhere near his wrist. He was already on the floor when I entered through the langar hall, but I am sure he did it to himself not through a gatka "battle".

I am unsure which shastar he used. I checked and the shastars seemed lightweight for the children. I picked up the khanda and it was light, not like a real khanda.

I really want to emphasise that we should not be promoting twirly sword dancing as a "sikh martial art". This young Singh was hurting and gasping - why are we teaching twirling swords around in a way that may hurt oneself??

Promote shastarvidiya savai raksha and other martial arts which are about causing damage to the enemy. Why are we teaching this style of twirly gatka that's detrimental/harmful to ourselves and our allies? A twirly sword might hurt an ally in a battle, and doesn't allow allied warriors good movement around the sword twirler.

This also reminds me during the summer, they were teaching some move to kids where you do some spins with the feet and then do a backwards bhangra type jump. I wasn't sure if this was a martial art or bhangra being taught?!

Also at another gurdwara in another city/town in the midlands, the year before at a kids sikh club a guest gatka teacher was teaching basics to little kids by making then practice making infinity symbols with the gatka sticks!!!

If we are showing off something ineffective and also harmful to the practitioner and allied warriors, then it's nothing to be proud off! If we are going to show our puraatan shastars off, we need to do it in a respectable manner not in this archaic colonial gatka era! The teaching is just as embarrassing as the last 2 decades and I don't understand why we want to promote it as a sikh martial art, to the sangat and to outsiders? the injuries are just not worth it for learning this modern gatka! 

 

"Preserve Shastar Vidiya any way you can."
(Rattan Singh Bhangu, Siri Guru Panth Parkash, ed. Dr Balwant Singh Dhillon, 36)

[caveman]

Yes . There is a huge difference. Between gatka and the true vidiya of yudh vidiya. 

I'll say this again. 

Last twenty years various people have claimed there are other teachers of shastar vidiya...however who has come forward ? No one. Not one single Singh. Since day one it's only been Nidar Singh Nihang who teaches and posses the bhujangi vidiya of the khalsa. Who else has come forward to say they posses the vidiya ..no one. 

[caveman]

There is an app " sanatan shastar vidiya". Download it . You can see how different it is to gatka. Jhatka di vidiya and khed . Two different things.

[VSinghz7]

Sikhs have missed the point: Shastar Vidhiya means "the science of (hand-held) weapons", not just the style nihangs do or gatka.

Gatka and "shastar vidhiya" are "bad" for 2 reasons:

• You can't actually practice them properly cos its deadly. Same issue with karate; you can't free spar full force with traditional techniques cos someone'd probably die, so its impracticality goes unchecked. But boxing spars full force, so you know what works. And if you ever do have to defend someone w gatka and the thug has a stick too (unlikely) you wouldn't know how to take a full force hit cos in training you had to take it light. That one hit will shake you more than you realise and probably make u lose if ur not used to it. 
• You likely don't carry a 2 foot sword/gatka stick in the West unless going to training. And a thug doesn't either; he's got a knife (uk) or a gun (USA . Gatka may beat knife, but even field hockey sticks will beat someone with a normal knife cos of reach, gatka di lorh nhi haegi specifically. But if they got a gun, the only defence is quicker draw time and better aim (which you'll learn at shooting class, never at gatka)

Basically, Guru Gobind Singh Ji told us to learn "the science of weapons" to defend people, but we train an art with a weapon nobody carries today (nobody takes a gatka stick when they step out to get atta) and one that we can never spar with fully and thus we don't even know what it feels like to get hit with it properly. If you train to preserve history or perform shows, then that's fine. But it's NOT part of a Sikh's military training anymore and won't help you much in fights (for which we must be "tyaar by tyaar" , always ready). 

(PS: Gatka may have a few skills like movement and observation that can help in fights, but all its practical stuff like that is also in MMA, plus much more. Nothing that's exclusive to arts like gatka will help practically).