New Delhi: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar laid The foundation stone of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Memorial was laid on Sunday in the historic town of Lohgarh in Yamunanagar district.
The memorial was announced last July, five years after a trust was set up in the name of the Sikh icon in 2017 during the 350th Prakash Parv (birth anniversary) of the tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh.
Banda Singh Bahadur – a Hindu who converted to Sikhism under the tutelage of Guru Gobind Singh and became a warrior fighting the Mughals – has become a part of India’s political discourse over the years, especially as BJP leaders constantly refer to him as reference .
In 2018, Khattar was accused by the Sikh community of “bringing their hero into the fold of the Sangh Parivar” and criticized to refer to him as “Baba Banda Singh Bairagi (ascetic)”, calling the move a “gross distortion of history”.
During Sunday’s ceremony, Khattar said: “When this memorial is built, the people of this region will feel proud that this is the same soil where a saint-soldier destroyed the Mughal army 300 years ago.”
According to a historian from Haryana who requested anonymity, the state has a significant Sikh votebank important to consider in the context of the memorial being built.
In June last year, Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had released a poster of a proposed memorial in honor of the Sikh warrior in Delhi and Gave Assurance He will get the proposal approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the same year, Manoj Sinha, became The first Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled to visit Dera Baba Banda Singh Bahadur – a gurdwara dedicated to the Sikh warrior – in Reasi district of the Union Territory. Last week, BJP leader announced That a statue of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur would be installed in the Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu, as requested by the All Jammu and Kashmir Sikh Coordination Committee.
PM did in 2020 Tweeted About Baba Banda Singh Bahadur on his 350th birth anniversary. “He lives in the hearts of millions. He is remembered for his sense of justice. He made many efforts to empower the poor,” Modi wrote.
In the past, several leaders of the BJP and its allies – such as Dr Jitendra Singh and the late Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party – have paid Tribute To Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.
Not only that, the government is also trying to identify the place and area where his followers are Martyred. National Monuments Authority (NMA) chairman and former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay said 740 such followers were executed in the national capital, where the Delhi Public Library is now. “There is a garden behind it. We have surveyed the area for the possible development of a martyr’s memorial.
NMA is trying”colonialismhistory of Delhi and part of that initiative involves the revival of the Mehrauli-based martyr’s place (Martyrdom site) Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.
“The people of Delhi have only been taught about Mughal history. Those who faced the atrocities of the Mughals and other invaders were easily forgotten. The sacrifices of Banda Singh Bahadur and Guru Tegh Bahadur (the ninth of the 10 Sikh Gurus) are now being discussed because PM Modi has taken special interest in it.
According to Surinder Singh Jodhka, professor and head of the Center for the Study of Social Systems at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) believe that Sikh symbols are “part of the larger Hindu-Sanatani family”. “.
“The core of the RSS and the BJP have always glorified Sikh heroes because they see Sikhs as part of the larger Hindu-Sanatani family. The RSS has always welcomed Guru Gobind Singh and his family. Banda Singh Bahadur was earlier called ‘Banda Bahadur’ by the RSS and the Hindu right wing, which sees him as a force against Muslim invaders,” he told ThePrint.
Jodhka, however, feels this is not a recent phenomenon: “Even though some sections of the right wing may not agree with him, it has been a part of his core politics, and is not just a phenomenon that emerged after the peasant movement. ,
‘Bairagi’Warrior
Although there are many debates among historians on the life story of Banda Singh Bahadur according to the book of Punjabi historian Ganda Singh, Life of Banda Singh BahadurThe Sikh warrior – whose original name was Lachhman Dev – was born on 27 October 1670 to a Rajput of the Bhardwaj clan in the Poonch district of western Kashmir.
The text states that at the age of 15 he adopted the life of a sanyasi, left home and was given the name ‘Madho Das’ according to tradition. recluse, It is also said that he lived with Hindu sages to learn the techniques of yoga and “Tantric science”.
His first meeting with Guru Gobind Singh is said to have taken place in 1708 in Nanded, Maharashtra, where he offered himself to the Guru as a devotee. Madho Das was then baptized, offered Nectar (holy water) and renamed Banda Singh Bahadur.
Professor SK Chahal, dean of the history department of Kurukshetra University, told ThePrint, “Some say he was a Sikh recluse, while some claim that he was either a Jat or a Rajput. Some refer to him as ‘Banda Bairagi’ in Haryana.
He further added that when Punjab separated from Haryana, it needed its own symbols that suited its politics, and Banda Singh Bahadur was a name that was associated with the followers of the last Guru of the Sikhs – Guru Gobind Singh.
“The history and politics of Punjab and the Sikhs revolve around the Sikh Gurus. Because the Sikhs became involved in a power struggle with the Mughals, everything that represents victory over the Mughals is glorified. Banda Singh Bahadur followed Guru Gobind Singh till Nanded, then he came back and conquered the city of Sirhind, present-day Ambala and some Mughal-ruled areas in the Yamunanagar region,” said Chahal.
Prof. Ronki Ram, Political Scientist, Panjab University, Chandigarh, as well, It is said that Banda Singh Bahadur played a major role in the struggle against the Mughals and established the first Sikh rule.
He said, “But there is a dispute among the people and scholars as to whether he was baptized or not, whether he followed the path of the Guru.”
fought against the ‘tyranny and tyranny of his time’
In Delhi and Jammu, Banda Singh Bahadur is glorified as a Sikh leader who fought the Mughal army.
In 1710, during the Battle of Chappar Chiri, the Sikh army led by Banda Singh Bahadur defeated Wazir Khan, the Mughal governor of Sirhind, and killed him. Khan was also responsible for the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh’s two youngest sons – Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh. Banda Singh Bahadur then developed the village of Mukhlisgarh and made it his capital, which was later named Lohgarh (Steel Fort) – present Yamunanagar.
He was eventually captured by the Mughals and executed in 1716.
It is believed that Banda Singh Bahadur avenged the death of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons, but this has often been misunderstood by historians, as Ganda Singh explains in his book. “He is appointed by Guru Gobind Singh to avenge the murder of his sons, as the Guru is said to have been motivated in his early days by a desire to avenge the death of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur There is nothing in the whole of history which confirms this conclusion.’
“Indeed, the Guru entrusted him with the great task of carrying on the war against the tyranny and tyranny of his time. And in the execution of this duty, Banda Singh certainly brought the wrongdoers to justice for the brutal murders of Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh. Punished,” the book further says.
Elora Puri, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Jammu, told ThePrint that Banda Singh Bahadur “has always been part of the collective memory of the Jammu region”.
“Not only in Jammu, but across the country there is a tendency for the BJP to immortalize some heroes,” he said.
He further added: “Banda Singh Bahadur was born in Rajouri, which is a part of Jammu division, and Jammu has a significant Sikh population. No one ever underestimated his contribution to the region, but for the BJP he was of greater importance as he was seen as a savior of faith against the Mughals.
However, Gurmeet Singh Sidhu, professor of religious studies at Punjabi University Patiala, believes that the recognition should have come much earlier. “His stature among the Sikh community is greater than that of Maharaja Ranjit Singh because he established the first Sikh rule and avenged the death of Guru Gobind Singh. G’s sahibzade (sons). This cannot be just a politically motivated action as he really deserved it.
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‘Protector of Hindus’
A historian from Haryana, on the condition of anonymity, said that by the right-wing ecosystem, Banda Singh Bahadur is revered as a savior of Hindus and seen as an extension of Guru Gobind Singh.
“He also promoted the Khalsa concept, which was originally conceptualized by Guru Gobind Singh. In Sikh historiography, he was established as an icon after Guru Gobind Singh, although he was not a major ruler and was not very popular in his time. Some even claim that he brought ‘land reforms’, but these are modern terminology,” said the historian.
Banda Bahadur appealed to the BJP because the concept of the Khalsa state originated from the fight against the Mughals, the historian claimed, “Guru Gobind Singh is also known as the protector of Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus, so Muslims are common here. are enemies. Right-wing politicians praise Sikh gurus because they are said to have protected Hindus. Banda Singh Bahadur is also in line with that story.
On the memorial of Banda Singh Bahadur being built in Haryana, the above educationist said that Sikh voters are an important section of voters in the state. “Haryana has a significant Sikh votebank and the Sikhs of the state have been demanding recognition of Banda Bahadur Singh as an icon since he ruled Haryana.”
NMA chief Tarun Vijay, however, said “there is no politics behind it”.
Calling PM Modi a ‘Sahajdhari Sikh’ (a person who believes in Sikhism, but has not officially taken the vows of Sikhism), he said, “When he went to Amritsar, people called him ‘Sardar Narendra Modi’. ‘. He has been working to glorify Sikh valor and courage. No one had thought of Veer Bal Diwas (honouring the sons of Guru Gobind Singh) for the last 400 years. It is on PM Modi’s mind is yielding,” said Vijay.
“Will Sikhs vote for him because of these gestures? To say that these are politically motivated efforts is a poor and superficial observation by the opposition as they could not even think of it. Even if he is, he is making Mother India happy.
(Editing by Zinnia Ray Chowdhury)
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