A Saga of Sacrifice & Struggle
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| Sikhism : The Way Of The Khalsa Sikhism is a progressive religion well ahead of its time, and very much similar to Islam, when it was founded over 500 years ago. The Sikh religion today has a following of over 20 million people worldwide. Sikhism preaches a message of devotion and remembrance of God at all times, truthful living, equality of mankind and denounces superstitions and blind rituals. . | |
| | The Greater Holocaust Ahmad Shah Abdali during his fifth invasion defeated Marathas in the battle of Panipat on the 13th January, 1761 A.D., and plundered Delhi at will. He started back on 22nd March, 1761 A.D., with his booty and thousands of young men and women (app. 22,000 to be precise) as his captives. When he crossed river Sutlej in April 1761 A.D., the Singhs started looting him and setting the prisoners free and sending them back to their homes. After reaching Lahore, Abdali sent army to arrest the Singhs but there was no success. . |
| Maharaja Ranjit Singh Who Ruled His People's Hearts The guide at Lahore Fort described Ranjit Singh as the bravest and the most benevolent king of the 19th century. He said that the Punjab peasantry still remembered the king in whose rule the strong were just and the weak secure. A book entitled "The Real Ranjit Singh" by a Pakistani historian, Syed Fakeer Waheeduddin, the great grandson of Fakeer Azizuddin, Maharaja's Foreign Minister, brings out the secular character of the Maharaja giving very intimate facts based on family records and archives. . |
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| Immortal Komagata Maru - In the year 1900 the census reported 2050 people from India on the North American continent. The majority of these people were Punjabis who had settled in Canada. They had come with the hope of finding work so that they could improve their economic situation from what it had been in the Punjab. Upon arrival in Canada they encountered numerous hardships and discrimination. Canadians wanted the "brown invasion" to stop. They felt that the growing number of Indians would take over their jobs in factories, mills and lumber yards. . |  | ||||
| History of the Ghadar Movement "Our struggle will continue as long as a handful of men, be they foreign or native, or both in collaboration with each other, continue to exploit the labour and resources of our people. Nothing shall deter us from this path." Kartar Singh Sarabha Gadar Party The GADAR or GHADAR PARTY was secular in character. Its aim was to overthrow the British rule by using force and free India from foreign domination. GADAR Party was the popular name of the "Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast" which ran the newspaper "GADAR" which was loved by every Indian. Ghadar Publication..... . |
| Shaheed e Azam Bhagat Singh Bhagat Singh was an outstanding revolutionary and martyr of the Indian anti-colonial movement. He represented the youth who were dissatisfied with Gandhian politics and groped for revolutionary alternatives. Bhagat Singh studied the European revolutionary movement and was attracted to anarchism and communism. He became a confirmed atheist, socialist and communist. . | |
| | Udham Singh - A short Biographical Sketch Udham Singh was one of the great patriots of India, with a burning desire to see his motherland free from the clutches of British colonialism and imperialism. According to British records, he was born at Sunam Village, Patiala State, on 23 August 1901, and was known at various stages in his relatively short life by the following names: Sher Singh, Udham Singh, Udhan Singh, Ude Singh, Frank Brazil and Mohammed Singh Azad. . |
| Udham Singh's Last Words Prior to passing the sentence Mr. Justice Atkinson asked Udham Singh whether he had anything to say. Replying in the affirmative he began to read from prepared notes. The judge repeatedly interrupted Udham Singh and ordered the press not to report the statement. Both in Britain and India the government made strenuous efforts to ensure that the minimum publicity was given to the trial. . |
| Fanning the fires of freedom abroad The story of the Indian struggle for Independence will be incomplete without recollecting the contribution of the Indians settled abroad, and their publications which helped to fan the fire for Independence. The agitation against the British in foreign countries took a concrete shape towards the beginning of the 19th century, just prior to the World War I. It was supported by the Germans and the Japanese, both enemies of the British. . | |
| | Kartar Singh Sarabha Revolutionary Kartar Singh, the great devotee of Bellona, the goddess of war, was not even twenty years old when he sacrificed himself on the altar of goddess of freedom. He appeared like a storm from somewhere, ignited the flame of revolution and tried to wake up the sleeping Bellona. He blazed the holy yajna of revolution and became himself an offering for the same. Who was he? From what world did he suddenly appear? And where did he go? We were awestruck. Such courage, self-confidence, and dedication is rarely found. Few persons have been born in India who can be called revolutionary in true sense of the word. Kartar Singh's name comes at the top among these few. Revolution lived in his veins. There was only one aim of his life, only one desire, only one hope - all that held meaning in his life was revolution. . |
| Constitution of the Hindustan Republican Association Prepared by S.N. Sanyal towards the end of 1924. It was printed on yellow paper and for that reason it is generally referred to as Yellow Paper. Manifesto of the Hindustan Republican Association This manifesto of the Hindustan Republican Association was written by Shachindra Nath Sanyal in December 1924. It was distributed in almost all the major cities of north India in the night between December 31, 1924 and January 1, 1925. Manifesto of Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Punjab Written by Bhagawati Charan Vohra, dated 6-4-1928. The Sabha was an open organisation of the party. Manifesto of the Hindustan Republican Association Prepared by B.C. Vohra, it was widely distributed at the time of the Lahore Session of the Congress in 1929. |
| Sanyal's open letter to Gandhi ji It was published in Young India (Ahmedabad), dated February 12, 1925, and reproduced by M.N. Gupta in his book. They Lived Dangerously, PPH, New Delhi, 1969. Sukhdev's letter to Gandhi ji Gandhiji was negotiating with the government for the release of political prisoners not convicted of violence. He was also appealing to the revolutionaries to stop their movement. It was in this context that Sukhdev wrote this letter. It was published in Young India, April 23, 1931, after the execution of Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev. . |
| Jallianwala Bagh Revisited A look at the actual history of one of the most shocking events of the independence struggle. "He was the real culprit. He deserved it. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him." - Shaheed Udham Singh, telling the trial court why he killed former Punjab Lieutenant-Governor Michael O'Dwyer. |
| The philosophy of the bomb In December 1929, a bomb exploded under the Viceroy Irwin�s special train, from which he, however, escaped. Gandhiji thanked God for the Viceroy�s narrow escape and condemned in his article �The Cult of the Bomb� the revolutionaries for the act. It was in reply to Gandhiji�s article that this outstanding document was written by Bhagawati Charan in consultation with Chandra Shekhar Azad. It was drafted in the room located above the Soloman Company, Aminabad, Lucknow, which was used as a den exclusively by Azad, Bhagawati Charan and Yashpal. . |
| | Madan Lal Dhingra: Trail-Blazer of Freedom Movement Madan Lal was born in 1887 in a prosperous family of Punjab. His father, Sahib Ditta Mal, was a Civil Surgeon at the Civil Hospital in Gurdaspur and Hissar. On retirement, he settled at Amritsar where he held a huge property. A friend of the Britishers, he was given the title of 'Rai Sahib'. In 1906, Madan Lal was sent to England to join the University College, London, to study Mechanical Engineering. During his stay in London he used to go to India House and there he came in contact with Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Verma, and the former administered him the oath of allegiance as a member of his Revolutionary Secret Society called "Abhinav Bharat Sanstha". He learnt shooting and decided to work for the liberation of his motherland. He prepared a list of all India-haters, the enemies of his motherland. He grabbed his very first opportunity. . |
| Ramanand Chatterji's editorial note on 'Long Live Revolution' According to a free press message, at a meeting of the Naujawan Sabha (Youth League) of Gujranwala in the Punjab a resolution was passed protesting against the arrest of students on the ground of their shouting "Long Live Revolution" and "Down with Imperialism", before the Court of the Special Magistrate of Lahore. Role of Punjab in India's freedom struggle (19th century) Punjab�s struggle for the freedom from the foreign rule began soon after the defeat of the Sikhs in the first Anglo-Sikh War. One of the first indication was the "Cow Row" affair. This incident took place in Lahore on the 24th of April 1846, when under protest the businessmen of Lahore closed their shops against the British guard stationed outside the Masti Gate of the City. Struggle for Freedom in the Punjab At a session of the Indian History Congress in the 1960s, a senior historian from the Punjab was arguing that the Punjab had contributed much to the freedom struggle when an equally senior historian from Uttar Pradesh interrupted him with the rhetorical question 'where were you in 1857?' . |
| The Namdhari Sikhs - pioneers of freedom movement The Namdhari Sikhs played a prominent role in the freedom movement of India. They were in the forefront of freedom struggle at a time when the British were consolidating their hold over the country. During the early days of British rule in Punjab the Namdhari Sikhs organised themselves into a well-knit group of saint soldiers in the true tradition of Sikh Gurus and offered a tough resistance to British rule in Punjab. | |
| | Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia: Liberalism and Politics Sardar Dyal Singh evinced much interest in politics but he realized that his countrymen must deserve political rights before they could be enjoyed. To deserve political rights it was necessary to liberalize social customs and remove social shackles by the spread of liberal education. To this end his countrymen were to devote their energies. The public must be educated and the duty of an enlightened leader like him was to articulate public opinion and to keep the Government in touch with it. For this end he started The Tribune newspaper and managed educational institutions.The Tribune, under his wise direction and tactful management, began to exercise an influence in the Punjab . |
| Origins of non-violence movement in India As fate would have it Mahatma Gandhi is credited with starting the non-violent movement to oust the British out of India. Gandhi deserves a lot of praise because he did implement the principles of non-violence, but he certainly was not the originator of that concept. He learnt that from the Sikhs. The Sikhs drew their inspiration from their very Gurus, two of who had suffered martyrdom in order to make their point. Over time, the principle of non-violence was used again and again. . |
| Sikh Regiment: Where valour is a tradition REMEMBER the Battle of Saragarhi when Havildar Ishar Singh with 21 Other Ranks (ORs) made the supreme sacrifice while repulsing an attack by more than 10,000 Afridi tribesmen in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), now in Pakistan? The British Parliament had then arisen as one man to pay its respect to these gallant Sikh soldiers. Now, more than 102 years later, the entire nation has risen again. This time to acknowledge the triumph of the Sikhs at Helmet and India Gate ( Tiger Hill features) in the Kargil sector. . | |
| Bhai Jassa Singh Jassa Singh Ramgarhia was a born leader of unprecedented qualities. His birth took place near city of Amritsar. He was 5 years old when Banda Singh Bahadur attained martyrdom at Delhi. He was among the crop of those Sikhs who had fought against all odds for survival of their newly founded religion. In those times all Sikhs, cook, ate, fought together and Sikhism was thought of a family. Sardar Kapur Singh was elder and an able leader, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, Sardar Budh Singh Sandhu (grand father of Ranjit Singh), and others were able leaders fighting Mughals and Afghnis keeping Khalsa flame alive with their resistance. |
| | Saka Nankana Sahib Glorious fight against mahants In October 1920 A.D., a congregation was held at Dharowal, District Sheikhupura for reform in Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in which the leaders revealed to the gathering of devotees, the misdeeds being committed inside the Gurdwara. Gurdwara Nankana sahib was highly revered as it is the birth place of Guru Nanak, a city named Nankana Sahib came up around the Gurdwara which is now in Pakistan. At meeting ,it was unanimously resolved that the Mahant be asked to mend his ways. When Mahant Narian Dass was asked to reform himself, he started making preparations to oppose the Panth (Sikh community) instead. He did not feel it necessary to pay heed to the suggestions of the Committee. He was the owner of the estate attached to the Gurdwara with an income of one hundred thousand rupees besides the offerings of the Gurdwara. |
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| Freedom fighters - a profile of the freedom फिघ्टर साभार : पंजाबी लोक |
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