was standing at jalandhar station when my
attention went towards Sikh youth standing near me wearing a Black
turban having a long beard and wearing a kirpan over his shirt looking similar
to a terrorist. After a while, one local train arrived,
which was totally packed. The
Sikh youth tried to alight the train but
failed to do so. Just then a voice was heard from the back coach
'Sardarji Barah Baj gaye' (Sir it's 12
o'clock!)

The Sikh youth looked over at that voice
maker who was a young Mischievous type of person and instead of
showing any anger made a smile towards him. The smile made was so enigmatic that it
seemed as if some type of Truth lies behind it. Not able to resist
my temptation, I walked towards him and asked why did he smile at that
person who teased him. The Sikh youth replied, 'He was not teasing me but was
asking for my Help'.

I was surprised with these words and he
told me that there was a big history behind that which one should know. I was
eager to know the History
and the Sikh youth narrated:

During 17th Century, when Hindustan
was ruled by Mughals, all the Hindu people were humiliated and were
treated like animals. Mughals treated the Hindu women as there own property and
were forcing all Hindus to accept Islam and even used to kill people
if they were refusing to accept. That time, our ninth Guru, Sri Guru Teg
Bahadarji came forward, in response to a request by some Kashmiri
Pandits to fight against all these cruel activities. Guruji told the Mughal emperor that if he
could succeed in converting him to Islam, all the Hindus would accept
the same. But, if he failed, he should stop all those activities. The Mughal
emperor happily agreed to that but even after lots of torture to
Guruji and his fellow members, he failed to convert him to Islam and
Guruji along with his other four fellow members, were tortured and
sacrificed their lives in Chandni Chowk (Old Delhi
)...That's why the Gurudwara there is named "Sheesh Ganj"....Sheesh means head.

Since the Mughals were unable to convert them
to Islam they were assassinated. Thus Guruji sacrificed his life for the
protection of Hindu religion. Can anybody lay down his
life and that too for the protection of another religion? This is the reason he is still remembered
as "Hind Ki Chaddar", shield of India. For the sake of whom he had
sacrificed his life, none of the them came forward to lift his body, fearing
that they would also be assassinated. Seeing this incident our 10th Guruji, Sri
Guru Gobind Singhji (Son of Guru Teg Bahadarji) founder
of khalsa made a resolution that he would convert his followers to such human
beings who would not be able to hide themselves and could be
easily located in thousands.
At the start, the Sikhs were very few in
numbers as they were fighting against the Mughal emperors. At that time, Nadir
Shah raided Delhi in the year 1739 and looted Hindustan and was
carrying lot of Hindustan treasures and nearly
2200 Hindu women along with him. The news spread like a fire and was heard by Sardar Jassa Singh
who was the Commander of the Sikh army at that time. He decided to attack Nadir
Shah's Kafila on the same midnight. He did so and rescued all the
Hindu women and they were safely sent to their homes. It didn't happen only once but thereafter
whenever any Abdaalis or Iranis had attacked and looted Hindustan
and were trying to carry the treasures and Hindu women along with them
for selling them in Abdal markets, the Sikh army although fewer in numbers but
were brave hearted and attacked them at midnight, 12 O'clock and
rescued women.

After that time whenever there occurred a
similar incident, people started to contact the Sikh army for their help and
Sikhs used to attack the
raider's at Midnight, 12 O'clock. Nowadays,
these "smart people" and some Sikh enemies who are afraid of Sikhs,
have spread these words that at
12 O'clock, the Sikhs go out of their
senses.

This historic fact was the reason which
made me smile over that person as I thought that his Mother or Sister would be
in trouble and wants my help and was reminding me by saying off, 'Sardarji
Barah Baj Gaye'

"Its easy to joke on a Sardar, but
It's too difficult to be a Sardar"


Warm regards,
BulBul

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