Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

141
The drums will beat at every door-step…
The Khalsa will be victorious from one end to the other.
The Khalsa will rule; no one will remain unsubdued.
Everyone will join the Khalsa. For, they alone would be saved,
who submit to the Khalsa’. 11
A revolutionary’s fulfilment lies when he feels himself equal to
the heaviest odds ranged against him. (Sava lakh se ek laraoon’), and
a plebian revolution, by its very nature, involves every hamlet in its
whirlwind sweep (‘Daur duar par naubat vaje’).
There is a poetic composition of the eighteenth century by one
Bhai Gurdas.* * He writes:
‘He (Guru Gobind Singh) created his own Khalsa Panth and
blessed it with great vigour,
Khalsa, with hair on their heads, and sword in their hands,
crushed all the tyrants.
No body stood his ground against them;
The Sirdars (chiefs) fled before them,
Rajas, kings and the wealthy were reduced to dust.” 12
It is significant that this verse brackets the wealthy with the
Rajas, kings and Sirdars as the opponents of the Khalsa.
Ratan Singh Bhangu, in his introduction of his history of the
Sikh Panth, says that the rulers are like tigers and hawks and the
subjects like goats and partridges, and that he is writing the story of
‘how goats killed tigers and the partridges killed hawks.’ 13 Bhangu
further states:
‘Sovereignty cannot be had without armed struggle;
The Guru initiated the armed struggle…
“The Guru gave sovereignty to the poor…, and
The seven Sanat (lowest castes) and twelve low castes,
who know nothing of politics.
The world calls them rustic Jats, Bawas, Kirars, Khatris,
Iron-smiths and carpenters of the low castes.
* This Bhai Gurdas is a different person from Bhai Gurdas who lived in
the time of Guru Arjun