Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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also raised them up again with greater strength after every attempt to
annihilate them…” 56
Gupta is so much impressed by the achievements of the
movement that he ask the question, “Readers! have we not witnessed
a miracle? 57 . The struggle waged by the Khalsa was so glorious that
any people in any culture would be proud of it.
What was the secret of this miracle? Was it wrought about by
the ‘marauding instinct’ which is associated with the Jats? The Jats no
doubt played a significant role, but which Jats? There was Bhai Taru
Singh who preferred his scalp to be removed rather than let his hair be
cut; and there were Jats who cut their hair with their own hands in
order to desert the Khalsa. One has to separate the grain from the
chaff. Non-Jats or Jats, it was those elements who had fully imbibed
the Sikh ideology who worked this miracle. It is they who were the
steel-frame of the movement. it was not an ordinary warfare. It tested
to the farther human limit a person’s faith in his cause, his endurance.
‘The story of the Sikh deeds opens up the great difference between
head and heart, between knowledge and action, between saying and
doing between words and works, and between a dead and a living
faith.’ 58 As Bhangu has put it :
‘The Singhs had no resources;
Were without arms and clothes.
Were naked, hungry and thirsty;
Had no ammunition with them.
Had no access to shops or markets;
Those who fell sick dead for lack of medicine.
They were sustained by the hope of Guru’s benediction;
This was the only treasure they had. ’59
Only those could come out successful through this fiery ordeal
who had in full measure faith in God, the Guru and the ultimate triumph
of the righteousness of the cause. During this long period of trail,
only the best could face the challenge. The question of any weak
person joining the movement for mundane considerations did not arise.
Those who did, left the faith on the first sign of a crisis, as all they had