Partition and the Mughals

[Neo]

Partition and the Mughals

By Haroon Khalid

Sikh retaliation did not begin with the riots of partition, but much before that when a follower of Guru Gobind Singh, Banda Bahadur attacked many Mughal states, killing hundreds of Muslims. He wanted to avenge the death of his Gurus, and the torture of his sons

Almost 63 years have passed since the bloody partition of British-controlled India to create two new nations of India and Pakistan, which even though taking birth from a single mother, remain hostile to each other. The seeds of distrust that were sown at that time mar the relations between these two countries to date, and the result takes a heavy toll on the development agenda of the South Asian region. There is mistrust, and each and everything that is wrong within the bounds of one’s country is imagined to be the conspiracy of the other. Had the partition been peaceful, it is safe to imagine that perhaps the mutual understanding between these two countries would have been much more amicable.

However, there are still many questions pertaining to the slaughter and abduction of millions during the partition that baffles historians and social scientists. After having lived together peacefully for centuries, how did one’s neighbour become abominable overnight, worthy of an excruciating death? Another question with special pertinence to Punjab is that even though the cause of friction was developments between the Hindus and Muslims, how did more riots take place between the Muslims and the Sikhs?

It is, therefore, illogical to conclude that all the violence that erupted on the eve of partition was a result of the developments of a few years. History takes hundreds of years in the making, and that is what culminated in the bloodshed during the partition of British-ruled India.

A while ago, a friend of mine made an interesting remark, which became the lifeline for this article. He stated that the Mughal Emperor Jahangir was the reason behind the Sikh-Muslim riots in 1947. Jahangir assassinated the fifth Sikh Guru Arjun outside the Lahore Fort, and then had the audacity to boast about it in his autobiography, Tuzk-e-Jahangiri.

The story goes as follows: Chandu Lal, a Hindu minister of the Emperor approached the Guru, while he was in Lahore, with a proposal for the hand of his daughter for his son. However, Arjun being a spiritual leader did not want to be associated with a politician, which is why he declined. Chandu could not bear this insult, and vilified the Guru in front of the Emperor. Later, when Jahangir’s son Khusrau rebelled against his father, he came to a langar of the Guru, where his force had food and then he received a tilak from Arjun as a blessing. When Jahangir heard this, he could not bear him any more, got him arrested, and sentenced him to capital punishment. He was subjected to inhumane torture before the punishment was carried out. In this one act, the Emperor laid the seeds for the transformation of a spiritual sect to a militant one. The Mughals murdered a prophet of Sikhism, creating a fissure between themselves and the Sikhs, which was not to heal easily. One can imagine how the events would have unfolded had Jahangir not executed the Guru. Would the Sikhs have felt the same kind of outrage that they manifested at the time of partition?

Mughal-Sikh relations received a further blow at the hands of an even more unscrupulous Emperor Aurangzeb, who killed all his brothers and imprisoned his father to get to the throne. He wanted to purge India of all its non-Muslim inhabitants, so a period of conversion followed, some by hook, some by crook. The Kashmiri confederate of the Emperor wanted to convert the Kashmiri Sikhs, however the Sikhs retorted that if their Guru, the ninth Guru of Sikhism Tegh Bahadur would convert, then all of them would. The Guru was captured, brought to Delhi and tortured. When he refused to abandon his religion, he was executed. He was beheaded publicly at the Chandni Chowk.

Aurangzeb possibly played the worst role to foment Muslim-Sikh tension. Millions of Sikhs were beheaded and left to rot. It is said that even today if one digs the ground of Gurdwara Shaheed Gunj, located in Lahore, one would find hundreds of skulls from that era. This sanctuary remains an ode to those martyrs.

The last blow came from the Nawab of Sirhind, Wazir Khan. He noticed that the last Guru Gobind Singh was establishing links with the Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, which he could not tolerate. So he commissioned two Pathans — Jamshed Khan and Wasil Beg — to kill him, which they did.

Sikh retaliation did not begin with the riots of partition, but much before that when a follower of Guru Gobind Singh, Banda Bahadur attacked many Mughal states, killing hundreds of Muslims. He wanted to avenge the death of his Gurus, and the torture of his sons. He is deemed as a Sikh martyr.

Master Tara Singh, considered a hero by many Sikh devotees, was another political leader during the time of partition who tapped the repository of the existing Sikh-Muslim tension. On March 3, 1947, he unsheathed his kirpan and shouted anti-Pakistan slogans in front of a volatile crowd, which included hostile elements and some sympathisers. It is said that he also shouted that the time to avenge the death of the Gurus has arrived. He narrowly escaped from the venue, which was filled predominantly by Muslims.

Ever since the creation of Pakistan, the Muslim-Sikh riots have been treated as an anomaly, explained by the wiliness of the Hindu scheming mindset. The truth however is not that easy to explain. The volcano that burst first during the era of Banda Bahadur, and then during Master Tara’s era, had been heating up for centuries — to be exact, since the execution of Guru Arjun, when it was first ignited by Emperor Jahangir. These neighbours did not become enemies overnight as a result of some conspiracy, but followed a historical trajectory that finds its roots in the Mughal Empire.

The writer is a graduate in anthropology and can be reached at harunkhalid@hotmail.com

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[A1Kaid]

The Mughals murdered a prophet of Sikhism, creating a fissure between themselves and the Sikhs, which was not to heal easily. One can imagine how the events would have unfolded had Jahangir not executed the Guru. Would the Sikhs have felt the same kind of outrage that they manifested at the time of partition?

This is a pathetic and lane excuse I doubt this idea was even flowing in the minds of violent and savage turban clad Sikhs as they butchered innocents (many of their own locals and neighbors). I doubt they went around thinking "omg! Chandu lal, jahanghir executed by Mughal ruler" lol

One thing that allowed so much violence to take place was hatred deep seated hatred finally unleashed as the law and order situation deteriorated. Also the Sikhs and Hindus became natural allies as these treasonous peasants shared animosity against the predominantly Muslim Mughal empire and leadership. So they decided to retaliate and they did so against innocent people, terrorism to say the least. Yes I know there were killing on both sides, but obviously their intentions were very vengeful.


There are things written about these massacres where Hindus and/or Sikhs shouted certain anti-Muslim things and other hateful rhetoric which truly exposes their intention if one wants to find out why they took the bloody path they did and ultimately the path to hell they will take...

Aurangzeb possibly played the worst role to foment Muslim-Sikh tension. Millions of Sikhs were beheaded and left to rot. It is said that even today if one digs the ground of Gurdwara Shaheed Gunj, located in Lahore, one would find hundreds of skulls from that era. This sanctuary remains an ode to those martyrs.

Emp. Aurangzeb did not initiate attacks on Sikhs and Hindus out of no where. Many Hindu and Sikh groups perpetrated treason against the empire. They were separatist and traitors siding with foreign forces I.e British east Indian company to destroy the Mughal empire. They also staged OPEN rebellion in cities so Aurangzeb did what any other wise or stupid Emperor of his time would do and that is put down the rebellion...Now of course this truth will not matter when a certain group has revenge on all on mind...


Who cares now the world saw how Indira Gandhi (Hindu) persecuted the Sikhs for separatism the same Aurangzeb did!

[vinod2070]

Anything that was done to throw out the dirty invader from this holy land was patriotic. The uncivilized nomads had no business being here in the first place.

Just like the British went back when their time was up, other invaders should have had the sense to do the same. Else, what happened in Spain to the these invaders (where every last one was thrown out) was the only way to deal with them.That may likely be the fate of some even now.

The British stopped that historical process from playing out in India. Islam had been defeated and humbled in India before the British came. This is well documented. Hindus and Sikhs had taken over most of the subcontinent. The Mughals were confined to Delhi at the mercy of surrounding Jats and Marathas. They met the violent end they deserved with the last of them being massacred by the British(often after taking out their cloths and humiliating them).

The over-all all-lndia causes of partition are well enough known. At the root of it all was history. The Hindus had an acute sense of grievance over the Muslim mayhem in India. But the Muslims on the other hand were dismayed that Islam, which had prevailed everywhere else, had been checkmated in India. In the celebrated words of poet Hali:

Woh deene Hejazi ka bebak beda
Nishan jiska aqsai alam mein pahuncha
Kiye passipar jisne saton samandar
Woh dooba dahane mein Ganga kay aakar.

(The fearless flotilla of Islam, whose flag fluttered over all the world, the ship that crossed the seven seas, came here and sank in the Ganga.)

In the eighteenth century, Hindu society stood up triumphant from Attock to Cuttack and Delhi to Deccan --- having contained the poison of the preceding centuries like a `Nilakantha'. Islam stood tamed --- and Indianized. And then came 1761 and the defeat of the sovereign power of the Mahrattas in the Third Battle of Panipat, which opened the way to British rule in India. It also revived the Wahabis and the Waliullahs, who took Islam back to fundamentalism and greater fanaticism in hopes of an Islamic revival.

[vinod2070]

The Muslim rulers in India were almost always foreigners. Anyone siding with these foreigners just because of conversion was a traitor and is a traitor worthy of being treated as a traitor should be treated. It will be like if Pakistani Christians were to support the British or the USA against their own country just because they share the religion.

The Sikhs have genuine historical grievances against the Muslims. Sikhism is a Dharmic religion from the holy soil of India and not imported or forced from a desert. Almost all Sikhs came from Hindu families who took up arms to protect the nation from the invaders.

The partition violence in the Punjab was started by the Muslims in the Rawalpindi division. They perhaps thought they will be spared the repercussions. They obviously miscalculated!