Chakravyuh was an impregnable army formation resorted to by the Kaurva Commander-in- Chief, Daronachariya, common teacher of both Pandavas and Kauravas. Abhimanyu (16), the younger son of Arjun and the nephew of the Kauravas, was isolated and killed by seven opposing knights by trapping him in this particularly contrived military manoeuvre. It was a formation which none other than Arjun and his son could penetrate and only Arjun knew how to destroy it. Arjun was lured far away from the scene by deception. At the time of killing, young Abhimanyu was unarmed. It was against the earlier settled laws of war and customs of chivalry prevalent in the age, to kill an unarmed warrior. The highest ranking knights owing allegiance to forces of evil, ganged up to fight and to kill him though only one of them could have legitimately engaged him, and that only when he was armed. All Indian political parties have erected a Chakravyuh around the Sikhs who have common ancestors with other Indians. They are doing this to the Sikhs behind the facade (Chakravyuh) of secular, democratic state with written constitution. The object is also the same - to gain exclusive, unlimited political power over all other nations inhabiting the sub-continent. TO THE ORDER OF THE KHALSA THE IMAGE OF THE IMMORTAL THE ARCHETYPE OF MORTALS Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT xv INTRODUCTION xvii SECTION I ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY 1. AMARNAMAH: AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT OF SIKH HISTORY 1 2. EARLY WARNING BELLS 18 3. OH! FOR WANT OF A LEADER! 40 4. OMINOUSLY CONVERGING PLANETS 42 5. SHEDDING THE SHEEPSKIN 44 6. BAATCHEET IN THE TONE OF AURANGZEB 48 7. FOREIGN SCHOLARS TO THE AID OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM 54 8. SIRDAR OF THE COMMITTED 57 9. THE SHIELD FASHIONED AT ANANDPUR SAHIB 63 10. RAHU KETU AND TARA 65 11. HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY’S SLAVE DRIVER 71 12. LAST RETREAT OF THE LION 74 13. MAHAKALI FORGES THE BOTTOMLESS BOWL 76 14. BHAI NAND SINGH: A PARAMHANS OF THE GODAWARI 79 15. WILL OF DARSHAN SINGH PHERUMAN 90 16. TESTIMONY OF THE RELUCTANT WITNESS 103 17. ANOTHER SOUL SELLING SANT AND THE DAL OF CONSCIENCE TRADERS 105 18. EVER DITHERING, CONSISTENTLY CONFUSED, ALWAYS MISLEADING MAN(N) 113 19. HATRED BURSTING OUT IN FLAMES 116 20. TORTURE TO MAKE MEDIEVAL MUGHALS LOOK HUMANE 120 21. TANKS OF HATRED AT THE POOL OF NECTAR 124 22. PURAN (COMPLETE) BHAGAT AND PURAN SINGH 126 23. THE SUICIDE ALTERNATIVE 130 24. EPILOGUE 133 SECTION II ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS 1. A PAGE FROM SHAH MUHAMMAD’S JANGNAMAH 141 2. CONFESSIONAL STATEMENT OF HARBHAJAN SINGH CHAWLA 142 3. KAPUR SINGH’S SPEECH AT THE AKAL TAKHT 143 4. THE ANANDPUR SAHIB RESOLUTION 150 5. MASTER TARA SINGH’S LETTER FROM DHARAMSHALA JAIL 155 6. GOVERNOR PUNJAB’S LETTER TO MASTER TARA SINGH 156 7. GOVERNOR’S LETTER TO MASTER TARA SINGH’S LAWYER 157 8. KAIRON’S LETTER TO CHANNAN SINGH 158 9. LETTER PERTAINING TO DR KARNAIL SINGH 159 10. LETTER BY THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA LEADERS TO THE PRIME MINISTER 161 11. LETTER WRITTEN BY BHAI NAND SINGH 163 12. SOME NEWS ABOUT NAND SINGH 164 13. A PORTION OF THE ‘RARE GREEN BUSH SURVIVES’ 165 14. PHERUMAN’S OPEN LETTER TO SANT FATEH SINGH 166 15. DAILY PAPERS REPORT ON PHERUMAN 168 16. WILL OF DARSHAN SINGH PHERUMAN 169 17. COMMUNICATION BY KAPOOR SINGH 178 18. AN EXTRACT FROM THE PUNJAB MAIL 179 19. LETTER WRITTEN BY BALWANT SINGH TO THE PRIME MINISTER 180 20. GURCHARAN SINGH’S LETTER TO R. K. DHAWAN 181 21. HARCHAND SINGH LONGOWAL’S LETTER TO R. K. DHAWAN 183 22. ANANDPUR SAHIB RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY SIMARANJIT SINGH 184 23. SIMRANJIT SINGH’S PETITION TO THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA 185 24. PETITION TO THE GOVERNOR 186 25. CHIEF SECRETARY’S LETTER TO THE POLICE CHIEF 188 26. BHAGAT PURAN SINGH RENOUNCES PADAM SHREE 189 27. AJAIB SINGH’S DYING DECLARATION 192 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Now I come to the most pleasant part of the present undertaking. This is the paragraph in which I must acknowledge the debt of gratitude I owe to those who have made this book possible. I find it difficult to adequately thank my wife Sardarni Surinderpal Kaur for not only letting me indulge in the thankless business of writing but for actually working hard to provide the leisure required for it. I thank Sardar Harinder Singh who very kindly gave finishing touches to the shape of this book. He also gave several useful suggestions from which I have benefited. I am thankful to Professor Harkishan Singh Mehta who not only gave the much-needed encouragement, went through the manuscript, but also has very kindly written the good words quoted on the jacket of this work. I can never adequately express gratitude to the memory of the late Sirdar Kapur Singh and Sardar Harbans Singh Gujral who very generously parted with several documents which form the backbone, so to say, of this book. The latter had given me three documents relating to the Master. I thank R. N. Kumar, Harshinder Singh and Amrik Singh whose English translation of the will of Ajaib Singh I have used - with a few modifications. Harshinder Singh also fished out the latest about the Shatrana Case from our unwieldy High Court while Navkiran Singh let me have the original papers of the case for cross checking the facts. Dr. Sukhjit Kaur Gill very kindly made available the original report regarding the incident prepared by a team of human rights activists on August 30, 1991. Sardars Ravail Singh, Gurbir Singh, Inderjit Singh Jaijee, Dr. Karnail Singh and Mrs. Rupan Deol Bajaj have also permitted me the use of some of their documents. Mr. P. K. Nijhawan was kind enough to permit the use of his translation of Var Shah Muhammad. I am grateful to Surinderpal Kaur, Anurupita Kaur, Karamjit Kaur, Harinder Singh and Amit Singh for helping me in choosing the title for this monograph. Harvind Kaur has been a great help. English rendering of the Amarnamah has been attempted also with the help of Dr. Ganda Singh’s Punjabi translation of it. I thank the Institute of Sikh Studies for agreeing to undertake the publication. It is customary to accept responsibility for the mistakes and inadequacies, which remain. So finding no way out of the situation, and bearing in mind that computers are universally recognised as blameless, I freely and generously own up the mistakes, especially those, which I can't blame on my wife or the printer. INTRODUCTION The universal scope and character of the teachings of the Sikh Gurus have struck those who have studied them carefully. The moral responsibility, stress on self-respect and sense of honour, insistence on right conduct, concern for the welfare of others and co-existence with other cultures have been elevated by the Gurus as the prerequisites for spiritual living and individual salvation. Very firm doctrinal basis for co-operation with all cultures has been provided in Sikhism. This totally obviates the urge for conversion on the religious plane, completely eliminates the need to claim cultural exclusiveness or superiority by any group over any other, and, above all, it is destructive of the passion for political domination over others. These along with a host of other valuable cultural traits, mental disposition, value system conducive to the common welfare of all humankind, and unique work ethics, are recognised by Sikhs to be born of the deliberate spiritual stance adopted by Sikh Gurus. Any host society or religious order concerned about the future of humankind, would have regarded the discipline of Sikhism as a valuable addition to human progress and would have welcomed and encouraged it. This has not happened in India. On the contrary, Sikh society has always faced deep-rooted hostility from protagonists of the Brahmanical order. For instance, certain aspects of Sikh culture are in complete contrast, for instance, to the dehumanising Brahmanical caste system. Such differences are found to be intolerable by those elements of Hindu society which do not regard Brahmanism as an unfortunate later development in Hinduism, but conceive of it as its essential part. The aforementioned is an entirely faulty and destructive approach since the essence of what was the best in ancient Hindu culture has been preserved in Sikhism, the advent of Sikhism was a God-sent opportunity for Hindus to shed the sharp angularities of Brahmanism. Wisdom demanded that, on the authority of the Sikh Gurus, Brahmanism should have been regarded as a dispensable superstructure and thrown off. While the Sikh approach to Hindu society has always been friendly, constructive and co- operative; that of Brahmanism has been in total contrast. The situation has become grim since British de-colonisation (1947-50). The developments, which were to take place in consequence of it, did not materialise. The promise held out by the Independence of India Bill or the British Cabinet Mission Proposal of May 16, 1947, were belied. A modern democratic federal republic with widely advertised safeguards for minorities, had been contemplated. When the Constitutional egg hatched on January 26, 1950, what emerged from it was a Hindu Imperial power claiming hegemonic control over the political affairs of minorities. It was and has remained a totally centralised set up, intolerant of dissent, both political and cultural. The exterior of a modern democratic republic was maintained for external consumption and as an effective public relations exercise. The exercise and the pretence have been so effectively projected that it has been difficult to draw attention to the true picture. Several honest thinkers have been misled into believing the appearance to be more than skin deep.