Sikh Martyrs

Title: Sikh Martyrs
Author: Bhagat Lakshman Singh
Publisher: Lahore Book Shop, Ludhiana 2006 (First published 1923)
Pages: 151
ISBN: 81-7647-115-1

Sikhism originated in the 15^th century with the teachings of Guru Nanak. The nascent philosophy crossed ways several times with the bigoted and parochial Mughal emperors, particularly Jehangir, Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb. Two Sikh gurus, Arjan Dev and Tegh Bahadur had to lay down their lives when they refused to convert to Islam as so shamelessly demanded by Jehangir and Aurangzeb respectively. This book by Bhagat Lakshman Singh is a collection of 28 such episodes of heroism and sacrifice by the members of the Khalsa, the organisation created by Guru Govind Singh.

The book is really trash with nothing worthwhile to commend upon. The author himself is a religious fanatic who treats both Hindus and Muslims alike as enemies of Sikhism and presents the examples as a kind of conspiracy on the parts of these religionists to wipe out Sikhism from the world. No words are enough for him to expound the virtues of the Khalsa and this is entirely at the expense of the others. At the same time, he keeps a respectable distance from the British and Christianity. This book was published before Indian independence and the eagerness with which the author tries to please the British authorities is pathetic, to say the least. The book is full of spelling and grammar mistakes that we would wonder how this compendium of errors could possibly get through the hands of a diligent proof reader! The publishers, M/s Lahore Book Shop, Ludhiana finds themselves in the dock in bringing out this practically unreadable and worthless book. Inconsistencies in narration abound at several places. In one episode, he describes how the Khalsa took back some part of Punjab gloriously from the Muslims, and in the next episode, which follows the previous one chronologically, he again comes forward with the story of another hero who lost in battle to defend the place. No historical references are given and some stories are outright false which don’t have any historical background. Legend and folk tales are clothed in the guise of history and are presented before us.

In the entire book, only one paragraph was found to be worth mentioning. This one points at the mindset of the Indian muslims at the time of partition. As he says, “The Indian Mussulmans look up to Turkey and Arabia, more than to India. Their ideal is Pan-Islamism, and until and unless they come to regard religion as a matter of private concern as it indeed it ought to be, the idea of a United Indian nation is merely chimerical. And as long as this is so, the subordination of communal interests to any utopian scheme of liberty, equality and fraternity will be nothing short of national suicide”.

Rating: 0 Star (Unfit for rating)