New Delhi: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar laid the foundation stone of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur memorial in the historic town of Lohgarh in Yamunanagar district Sunday.
The announcement for the memorial was made last July, five years after a trust was set up in the name of the Sikh icon in 2017 during the 350th Prakash Parv (birth anniversary) of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru.
Banda Singh Bahadur — a Hindu who converted to Sikhism under the tutelage of Guru Gobind Singh and rose to become a warrior who fought the Mughals — has become a part of India’s political discourse over the years, with frequent references made to him by BJP leaders especially.
In 2018, Khattar was accused by the Sikh community of “appropriating their hero into the Sangh Parivar fold” and criticised for referring to him as “Baba Banda Singh Bairagi (ascetic)”, calling the move a “blatant distortion of history”.
During Sunday’s ceremony, Khattar said: “When this monument is built, people from this region will feel proud that this is the same soil where a saint-soldier had destroyed the Mughal army 300 years ago.”
According to a Haryana historian, who requested anonymity, that the state has a significant Sikh votebank is important to consider in the context of the memorial being built.
In June last year, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had released the poster of a proposed monument in honour of the Sikh warrior in Delhi and assured he would get the proposal cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
That same year, Manoj Sinha, became the first lieutenant governor (L-G) of Jammu & Kashmir to visit Dera Baba Banda Singh Bahadur — a gurudwara dedicated to the Sikh warrior — in the Union territory’s Reasi district. Last week, the BJP leader announced that a statue of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur will be installed in the Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu, as requested by the All J&K Sikh Coordination Committee.
In 2020, the PM had tweeted about Baba Banda Singh Bahadur on his 350th birth anniversary. “He lives in the hearts of millions. He is remembered for his sense of justice. He made many efforts to empower the poor,” Modi wrote.
In the past, several leaders of the BJP and its allies — such as Dr Jitendra Singh and late Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party — have paid tribute to Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.
Not just him, the government is also trying to recognise the place and area where his followers were martyred. Tarun Vijay, National Monuments Authority (NMA) chairman and former Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP, said that 740 such followers were executed in national capital, where the Delhi Public Library stands now. “There is a garden behind it. We have surveyed that area for possible development of a martyrdom memorial,” he added.
The NMA has been trying to “decolonise” Delhi’s history and part of that initiative includes revival of the Mehrauli-based shaheedi-sthal (martyrdom place) of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.
“Delhi’s people have only been taught about Mughal history. Those who faced the atrocities of Mughals and other invaders were conveniently forgotten. The sacrifices of Banda Singh Bahadur and Guru Tegh Bahadur (ninth of the 10 Sikh gurus) are now being talked about because PM Modi has taken a special interest in it,” said Vijay.
According to Surinder Singh Jodhka, professor and head of the Centre for the Study of Social Systems at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have believed Sikh icons to “be a part of the larger Hindu-Sanatani family”.
“The core of RSS and BJP has always glorified Sikh heroes as they see Sikhs as a part of the larger Hindu-Sanatani family. Guru Gobind Singh and his family have always been hailed by the RSS. Banda Singh Bahadur was earlier called ‘Banda Bahadur’ by the RSS and the Hindu right wing, which sees him as a force against the Muslim invaders,” he told ThePrint.
However, Jodhka thinks this is not a very recent phenomenon: “Even though some sections of the right wing may not agree with them, this has been a part of their core politics, and is not just a phenomenon that emerged after the farmers’ agitation.”
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‘Bairagi’, warrior
Though there are many debates among historians on Banda Singh Bahadur’s life story, according to Punjabi historian Ganda Singh’s book, Life of Banda Singh Bahadur, the Sikh warrior — originally named Lachhman Dev — was born on 27 October 1670 in the Poonch district of western Kashmir to a Rajput of the Bhardwaj clan.
At the age of 15, the book says, he adopted the life of an ascetic, left home and was given the name ‘Madho Das’ according to the tradition of bairagis. It is also said that he lived with Hindu sages to learn the techniques of yoga and “tantric science”.
His first meeting with Guru Gobind Singh is said to have taken place in 1708 in Nanded, Maharashtra, where he offered himself to the guru as a devotee. Madho Das was then baptised, offered amrit (holy water) and renamed Banda Singh Bahadur.
Professor S K Chahal, dean of Kurukshetra University’s history department, told ThePrint, “Some say he was a Sikh bairagi, while some claim he was either a Jat or Rajput. Some refer to him as ‘Banda Bairagi’ in Haryana”.
He further said that when Punjab separated from Haryana, it needed its own icons which suited its politics, and Banda Singh Bahadur was the one name that emerged because he was the follower of the last Sikh Guru — Guru Gobind Singh.
“The history and politics of Punjab and Sikhs revolves around the Sikh gurus. Because Sikhs got involved in power tussles with the Mughals, anything that represents a victory over Mughals is glorified. Banda Singh Bahadur followed Guru Gobind Singh till Nanded, then he came back and conquered some of the Mughal ruled areas in the Sirhind town, present-day Ambala and Yamunanagar area,” Chahal added.
Prof Ronki Ram, political scientist, Panjab University, Chandigarh, too, said that Banda Singh Bahadur played a major role in the struggle against Mughals and established the first Sikh rule.
“But there are contentions among people and scholars on whether he was baptised or not, whether he followed the Guru’s way,” he added.
Fought against ‘tyrannies & oppressions of his time’
In Delhi and Jammu, Banda Singh Bahadur is glorified as a Sikh leader who took on the Mughal forces.
In 1710, during the Battle of Chappar Chiri, Sikh forces under the leadership of Banda Singh Bahadur defeated the Mughal governor of Sirhind, Wazir Khan, and killed him. Khan was also responsible for the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh’s two youngest sons — Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh. Banda Singh Bahadur then developed the village of Mukhlisgarh and made it his capital, which was later renamed Lohgarh (fortress of steel) — present day Yamunanagar.
He was eventually captured by the Mughals and assassinated in 1716.
It is believed that Banda Singh Bahadur avenged the death of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons, but, in his book, Ganda Singh clarifies that this has often been misunderstood by historians. “He is represented to have been commissioned by Guru Gobind Singh to avenge the murder of his sons, just as the Guru himself is said to have been prompted in his early days by the desire to avenge the death of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur. There is nothing in the whole history to warrant this conclusion,” it reads.
“In truth, the Guru entrusted to him the noble task of continuing the war against the tyrannies and oppressions of his time. And in the execution of this duty, Banda Singh, of course, punished the wrong-doers for the cold-blooded murders of Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh,” the book further says.
Ellora Puri, assistant professor, department of political science, University of Jammu, told ThePrint that Banda Singh Bahadur has always “been a part of Jammu region’s collective memory”.
“There is a tendency across the country for the BJP to immortalise certain heroes, not just in Jammu,” she added.
She further said: “Banda Singh Bahadur was born in Rajouri, which is a part of Jammu division, and there is a significant Sikh population in Jammu. His contributions weren’t ever discounted by anyone in the region per se, but for the BJP they held more significance because he is seen as the defender of the faith against the Mughals.”
Gurmeet Singh Sidhu, professor of religious studies at Punjabi University Patiala, though, feels the recognition should have come much earlier. “His stature among the Sikh community is even bigger than Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s as he established the first Sikh rule and avenged the death of Guru Gobind Singh ji’s sahibzade (sons). It cannot just be a politically-motivated action because he truly deserved this.”
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‘Protector of Hindus’
By the right-wing ecosystem, Banda Singh Bahadur is hailed as the protector of Hindus and seen as an extension of Guru Gobind Singh, said a historian from Haryana who wished to not be named.
“He also promoted the Khalsa concept which was originally conceptualised by Guru Gobind Singh. In Sikh historiography, he was established as an icon after Guru Gobind Singh, though he was not a big ruler and not very popular during his time. Some people also claim he brought about ‘land reforms’, but these are modern terminologies,” the historian said.
Banda Bahadur appeals to the BJP is because the Khalsa state’s concept originated from the fight against Mughals, the historian claimed, adding: “Guru Gobind Singh is also hailed as a protector of Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus, so the Muslims are the common enemy here. The right-wing politicians hail the Sikh gurus because they are said to have protected Hindus. Banda Singh Bahadur also suits that narrative.”
On the memorial of Banda Singh Bahadur being built in Haryana, the above-quoted academician said Sikh voters form a significant section of voters in the state. “Haryana has a significant Sikh votebank and Sikhs from the state have been demanding recognition of Banda Bahadur Singh as an icon since he ruled in Haryana.”
NMA chief Tarun Vijay, though, said “there’s no politics behind it”.
Calling PM Modi a ‘Sahajdhari Sikh’ (a person who believes in Sikhism, but has not officially taken vows of Sikhism), he said, “When he visited Amritsar, people welcomed him by calling him ‘Sardar Narendra Modi’. He has been working for the glory of Sikh valour and courage. Nobody thought about Veer Bal Diwas (honouring the sons of Guru Gobind Singh) for the past 400 years. It is the brainchild of PM Modi,” Vijay said.
“Would the Sikh vote for him because of these gestures? Saying that these are politically motivated efforts is a cheap and shallow observation by opposition because they could not think about it. If at all, he is appeasing Bharat Mata,” he added.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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