Know the History of Bairagi Baba Banda Singh Bahadur

The people of Bharat who are breathing in peace and living in freedom today have become possible only because of the sacrifice of the brave sons and great men of our country, one of them was a great man Banda Singh Bahadur, who kept the culture alive even after suffering many atrocities but we don't remember his history.

Baba Banda Singh Bahadur was born on Vikram Samvat 1727, Kartik Shukla 13 in Rajouri area of Poonch district in Kashmir. He was related to the (Minhas) Bhardwaj gotra of Rajputs and his real name was Lakshmanadeva. His father's name was Ramdev Minhas.

He was a hunter. Once he was hunting and he saw a deer running. The deer was pregnant. When Lakshman Dev shot the deer with his arrow, she had twins. The two twins died because they had no mother. Madho Das was so upset that he quit hunting forever.  He named himself Madhodas and left home and went on pilgrimage. Learned to practice yoga from many sages and then started living in Kutiya(Small Hut) in Nanded.

Meanwhile, Guru Gobind Singh ji came to Madhodas's hut. All four of his sons were sacrificed. In this difficult time, he asked Madhodas to leave the recluse and fight the Islamic terror prevailing in the country. Madhodas's life was changed by this offering. Guruji named him Banda Bahadur. Then Guruji gave him five arrows, a Nishan Sahib, a Nagada and a decree, to take revenge from Nawab of Sarhind, who killed the two Sahibzaade. Banda went to Punjab with thousands of Sikh soldiers. He first beheaded Jalaluddin who beheaded Guru Tegh Bahadur. Then killed Wazir Khan, the Nawab of Sarhind and also The Hindu kings who had supported Mughals 

It took about four months for Banda Singh to reach Punjab. Banda Singh reached Narnaul, Hisar and Panipat while being reserved from Maharashtra, and sent letters seeking cooperation from all the Sikhs of Punjab. It was propagated among all the teachings that Guruji sent Banda as his Jathedar or commander.) Veer Rajputs under the leadership of Banda taught the farmers of Punjab, especially the Jats, to carry weapons, earlier they were Jats who were doing farming I  the land of Muslim landlords 

After this, Banda Singh vigorously attacked the Mughal power and Muslim landlords of Punjab Haryana. First, the Mughal treasury near Kaithal was looted and distributed in the army, then the Muslim landlords of Samana, Kunjupura, Sadahaura were destroyed.

Banda issued the first decree that the landlord system should be abolished and made the owner of the entire land to the agricultural farmers.

The victory journey of Banda Singh continued to make Mughal power tremble and it seemed that Banda Singh would overthrow the Muslim rule from India. Now the Mughals worked on the policy of divisiveness among the Sikhs, a rumour was raised against him that Banda Singh wants to become a Guru and he does not follow the teachings of the Sikh Panth. Guru Gobind Singh Ji's second wife Mata Sundari, who was living in Delhi under the detention of Mughals, also complained against Banda Singh. Mata Sundari asked Banda Singh to stop the bloodshed of Mughals, which Banda Singh rejected.

As a result, most of the Sikh army left him, which weakened their strength, then Banda Singh also gave military training to small castes and Brahmins to face the Mughals.

Early in 1715 AD, the royal army of Emperor Farrukhsiyar, under the leadership of Abdul Samad Khan, surrounded him for several months in Gurudas Nangal village near Dhariwal area of Gurdaspur district. But the Mughal army was still afraid of Banda Singh

Now under the influence of Mata Sundari, Baba Vinod Singh opposed Banda Singh and left the fort with his hundreds of supporters, alliance with the Mughals and the conspiracy gave Vinod Singh and his 500 supporters a safe way to leave. Now Baba Kahan Singh, son of Vinod Singh remained in the fort with some strategy, this reduced the power of The Sikh army of Banda Singh.

He surrendered on 7 December due to lack of food. Some evidence claim that Raja Kaul, son of the Gangu Kashmiri Brahmin cook who betrayed Guru Govind Singh Ji's mother Gujari and two Sahabzadas, convinced Banda Singh to come out of the fort by deception.

The Mughals ruthlessly killed more than 40 thousand innocent men, women and children living in the fort of Gurdas Nangal.

On the orders of the Mughal emperor, the Governor of Punjab, Abdul Samand Khan, sent Baba Banda Bahadur to Delhi under the supervision of his son Jaakariya Khan and 21 thousand armed soldiers. Banda Singh was kept in a cage and the chains of his neck and hands and feet were held by Mughal generals carrying naked swords around this cage. In this procession, 101 bullock carts had severed heads of seven thousand Sikhs, while 11 hundred Sikh soldiers were involved in this procession as prisoners.

The heads of the Sikhs found heroic in the war was cut off and brought to Delhi by hanging them at the tip of the spear. Bairagi's meat was nipped with hot tongs all the way.

The Mughal historian Mirza Mohammed Hersey has written in his book, Ibartanama, that every Friday after the namaz, 101 prisoners were taken as batches to the slaughter grounds outside the Kotwali in Delhi. The Qazi used to tell them the confession of Islam or fatwa. After this, the executioners brutally slaughter them with swords. This cycle continued for one and a half months. To see the murders of his colleagues, Banda was locked in a cage and brought to the slaughterhouse so that he can see this painful scene with his eyes.

Banda Singh and 27 of his generals were imprisoned in Lal Qila for three months on orders of Mughal emperor. Numerous tactics were used to convert them to Islam. When all the attempts failed, in June, every one of his generals was killed before his death. When this attempt also failed, Banda Bahadur was kept in a cage and taken to Mehrauli. Qazi issued a fatwa to accept Islam, which was rejected by Banda Singh.

To break Banda's morale, his four-year-old son Ajay Singh was brought to him and Kazi instructed Banda to kill his son with his bare hands. When the Banda was not ready for this, the executioners mercilessly chopped off every part of this innocent child in front of his eyes. The throbbing heart of this innocent child was ripped out and forced into the mouth of the Banda Singh.But Veer Banda remained devoid and calm even then.

Banda Singh Bahadur hands and feet were chopped off and his eyes were pulled out He faced every persecution and oppression of the Mughals peacefully and sacrificed himself to protect the Dharma.

After sacrificing everything for the country and Dharma and enduring so many tortures, he sacrificed his life, but neither changed Dharma nor ever bowed to injustice. These brave men are being forgotten by Hindustani today and remember the birthday of the hero-heroine, cricketers who helped to break the country, but today most of the cool youths don't remember the Martyrs day the great people who sacrificed everything for the Nation and Dharma.

If today Hindus will not learn from history, will not work in a united manner and if the Hindu nation is not established, then foreign forces will dominate and oppress us again.