I was eager to know the History and the Sikh youth narrated:
“During the 17th Century, when Hindustan was ruled by the Mughals, all the Hindu people were
humiliated and were treated like animals. Mughals treated the Hindu women as their own
property and were forcing all Hindus to accept Islam. They even used to kill people who were
refusing to accept. At that time, our ninth Guru, Sri Guru Teg Bahadurji came forward, in response
to a request of some Kashmir Pandits to fight against all these cruel activities. Guruji told the
Mughal emperor that if he could succeed in converting him to Islam, all the Hindus would accept
the same.
But, if he failed, he should stop all those activities. The Mughal emperor happily agreed to that but
even after tremendously torturing Guruji and his fellow members (Bhai Sati Das G -wrapped in
cotton and set the fire, Bhai Mati Das G – fastened between the planks and cut into two pieces
using a saw, Bhai Dyala G – put into a huge pot of water with fire set underneath it - and moreover
GURU himself who sacrificed his life) he failed to convert him to Islam. Guruji along with four
fellow members were persecuted and sacrificed their lives in Chandni Chowk. Since the Mughals
were unable to convert them to Islam they were assassinated. Thus Guruji sacrificed his life for the
protection of Hinduism. Can anybody lay down his life and that too for the protection of another
religion? This is the reason he is still remembered as ‘Hind Ki Chaddar’, shield of India.
None of those, for the sake of whom he had sacrificed his life, came forward to lift his body,
fearing that they would also be assassinated. Seeing this incident our 10th Guruji, Sri Guru
Gobind Singhji (Son of Guru Teg Bahadurji) founder of ‘khalsa’, made a resolution that he would
convert his followers to such type of human beings who would not be able to hide themselves
and could be easily located in thousands. At the start, the Sikhs were very few in numbers as they
were fighting against the Mughal emperors. At that time, Nadir Shah raided Delhi in the year
1739- he looted Hindustan - carried a lot of Hindustan’s treasures and nearly 2200 Hindu women
along with him.
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