The Delhi Fateh Diwas was a non-existential event until in 2014, the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee(DSGMC) demanded from the Central Government that the days of March 21st and 22nd every year be commemorated as ‘Delhi Fateh Diwas’. This was done to mark the capture of the Red Fort by Khalsa forces in March 1783.
Bhai Baghel Singh along with Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and a Khalsa force of forty thousand, captured the Upper Ganga Doab, Muzzafarnagar and Saharanpur in 1764. In the year 1775, Bhai Baghel Singh and his forces crossed the Yamuna and occupied Deoband and the neighboring towns. Later, the forces also occupied Tundla, Aligarh and Farrukhabad. They also had the Garhwal Hills, lesser Shivaliks including Dehradun under their command. Having occupied all neighboring regions of Delhi, the Khalsa forces marched towards Delhi.
A fifty thousand strong force reached Delhi. Bhai Baghel Singh and his thirty thousand soldiers laid seize on Sabzi Mandi and Mughalpura on March 9th 1783. On 11th March came the final attack. The Khalsa force stormed into the Red Fort and captured it, unfurling the saffron Nishaan Sahib. The Mughal flag was uprooted from its most glorious post and replaced with the Khalsa flag, which was to rule Delhi for the next nine months. The Mughal emperor Shah Alam II accepted the terms of peace with the Khalsa forces. For the next nine months, Bhai Baghel Singh maintained law and order in Delhi. History stands testimony to the perfection of his rule, with the citizens happy and content with it. During the next one year, seven major Gurudwaras were constructed by him which include Sri Bangla Sahib, Sis Ganj Sahib, and Rakab Ganj Sahib among others.
Not many people know about the glorious contribution of Baba Baghel Singh Ji, Baba Jassa Singh Ahluwalia Ji & Baba Jassa Singh Ramgarhia Ji.
A humble tribute to create awareness abt Delhi Fateh Diwas & history of Delhi monuments
Video in Hindi for my Twitter frens – pls share pic.twitter.com/L9jyAaVpAz
— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (मोदी का परिवार) (@mssirsa) March 11, 2018
If you are thinking why you didn’t know about Delhi Fateh Diwas and the connecting events, let me enlighten you. The Sikhs themselves are unaware of Delhi Fateh Diwas. The generation which knows world history and the details of the French revolution, has been kept in complete darkness about Sikh history.
Whether it be Maharaja Ranjeet Singh’s empire which stretched from Kabul till the borders of Delhi, or the capture of the Red Fort, we simply aren’t taught about it. Sikhs have been at the forefront when it comes to protecting this land from the lust of foreign invaders and marauders. Yet, our history hangs in ignominious silence.
We have over the years become a country which admires and celebrates invaders, while ignoring the ones because of whom we did not become another Islamic state. The ruthless man who ordered the beheading of Guru Teg Bahadur and committed countless atrocities on others had a road named after him in Delhi. It took a Pakistani to go and blacken the name of that road, and then eventually get it changed. Yes, Tarek Fatah was the one who made us realize how we are a spineless people who lack the ability to call a spade a spade.
The way a certain section of the media portrays Aurangzeb and his ilk saddens me. Tughlaq lane in Delhi has the office of an important political party on it. Books of Mohammad Bin Qasim were sold in Delhi depicting him as a hero. He in fact had invaded India to kill the family of Prophet Mohammad, which had sought refuge under Raja Dahir of Sindh. He kidnapped twenty thousand daughters of this land and sold them in the markets of Damascus and Baghdad. Only a disgraced people allow books of such rapist to be sold in the national capital. Is this why our ancestors laid down their lives for this country? Do we not owe them an ounce of respect, that we tolerate such activities of a motivated few to continuously present a distorted version of our history?
The entire Sikh history is taught to students of Class 7 in two paragraphs of history textbooks. The rise of Islam, Christianity, the Mughal Empire, the Delhi Sultanate get individual chapters. Each Mughal ruler has one entire chapter credited to him. I cannot speak for all boards, but this certainly was the scenario in the history textbooks of ICSE. It is about time that we demand a reform in the history syllabus. It is about time that we study the saviors of our land instead of studying and eulogizing invaders.
