CHARHDI KALA
When Sikhs meet each other and ask about the well-being of one another, their usual answer to the question: „how are you‟ is: “here, it is Charhdi Kala” i.e. „I am in high spirits.‟ This answer is not confined to a particular section only; it is a part of Sikh culture, the Sikhs‟ national tradition.
The Sikhs have received this concept of high spirits from their founder Guru Nanak; hence it is their national heredity. Right from Guru Nanak up to the present period, the story of the Sikh Charhdi Kala is a continuous saga full of remarkable events. A non-Sikh may, sometimes, hesitate to believe some of these historical facts because their (non-Sikhs‟) history might not have such records.
One of the first instances of the Sikhs’ Charhdi Kala is Guru Nanak‟s challenge to Babur, the mighty Mughal emperor, his powerful officials, feudal as well as chiefs of various religious sects and cults. Guru Nanak said:
(a) the kings have become tigers and their officials are hounds
(b) only a capable person has a right to rule
(c) if people don’t express their respect for a ruler he has no right to be called an emperor
Babur, the first Moghul emperor was a mighty military power. To call him “Jaabar” (cruel) was an act of great courage. It was Guru Nanak‟s Charhdi Kala, which made the Guru make such declarations about a ruler. Earlier, the Guru had to face hordes of Brahmins at Kurukashetra, Haridwar, Kashi (Varanasi), Gaya and Puri etc.; where he had humbled them by exposing their hypocrisy and ignorance. The Guru lit fire and cooked meat at Kurukashetra, on the day of solar eclipse, in spite of the presence of so many Pandits, to prove that no place or day was auspicious and cooking or meat-eating was not sinful; he began throwing water towards west to prove that the ritual of „sending‟ water to the deceased (in hell or heaven) was a hypocrisy; he challenged Malik Bhago that food purchased with unearned wealth was like the blood (of the poor people).
Guru Amar Das Sahib told the Moghul emperor Akbar to first eat Langar (the congregation food) before having a dialogue with him (i.e. the Guru). It was Guru Arjan Sahib’s Charhdi Kala that he refused to pay tax (when Birbal, a minister of Akbar, demanded tax from Guru Sahib) and declared that Guru Da Chakk was a sovereign zone.
Guru Hargobind declared that the thrones of the temporal kings were unreal. It was only the Throne of God that was the real and supreme throne. It
was Guru‟ss Charhdi Kala that he formed an army of the religious people, built a fort. It was Charhdi Kala, which could give power to the Guru and the Sikhs to challenge mighty armies.
It was Guru Har Rai‟s Charhdi Kala that he could help Dara Shikoh against a mighty emperor Aurangzeb. Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib, face to face with Aurangzeb, proved that Islam was not superior to any other religion and everyone has a right to his own faith. The Guru again challenged the Moghul authorities that if they succeeded in converting him (the Guru) to Islam, all the Brahmins of Kashmir and Punjab shall embrace Islam. It was Guru‟s Charhdi Kala that he could challenge such a mighty regime. It was this Charhdi Kala which gave power to Bhai Dial Das, Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Sati Das not to renounce their faith even when death was hovering over their heads.
It was Guru Gobind Singh‟s Charhdi Kala that he could fight a big Moghul army with the help of just 50 Sikhs. When Guru Sahib asked Baba Banda Singh to go to the Sikh Homeland to free the land from the foreign rulers, it was the power of Charhdi Kala, that the Guru had granted to the Sikh nation, and, these Sikhs changed the map of the Sikh homeland within a short period.
It was Guru‟s lesson of Charhdi Kala that made Baba Banda Singh remain steadfast when he was tortured to death or when Bhai Mani Singh was cut limb by limb or when scalp of Bhai Taru Singh was chopped off or when Bhai Subeg Singh and Shahbaz Singh were tortured to death on wheel. It was this Charhdi Kala that prepared Bhai Sukkha Singh and Mahitab Singh to cut off the head of the debauch Massa Ranghar. It was Charhdi Kala, that empowered Bhai Bota Singh and Garja Singh, just two Sikhs, to declare Sikh sovereignty.
Lest the sceptic students and children of the twenty-first century might not refuse to believe the truth of this history, the Guru granted this Charhdi Kala to the Sikhs joining agitation for Guru-Da-Bagh (August-September 1922). Everyone knew that he shall be brutally beaten by the British soldiers, yet the valiant Sikhs joined the bands and went to Guru-Da-Bagh. Persons like Bhai Prithipal Singh could rise more than 100 time to be beaten by the brutal soldiers. A very large number of Sikhs were killed at Jaito by the English soldiers on February 21, 1924; still hundreds of Sikhs joined the second batch without fearing death. It was the Charhdi Kala of the Sikhs. Again in 1980s, hundreds and thousands of Sikh youth joined the Sikhs‟ struggle for sovereignty in spite of the fact that the militants were being killed almost every day. Bhai Beant Singh and Satwant Singh knew that they shall certainly be killed or hanged. In spite of this, their Charhdi Kala gave them power to punish the evil Indira Gandhi. Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukkha knew
that they shall be sentenced to death yet their Charhdi Kala led them to openly confess their act of killing the invader of Darbar Sahib. It was this national Charhdi Kala that made Bhai Dilawar Singh become human bomb to eliminate the ferocious killer of the thousands of the Sikhs. The same Charhdi Kala was seen in Bhai Kulwant Singh Nagoke, Bhai Gurmit Singh Dhulkot, Bhai Anokh Singh, and Jathedar Talwinder Singh. Hence, Charhdi Kala is ever-existent Sikh national spirit. Centuries do not affect this Sikhs‟ spirit for sacrifice and euphoria.
The Sikh Charhdi Kala is a spirit which prepares one not to be affected by negative thinking, weakness, disheartened feeling, helplessness, wretchedness, despondency, sadness, anxiety, pain, suffering, inferiority complex etc. On February 5, 1762, half of the Sikh nation was eliminated by Ahmed Shah Durrani‟s forces. Two months later, the rest of the Sikhs gathered at Talwandi Sabo. During this gathering the Sikhs passed a resolution saying that “Our alloy has melted away and now we are pure gold again” and we shall again fight against the terrorist invaders.” The Sikh gathering called this resolution “a tribute to the thousands of martyrs of February 5, 1762”, and the Sikhs, within a couple of months, defeated the mighty ruler of Sirhind and proved that that resolution of Charhdi Kala was, in fact, nectar of resurrection and rejuvenation. Again, within another four months, the Sikhs defeated even Ahmed Shah Durrani (on October 16, 1762). The so-called greatest power of the day was defeated by the Charhdi Kala of the Sikh nation. This is the Sikhs‟ spirit of Charhdi Kala.
It is this Charhdi Kala that has given the Sikh nation power, strength, capacity, capability, positive thinking. For a Sikh, one single Sikh is equal to one hundred twenty-five thousand persons. It does not mean that one Sikh is physically equal to 125000 persons but it is the euphoric term, the concept, which gives a Sikh the feeling of spiritual power of not fearing anyone but God. It means that even if there are hundreds of thousands of enemies, a Sikh shall not feel disheartened; he should not surrender his principles and his Dharma (Righteousness). It is this Charhdi Kala that gave the Sikhs their unique euphoric language (which is known as „Nihang Boley‟): e.g. for a Sikh, black grams are almonds, onion is silver, death is beginning of a new journey, urinating is chasing a panther, a cart is a ship and money is just the skin of a fruit. The Sikhs don’t hold condolence sessions for their martyrs, they celebrate „Shaheedi Jorh Mela‟ (fairs to commemorate a day of martyrdom). For a Sikh even death is not a matter of sorrow, it is end of a journey and the beginning of a new stage, i.e. to be one with the Almighty. How could union with the Almighty be a matter of sadness or sorrow?
The Sikh Charhdi Kala was not a matter of Guru Period or of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries; it is constant and forever. How can such a nation be defeated by any situation, circumstances or power?
(Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)