The True Story: The State of the Sikhs Before and After Partition Sachi Sakhi

Sachi Sakhi by Sirdar Kapur Singh is a fascinating book that throws light on pre-partition events that have been successfully brushed under the carpet after India gained independence. In the autobiographical note, he describes the long drawn legal battle he fought against the injustice done to him by dismissing him from the prestigious post he held as an ICS officer in the early post-independence days.
It is a sad commentary on the multiple opportunities lost by the Sikhs because of their short-sighted, jealous and gullible leaders. According to Sirdar Kapur Singh, in the years preceding the partition of India, the Muslims wooed the Sikhs to press for an autonomous state and promised to give one, if they would align with them. The British were keen to grant the Sikhs a respectable status so that they too could breathe the air of freedom. But the Sikh leaders failed to rise to the occasion due to infighting and petty considerations.
This narrative is not only the story of the Communal Award made by the British Government to solve the political problem of India, but also throws light on the background of the tension between the various religious sects of India and their different demands. It also hints at the fire of hatred spread by a fanatic sect of Muslims against non-Muslims in North India, which was the main cause behind the string of sacrifices from Guru Arjan Dev ji to Guru Gobind Singh and his four sons, which later became the foundation of the political struggles between the Sikhs and the Muslims.

Sirdar Kapur Singh, initially, wrote this article "Communal Award" of Sachi Sakhi on my request in 1962, to be included in the 'Bhai Jodh Singh Memorial Volume'. But its size was ten times bigger than what we had expected, so it could not be published in it. However, this was a valuable article. For one, it has covered many historical events in great detail, which had not appeared as eye-witness accounts in any publication prior to this, and secondly, the dust, settled on it because of the political propaganda, had been cleared by the time Sachi Sakhi came up and it got an opportunity to come to light. Therefore, it was decided to publish this article as a separate book which has been completed now after ten years.
This narrative is not only the story of the Communal Award made by the British Government to solve the political problem of India, but also throws light on the background of the tension between the various religious sects of India and their different demands. It also hints at the fire of hatred spread by a fanatic sect of Muslims against non-Muslims in North India, which was the main cause behind the string of sacrifices from Guru Arjan Dev ji to Guru Gobind Singh and his four sons, which later became the foundation of the political struggles between the Sikhs and the Muslims. On the other hand, the Hindus who lived under the illusion of their superiority were full of hatred for the Muslims and had no good will for them, which led to extreme distrust of each other and it was impossible for them to co-exist. Muslims believed that the Hindu majority wanted to gradually suppress Islamic character and finally destroy it since they are mortally afraid of their separate identity. This view was validated by the highly provocative speeches of leaders of the Hindu Maha Sabha and the Hindu Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, and the terrorising and frightening activities of their members and communal riots. In the Indian National Congress also, majority of the top leadership was in the hands of the Hindus only, and the Sikhs were, by and large, towing the line of the Hindus. The Congress leaders had not been able to fully convince the Muslims about their political rights. That is why the leaders of Muslim League became adamant on the demand for a Muslim State in areas where the Muslims were in majority. Ultimately, the British Government was left with no option but to concede to their demand.
Apart from this, there was something else that was irking the Muslims internally. The money lenders were eating up the Muslim masses slowly and steadily. Day after day, their lands and houses were being taken from them against their loans With the result the Muslims were becoming poorer and the money lenders were building huge mansions What effect this had on the Muslim farmers can be gauged from a bit of conversation of two persons of the forest area, which I overheard in the market of Lyallpur. I forget the name of the shop which was a few shops away from Dr Fauja Singh's shop, where I was going when I heard just these two sentences spoken by these men standing in front of the mansion of a Hindu money lender.

As Dr Ganda Singh has said in the 'Foreword', the main article "Communal Award" of this book, meant to be a chapter in another book, was written in 1960. It could not be published in that book in 1962 because it was too long and its subject matter deserved to be in an independent book, and it was not proper that it should be appended with other articles.
Thus, this article "Communal Award" kept lying here and there for many years waiting for the appropriate time Finally, in 1968, it appeared that circumstances were right for it to get published.
I approached Dr Ganda Singh seeking verification of my historical analysis about (1) the Sikhs' conflict with the Mughal empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which was a superficial, accidental event but a deep-rooted historical conflict based on fundamental, spiritual and social principles, (2) Sheikh Mujaddid Sirhindi was the General of the Islamic army, who himself, and his successors tortured and killed the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev ji, made attempts to kill Guru Hargobind ji and imprisoned him, tried to do away with Guru Harkrishan Sahib, beheaded Guru Tegh Bahadur ji, got the young Sahibzadas bricked alive in a wall, gave the royal orders to stab the tenth master, ordered massacre of the Sikhs, killed Banda Singh Bahadur and his associates in Delhi, and became the architects of the great holocaust, and in the nineteenth century took up a crusade against the Sikhs under the leadership of Ahmadshah Barelvi. These ideological interests became the origin and roots of "Communal Award" and the establishment of Pakistan, which could not be recognised during the last three-and half centuries or so.
The third point (3) that I highlighted in my article "Communal Award" was the metaphysical foundation of the grammar and language, the postulates and various cultural conditionings that may not be rationalised, but without accepting and understanding which, we cannot comprehend or study a language and its grammar. These postulates are the deures of the human heart, out of which sentence structures and grammar take birth and grow. Case, gender, noun, feminine, masculine and other aspects of grammar are rooted in these postulates. In a Sanskrit book Vakpailty (Brahmand 16) it is said that, "Grammar is the first rung of the ladder to attain moksha and it is like the mall road for the seekers of nirvana." The secret is that the postulates of the language can be helpful in understanding the elements of the human mind and attaining spiritual wisdom. Thus viewed, can we understand the historical facts properly, by grammatically dissecting the term 'communal Award, that are the cause of the "Communal Award" and what happened before and after it?
I did not expect Dr Ganda Singh ji, the premier of a special class of historians, to verify the third point, but the first point (1) he accepted. He questioned the second (2) point, saying that unless you can find a hand-written document by Mujaddid, giving orders for Guru Arjan Dev ji's martyrdom, it is difficult to accept the second point He had told me this in 1960 and I had told him that I trusted my memory that such martyrdom is recorded in Mujaddid's own writings "Maktubat Amami Rabbani However, I was in Simla at that time and down with fever, so I could not look for the original.