• Welcome to all New Sikh Philosophy Network Forums!
    Explore Sikh Sikhi Sikhism...
    Sign up Log in

kds1980

SPNer
Apr 3, 2005
4,502
2,743
44
INDIA
Panja Sahib Saka
Punja Sahib Incident – An Eye-Witness Account

In 1922, during the “Guru kaa Baagh” morcha a great incident occurred at Siri Punja Sahib in Hasan-Abdaal, Pakistan. The singhs arrested during the Akali Morcha of Guru kaa Baagh, were being taken to the jails of Attock and Kamalpur. The Rawalpindi sangat found out that the trains taking the prisoners of morcha were going through the Punja Sahib railway station. Sangat decided to serve langar to the passing Sikh prisoners.

The British government found out that the sangat of Rawalpindi was going to prepare langar for the prisoners of Morcha of Guru kaa Baagh, and as such decided not to stop the train at the Punja Sahib railway station. When the sangat found out that they were not going to stop the train at the railway station, they said that they would stop the train at any cost. Bhai Partaap Singh jee who was their able Jathedaar, said fearlessly that an ardaas has been performed to provide langar to the Sikh prisoners of the morcha and as such Guru Sahib will himself stop the train at the Railway station.


Beginning of the Interview

Giani Bhajan Singh, a very good Sikh writer, himself went to Bibi Harnaam Kaur the wife of Shaheed Bhai Partaap Singh and interviewed her on what exactly happened at Punja Sahib railway station. Following is the the translation of Giani Bhajan Singh jee’s interview with Bibi Harnaam Kaur jee:

Giani Bhajan Singh: Mata jee (wife of Shaheed Bhai Partaap Singh jee), could you please tell us something about the Punja Sahib incident? I have specially came to see you to get first hand information from you.

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: Why won’t I tell you what happened on that fateful day at Punja Sahib? I remember the whole incident as if it occurred yesterday. I was one of those people who were sitting on the railway tracks to stop the train. I was sitting just behind my martyr (shaheed) husband. I have been getting the urge for long time, to tell the true story of Punja Sahib incident but no one took the effort to write what I had to tell. I am glad to hear that you came specially to hear about this incident and would be writing the story as I tell you.

Giani Bhajan Singh: How did this whole incident occur? Please tell me in detail. Assume that I don’t know anything and you are telling a new person this incident.

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: This was the time of Guru kaa Baagh Morcha (1922). Police had arrested the singhs and trains of these arrested singhs of Morcha, were being taken to the Attock and Kaimelpur jails. Two trains had passed Punja Sahib. My shaheed (martyr) husband approached the station master, who was a very kind Hindu gentleman and asked him why he was not informing the Sangat of the arrival of the trains carrying the Sikh prisoners. My husband told him that the sangat wanted to do some sewa of the Sikh prisoners.

At that time my husband was the member of the managing committee of Siri Punja Sahib and he served in the capacity of the treasurer. Prior to that he served as the general secretary of the committee. Anyway, one day, the Hindu station-master informed my husband that next day at 8am the train was scheduled to arrive at the Punja Sahib railway station. As soon as the sangat heard of this, they started preparing langar for the Sikh prisoners. After the completion of the morning congregation (diwaan), an ardaas was performed as follows:

“O Sache Paatshah (True King), we have prepared Parshaada (food) for your Gursikhs. Please fulfill our wish of feeding langar to our gursikh brothers and grant us the boon that we come back to the Gurdwara Sahib only after serving langar.”

After the ardaas (prayer) when we arrived at the station, we were informed by the station master that as per orders from the top, the train will not stop at the station. The sangat was at once overwhelmed by sadness and anger. They got together and decided through a Gurmata that langar would be served to the sangat at any cost and that they would not let the train proceed further without this. After this decision, the despondence that the sangat was in, at once disappeared.

Giani Bhajan Singh: What was the total number of sangat?

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: It must have been about 300.

Giani Bhajan Singh: Then what happened?

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: When the train arrived, all the sangat sat on the railway tracks with their legs crossed and started doing paath. Some men sat by the signal.

Giani Bhajan Singh: Did anyone flee after seeing the train arriving?

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: There was no question of fleeing. Everyone had decided unanimously. At that time, those present there did not have any fear of death. Motivating lectures and motivated everyone to die for this noble cause.

Giani Bhajan Singh: Then what happened:

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: The train arrived, it whistled but no one got up. At the front of everyone, my shaheed husband Sardar Partaap Singh jee was sitting. Along his side was Sardaar Karam Singh. The train hit my husband and crushed him and Sardar Karam Singh. Many were thrown off the track by the bumper of the train.

My husband and Sardaar Karam Singh got shaheed there and six others who had been crushed under the train did not die but had their legs and arms severed. I too suffered massive wounds and stayed in the hospital for many months.

Giani Bhajan Singh: Did Sardar Partaap Singh get shaheed right at the spot, or later? Please tell me everything.

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: Shaheedi did not occur right on the spot. When the train stopped, people rushed to see the singhs crushed under the train. My shaheed husband, who was very seriously injured at that time said: “First go and serve langar to the gursikhs prisoners, then come for our care. If you take us out of from under the train, the driver would take the train away and we will not be able to serve langar to our brothers”.

After serving langar to the prisoners, then my husband was taken out. Bhai Karam Singh left his body within few hours but my husband gave his life at amritvela, next day.

Giani Bhajan Singh: Please tell us something about the time between he got crushed under the train and till he died the next day.

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: When I tried to go near him, after he got severely injured, he said, “If you are my wife, then don’t come to me crying, rather be happy because I have passed my test of Gursikhee”. His jaw was severely injured and had been ripped apart from one side. His forehead had a very severe and deep cut. He himself kept thanking Vaheguru that he was able to fulfill his vow of serving langar to Gursikh brothers.

Giani Bhajan Singh: Please tell me some incident of his life. How old was he?

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: At the time of shaheedi his age was about 24 or 25. We had been married for about 4 years. He was serving in the military back then but had to leave job for wearing Black turban. We came to Rawalpindi (a city near Punja Sahib, Pakistan) and started living there. He was in the forefront when the jatha went to free the Punja Sahib Gurdwara Sahib. After relinquishing Mahant control from the Gurdwara Sahib, my husband was appointed the first Manager Secretary of the Gurdwara Sahib. He kept working without any pay or salary. At that time, we got by, by selling our possessions. We did not have any money with us but my husband did not care about these things. When he attained martyrdom, at that time too he was working in the management.

Before shaheedi, we had a son who died when he was 2 years old. At his death, my husband gave proof of obeying will of Vaheguru by accepting the will of Vaheguru. He did not cry at all and not only that but he called a band group and played the band in the front of the procession as my son’s dead body was taken for cremation. I gave birth to our second child, few months after the shaheedi of my husband. That child is our only daughter – Joginder Kaur (She was standing by us).


A Great Miracle


Giani Bhajan Singh: Can you mention any other significant incident related to this great Saaka (incident) of Punja Sahib?

Bibi Harnaam Kaur: The driver of the train was an Araayeen Muslim from Gujrat city of Pakistan. I don’t remember his name. The government had filed a case against him and he was investigated by a retired judge as to why he stopped the train despite orders not to do so. That driver gave a statement in front of that tribunal and this statement is of great historical significance. His statement was as follows:

“I had been given orders to not stop the train at any cost. As per the orders, I did not stop the train and it was moving at full speed. When the train hit Shaheed Partaap Singh, I felt as if it had hit a huge mountain. I fell down and my hand got lifted from the speeder and the train stopped. After investigating the engine, it was found that the brake had not been applied. I felt that some unseen, hidden power (Vaheguru) stopped the train”.

This driver was subsequently fired from his position. His statement proves that Satguru jee himself stopped the train.

End of Interview.

http://gursikhijivan.blogspot.com/2011/06/panja-sahib-saka.html
 

Attachments

  • guru_ka_bagh_morcha.jpg
    guru_ka_bagh_morcha.jpg
    15.3 KB · Reads: 373
Last edited by a moderator:

aristotle

SPNer
May 10, 2010
1,156
2,653
Ancient Greece
re: Saaka of “Akali Morcha of Guru kaa Baagh:" An Eyewitness Account

I loved the story '[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]KARAMAT' by KARTAR SINGH DUGGAL during my childhood. It is based on the same theme, intertwining the incidents of Panja Sahib , and that of the Sikhs giving up their lives to feed the hungry prisoners; both being connected to the same place, Hassan Abidaal.

[/FONT]
 

Harry Haller

Panga Master
SPNer
Jan 31, 2011
5,769
8,194
55
re: Saaka of “Akali Morcha of Guru kaa Baagh:" An Eyewitness Account

I am about to make myself unpopular again, however I did not join this forum to be populist, I joined because I seek the truth.

I do not doubt the bravery of such men and women, they make me look like the pathetic weak wretch that I am., however, I cannot read this without thinking what a waste of a young mans life for the sole purpose of ensuring langar was made available, maybe there is a greater point to this that I am missing, but I have no problem giving up my life for another, or for justice, or for some greater good, yes, in the right circumstances, I would, but , and please forgive me, I cannot see the greater good here, to my mind these people died and were injured for, well I am not quite sure, they died to give langar to others, I am terribly sorry, but I think , regarding this story, the concept of dying has been taken too far, reading this does not inspire me, it just makes me incredibly sad that this lady has had to go without her husband, and her child has had no father, just to prove that Guru's will is sweet, I think the balance that we are supposed to observe between spiritual and wordly has been blurred here, I think here, the concept of sikhi has been misunderstood

apologies for any offence, I am more than happy to consider anyone able to make me understand why this action, as stated above is correct, in fact, I will be overjoyed if someone can explain to me where the inspiration is here......
 

Ambarsaria

ੴ / Ik▫oaʼnkār
Writer
SPNer
Dec 21, 2010
3,384
5,690
re: Saaka of “Akali Morcha of Guru kaa Baagh:" An Eyewitness Account

Harry veer ji you raise actually a very fundamental question as to,
What should trigger a Sikh to give or risk one's life?

Let us review some possibilities and events.


  1. Sikhs don't need to act like "Sati's" or Self Immolation: For example self immolation practiced by some in Buddhism and pretended by nefarious and less than bright leaders of tehpast like Sant Fateh Singh who built pyres on top of Akal Takhat to do so but never did.
  2. Hunger Strike: Sikhs are not passive and look for alms in return for not eating food. Sardar Pheruman ji was a great Sikh and sacrificed himself this way. In a way his brightness was lost through this and not enhanced and Sikhism suffered.
  3. Bearing Torture without Breaking: These are examples of phenomenal Sikhs likes of Bhai Mani Singh ji, Chhotey Sahibzadey and large number of other unnamed. This is supreme Sikhism as once you are in such situation bearing the consequences with a smile is a reflection of who you are.
  4. Allowing Self Destruction or be Sacrificed Voluntarily: This is a bit of grey area.
Let us review what happened specific to the subject of this thread. Was the purpose solely to feed the SIkh prisoner or was it additionally to,

  • Show companionship
  • Show brotherhood that they were part of
  • Show that they were not forgotten
  • Show that Sikhs will take action
So hypothetically what could have Sikhs who sacrificed themselves done. They could have sabotaged the tracks with perhaps bigger loss of Sikh lives both on the train and possible civil or military action on the non-prisoners.

They could have attacked the train to release the prisoners with perhaps excessive loss of life.

So in retrospect I find if there objectives were as described earlier, perhaps what they did was the only thing they could do other than doing nothing.
Of course I wish Sikhs had an army and the strength to kick some perpetrators behind and there were no prisoners. But that did not appear to be an option during those times.

So I thank and respect those who did what they did as described in the start of this thread. I believe it was the only option with minimal loss of life and lasting impact on Sikh psyche.

Humbly submitted for discourse.

Sat Sri Akal.
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
I have changed the title. The previous title was sensational and sounded as if a large group of khalsa were accidentally hit by a train only yesterday. The thread is about an important and critical moment in Sikh history. Therefore the title change.
 

Harry Haller

Panga Master
SPNer
Jan 31, 2011
5,769
8,194
55
Having read up on the background to this, I can see that this action was not just about feeding a few prisoners, it was part of the whole struggle to free India from British rule, for which we were richly rewarded by India

Many Thanks Ambersariaji for the clarification
 
📌 For all latest updates, follow the Official Sikh Philosophy Network Whatsapp Channel:
Top