Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

Good morning. It’s almost 7 weeks since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Fighting is intensifying in the east of the country, where Russian troops appear to be regrouping, and various atrocities are being reported every day, acts which US President Joe Biden has described as ‘genocide’. As a Sikh, I can’t help but be reminded of the difficult circumstances in which the Khalsa, or the order of Sikhs that form the inner core of the faith, was created. The festival of Vaisakhi this week marks the birth of the Khalsa over 3 centuries ago. In the late 17th century, the Mughals led by emperor Aurangzeb were persecuting many communities across the subcontinent. The independently spirited Sikhs who referred to their Guru as the ‘True Emperor’ were considered by the Mughal Empire as a threat. When the 9th Guru was executed on the busiest street in Delhi on the Emperor’s command, the Sikhs of Delhi were too afraid to collect his body for fear of reprisal attacks, and his body lay in the street for some time before it was finally retrieved using a diversion. His son, the 10th Guru, wanted his followers to be proud of their own identity at all times and be sure that they could defend themselves against any attacks upon them. In 1699, a quarter of a century after his father’s execution, the Guru created the Khalsa. It was a means of ensuring that his Sikhs would be recognisable in a crowd of thousands, they would never hesitate in carrying out good deeds, and they would be willing to give their lives to defend the rights of others. Khalsa Sikhs were given five articles of faith to carry at all times, including long uncut hair and a dagger, and men were expected to wear a turban, previously a sign of the elite in society. After initiating the first five Sikhs into the Khalsa, the Guru was himself initiated by them. The leader of the faith had become the disciple, and he compared his Sikhs to birds, saying that the time had come for sparrows to fight hawks and win. The situation in Ukraine remains dire, and fears are obviously growing for the humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold before our eyes in real time. But that strength of resistance from Ukrainians, of sparrows fighting hawks, and that desire to fight against the odds for their right to exist as an independent nation is something that Sikhs can appreciate entirely. This Vaisakhi will be all the more poignant because of it.