guru gobind singh ji history

Guru Gobind Singh figures in world history as a great leader of men, a versatile genius of the highest
order, a God-man and mystic par excellence, a redoubtable warrior and adept strategist, a fearless
revolutionary, a classical Hero of Carlylian description, a powerful poet and patron of poets, a unique
religious law giver and champion of the downtrodden, a relentless defender of faith and an allsacrificing
martyr for the cause of suffering and persecuted humanity. In fact, it is impossible to
encompass and delineate in words all the facets of his highly charismatic and remarkable personality.
Contemporary and later historians, both foreign and Indian, have tried to assess and designate the
tremendous scope and vast dimensions of his super-human character and his Herculean
achievements. Just to cite an example, out of a whole lot, Macgregor in his famous History of the
Sikhs (1846 p.101) says:
If we consider the work which Govind accomplished both in reforming his religion and
instituting a new code of laws for his followers, his personal bravery under all circumstances,
his persevering endurance amidst difficulties which would have disheartened others and
overwhelmed them, in inextricable distress; and lastly his final victory over the powerful
enemies by the very men who had previously forsaken him, we need not be surprised that the
Sikhs venerate his memory. He was, undoubtedly, a great man.
Verily, a great man comes to surprise and baffle the whole world for all time to come. A man standing
up against a vast scourge-like empiricial system bent upon destroying and demolishing an old and
decadent indigenous religious community! What an impossible situation! What courage, what
resource, what pluck! A lad of nine called upon suddenly to lead a rising and developing nation, not
only to save and preserve it from the clutches of a cruel and fanatic foreign ruler, but to reform,
reshape and ensteel it into a strong fighting instrument of great potentiality. This is certainly a matter
for constant thoughts and discussion-a great historical fact to enthrall and electrify people around for
centuries to come - a rare example for the comity of nations to emulate and furbish – a fertile subject
for historians to cogitate and ponder!
Here in this important monograph based upon the well-known biographical writing in Urdu by Daulat
Rai, we are concerned with an Indian Historian of note. He was a man of considerable insight and
acumen, who rose much higher than the ordinary class of historiographers and was thus able to
grasp and understand the real historical situation obtaining in India before and during the turbulent
times of Guru Gobind Singh.
Daulat Rai, now a very popular and famous name in Sikh circles, was a man of deep thinking and
impartial religious conviction. Though an Arya Samajist himself, he was completely free from religious
bias. Though he wrote in 1901 A.D.when the Punjab was seething with inter-religious wrangling and
communal friction of an invidious nature, he was a rare person who evinced in his Biography of Guru
Gobind Singh a highly patriotic and national feeling by transcending all narrow-minded limitations.
Thus he was able to see Guru Gobind Singh in his true perspective. He saw the great Guru as a
national hero and a national saviour. In fact, he found Guru Gobind Singh as a unique and peerless
world figure, a prophet with a difference, before whose divine refulgence, other prophets appear dim
and faded - a warrior and general whose dauntless spirit and unyielding courage has no match
among the great warriors in history –a religious law-giver and social revolutionary whose like is rarely
to be found among the galaxy of political reformers and law-givers of the world.
Daulat Rai was, of course, well-versed with the world history, so as to compare and contrast relevant
situation while discussing the inimitable character of Guru Gobind Singh. He says with a sense of
pride in praising his matchless hero:
The Emperors of Germany, Austria and Russia despite having huge armies with them surrendered
unabashed before Napoleon. And so did thousands of Muslims of Egypt. A brave general like Cronje,
despite having guns and four thousand Boer fighters with him, laid down arms before the British
army. But look at the unparalleled courage displayed by Guru Gobind Singh. He had only forty Sikhs
with him in a dilapidated adobe structure at Chamkaur surrounded by the Imperial hordes…Guru
Gobind Singh refused to buckle under…..(page 122)
This was the type of Hero who welded Sikhs into a powerful nation. This was the man who liberated
the long enslaved Hindu nation from the Muslim tyranny. This was the man who created a casteless,
free society in India after centuries of internal friction and inequity.
We should be all-praise for Daulat Rai who gave us a re-thinking, a new line of thought, a new
perspective. He has quoted Guru Gobind Singh’s poetry at length to prove that the great Guru was a
true worshipper of the One Formless God and had nothing to do with the gods and goddesses of the
Hindu belief. He had certainly a new religious Order and Dispensation to offer to the strife-torn
confused world. In the words of Daulat Rai:
Let me declare here unequivocally that the Guru worshipped the Formless Lord Akal only. He was
dead set against the worship of gods and goddesses and always preached in no uncertain words
against it. (page 81)
In the end we should feel beholden to the “Gurmat Sahit Charitable Trust” of which M/s Singh
Brothers, Amritsar are zealous protagonists for their onerous effort in printing Daulat Rai’s Biography
in various languages, so that the great Guru’s message should reach the maximum number of
readers.
Dewan Singh (Dr.)
Former Professor & Head,
397, Green Avenue,
Guru Nanak Studies Deptt.,Amritsar.
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar