The brutal execution of a Dalit Sikh labourer by Nihang Sikhs at the Kundli border farmers’ protest site just outside of New Delhi on Friday morning has sent shivers down one’s spine. He was found hanging with his limbs chopped off and tied near his body. A group of Nihang Sikhs were seen admitting to the murder on claims of disrespecting the Guru Granth Sahib.
Following the incident, a video went viral on social media in which the Nihang Sikhs were not only heard justifying the murder of the man in cold blood but also gloating about the sheer barbarity inflicted by them on Lakhbir Singh.
A video of the victim pleading to the Nihang Sikhs for mercy had also gone viral. In the audio, while Lakhbir Singh keeps begging them to bring him down, the assaulters were in no mood to spare the victim.
Notably, OpIndia has got access to the FIR filed in the case, which also mentioned Nihang Sikhs as the perpetrators.
While it may be difficult to forget the scars of this heinous act, this is only one of several recent incidents in which Nihang Sikhs have ruthlessly mutilated and killed people in recent times.
In April last year, a group of five Nihangs, armed with swords and iron rods, had attacked two policemen and chopped off the hands of ASI Harjeet Singh.
Two weeks after the aforementioned incident, a Nihang Sikh identified as Tej Singh allegedly attacked two locals in Mandayali village in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh over a small argument. While one victim’s four fingers were chopped off, the other received severe injuries on the head.
Who are Nihang Sikhs?
According to some sources, the Nihang warrior’s origin attires to the youngest son of Guru Gobind Singh, Fateh Singh.
According to the legend, little Fateh Singh wanted to play with his brothers one day while his bigger brothers were practising warfare tactics. But, they refused, saying: “At the moment you are too small.”
Left demotivated by his older brothers, young Fateh Singh went inside the palace and tied a dastaar (turban) as tall as one hand. He donned a blue dress and a small Khanda. He placed a Chakar (round disc carried on a belt or worn on the turban) on himself and carried his kirpan. Over his dastaar he wrapped a ‘dumalla’ and in his hand, he held a spear. He then approached his brothers who were playing and said: “Now I don’t look small.”
When Guru Gobind Singh saw his young son dressed in the warrior’s gear, he stated: “From this dress, the Nihangs will be formed”.
Meanwhile, according to one account, Nihangs originated with Guru Hargobind, who established schools to teach an elite warrior class known as the Akali Nihang after the Mughals murdered his predecessor, Guru Arjan Dev, for refusing to convert to Islam.
How to identify Nihang Sikhs
Nihangs are a Sikh sect, distinguished by their blue robes, called Khalsa Swarupa and decorated turbans (dastar bunga) surmounted with a chakram or steel quoits. Akali Naina Singh, a Nihang warrior and junior commander in the Shahid misl in the eighteenth century, is credited with inventing the towering pyramidal turban that is still worn by Nihangs today.
Today, Nihang still wear miniature versions of five weapons (pancha shastra) in their turbans, namely the chakram, the khanda (sword), the karud (dagger), the kirpan, and the tir (arrow).
The Nihangs don iron bracelets or jangi kada around the wrist and chakram and iron chains around the neck. They wear leather shoes called jangi moze, with a sharp metal fitting at the toe that can be used as a weapon. Moreover, a buffalo skin shield serves as a back shield for the Nihangs. They not just carry modern weapons but are also loaded with traditional weapons like swords or kirpans, spears and small handheld daggers.
The origin of the Sect
Nihang comes from the Persian term Nihang, which means crocodile, alligator, shark, or water dragon, and denotes ferocity and valour.
This particular sect traces its origin to the creation of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Many people refer to the sect as “guru di laadli fauj,” or the guru’s favourite army.
The sect is believed to have emerged from the Akaal Sena, a band of soldiers of Guru Hargobind, the sixth guru. Later, the Akaal Sena converted into the 10th guru’s ‘Khalsa Fauj.’
After the fall of the first Sikh monarchy (1710-15), when Mughal governors were murdering Sikhs, and also during the onslaught of Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Durrani, Nihangs played a key part in preserving the Sikh Panth (1748-65).
Nihangs were crucial in defending the Sikhs during the frequent attacks of Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Abdali in the mid-18th century. They were also the most powerful warriors in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army. In reality, the Nihang warriors are largely responsible for the fall of Multan in 1818 to Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Sarkar-e-Khalsa.
Following the British takeover of Punjab in 1849, Akali regiments were disbanded, and with military service as their sole vocation, their numbers gradually plummeted. In the 1892 census, just 1,376 people were listed as “Sikh Akalis or Nihangs,” and by 1901, the number had dropped to 431, with an additional 136 people registering as Akalis by caste. There were 457 men and 110 women among them.
The term Akali became linked with Gurdwara reformers who organised themselves into a political organisation, the Shiromani Akali Dal, during the Gurdwara reform movement (1920-25). The Nihangs are no longer called Akalis.
The last prominent Nihang known as an Akali was Akali Kaur Singh (1886-1953).
The lifestyle followed by Nihang Sikhs
According to professor Paramjit Singh, Judge of the Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Nihangs are said to have their own deras and a specific way of life.
“Those who are married are given the charge of taking care of the deras while the others move around the state. The deras have weapons, licensed firearms, horses and generally, everyone undergoes martial training,” informed the professor.
“Earlier, they used to live in makeshift deras called chhaavni or cantonments. But now permanent deras have come up at many places in the state, where they live learning martial arts like gatka, horse riding and wielding weapons,” said Paramjit Singh, adding most deras house gurdwara.
The Nihangs gather money from neighbouring communities to run these deras. The attached agriculture areas are cultivated for livelihood in the larger deras. These people also own and operate schools, horseback riding centres, and martial arts academies in these deras.
Difference between Nihangs and other Sikhs
Khalsa Sikhs are of two types. Firstly, those who put on blue attire which Guru Gobind Singh used to wear at the time of battle and secondly, those who do not follow any particular dress code.
Nihangs are the ones who strictly follow the Khalsa code of conduct. “They do not profess any allegiance to an earthly master… Instead of saffron, they hoist a blue Nishan Sahib (flag) atop their shrines,” said Sikh historian Dr Balwant Singh Dhillon.
