SAKA PANJA SAHIB
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Context: The gurdwara management bodies from both sides of the border — Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) — will jointly observe the centenary of Shaheedi Saka Panja Sahib (martyrdom massacre), at Hasan Abdal city of Attock district, Punjab province of Pakistan.
Details:
What is Saka Panja Sahib?
- On October 30, 1922 two Sikhs died and several other Sikh protesters, including women, were injured at Hasan Abdal railway station after the railway authorities under the then-British government had refused to stop the train ferrying Sikh prisoners from Amritsar to Attock.
- The Sikhs from nearby Panja Sahib wanted to serve langar (community kitchen food) to the Sikh prisoners but were told by the station master at Hasan Abdal station that the train would not stop at the station.
- In protest, the Sikhs squatted on the railway tracks and as the train approached, the Sikhs, who were determined to halt the train, continued to stay put, demanding their right to serve langar to the Sikh prisoners.
- The train finally came to a screeching halt, but only after crushing many of Sikh protesters — of whom Bhai Karam Singh and Bhai Partap Singh died after sustaining serious injuries. Since then, both Sikhs are hailed as martyrs of Saka Panja Sahib who sacrificed their lives fighting for rights of Sikhs against the British.
Who were the Sikh prisoners in the train?
- The roots of Hasan Abdal rail massacre lie in another Sikh movement against the British — Guru Ka Bagh Morcha of Amritsar.
- Hundreds of Sikhs were arrested by the British after they had launched a peaceful agitation against the arrest of five Sikhs who had axed trees from the land of Gurdwara Guru Ka Bagh to use as wood for cooking langar in August 1922.
- However, the British accused them of stealing wood from gurdwara land and arrested them.
Gurdwara Panja Sahib: Guru Nanak’s visit
- The history of the shrine Gurdwara Panja Sahib, in Hasan Abdal of Pakistan, is far older than the Saka Panja Sahib incident.
- The gurdwara was built on the site believed to be visited by Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev, along with his companion Bhai Mardana.
- The Saka Panja Sahib which happened later in 1922 was a watershed moment in Sikh history which made the British realize that Sikhs cannot be suppressed in the fight for the right over their gurdwaras and Guru’s langar
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