Chapparh Chirhi Battle 1710 AD.
Thought plane and civilizational Realm
Prof. Devinder Singh, H.O.D. (Retd.) Dept. of History,
Sri. Guru Gobind Singh College Chandigarh.
The event which transcends the time barrier and affects the history of the visible realm, which in turn is forced to open up and recognize the new standards and parameters, deserves more than merely the chronological recording of dynastic history, which usually is not understood by the chronologist mindset. Such an event is usually the culmination of a well churned out thought processes and is the carrier of the mark of standards, and different, if not the alternative, civilizational parameters.
The Chapparh Chirhi battle fought between the Khalsa1 being supported by the bonded serfs & other have’s not, led by their leader Baba Banda Singh Bahadar, who was commissioned by the 10th Nanak Gobind Singh on one side and the Mughal Governor (army commander as Nazim) of the Sirhind Sirkar (a district level administrative unit given provincial status) which was under the direct governance of the Turkish Mughal Emperor’s capital Delhi, supported by the feudatories and feudal nobility (Sharief), on the other side. The capital Delhi was kept well protected by the chain of provincial status Sirkars, the holders of Sirhind, Merath and Sikandrabad etc. from north, north-western and eastern side, which were under the direct control of the Delhi imperial administration. Baba Banda Singh pillaged both the Sirkars situated in north and west and exposed Delhi, to the threat of the internal uprising, that was well exploited by the invaders Nadir Shah Irani and Afgan Ahmad Shah Abdali later. More than the victory in the battles, the taste of the liberation of the bonded agriculturist and artisan’s economy as the consequence of the bloody holocaust on both the sides, had turned the people’s loyalty in favor of their own vested interest, turning the character of the said land as almost a neutral territory between the Mughal Turks and Irani and Afghan invader’s struggle for supremacy.
The subjects of the Mughal Punjab were a witness to the emerging third alternative, which neither would join the Mughal Turks like Bharatpur’s Jats nor would raise a kingdom as was done by Shivaji Maratha, which was an imitation of the Turkish sultanates. The third alternative, addressed as ‘Tisr Panth’ by Bhai Gurdas II was successful in metamorphosis of the fresher entrants, leading them to the avenues of empowerment (of the people) who became neutral to the imperialist struggle. Rather the people struggled to weed out imperialist civilization’s orderlies, in order to settle in the participative self rule at the village level un-interfered, rather they were protected and granted such rights by their own governmental centre which emerged as the ‘Rakhi’2 under the Misl’s rule and sirkar-i-Khalsa. The indepth grasp over the cause responsible for the battle of Chapparh Chirhi demands the exposure to the doctrinal reasons which affected the polarization of the people taking the extreme stand.
Sir Arnold Toyanbee in his book, ‘A study of History’ Volume X, Oxford University press 1954, on page 2, writes “The historical angle of vision shows us the physical cosmos moving centrifugally in a four dimensional frame of space, time—- (speed and light) —– it shows us life on our own planet moving evolutionarily in a five dimensional frame of life-time-space-speed-light, — and it shows us human souls, raised to a six dimension by the gift of the spirit, moving through a fateful exercise of their spiritual freedom, either towards their Creator or away from Him.” Perusal of this unconventional statement, an exposure on the mysterious force transcending into history, infers the inconclusive and incompetent parameters of historiography being perceived by the conventional historians’ world over.
Baba Nanak and his nine successors have been able to transmit to the people, the vision graced by the ‘universal view’. This human capability being the projection of the power enforced by the “Command” imbibed within the nature and the natural entities (the humans being the part thereof). We, the humans are moved to register about eleven dimensions, reading through the elaborative text of Gur Bani of Guru Granth Sahib, such as : 1. ONE (J/e’), 2. vacuum (nkvkD[), 3. Expanse [ (ftvkD[),4. Reach (rwsk), 5. Distance (d{o[), 6. Speed (rsh), 7. Light (s/i[), 8. Sound (Bkd[), 9. Time (ekb[), 10. Gravitation (fyZu[ $ eq;aD), 11. Cosmic Order (j[ew[). The cosmos being the effect of ONE only (J/e’L>) as the only cause which fills the vacuum (nkvkD[), the vacuum being the existence of the Entity of that unknown ONE. ONE externalize the self identity (jT[A) into the vast expanse (;fsBkw[ (ftvkD[) and in diverse entity-constituents of the forms moving centrifugally, consciously in reach (rwsk) within, light (s/i[), sound (Bkd[), speed (rsh), time (ekb[), distance (d{o[), gravitation (fyZu[ $ eq;aD), being constantly in revolutions, engaged in the formations on the scale of the constant and endless process of fusion and separation, contained by centripetal Cosmic Order (j[ew^okw) imbibed within every entity and forcing every form to act and react, leaving nothing up to the discretion of humans, except the illusion (wk:k) of it.
We, the human beings either live the life viewing it from the angle of Naam (Realm of existence) / or moving away from Naam viewing the life from the angle of illusions (Maya) being the projection of our possession relationship over the matter. Life lives on governed by Hukam imbibed within intrinsically. The invisible reality encompasses the visible realm which becomes the subject of the verbal communication (Shabad Bani).
Towards the last pages of Guru Granth Shahib, the verses give expression to the doctrinal methods, like : iT[ sT[ gq/w y/bD ek ukT[, f;o[ Xfo sbh rbh w/oh nkT[, fJs[ wkofr g?o[ Xohi?, f;o[ dhi? ekfD B ehi?.. [ If thou yearns playing the love, surrender the mindset convictions placing on thine psalm (worldly deeds), stepping in the avenues of this worldly corridor, far, in this treading of faith, my avenue-realm requisites alternative mind, don’t fault, give up your illusory mind]. The doctrine (Gur), the war of words (Shabad), the schools of thought and their followers (Surtiyan and Sikh/Sewak) and regimentation (Panth), appears on the Earth planet through the human activities and the emergence of the third, the multi-central alternative, the history witness the fierce struggle of the earlier two concentric against the third one (Tisr Panth).
Thus an enlightened vested centrifugal self-interest being conscious of the All-Pervasive empowered the people who united to form the third alternative which is multi-polar and by implication is multi-central, as has been explained by Sirdar Kapoor Singh in his autobiography ‘Saachi Saakhi’. Let us be awakened to the fact that the Mughal Turkish Empire was fighting a battle at Chapparh Chirhi against its own subjects, who were transforming themselves as ‘the people of their CREATOR’ (Khalsa), moving closer to their CREATOR. This, precisely is the thought plan, which in historic realm appeared to have culminated into a civilizational clash, with watershed event known as Chapparh Chirhi battle 1710 AD.
On civilizational plan, let us refresh ourselves that the Greeko-Roman expertise improved itself in Byzantium, later having recourse through Alexandria-Arabian axis, the Turks benefited from the both. The Turks once had threatened Vienna under the leadership of Kara Mustafa of Turkish Ottomon Empire in 1683 AD. Delhi Sultanate Turks had occupied India up to the Bay of Bengal in the 13th century AD., the possession which passed to the Turkish Mughals in 1526 AD. The territories surrounding Mediterranean, East Europe, Turkey, middle east, central Asia, Afghanistan and India, all were under the sultanates of the Turks with their central but nominal authority known as Caliph (of Constantinople). Like their predecessors the Turkish imperial order had created a powerful wizard like technological terrorizing giant in the field of materials of war, the water lifts, the water propelled energy, the chemical mysteries, the architectural wonders and the astronomical structures and so and so on.
But their Indians subjects who were being metamorphosed into self empowerment, (Ram jana, Hari jana) 3 by the authors of the Bani compiled in Guru Granth Sahib, they through their own contributions, were able to build the wheeled water lifts, baolies at various places and one with six Persian wheels, water bodies and architectural marvel like that of Darbar Sahib. The establishment of open marketing system for their occupational crafts, banking, trading coupled with managerial skills were the great creativity marvel under the leadership of Baba Nanak and his nine successors, against the system of the bonded labor, without resorting to the imitation of forming any monastery, fiefdom or kingdom. Particularly the freedom of PANGAT4 liberating food (DEG), being a greatest victory (DEG FATEH) over the bonded food patterns (JOOTH), which were standardized by Simriti civilization and the imperial Turks, rather by all the royalties world over. The people who were incorporated as SANGATS (communes) did not suffer from any confusion of the temporal and spiritual duality, which emerged well connected and mobile, learning the instructions of the tools of HUKAMNAMAHS of their Sikh leaders and their own sovereign collective resolves. Hence an emergence of a floating state of sovereignty, sprouted without emanating symptoms of possession, within the Mughal Turkish dynastic state which flourished on the civilizational value of possession alone and was totally incapable of understanding the emerging relation structuring of the SANGAT incorporations. That is why the ignorant Turkish Mughals were devoured by the incorporated English East India Company later. Those incorporated into Sangats refused such standardization, ultimately culminating into civilizational clashes reaching at its zenith at Chapparh Chirhi, leading into fifty years of war between the people incorporated as Sangat lead by the emerging Khalsa and the imperial and feudal interests of the Turkish and the sheriat and the Simriti strains.
The non-culmination of the conflict into battle of Chapparh Chirhi would have left the bonded serfs, artisans and craftsmen into the clutches of the few religio–feudal-imperialists. The process of Sangat incorporation would have had lost in oblivion for the loss of genuine and original creativity. The first and the second holocaust of the Sikhs 1746 & 1762 AD. would not have happened to take place in history and Punjab, Peshawar, Kashmir, Multan and Sindh either could have been an Afghan ruled territories or in the state of the non happening of 1st and 2nd Anglo Sikh wars, these territories would have been wrested by English East India Company from the Afghans. Whole the expanse of five rivers could have been a scene of either shariat rule or Daridra Narayan ‘Bhayya’ anarchist culture. Nor the status of the Sikhs as the nation could be a reality in the absence of Sikh’s role in 1857 AD.’s Indian Mutiny, 1st and 2nd world wars, which attracted the attention of the British House of Commons where the mention of the Sikhs as a nation are found minted in the records of the house.
1. Khalsa:- The word Khalsa denotes the relationship of the creatures with their CREATOR, the creatures being the sole property of the CREATOR.
2. Rakhi: – A kind of directive principle, Rakhi was a policy principle denoting the protection of the people’s rights over their life and property.
3. Ram jana, Hari Jana; were the common titles of address to the emerging new class of people denoting as the people of the Omnipresent, people of the Deliverer, thus implanting alternative status to the of the subjects of the Mughal Turkish rulers.
4. Pangat:- ‘Panga’ in Punjabi is for inviting a tiff. Oneness of all humans in the institutional practice is like taking a Panga with the ruling elite. Pangat literally means, a single file formation on the ground, to eat langar (common food), a tool to exploit the most powerful blessing of the nature (food), in an organized initiative known as Deg Fateh, (Food victory).
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