BABA DEEP SINGH JI

Baba Deep Singh ji (1682–1757) is revered among Sikhs as one of the most hallowed martyrs in Sikhism and probably  the only martyr in the world who fought the battle with his head-less body having his head in left hand and Khanda (double-edged-sword) in his right hand. He is remembered for his sacrifice and devotion to the teachings of the Sikh Gurus

In April 1757, Ahmad Shah Durrani raided Northern India for the fourth time. While he was on his way back to Kabul from Delhi with precious booty and young men and women as captives, the SIKHS made a plan to relieve him of the valuables and free the captives. The squad of Baba Deep Singh ji was deployed near Kurukshetra.His squad freed a large number of prisoners and raided Durrani's considerable treasury.

On his arrival in Lahore Durrani, embittered by his loss, ordered the demolition of the Harmandir Sahib.The shrine was blown up and the sacred pool filled with the entrails of slaughtered cows. Durrani assigned the Punjab region to his son Prince Timur Shah and left him a force of ten thousand men under General Jahan Khan.

On hearing the news that Harmandir Sahib has been attacked by Ahmed Shah Durrani Baba Deep Singh Ji, aged 75-years old- emerged from scholastic retirement (he had been making copies of the Guru Grant Sahib Ji at Talwandi Sabo), and declared to a congregation at Damdama Sahib that he intended to rebuild the temple. Five hundred men came forward to go with him. Deep Singh ji offered prayers before starting for Amritsar: "May my head fall at the Darbar Sahib." As he marched forward many villagers joined him. By the time Baba Deep Singh ji reached Tarn Taran Sahib ten miles from Amritsar, over five thousand Sikhs armed with hatchets, swords, and spears accompanied him.

The Sikhs and the Afghans clashed, in the battle of Amrirsar  at the village of Gohalwar on November 11, 1757 and in the ensuing conflict Baba Deep Singh was decapitated but he continued to fight after having been decapitated, slaying his enemies with his double-edged sword in the right hand and his head on the left hand and upon reaching the periphery of Harmandir Sahib he died.

The following quote of Guru Nanak Sahib Ji is from the Sikh Holy Book  may have influenced Baba Deep Singh:

JYO TO PREM KHELAN KA CHAO

SEER DHAR TALI GALI MERI AAO

IT MARAG PER DHARIJE

SEER DEEJE KAHAN NA KEEJE.

 Shouldst thou wish to play the game of love,

come unto my Path with thy head on thy palm.And, 

once you step unto this path 

you may well give up thy head, rather than the cause

Salute to great Sikh Warrior Sardar Banda Singh Bahadur who gave all but not his beliefs

Sunday, 9th June, 1716. Baba Banda Singh Ji Bahadur's cage was placed on top of an elephant, and he was dressed in mock attire of an emperor, with a colorful red pointed turban on his head. His 4 year old son Ajai Singh was placed in his lap. Seven Hundred Forty Sikhs marched behind the elephant and this special procession then passed through the streets of Delhi, and headed for the Kutub-ud-din mausoleum of Bahadur Shah, near the present Kutab Minar. On reaching that graveyard, the captives were again offered a choice of two alternatives: conversion to Islam or death. Needless to say all chose death. The Sikhs were subjected to tortures before being executed. Their heads were then impaled on spears and arranged in a circle round Banda who was now squatting on the ground. There were hundreds of spectators standing around watching this scene. Here they made him paraded around the tomb of late emperor Bahadur Shah and put him to a barbarous death.

"Banda Singh Bahadur Ji was then given a short sword and ordered to kill his own son Ajai Singh. As he sat unperturbed, the executioner moved forward and plunged his sword into the little child cutting the body into two. Then pieces of flesh were cut from the body and thrown in Banda's face. His liver was removed and thrust into Banda Singh's mouth. The father sat through all this without any signs of emotion. His powers of endurance were to be tested still further. But before that, Mohammed Amin Khan, who was standing near spoke as follows: "From your manner so far you appear to be a man of virtue, who believes in God, and in doing good deeds. You are also very intelligent. Can you tell me why you are having to suffer all this here ?"

"Banda's reply was, "When the tyrants oppress their subjects to the limit, then God sends men like me on this earth to mete out punishment to them. But being human, we sometimes overstep the laws of justice, and for that we are made to pay whilst we are still here. God is not being unjust to me in any way."

Shaheed Udham Singh Ji

On 31 July 1940, Udham Singh was hanged in Pentonville Prison in London. Udham Singh was an Indian independence activist, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer in March 1940 in what has been described as an avenging of the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre.

In 1940, almost 21 years after the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 in Punjab province of India, Udham Singh shot the unsuspecting 76 years old Michael O'Dwyer while he was attending a lecture meet at Caxton Hall in London. O'Dwyer had been Governor of the Punjab in 1919, when Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer ordered British troops to fire on unarmed Indian protesters, who included many Sikhs.

Udham Singh was also known as Ram Mohammed Singh Azad, symbolizing the unification of the three major religions of India: Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism.