A man narrates his encounter with a Sikh who smiled enigmatically when teased about the ’12’o clock Joke’

I was standing at Jalandhar station when my attention went towards a Sikh youth standing near me wearing a Black turban having a long beard and wearing a kirpan over his shirt.

After a while, one local train arrived, which was totally packed. The Sikh youth tried to alight the train but failed to do so. Just then a voice was heard from the back coach ‘Sardarji Barah Baj gaye’

The Sikh youth looked over at that voice maker who was a young mischievous type of person and instead of showing any anger made a smile towards him.

The smile made was so enigmatic that it seemed as if some type of truth lies behind it. Not able to resist my temptation, I walked towards him and asked why did he smile at that person who teased him.

The Sikh youth replied, ‘He was not teasing me but was asking for my Help’. I was surprised with these words and he told me that there was a big history behind it. I was eager to know the History and the Sikh youth narrated:

During the 17th Century, when Hindustan was ruled by Mughals, all Hindus were humiliated and forcibly told to accept Islam and tortured them inhumanly when they refused it.

That time, our ninth Guru, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji came forward, in response to a request of some Kashmir Pandits to fight against all these cruel activities.

Guruji told the Mughal emperor that if he could succeed in converting him to Islam, all the Hindus would accept the same. But, if he failed, he should stop all those activities. The Mughal emperor happily agreed to that but even after lots of torture to Guruji and his fellow members he failed to convert him to Islam and Guruji along with his other four fellow members, were tortured and sacrificed their lives in Chandni Chowk. Since the Mughals were unable to convert them to Islam they were assassinated.

Thus Guruji sacrificed his life for the protection of Hindu religion.

Can anybody lay down his life and that too for the protection of another religion?

This is the reason he is still remembered as “Hind Ki Chaddar”, shield of India. For the sake of whom he had sacrificed his life, none of them came forward to lift his body, fearing that they would also be assassinated.

Seeing this incident Sri Guru Gobind Singhji made a resolution that he would turn his Sikhs into such human beings those could be easily identified in thousands. They would be the ones who would stand against oppression injustice and bigotry that too irrespective of caste or religion.

If the legend is to be believed, the story dates back to the 18th Century when India was invaded by Nader Shah, the Shah of Persia. Nader Shah’s army reached Delhi in March 1739 and a massacre followed.

Countless Hindus and Muslims were killed and the women were held captives. When his armies were crossing through Punjab, the Sikhs devised a plan to attack them and free the women. But since Nader Shah’s army was huge as compared to them, they decided to visit his camps only at night and free as many women as they could as stealthily as possible.

They even helped those rescued women return home safely because they knew how important a woman’s dignity was. But over time, the Hindus started referring to this kind gesture in the form of the 12 o’clock joke without even realizing that had it not been for those Sikhs, their women wouldn’t have survived.

They went out of their way to help their brothers.

After that time when there occurred a similar incidence, people started to contact the Sikh army for their help and Sikhs used to attack the raider’s at Midnight, 12 O’clock.

This historic fact was the reason which made me smile over that person as I thought that his Mother or Sister would be in trouble and he would remind me of this incident.

हंस कर सिखों पे तुमने सोचा, काम बहुत महान किया

शुक्रगुज़ार ना हो सके उनके, जिन्होंने हिंदुस्तान तुम्हारे नाम किया

शुक्र करो की १२ बज गए थे सिखों के!

Next Time you come across a Sardar Joke, make sure you SHARE this with them!