Amritsar Sahib: Pro-freedom group of the Sikhs Dal Khalsa has urged Sikh Diaspora to observe the martyrdom day of Guru Teg Bahadur as ‘Human Rights and Religious Freedom’ day as the Guru Sahib attained martyrdom to protect the oppressed class irrespective of their religion and caste.
Dal Khalsa Activists.
The organization re-affirmed that Guru Teg Bahadur was in fact “dharam di chadar” (cover for religion), and not “Hind-di-chadar” (cover for Hindu) as being propagated.
As per original Nanakshahi calendar the day has been fixed for Nov 24 where as the SGPC that has reverted to Bikrami calendar was observing it this year on 23rd November.
“Guru Teg Bahadur was undisputed the first martyr for human rights. His martyrdom was unparalleled in world history as never before somebody had laid down life to defend the right of followers of another faith to practice their faith,” said Kanwar Pal Singh, Paramjit Singh and Ranbir Singh, office bearers of the pro-freedom Sikh group.
“It was around a century before the popular quotation attributed to French writer and philosopher Voltaire, ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it’, that the ninth Guru demonstrated it literally,” they argued.
“Indian government should correct all errors and misgivings about Sikh Gurus from the books published by the NCERT,” they demanded adding the Sikh thinkers, intellectuals and historians should re-write the Sikh history free from outside influences and biases.