torture and Baba Banda Singh Bahadur's execution.

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torture and Baba Banda Singh Bahadur's execution.

Sikh warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur was one of the most well-known military leaders of his tim

He was born Lachman Dev, and at the age of 15, he left his family to become a Hindu ascetic. He later founded a monastery in Nanded (presently in the state of Maharashtra, India). Madho Das Bairagi became his new name.

He had a visit in September 1708 from Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, who had such an impression on him that he gave up his life of seclusion and joined him as a devotee. He was given the new name Banda Singh Bahadur following the Sikh initiation process. He wasThe Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah and the province's governor, Wazir Khan, were in charge of the persecution of Sikhs and the martyrdom of the guru's two youngest sons. He was then appointed as the guru's lieutenant and given complete political and military authority to lead campaigns against them.

Numerous military engagements, including the Battles of Sonipat, Samana, Lohgarh, and Sirhind, were led by Banda Bahadur. The first Sikh rule was formed in the area when Wazir Khan was assassinated. After taking power, Banda Bahadur overturned the zamindari system, which had tax-collecting lords as the landowners, and granted farmers ownership instead.

An order to "murder the devotees of Nanak, i.e. Sikhs, wherever they are found," was given from Delhi as a result of the Sikhs' contribution to the decline of Mughal rule. In spite of this, every initial attempt to capture Banda was a failure.

At Gurdas Nangal he made his last stand. The Mughals stormed into the famished garrison on December 7, 1715, and captured Banda Singh and his companions after the Sikhs defended the little fort for eight months in extremely difficult circumstances.

Banda Bahadur was imprisoned in an iron cage that was placed on top of an elephant, with chains around his ankles and wrists. The 780 Sikh prisoners and 2,000 Sikh heads were carried in a procession with the Sikhs to Delhi.

Englishman C.R Wilson described this incident as follows:

Malice made every effort to discredit and humiliate the victorious. The heads of the killed Sikhs, their long hair streaming in the wind like a veil, were first displayed, together with a dead cat on a pole to symbolise how everything in Gurdaspur had perished. Banda sat in an iron cage that was mounted on the back of an elephant, mockingly attired in a crimson cloth headdress with gold embroidery and a thick brocade robe adorned with pomegranates.

A masked officer with a drawn sword waited behind him. The remaining 740 inmates, who were seated two and two after him, riding unmounted camels. One hand was pinned to the neck of each person, in between two pieces of wood, and they all wore high sheepskin foolscaps. The three powerful nobles, Zakariya Khan, Qamr-ud-Din, and Muhammad Amin Khan, who had been despatched by the emperor to bring in prisoners, rode at the end of the parade.

Long stretches of the road leading to the palace were lined with military and thronged with jubilant crowds who derided the teacher (the Guru) and laughed at the bizarre appearance of his devotees. As they passed the impoverished and destitute, they scoffed and shook their heads. Infidel dog worshipers, your time has come. "HU! HU!" Retribution does in fact come after wrongdoing, as wheat and barley grow from one another."However, the victory could not have appeared total. Not all of the slurs that their adversaries had devised could strip the instructor and his disciples of their honour. They continued to ride, calm, happy, and even eager to suffer the death of martyrs, showing no signs of disappointment or shame. Anyone who would forsake their faith would be guaranteed life, but those who refused to betray their Guru were beautiful to see when they were suffering. Me Deliverer, murder me first was the persistent prayer that echoed in the executioner's ears."

The inmates were held in Delhi's Red Fort where they were coerced into converting to Islam. They objected, to which the authorities issued an order.The authorities demanded their execution as a result of their refusal, which they received.

100 Sikh troops were killed in broad daylight each day after being hauled out of the fort. This went on for about a week. The next to go was Banda.

Ajai Singh, his own four-year-old son, was to be killed, and he was handed a short sword to do it. When he refused, the executioner grabbed the blade and split the kid in half. The body's flesh was cut into pieces, which were then hurled in Banda's direction. The child's heart was then removed and placed into Banda's mouth. Despite all, he remained unbroken.

One of the Mughal ministers, Mohammed Amin Khan, who witnessed the torture, questioned Banda:

Your behaviour thus far suggests that you are a moral man who respects God and believes in carrying out good deeds. You are a highly smart person as well. Could you perhaps explain why you must endure this in this place?

Banda reacted by saying:

God sends men like me to earth to exact justice on tyrants who abuse their subjects to the furthest degree. But because we are just human, we occasionally transgress the bounds of justice, and we are punished while we are still alive. In no way is God treating me unfairly.

According to Mohammed Harisi, Khafi Khan, Thornton, Elphinstone, and other witnesses' descriptions of what happened next, the following can be said:The executioner then pierced Banda's right eye with a dagger and removed the eyeball. The second eye was removed after that. His left foot and both of his arms were then hacked off. They began ripping apart his flesh with their heated pincers at that point. He was decapitated after this was finished.

John Surman and Edward Stephenson, two East India Company ambassadors who were in Delhi at the time and had seen the episode, wrote to the governor of Fort William:

It is not at all surprising how patiently Sikhs endure their fate, and up until this point, no one has been discovered to have abandoned his newly formed religion.