Concept and Tradition of Martyrdom
in the context of Guru Arjun Devji’s Death by torture

Martyrdom is essentially a Semitic concept peculiar to the Semitic religions of the world. Its doctrine appears to go back to ancient Oriental and Hellenistic tradition.

The literal and primary meaning of the word uaprus in Greek, Martyr in English and Shahid in Arabic is ‘witness’. It has quite often been used in that sense in the holy Bible¹ and the holy Quran.²

The word martyr acquired its modern connotation during the conflict between Paganism and Christianity, when many Christians ‘testified to the truth of their convictions’ by sacrificing their own lives.³ A similar development of its Arabic synonym, shahid, took place under Christian influence, and it also began to be used⁴ for one ‘who dies in witness of his faith’ or who ‘seals his belief with his death while fighting against the infidels’.⁵

The Indian Context: The Sikh tradition adopted the concept, along with its current form and usage, from Islam, extending it by introducing a new dimension and a universal outlook. It set, thereby, its currency in Indian society which, because of its quietist, conformist approach and escapist tendencies, had previously remained wholly deficient of great heroic deeds of such martyrdom and did not cherish it in that context before the advent of the Sikh Movement which, in fact, introduced it in the Aryan civilization.

Martyrdom, as such, has been associated primarily with religion and its traditions, originating in some cases from indications given in their respective scriptures.⁶ It arises, generally, from a frontal conflict between two different religious tradition or out of the confrontation between the religion and the state, taking it as a challenge to the establishment – its authority, sway and sovereignty. It results, in the latter case, from the undue interference by the state authorities in the sphere of religion. This, in turn, causes reaction, and results in protest which is followed soon by repression and persecution, resisted in consequence by the votaries of the concerned religion. This is evident, for example, in the case of the conflict between Christianity and the Roman Empire. The Roman Government ordered Christians to abandon their faith and also to prove its abandonment by offering sacrifices to their gods. When Christians resisted and refused to do so, they were persecuted relentlessly and executed. This is equally evident in the terrible situation that prevailed in India during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb (1618-1707 A.D.) when, above all, a famous Sufi, like Sarmad, and a great Guru, like Guru Tegh Bahadur, had to offer themselves for such a martyrdom.

Compassion: But all religious tradition are not endowed with this great and proud privilege. It does not exist, for instance, in that specific from and usage, in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, in Babylonian and Abyssinian lores; or in Chinese and Japanese religions.⁸ However, notions of self-abnegation and self-annihilation as well as the compassionate feelings for others are found almost in all historical religions in one form or the other. Moreover, there is no dearth of men, women and children, during all those ages, who were either offered in sacrifice for numerous rites and rituals or who had themselves suffered torture and death, or their own accord,⁹ for various other causes, ideas, opinions and superstitions.¹⁰

On the other hand, Zoroastrianism, Judaism,¹¹ Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, for example, preserve, more or less, rich traditions of martyrdom, martyrology, martyry and martyrolatry. The prominent acts of eminent persons associated with these traditions form a glorious chapter in the histories of religion and philosophy of the world. For instance, ‘Aqiba (50-130 A.D.), the saintly Jewish teacher, suffered martyrdom in the cause of propagation of the Torah in defiance of an imperial edict. Socrates (470-390 B.C.), the well-known Greek philosopher, drank to death the cup of poison in order to vindicate his lofty ideal. The Persian prophet, Zoroaster (583 B.C.), and the blessed founder of Christianity, Jesus, laid down their lives in defence of their respective faiths. Islam has in al-Husain (603-660 A.D.) the ‘King of martyrs’ for the Shias, and in Mansur-al-Hallaj (858-922 A. D.), the ‘martyr par excellence’ for the Sufis – the former having been killed in Karbala while fighting the battle of Islam and the latter cruelly executed in Baghdad on the charges of heterodoxy.¹²

But no proper martyrology appears to have developed in Islam¹³ comparable to the pattern of Christianity which can feel justly proud of embodying, probably, the richest tradition in this domain, with its martyred Founder himself standing at its fountain-head.

It may, however, be noted in the case of Christianity that the fortitude of its early faith for martyrs¹⁴ who staked and laid their lives bearing ‘witness’ to Jesus Christ, just as he himself had borne ‘witness’ to God, won the admiration and veneration of their brethren during the first three centuries. But in later days, “the passion, at times, became artificial. Fanatics sought death by insulting the magistrates or by breaking idols, and in their enthusiasm for martyrdom, became self-centred and forgetful of their normal duty. Nonetheless, it is true that these men and women endured torment and death rather than abandon their faith. The same phenomena have been witnessed not only in the conflicts within the church but also in the different missionary fields.¹⁵

Defending Faith: On the other hand, in Islam the conception of shahid itself, according to Bjorkman, “underwent an important extension… so that in the end almost any one who had died any violent death¹⁶ and aroused pity was considered by the general public to be a martyr, and soon was actually regarded as a saint…” Hughes tells us that “according to Mohammedan law, not only those who die in witness of or in defence of the faith¹⁷ are martyrs, but all those who die such deaths as are calculated to excite the compassion and pity of their fellow beings.”¹⁸ As far as Islam in India is concerned, nineteen other ways of attaining the glory of martyrdom have been enumerated by Prof. Arnold, for example, dying while reciting Qur’an or while praying, being murdered by robbers or struck by lightening, etc. We are further told that in the beginning, the praise of martyrs and the great privileges said to be awaiting them in Heaven led to a longing to meet a martyr’s death. But it was by no means encouraged by the orthodox theology that rather deprecated it, because this kind of self-sacrifice looked much like suicide which has always been condemned in Islam.”¹⁹

Martyrology of the aforesaid pattern did develop, properly and consistently, in the case of Sikhism; and that too with a significant difference. In it the word, martyr or shahid, diverges from its primary and limited meaning of ‘testimony’. It implies and connotes, on the other hand, a holistic concept of martyrdom or shahadat as a selfless heroic deed of sublime self-sacrifice for a lofty and righteous cause with a universal outlook in a comprehensive form.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539 A.D.), the Founder, himself set the norm and ideal of this concept, and also its tradition in Sikhism. The socio-religio-political conditions of Hindus, the original natives of India, stood so much degraded and reduced during his times that, according to Prof. Peter Hardy, they were considered as “furniture and properties for the stage on which the drama of the Muslim destiny… in Hindustan is played. The Hindus are… as the passive material on which the Muslims impose their will. It is the function of the Hindus to provide opportunities for the practice of Muslim virtue; they are never interesting in themselves, but only as converts, as capitation tax-payers or as corpses.”²⁰ In the words of Dr. Sir Gokul Chand Narang, “after centuries of (such) subjection, Guru Nanak was the first among the Hindus to raise his voice against (such) tyranny and oppression”²¹ of the Lodi-Mughal India. At the same time, “his was the first and also the last successful attempt,” says Prof. Majumdar, to bring together the Hindus and Muslims in a common fold of spiritual and social brotherhood.”²² His following pronouncement, therefore, showed from the very beginning the form and course it followed:

    jxu txu pR[m K[lN ka caxu .  isru Wir tlI glI m[rI Aaxu .

    ietu marig p{ru WrIj{ .  isru wIj{ kaiN n kIj{ .

 [SGGS : 1412]

       If you are keen to play the Game of Love, (only then)

       step into my street

       with your head placed on your palm.

       (That is, in complete surrender and fervour)

       Having set your foot upon it,

       lay down your head without any fear or grudge. ²³

According to this and other similar pronouncements made by him²⁴ and his spiritual successors, a true martyr is one who, imbued with the love of God (Simran) and service of mankind (Seva) offers himself for supreme sacrifice for the cause of upholding truth and defending Dharma (righteousness). He does it, at all costs and in the face of challenges from any side, in order to defend, thereby, the right against wrong, justice against injustice, and for serving and safeguarding any other and allied noble cause. While treading the path of martyrdom, he shuns all pressures and inducements, bears all tortures and torments, and expects no material gain or victory for himself, his country or community.

This is so in Sikhism, because Guru Nanak has himself confirmed that one who, egolessly and selflessly, becomes a martyr, has chosen a noble cause of heroic action and performed a laudable act of sublime self-sacrifice:

    mrNu n m;wa l]ka AaKIA{ j[ mir jaN{ A{sa k]ie .

 [SGGS : 579]

    xUca nhI khNa mn mih rhNa Aap[ jaN{ jaN] .

[SGGS: 580]

    mrNu muNsa sUirAa hku h{ j] h]ie mrin prvaN] .

[SGGS : 579]

       Listen O People do not revile death.

       It is not an evil

       provided one knows how truly to             die….

       They do not utter aloud their suffering

       and hear all that heroically.

       God the all-knower Himself knows all that.

       The death of heroic men is holy

       if they die for a righteous cause.²⁵

Saint Kabir has also voiced a similar view in the following verse, also included in the said sacred scripture of the Sikhs:

    kbIra mrta mrta jgu muAa mir iB n jan{ k]ie .

    A{sI mrnI j] mr{ bhuir n mrna h]ie .

 [SGGS : 555]

       The whole world has been facing death all along,

       but few know how to die while living.

       Yea, one who dies this way,

       does not die ever again.²⁶

Vindicating such a lofty principle and cherishing such a proud privilege, the Sikh Martyr has been proceeding on the chosen path by announcing and praying:

    jwn jwie qw jwey, myrw isKI isdk nw jwey ]

       Let my life go, let my body perish,

       But let not my faith shake or shatter.²⁷

Believing, at the same time, that by laying down his life for such a glorious cause in such a sublime way, he lives in God at the feet of the Guru (Master); he does not budge even an inch from it, even though no other privilege or higher rank is offered to him or is promised to be awaiting him in Paradise.²⁸ Neither he seeks nor longs for it here or hereafter in lieu thereof, considering his sacrifice as a matter of pre-assurance for any reward in this world or for salvation in the next.²⁹ This is again so in Sikhism because it does not aim at salvation, or deliverance, which means a static merger with and reabsorption of the individual soul into the universal soul, as a terminality. This is left entirely to the Grace of God. The Sikh’s duty is confined to right thinking and right actions, enthused although with pulsating love of the Omnipresent. He continues to follow his chosen path, therefore, as “a combatant of God’s own Legion”³⁰ with complete subordination of His will and with an amazing indifference to rewards and inducements, repeating his Master’s plea in his following words:

    raju n cahxu mukit n cahxu min pRIit crn kmlar[ .

[SGGS : 534]

       I neither seek royalty nor liberation.

       My heart seeks only the love of Your lotus feet.³¹

This has all along been so in Sikhism, because it also believes in “the divine principle of the necessity of a just society and the duty of man of God to uphold it.”³² While proclaiming the character and innate nature of God as also the ‘Chastiser of evil’, its blessed Founder laid special emphasis on man’s imbibing also the ‘sacred character of heroism and sacrifice for upholding righteousness’. According to him, the spiritually enlightened person must enter into the sphere of common human life and strive to purify it by his example and, if necessary, by sacrificing himself. The man of God must remain ready to meet the challenge of evil and undertake to remove oppression and other varieties of suffering from the world of men, upholding at the same time the higher value of justice and truth, through his seva (dedicated work and service for common good) or Gurbani (sacrificial action for a noble cause) for which he already stands pledged with his Master who had told him even before initiation to:

    pihla mrNu kbUil jIvN kI Cid Aas .

    h]hu sBna kI r[Nuka txu Aaxu hmar{ pais .

[SGGS : 1102]

       Accept first the inevitability of death

       discard attachment to life.               

       and be the dust for all to tread upon.

       After that and that only,

       come to me to join my fold.³³

Such a pre-condition, demanding complete self-surrender and humility, for such a heroic action naturally involves, ‘in moments of crisis in the history of the people’, even one’s standing up to tyranny and despotism, and offering one’s own life for common good without any fear or hesitation. It may also involve open and constant conflict with terrible demons, masquerading in the form of tyrants at various levels. This is fairly evident from the subsequent history of the Sikh people,³⁴ a remarkable record of pro-active constant struggle, with untold sufferings of immense magnitude and revolutionary consequences.

End of Part I

(To be concluded)

q

References

1.  See Holy Bible: ‘New Testament’, e.g., Math xviii, 16; Mark xiv, 63.

2.  See Holy Qur’an, e.g., sura ii, 127; sura iii, 93; sura iv, 71.

3.  See New Testament, Act xxii, 20; Rev, ii, 13; Fox, Rev. John, An Universal History of Christian martyrdom, London –1824, Book I; Persecution in the Early Church, London-1906, by H.B. Workman.

4.  It has not been used exactly in this very sense in the Qur’an, but is very much there throughout the Hadith and subsequent literature.

5.  Houstsma, M.Th., etc. (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. IV, Leydon-1934, p. 259.

6.  For example, see New Testament, Act xxii. 20, Rev ii. 13; sura iii, 161 of Qur’an; Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Vadhans, p. 558. See also ‘Shalokas’, pp. 555, 1105 & 1365, etc.

7.  The self-imposed sufferings exhibited by some devotees for becoming bodhi-sattvas, neither involved persecution nor constituted martyrdom.

8.  Hastings, J. (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Edinburgh 1920, Vol. IX, pp. 50, 75, etc.; Hardy, R.S., A Manual of Buddhism, London-1890, pp. 349 ff; Shan, Dr. Harnam Singh, Conception of Martyrdom in Chinese and Japanese Civilozation, G.T.B. Tercentenary Seminar-Paper, Chandigarh-1967; Giles, H.A., Confucianism and its Rivals, London-1915, p i; etc.

9.  For instance, the custom of Satti in India, the practice of infanticide in Arabic and the vogue of self-immolation in Vietnam, etc. See Sacrifice in the Rigveda; Yerkes, R.N., Sacrifice in the Greek and Roman Religions and Early Judaism, New York-1952; Henry, H. etc., Sacrifice; Its Nature and Function, London-1964, etc.

10.        See Reode, W. Winwood, The Martyrdom of Man, London-1872, pp. 152, 179, 228, etc.; Money-Kyrle, R. The Meaning of Sacrifice, London-1929, pp. 78-79, etc.

11.        In Judaism, for instance, we find many devoted persons accepting “torture and death rather than a life in which the Law of God had no place”. The memory of martyrdom suffered by them in the reign of emperor Hadrian (2^nd.cy. A.D.) is preserved in a celebrated prayer recited till today in all places of Jewish worship on the Day of Atonement.

12.        Hughes, T.P., A Dictionary of Islam, London-1885, p. 327; Williams Jackeson, A.V., Zoreaster, New York – 1961; Hardy, R.S. A Manual of Buddhism, London-1890, pp. 349 ff.; A Literary History of Persis. London-1902, Vol. I, p. 430, etc. by H.G. Browne.

13.        Although rich and moving literature is available describing the sufferings of Al-Husain and other members of the family of the Prophet Muhammad.

14.        Like St. Stephen, St. Peter, St. Paul, Saul, Antopas and Ignatius.

15.        Mason, A.J., The Historic Martyrs of the Primitive Church, London-1905.

16.        For example, Sur Sadi who is venerated a martyr. (See Rose, H.A., A Glossary of the Castes and Tribes of the Panjab and the North-Western Frontier Province of India, Lahore-1919. Vol. II, p. 169).

17.        Among those who are said to have died in battle with the Hindus in India, Salar Masud is considered to be the most famous.

18.        See A Dictionary of Islam, op. cit., p. 327.

19.        See Wensinck, A.U., handbook of Early Mohammedan Tradition, S.V. Martyrs; Encyclopaedia of Islam, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 260.

20.        Hardy, Dr. Peter, Historian of Medieval India, London-1960, p. 114.

21.        Narang, Dr. Sir Gokul Chand, Transformation of Sikhism, Lahore-1912; 5^th ed., New Delhi- 1960, p. 25.

22.        Majumdar, Prof. R.C. & Pusalkar, A.D., History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. VI, Bombay-1951, p. 569.

23.        Arjun Dev, Sri Guru (ed.), Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Amritsar-1604; Guru Nanak, Slok no. 20, p. 1412; also Gurdas, Bhai,  Varan, Amritsar-1606 (cir.) no. 3, st. 18.

24.        Preserved, in original, in Guru Granth Sahib, compiled in 1604 at Amritsar by Guru Arjun Dev, fifth in his apostolic line, and also in Sri Dasam Granth sahib, compiled in 1713 A.D. by Bhai Mani Singh at Amritsar.

25.        See Guru Granth Sahib, op. cit., Guru Nanak Rag Wadhans, p. 579.

26.        Ibid, Bhagat Kabir, Slok, Rag Bihagra, p. 555.

27.        A very popular adage of the Sikhs which is usually sung in a chorus while preparing or heading for a morcha or a movement.

28.        As has been promised and depicted in numerous Hadiths of Islam; or has been mentioned in the case of some Christians of an early period. (See Reode’s Martyrdom of Man, op. cit., pp. 195-96).

29.        As, for instance, we learn from the over-flowing zeal and appeal of Ignatius. (Ibid., p. 115)

30.        Guru Arjun Dev, Guru Granth Sahib, op. cit., Rag Siri, p. 74.

31.        Guru Arjun Dev, Guru Granth Sahib, op., cit., Rag Devgandhari, p. 534.

32.        Talib, Prof. Gurbachan Singh, Moral Core of Guru Nanak’s Teaching (ed. Dr. H.S. Shan), Chandigarh-1976, p. 36.

33.        Guru Arjun Dev, Guru GrantH Sahib, op. cit., Rag Maru, p. 1102 .

34.        That is, the followers of Guru Nanak and and adherents to the ideal set by him.