BANDA BAHADUR GURUDWARA, NEW DELHI In every faith and every land, whenever men become corrupt, despotic and tyrannous, God sends a scourge like me to punish them and teach them a lesson". Thus spoke Banda Singh Bahadur a great Sikh hero in reply to a question put to him by Mohammad Amin Khan, the author of Siyarul-Mutakherin when he went near him to ask as to why he was waging war against Mughals. Banda Bahadur was tortured to death by order of Mughal King Farrukh Siyar on June 19, 1716 in Mehrauli near Qutab Minar. Earlier he was taken through the streets of Delhi to the shrine of the Sufi Saint Khawaja Bakhtiar Kaki in Mehrauli. He was paraded around the tomb of Emperor Bahadur Shah.
CHAPPAR CHIRI (30° 45`N, 76° 40`E), Ban and Chhoti (senior and junior), are twin villages in Ropar district, along KhararBanur road, now officially named Banda Singh Bahadur road. This area was the scene of a historic battle. Gurdwara Baba Banda Bahadur is situated between the two villages by the side of the metalled link road joining them. The battle took place around here on 12 May 1710 between the Sikhs led by Banda Singh Bahadur and Wazir Khan, the imperial faujdar of Sirhind. The latter was killed and the Mughal army routed.
FATEH SINGH (d. 1716), an army commander under Banda Singh Bahadur, who was appointed administrator of Samana after the town was occupied by the Sikhs in 1709. Fateh Singh participated in several of Banda Singh`s battles against the Mughal rulers. In the battle of Sirhind fought at the nearby village of Chappar Chiri, Fateh Singh killed Nawab Wazir Khan, the faujdar of Sirhind. He was taken prisoner at Lohgarh in December 1710 and, after several years in jail, was executed in Delhi in June 1716 along with Banda Singh and his other companions.
FATUHAT NAMAH-I-SAMADI, an unpublished Persian manuscript preserved in the British Library, London, under No. Or. 1870, is an account of the victories of `Abd us-Samad Khan. Nawab Saifud Daulah `Abd usSamad Khan Bahadur Diler Jang was appointed governor of the Punjab by the Mughal Emperor Farrukh-SIyar on 22 February 1713, with the specific object of suppressing the Sikhs who had risen under Banda Singh commissioned by Guru Gobind Singh himself, shortly before his death, to chastise the tyrannical rulers of Punjab and Sirhind.
