Charnjit Singh Bal

Vasakhi day has special socio-cultural, economic and historical significances for the Sikhs. It is the harbinger of the prolific spring and harvest season for the mainly agriculturist Sikh society of the Punjab, known as the breadbasket of India. The end of inclement winter weather and beginning of the clement spring season, when the flora blossoms and embellishes the ambient ecosystem evoke in Sikh community too a sense euphoria.

Since Sikhism professes that the God created all days equal, i.e. no day is holier than the other, it does not prescribe celebration of dogmatically designated holy days. In fact Sikhism proscribes attaching special religious import to such days. However this day has special historical significance for Sikhs because on this day in 1699 the tenth and the last Sikh Guru incarnate, Gobind Singh Sahib initiated contemporary Sikh baptismal ceremony. This historical day marks the metamorphosis of the Sikhism into Khalsa Panth (Noble Nation) and re-definition of its role in the multi socio-religious and cultural society of India.

Sikhism founded by Guru Nanak (1469-1539 CE) in the late fifteenth century had to fight the overt Islamic Jihad. The Sikh Gurus practiced what they preached. Armed with the courage of their convictions, they faced adversity with fortitude and professed valor (not militancy) in face of persecution and advocated taking up arms, to redress injustice, only as a last resort. Guru Gobind Singh Sahib quoted in Zaffernama, a poetic missive in Persian, a literary masterpiece, to tyrannical Mogul ruler Aurangzeb castigating him and his atrocious administration.

"If all other means to redress injustice fail, taking sword in hand is justified." Sheikh Saadi

To counter the state sponsored Muslim onslaught i.e. Jihad on the Non-Muslim populace's socio-religious freedom, Guru Gobind Singh Sahib convened a large assembly of the Sikhs from all over the Indian sub-Continent on Vasakhi day, 30^th march 1699. The Guru Sahib initiated and administered the Sikh baptismal rite to a vast majority of the Sikhs at the assemblage to evoke the virtue of valor in them. The baptized Sikhs were characterized as a Khalsa (noble warriors) and given a distinct identity. The Guru Sahib redefined Sikhism as Khalsa Panth (Nation) and entrusted it the role to fight political tyranny, socio-cultural injustice and defend universal religious freedom.

A Muslim Sufi poet Bullay Shah writes,

"If there were no Guru Gobind Singh, everyone would have had circumcision", meaning everyone in India would have been converted to Islam.

In the past the Sikhs used to assemble, if and when they were not being hunted and massacred by the tyrannical Mogul Imperial forces or foreign invaders, on Vasakhi day at Amritsar to celebrate and/or discuss ways and means of survival. In the recent times they have been congregating at Anandpur, Punjab, the birthplace of Khalsa, to celebrate the Vasakhi Day that now falls on 14^th April compared to 30^th March in 1699 A.D.

Since the Sikh calendar was synchronous with the millenniums old Hindu calendar that is longer than the Gregorian calendar, the Vasakhi Day has been lagging behind the dates of the latter. The attempts of some concerned Sikh scholars and intelligentsia to rectify the discrepancy were thwarted for a while by the regressive ilk of so-called Sikh high priests and self anointed saints. The progressive Sikh leadership element has prevailed and Sikh Nanakshahi calendar is now synchronous with the Gregorian calendar.

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