ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>CHHO&#7788&#256 GHALL&#362GH&#256R&#256</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="CHHOl,GHALLjGHR"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279CHHO&#7788&#256 GHALL&#362GH&#256R&#256, lit. minor holocaust or carnage, as distinguished from Va&#7693&#7693&#257 Ghall&#363gh&#257r&#257 (<i>q. v. </i>) or major massacre, is how Sikh chronicles refer to a bloody action during the severe campaign of persecution launched by the Mu<u>gh</u>al government at Lahore against the Sikhs in 1746. Early in that year, Jaspat R&#257i, the <i>faujd&#257r</i> of Emin&#257b&#257d, 55 km north of Lahore, was killed in an encounter with a roving band of Sikhs. Jaspat R&#257i's brother, Lakhpat R&#257i, who was a <i>D&#299w&#257n</i> or revenue minister at Lahore, vowed revenge declaring that he would not put on his headdress nor claim himself to be a Khatr&#299, to which caste he belonged, until he had scourged the entire Sikh Panth out of existence. With the concurrence of the Mu<u>gh</u>al governor of Lahore, Yah&#299y&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257n, Lakhpat R&#257i mobilized the Lahore troops, summoned reinforcements from Mult&#257n, Bah&#257walpur and Jalandhar, alerted the feudal hill chiefs, and roused the general population for a <i>jih&#257d</i> or crusade against the Sikhs. As an immediate first step, he had the Sikh inhabitants of Lahore rounded up and ordered their execution despite intercession on their behalf by a group of Hindu nobles headed by D&#299w&#257n Kau&#7771&#257 Mall. He ignored the request even of his <i>gur&#363</i>, Sant Jagat Bhagat Gos&#257i&#7749, that the killing should not be carried out on the appointed day which being an <i>am&#257vasy&#257</i>, the last day of the dark half of the lunar month, falling on a Monday was especially sacred to the Hindus. Execution took place as ordered on that very day, 13 Chet 1802 Bk / 10 March 1746. Lakhpat R&#257i then set out at the head of a large force, mostly cavalry supported by cannon, in search of Sikhs who were reported to have concentrated in the swampy forest of K&#257hn&#363v&#257n, 15 km south of the present town of Gurd&#257spur. He surrounded the forest and started a systematic search for his prey. The Sikhs held out for some time striking back whenever they could but, heavily outnumbered and underequipped, they at last decided to make a final sally and escape to the hills in the northeast. They crossed the River R&#257v&#299 and made for the heights of Basohl&#299 in the present K&#257&#7789h&#363&#257 district of Jamm&#363 and Kashm&#299r only to find that the Hindu hillmen in front were as hostile to them as the Muslim hordes following close upon their heels. Caught in this situation and bereft of provisions, they suffered heavy casualties in the area around Pa&#7771ol and Ka&#7789h&#363&#257. Yet making a last desperate bid, the survivors broke through the ring and succeeded in recrossing the R&#257v&#299, though many were carried away in the torrent. With Lakhpat R&#257i still close behind, they crossed the Be&#257s and the Sutlej to find refuge in their old sanctuary, the Lakkh&#299 Jungle, deep into the M&#257lv&#257 region. An estimated 7, 000 Sikhs were killed and 3, 000 captured in the action fought on 1 and 2 May 1746. Lakhpat R&#257i marched back in triumph to Lahore where he had the captives beheaded in batches in the Na<u>kh</u>&#257s or site of the horse market outside the Delhi gate where, in later times, the Sikhs raised a memorial shrine known as the Sh&#257h&#299dgañj, lit. the treasure-house of martyrs. Lakhpat R&#257i ordered Sikh places of worship to be destroyed and their holy books burnt. He even decreed that anyone uttering the word <i>gur&#363</i> should be put to death. Considering that the word <i>gu&#7771</i> meaning jaggery sounded like <i>gur&#363</i>, he ordered that jaggery should be called <i>ro&#7771&#299</i>, lit. a lump, and not <i>gu&#7771</i>. The nightmarish episode of March-May 1746 came to be known among the Sikhs as Ghall&#363gh&#257r&#257, later Chho&#7789&#257 Ghall&#363gh&#257r&#257 as compared to a still greater killing that befell them 16 years later, the Va&#7693&#7693&#257 Ghall&#363gh&#257r&#257 of 5 February 1762.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lakhpat R&#257i's boast of a total annihilation of the Sikh people, however, was soon falsified. In about six months' time, the Sikhs were back on the scene converging upon Amritsar in small groups, and, on 30 March 1747, the Sarbatt <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257, congregation representative of the entire Panth, at Amritsar adopted a <i>gurmat&#257</i>, holy resolution, that a fort, named R&#257m Rau&#7751&#299 be constructed by them at Amritsar as a permanent stronghold.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Bha&#7749g&#363, Ratan Si&#7749gh, <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i>. Amritsar, 1914<BR> <li class="C1"> Gi&#257n Si&#7749gh, Gi&#257n&#299, <i>Panth Prak&#257sh</i>. Pati&#257l&#257, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Cunningham, Joseph Davey, <i>A History of the Sikhs</i>. London, 1849<BR> <li class="C1"> Gupta, H. R. , <i>History of the Sikhs</i>, vol. IV. Delhi, 1982<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">B. S. Nijjar<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>