ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>S&#256K&#256 PAÑJ&#256 S&#256HIB</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="SK,PAÑJ,SHIB"> <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">&#65279S&#256K&#256 PAÑJ&#256 S&#256HIB, the heroic event which took place at Hasan Abd&#257l railway station, close to the sacred shrine of Pañja S&#257hib on the morning of 30 October 1922 and which has since passed into folklore as an instance of Sikh courage and resolution. A non-violent <i>morch&#257</i> or agitation to assert the right to felling trees for Gur&#363 k&#257 La&#7749gar from the land attached to Gurdw&#257r&#257 Gur&#363 k&#257 B&#257<u>gh</u> in Amritsar district, already taken over from the priests by the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee after a negotiated settlement, had started on 8 August 1922. At first Sikh volunteers were arrested and tried for trespass, but from 25 August police resorted to beating day after day the batches of Sikhs that came. This went on till 13 September when, on the intervention of the Punjab Governor, the beating stopped and the procedure of arrests resumed. The prisoners were tried summarily at Amritsar and then despatched by special trains to distant jails. One such train left Amritsar on 29 October 1922 for the Attock Fort which would touch Hasan Abd&#257l the following morning. The Sikhs of Pañja S&#257hib decided to serve a meal to the detenues but, when they reached the railway station with the food, they were informed by the station master that the train was not scheduled to halt there. Their entreaties and their plea that such trains had been stopped at other places for the prisoners to be fed went unheeded. Two of the Sikhs, Bh&#257&#299 Prat&#257p Si&#7749gh and Bh&#257&#299 Karam Si&#7749gh who were leading the <i>sa&#7749gat</i> went forward as the rumbling sound of the approaching train was heard and sat cross-legged in the middle of the track. Several others, men and women, followed suit. The train-driver slowed down suddenly and brought the train to a screeching halt, but not before it had run over eleven of the squatters. The worst mauled were Bh&#257&#299 Prat&#257p Si&#7749gh and Bh&#257&#299 Karam Si&#7749gh, who succumbed to their injuries the following day. Their dead bodies were taken to R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 where they were cremated on 1 November 1922. They were hailed as martyrs and, until the partition of 1947, a three-day religious fair used to be held in their memory at Pañj&#257 S&#257hib from 30 October to 1 November every year.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Ganda Si&#7749gh, ed., <i>Some Confidential Papers of the Akali Movement</i>. Amritsar, 1965<BR> <li class="C1"> Mohinder Si&#7749gh, <i>The Akali Movement</i>. Delhi, 1978<BR> <li class="C1"> Teja Si&#7749gh, <i>Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform Movement and the Sikh Awakening</i>. Jalandhar, 1922<BR> <li class="C1"> Sahni, Ruchi Ram, <i>Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines</i>, Ed. Ganda Si&#7749gh. Amritsar, n.d.<BR> <li class="C1"> Prat&#257p Si&#7749gh, Gi&#257n&#299, <i>Gurdw&#257r&#257 Sudh&#257r arth&#257t Ak&#257l&#299 Lahir</i>. Amritsar, 1975<BR> <li class="C1"> Josh, Sohan Si&#7749gh, <i>Ak&#257l&#299 Morchi&#257&#7749 da Itih&#257s</i>. Delhi, 1972<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurmeet Si&#7749gh <br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>