Images below: first from bottom - the gurdwara in Shahidganj, Lahore commemorating the martyrdom of Bhai Taru Singh. Second from below: 'The Scalping of Bhai Taru Singh", by Kirpal Singh.
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The Magic of the Jutti
by T. SHER SINGH
The saga of Sardar Jarnail Singh is now well known around the world.
At a time when cowardice has become the hallmark of modern "leadership" everywhere, he stood up in public, before the very man who represented the power and glory of the Government of India - the country's Home Minister, Mr. Palaniappan Chidambaran - and challenged him, politely but firmly, to mete out justice, albeit 25 years too late, to the criminals who were behind the mass murders of innocents in 1984.
The not-so-honourable Indian Minister not only skirted around the questions, but then dared to instruct his minions to remove the irritating journalist from the scene ... "Gently, gently ...", as if any assault to a journalist's freedom of speech can be delivered gently!
Troubled by twenty-five years of crimes and shenanigans against the Sikh people and humanity at large, now face-to-face with yet another insult to basic decency, and with his physical removal from the scene imminent, the gentle Sardar felt he had only one option - one forced upon him by the errant politician - in response.
Putting aside all thoughts of dire consequences from a government and a nation that had already proved itself incapable of basic decency, he took a step which has to be the only effective recourse left in the arsenal of truly non-violent warriors today.
He took off his shoe and hurled it at the face of India's Home Minister.
This proverbial "jutti on the head" did its magic - it knocked some sense in the Minister's head and reverberations were heard within other political skulls throughout the land.
I won't belabour you with further details of this simple incident that has indeed produced a small but important result.
What I do want to remind you is that the magic of the Punjabi Jutti goes back well into Sikh folklore and history. Time and time again, in both fact and legend, it has done wonders to correct wrongs by tyrannical rulers and crooked bureaucrats.
Contrary to popular belief, the method was not invented by the Iraqi who doled out just desserts to America's errant President George W. Bush with his shoe.
Our young General - Jarnail Singh - is but one in a long line of tales in Punjabi lore which proclaim and celebrate the power of the Punjabi Jutti.
Let me remind you of the most famous one.
ZAKRIYA KHAN & THE JUTTI
Zakriya Khan, as the Mughal Governor of Lahore between 1726 and 1745, ordered the genocide of Sikhs with the goal of eradicating them completely. He posted a monetary reward for the capture of Sikhs, dead or alive. Tens of thousands were wiped out during this initial campaign. The remaining warriors fled the villages, towns and cities and took refuge in the wilderness.
A Hindu resident of the village of Puhla - Harbhagat Niranjania - saw an opportunity to win a reward. He reported to the Governor that a certain Taru Singh was assisting the Sikhs hiding in the wilderness by providing them with supplies.
Taru Singh was promptly arrested and brought to the area in Lahore which had acquired the name of "Sahidganj" because it was where the prisoners would be brought to be publicly tortured and executed. [This was the beginning of the two periods known in Sikh history as the Great Holocausts.]
Taru Singh admitted his role. He said he indeed freely helped all - Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs - who were in need.
Zakriya Khan gave him an easy way out - embrace Islam and walk away free.
Taru Singh famously refused to give up Sikhi.
Zakriya Khan ordered the public torture and slow execution of the Sikh, commencing with the shearing of his 'kesh'.
Legend says that they were simply unable to cut his hair.
Enraged, Zakriya Khan summoned a cobbler and ordered him to chisel off Taru's Singh's scalp in his presence.
The story goes that even as the torture was being inflicted on Taru Singh, the spectating Zakriya Khan fell ill, experiencing extreme pain in his groin.
While Taru Singh was thrown into a prison cell to die, Zakriya Khan was taken to his palace to be treated by physicians. As days progressed, the nature of the ailment became clear: Zakriya Khan could not urinate.
Unable to bear the progressing agony, the Governor realized he had run afoul of a true saint.
He was advised by the coterie of mullahs and pundits in his court that there was only one remedy - he would only be able to urinate if beaten on the head by the shoe of a holy man.
An urgent plea for forgiveness was delivered to Taru Singh in his prison cell. And one of his juttis was brought back to the Governor.
It is said that the remedy worked. Zakriya Khan could urinate, but only as long as he was being beaten on the head with Taru Singh's shoe. These beatings continued, at his own insistence, until he succumbed to the pain and died - twelve days after the public scalping of Taru Singh.
Legend goes that Taru Singh breathed his last when word was brought to him of his oppressor's death.
Bhai Taru Singh's name is written in gold in the annals of human history.
The legend of the Punjabi Jutti lives on.
And Zakriya Khan? He's all but forgotten. Only Sikhs remember him - and only as the man who had to be beaten on the head with a Sikh's jutti to be able to perform his normal bodily functions.
There is a message in all of this, Mr Chidambaram. And for you, Mr Tytler. And Mr Sajjan. And all of your ilk.
Read the writing on the wall!
[Vaisakhi Day, 2009]
Conversation about this article
1: Satbir Singh (Los Angeles, U.S.A.), April 14, 2009, 4:13 PM.
This story sounds nice, but does't it show krodh and haumai on the part of Bhai Taru Singh?
2: P.Singh (Canada), April 15, 2009, 1:41 AM.
Nope. But it does show at least two things: 1) God's treatment of the corrupt and evil; and 2) That sometimes, a jutti to the head is the only way to make some people understand.
3: Baljit Kaur (Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India), April 16, 2009, 5:16 PM.
Came across the following story circulating amongst the chatter groups on the net, of another jutti story from Punjabi lore. The gist of the tale is a follows: "Outside Amritsar is Ram Tirath, a minor Hindu place of pilgrimage. The mandir is built in honour of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. I happened to visit this place in the mid-60s. I saw a marble statue of a pandit (Hindu priest) inside a cage. I was told it was that of Chandu - the rogue behind Guru Arjan's execution. As the legend goes, Chandu was beaten to death with juttis by the general populace. Therefore, according to tradition, anyone who passed by the statue would hit Chandu's statue on its head with a jutti. The temple priests decided to put the statue in a cage, in an attempt to stop this practice. Not long thereafter, frustrated in not being able to wield his jutti, a passerby broke the nose off the statue with a dunda (staff)."
4: Dharamveer Singh (Mumbai, India), July 14, 2009, 3:34 PM.
Baljeet Kaur ji, thanks for sharing your story. T.Sher Singh ji ... I also happened to visit a gurdwara in Punjab where they say that a man disguised himself as a Sikh and attacked Guru Sahib with a knife when the latter was cleaning his teeth. But Guru Sahib gave him a blow of the gadvi (metal vessel) he had within reach. The attacker died. But what happens now is that outside the gurdwara is the would-be-assasin's grave and you can see people still beating his coffin with a jutti. You wil find some broken juttis lying atop his coffin. Pretty strange, but also pretty amusing. If anyone knows the name of that gurdwara, please share the info.