Story behind Sardar’s joke “12 Baj gaye” :
Story behind Sardar’s joke “12 Baj gaye” :
“Oye
Sardar, tere toh 12 baj gaye”, A very common and famous joke which people crack
proudly to their sardar companions. And the best part is Sikhs don’t retaliate
back, in fact they take this with a smile. A Sikh is always known for his
courage, sacrifice and helping behavior towards humanity.
Through
this article, I want to put light on the actual story behind the 12 o Clock
joke for Sardar.
During the 17th
century, when Mughals were ruling Hindustan, all Hindus were disgraced and considered
as animals. Mughals were forcefully converting Hindus to Islam and would kill
them if they refused to accept. They were kidnapping Hindu women, raping and
treating them as their property. When the situation went out of control, the
Kashmiri Pandits requested our ninth Guru, Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji and in
response he decided to fight all these cruel activities.
Deeply affected by this incident, our 10th
Guruji, Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji (Son of Guru Teg Bahadarji), took a challenge
to make an army of fearless people who instead of hiding themselves, come
forward to help and serve the humanity. Guru Gobind Singh ji called his army “SIKHS”.
In the beginning the number was very less who
dared to fight against Mughal Emperors. In 17th century, Nadir Shah invaded
India massacring thousands of Hindus and taking their women along. The panic
wave took over the whole India. At that time Sardar Jassa Singh was the
Commander of the Sikh army. He decided to attack Nadir Shah’s Kafila and free
the women safely.
The concern was that sikh army was much less in
number as compared to Nadir Shah’s huge army. So Sikh army started attacking
them in the midnight and rescued the women safely. So whenever anybody came in
such a situation the brave hearted sikh army courageously fought against
cruelty to save humanity. Because they were very few in number, their attacks
were usually at 12’o clock midnight. And hence, Sikhs got associated with the
pharse “Sikhan de 12 baj gaye”. This phrase was used for asking help from sikh
army.
Despite being the Sikh I was also not
aware of this truth and got annoyed at such phrases and Sardar jokes. But When
I heard this story, I felt proud of my community. I feel proud that I am a part
of Guruji’s courageous Sikh army. This community never lets down any other
community. In fact our first guru, Guru Nanak Dev ji gave a beautiful message
to humanity “ Ek Onkar” i.e. GOD IS ONE.
Teachings
of all the 10 Gurus have only 1 great message “Serve the Humanity irrespective
of your religion, caste and creed.”
