This poem is based on the anthology of the British historian Todd. The facts narrated by Todd have not been distorted in this poem. However, this is one of the poems where Nobel-Laureate Tagore upholds that the seeming defeat of the Sikhs was a victory in the test of history. It as the victory of their spirituality over the brutal force they had to encounter. That is why Sikh ideal survives as a dynamic force, one f the noble heritages that will propel the Indian nation forward. And what happened to the omnipotent rulers (Mughols) who had let the hell oose on this beautiful earth, cultivated cruelty and inhumanity at its highest and appeared invincible? In the words of the Poet - "With blood stained sword in hand, with their bloody look, They hide face in the children's lesson book ..." [Rajat Das Gupta] 

Baghdad, January 27
A desolate courtyard surrounded by fields of mournful graves is all that remains of an ancient shrine to Guru Nanak inside a sprawling Muslim cemetery in Baghdad.War, insurgents or looters have wiped any trace of a historical footnote that had preserved the memory of Guru Nanak’s 16th-century journey through Arabia and his stay in Baghdad, hailed by Sikhs as an early example of inter-faith dialogue.

Jalandhar, January 25
An old age home is the sad option that old, weak and disillusioned men and women resort to when homes become dungeons and the kids that they fondly nurtured, tormentors.

It takes heartfelt empathy and dedication on the part of the staff, for these old age shelters to feel like a home. Though it still has a long way to go, the Apahaj Ashram in Jalandhar is an organisation which is at least trying to get there.

The ashram houses 148 inmates, 80 of them senior citizens.

There’s an interplay of hope and disappointment as The Tribune digs out the stories of some of the elderly inmates of the ashram.

He cooks lentils in a pot the size of a plunge pool. Jitendra Singh's soupy concoctions help feed tens 0f thousands of people each day at the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion.

The glimmering gurdwara is one of India's best-known religious monuments but its kitchen is also something to behold.

The Dark Side of "India Shining"

(Seattle, WA, December 29, 2010) When Westerners think of India, they most likely conjure up images of Bollywood movies, yoga, and the Taj Mahal. Some might think of call centers, perhaps the most salient symbol of India's economic rise to North Americans. And although India's rich cultural landscape and powerful global status are deserved, the government continues to hide a lesser-known, yet greater, reality: India's addiction to impunity and gross human rights violations.

Professor Emeritus Norman Gerald (Jerry) Barrier, an eminent historian of South Asia and Sikh Studies, passed away on Sunday, June 6, 2010, a day when Sikhs around the world were observing the 26^th anniversary of the Indian army's assault on the Golden Temple at Amritsar in 1984.

In fact, this major catastrophic event had provided Jerry with a new lens to re-interpret the legacy of the Sikh past in understanding modern Sikhism. His research continued to focus on recent Sikh history.

Jerry Barrier was born on August 22, 1940.

He received his Ph.D. from Duke University and taught for a year at Northern Illinois. Then he taught at the University of Missouri, Columbia, for 37 years. While at Missouri, Jerry headed South Asia Center for several years, chaired the History Department, and held two chairs, the Middlebush Chair in History and the Middlebush Chair in Social Sciences.