I am Daarji

The film Rebel Queen tells the remarkable story of the last Sikh ruler of Lahore – a fearless Maharani who waged two wars against British rule in India. She is an inspiring figure for young Asian women today. An Indian woman wearing a crinoline over her traditional clothes, and emeralds and pearls under her bonnet, walks in Kensington Gardens in 1861. She is the last Sikh queen of Lahore, the capital of the Punjab empire, and her name is   Jindan   Kaur.  She died two years later, in 1863, and was buried in west London. MaharaniJindan Kaur's life – much of which was spent raging against the British empire for cheating her out of Punjab, then a vast country stretching from the Khyber Pass to Kashmir – is the subject of a film called 'The Rebel Queen', which premiered at New York's International Sikh film festival and is set to be shown in the UK in February. Her revolt began when her husband, the last Maharaja of  Punjab, died of a stroke in...

Guru Nanak Could we really call Guru Nanak the founder of Sikhism... The origin of the word  is  that a  founder  originally meant a person who forges steel; similarly, the  founder  of a company  is  forging the new entity.   Well, he did  carry a new message to preach and to foster and found a new entity, in the much distraught world, brought a new message for mankind, He  was known for his political, social and spiritual beliefs which were based on love, equality, fraternity and virtue Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was one of the greatest religious innovators of all time and the founder of the Sikh religion. Guru Nanak's birthday is celebrated by Sikhs on April 14th by the Nanakshahi Calendar. (The date according to the lunar calendar changes annually but is usually in November.) Nanak's religious ideas draw on both Hindu and Islamic thought but are far more than just a synt...

                                         Lohri the multifaceted festival,   is celebrated every year on 13th of January and invariably the time is such that we are caught in the midst of a bone-chilling and cold misty winter. Lohri, I often laughingly talk about it as a festival of defrosting. We could say it is a festival of seasons. The history of Lohri, over a period of time, has become quite hybridized that the root and its transition in time are latticed intricately with seasons, element and folklore. The concept is probably as old as that of Indus Valley civilization and Vedic times itself. I In Punjab, the festival of   Lohri marks   the coming of the end of winter or we could say the coming of spring and the New Year. The bonfires are lit at night and in its warmth, people come together singing lilting folk songs and h...

It  was in the year 1999, the tercentennial year of the Birth of the Khalsa that th e dream process starts to  build a Khalsa Heritage Complex at Anandpur Sahib to commemorate the epoch-making event.   The Virasat-e-Khalsa stands at a site that is the birthplace of the Khalsa Panth.  It was here in 1699, on Vaisakhi Day, that  Guru Gobind Singh, founded the Khalsa Panth. It had to be an inspiring tribute to the laudable and poignant saga of the people of Punjab unfolding Sikh history and tradition like never before. Hailed as a "wonder in the making", the Khalsa Heritage complex had been conceived  on  a scale with a global perspective and located amidst rolling hills on a sprawling 100-acre estate inspired by the nearby Himalayan Mountains .  In its grandeur, it has no precedent, no comparison.....   Conceived as a repository of the rich heritage of the ...