Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur

 Context (IE | X): On the martyrdom anniversary of Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur, President Murmu paid homage.

• Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, was born in Amritsar in 1621 and served as the spiritual leader of the Sikh community from 1665 until his death in 1675.
• Revered as the ‘Protector of Humanity’ (Srisht-di-Chadar), Guru Tegh Bahadur is honored for his sacrifices in defending religious freedoms.
• He was a prolific writer, and many of his hymns are included in the Guru Granth Sahib.
• He established the city of Anandpur Sahib, located in Punjab’s Rupnagar district, near the Shivalik Hills and Sutlej River.
• The Gurdwaras at Sis Ganj Sahib and Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi commemorate the sites of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s execution and cremation.
• The Guru stood firm in support of the Kashmiri Pandits, who sought his intervention against the religious oppression of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
• Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed by beheading under Aurangzeb’s orders for opposing forced conversions to Islam.
• According to the Nanakshahi calendar, his martyrdom is annually observed on 24th November as Shaheedi Divas, as declared by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
• Guru Gobind Singh Ji, his son, was inspired by his father’s sacrifice and went on to formalize the Sikh community as the Khalsa, a distinct and symbolically significant society.