When Guru Govind Singh was forced to evacuate Anandpur Sahib, in the confusion that ensued, the two young boys and the Guru’s old, widowed mother Mata Gujri fell into the hands of Aurangzeb’s army. They were forced to convert to Islam and when they refused, their fingers were blown off with firecrackers, they were bricked up alive in a minar (tower) on 27 December 1704 in the presence of the old lady, who died on the spot out of the shock and grief.3 As historian James Browne noted: ‘Of all instances of cruelty exercised on the propagators of new doctrines, this is the most barbarous and
...more
