Sahibzada Fateh Singh (12 December 1699 – 26 December 1705), the youngest of Guru Gobind Singh‘s four sons, was born to Mata Jito Ji (also known as Mata Sundari Ji) at Anandpur on 12 December 1699. During the flight from Anandpur, when the Sikhs, having been promised safe passage to Panjab, Sahibzada Fateh Singh was, along with his elder brother Zorawar Singh, put under the care of his grandmother, Mata Gujari Kaur Ji, Unfortunately in the confusion of the rain swollen Sarsa (normally little more than a creek) and an attack by Muslim pursuers, the Guru’s two youngest Sons and their Grandmother were separated from the main body of Sikhs. However, managing to get across they were befriended by one of the Guru’s former cooks. Later betrayed and handed off by the authorities of the small village where they had been given sanctuary, they were handed over to agents of Wazir Khan and carted off to Sirhind and placed under arrest in the Khan’s Thanda Burj (cold tower). While the Thanda Burj was built to capture the cool night breezes of air drawn over water channels in the areas hot summers, during the dead of winter the unheated burj offered no comfort for the Guru’s Mother and Sons.
On 26 December 1705, Fateh Singh and his elder brother, Zorawar Singh were martyred at Sirhind. Fateh Singh is the youngest recorded martyr in history who knowingly laid down his life at the very tender age of 6 years. Sahibzada Fateh Singh and his older brother, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh are among the most hallowed martyrs in Sikhism.
The mind boggles to understand how children of such young age had the guts, courage, bravery and focus to refuse the promise of many lavish gifts and a future of cosy comforts of royalty that were being offered by the Mughals. All they had to do to get all these luxuries was to abandon their religion. This young child was asked to weigh an easy out against the stark option of a brutal, painful and tragic death entombed within a wall of bricks and cement.
The world salutes the supreme sacrifice of these kids of steel who never once – even for a moment considered the easy option and always remained focused on their mission to uphold the principles of God’s kingdom and allowed their bodies to be tortured, violated and endured the intense pain of a slow, pain-ridden and certain death.
On the one hand the world witnessed, the supreme sacrifice of the youngest members of the Guru’s household for the highest ideals of humanity and on the other hand you have the lowly, cruel, cold-blooded and barbaric acts of the heartless and immoral Wazir Khan who had broke an oath sworn on his own Holy book—the Qur’an. May the world reflect on this supreme sacrifice made by this 6 year old, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Guru Tegh Bahadar Ji to fight for justice and for the right of his people and people of other faiths to practise their own faiths without interference or imposition. May we all, the different peoples of our planet learn from this episode in our global history, the values of life and the way to uphold these values. Also, may we all realise the dangers posed by uncontrolled and immoral minds on the development of humanity on this fragile earth.
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