Historical

Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib

Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib is one of the nine historical Gurdwaras in Delhi. It was first constructed in 1783 as a small shrine by Baghel Singh to commemorate the martyrdom site of the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur and was probably expanded after Indian Rebellion of 1857 or after Partition of India. Before its construction the Mughal Kotwali (Police Station and Jail) was situated here. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the Mughal Kotwali was demolished by the British and the land was given to the Sikhs as the maharaja of Patiala and other Sikh soldiers helped the British to defeat the Mughal soldiers by providing large numbers of ammunition and soldiers. Its current building was made by Rai Bahadur Narain Singh a contractor who build most of roads in Lutyens New Delhi construction under British Rule. Situated in Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, it marks the site where the ninth Sikh Guru was beheaded on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb on 11 November 1675. The Sikh regiment of the Indian army salute the Sis Ganj Gurudwara before saluting the president of India since 1979, the only instance of saluting twice in the Republic Day parade by a regiment of Indian army.

History

On 11 March 1783, Sikh military leader Baghel Singh (1730–1802) of the Karora Misl marched into Delhi along with his army. He occupied the Diwan-i-Am, the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II made a settlement with them agreeing to allow Baghel Singh to raise gurudwaras on Sikh historical sites in the city and receive six annas in a rupee (37.5%) of all the octroi duties in the capital. Sis Ganj was one of the shrines built by him (with eight Sikh shrines connected to the Sikh gurus being constructed in the city by him), within the time span of eight months, from April to November 1783. Baghel Singh did not actually know the exact location that the guru's beheading had taken place, only knowing that the place was somewhere near a mosque in Chandni Chowk. A local, elderly Muslim woman belonging to the water-carrier caste got in-contact with him and revealed that her father had actually been the one who had cleaned the site of the guru's execution after the event and he was an eye-witness to the execution itself. She explained that the guru at the time of his beheading had been seated upon a wooden chauki (seat) that faced in the eastern direction of the compound wall of the mosque. A part of this very wall was then removed and a shrine was then constructed in the compound.