Finished Reading Sohan Singh’s, ‘Banda the Brave’. Here are some excepts from the book about the righteousness that Banda Singh stood for.
This thread gives some insight on how one man fought against oppression with all his might.

Banda immediately after blessed by the tenth master set out to gather his army and issued a proclamation that was the beginning of pain and agony for the imperial Mughals. This proclamation gave some sort of relief to persecuted Hindus at that time. He minced no words there;

In Chapter 8, Sohan singh tells us about the keen eye that Banda had. He could detect the spies around him and in order to send message to Wazid Khan, he cut the ears and noses of those spies and sent them to him. This was the beginning of the man, the legend Banda.

Banda like all Singhs in the misl era was against cow slaughter & considered it as sacrilege. This episode in Kuujpura is important & acted as deterrent to those who killed cows. It sent the message loud & clear.

Some people would call him bigot if he existed today!

Banda was saviour of oppressed & when the news of news of persecution of Mahajans of Sadhaura reached him, he set for Sadhaura & locked the place with no tyrant escaping Sadhaura.

Usman Khan was tied to a tree and his body was consumed by kites. The people who pleaded for their lives were pardoned but Banda knew that they could not be trusted and he wasn’t very wrong. In this episode, a treason was attempted by people he pardoned.

The pardoned people attempted to send secret message to Wazid Khan to bring in an army. If Banda had not discovered this, this would have been his possible end. But History has other plans. The treason as it happened is noted by Sohan singh as

He summoned the sane Moslems & asked them for the punishment for such treason to which they echoed that it is death, and death was hence granted to them in a massacre. The place is called as Katl-Garhi or slaughter house.

In the village named ‘Kapuri’ which was 3-4kos (1kos=~5miles) from Sadhaura lived Amaan-Ullah who had been governor of Kathiawar during Aurangzeb’s time. His son was trouble for Hindu females. He used to pretend to be Hindu to pick up Hindu girls. Banda found it & killed him.

Victorious army of Banda headed to Kharar to meet Majhel Sikhs but not before addressing a small problem of people of Chhat & Banor where Hindus were troubled by cow killings and abduction of their women.

Another episode that’s worth mentioning is that of trickery of Wazid Khan. All sources note that Wazid Khan was scared of Banda & wanted to threaten him with a letter so he wrote to Banda as

Banda’s reply sent shivers down his spine and he started fortifying his fort. Banda’s reply sealed the fate of Sirhind.

Sohan Singh notes and writes that Hindus of Sirhind were joyous that their prayers have been answered. He notes that everyone except family of Sucha Nand was happy in Sirhind.

Without going into details of the battle, Wazid Khan fell from his horse & his army deserted him. Wazid Khan was dragged into the bazaar and his body was feast to the kites.

Sucha Nand tried to run away with his family for he knew that Singhs would not pardon him for his crimes. He was caught, his nose pierced and dragged in the bazaar until he died of pain. The justice had been delivered.Revenge taken for his treason & suggestion to brick Sahibzadas

Banda found out another incident of Gulsher Mohd Khan taking away Anup Kaur in Malerkotla. Banda with his band reached Malerkotla looking for Khan. However Khan was lucky that Banda encountered someone who he knew from his Bairagi days. He decided not to plunder Malerkotla

The earliest recording of word ‘Kafirphobia’ is found in this book & episode of Lohgrah is worth mentioning here. After Banda escaped Lohgarh fort, Assad Khan got mad because his men had captured Gulab singh (look alike) who they thought was Banda. It was actually a plan of Sikhs

Assad Khan in his ‘Kafirphobia’ (the earliest recording of the word) ordered massacre of Sadhus who he mistook as Sikhs.

Another interesting episode is that of fight with Kasari Pathans. In this battle, Sikhs executed their plan which is even recorded by Noor Mohammad. Bazid Khan’s nephew Shams Khan was confident of catching ‘Kafir’ Banda. He met Sikhs near Raipur & Interesting tactic was at play

Almost all writers including bigoted Nur Mohammad knew of this tactic of Sikhs where they retreat and then attack. Bazid Khan and Shams Khan were too naive and over confident, hence lost their lives and army.

Nur Mohammad in Jungnama wrote about the tactic of Sikhs. Nur Mohd says that Sikhs used to do it with Abdali but Abdali didn’t fall for it when he found that it was a tactic.

Sohan Singh’s book is a good read and offers insights on a righteous man who later turned astray because he forgot hukum of Guru. Sohan Singh talks about conspiracy of Farrukh Saiyyar & treaty that abandoned Banda. I intend to talk about it after cross references.

It is however very much established that Banda Singh Bahadur was an epitome of righteousness in the dark days of oppression.

As Gurbani says,

‘ਜੁਗ ਮਹਿ ਉਤਮੁ ਕਾਢੀਐ ਵਿਰਲੇ ਕੇਈ ਕੇਿੲ’

Men who are truly great are very rare and few.