The Execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur
The ninth Guru is publicly beheaded in Delhi under the emperor Aurangzeb; Sikhs remember him as having given his life for the freedom of conscience of others.
- The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
- Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the Game of Love — Louis E. Fenech, Oxford University Press (2000)
- A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
Tegh Bahadur, the youngest son of Guru Hargobind, became the ninth Guru in 1664. A poet of detachment and fearlessness, whose hymns were later added to the scripture, he travelled widely in north and east India and founded the town of Anandpur in the Himalayan foothills.
- The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
- Sikhism — W. H. McLeod, Penguin (1997)
In 1675 he was arrested and taken to Delhi, where, on Aurangzeb’s orders, he was publicly beheaded along with three companions, who were killed in gruesome ways. Sikh tradition tells that a low-caste Sikh, Bhai Jaita, carried the Guru’s head through the night to his nine-year-old son, Gobind, at Anandpur.
- Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the Game of Love — Louis E. Fenech, Oxford University Press (2000)
- The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
- A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
Kashmiri Brahmins, facing forced conversion, came to the Guru for help. He told them to say they would convert if he did, then went to Delhi, refused to embrace Islam or perform a miracle, and was executed. He died defending the right of people of another faith to keep it.
- Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the Game of Love — Louis E. Fenech, Oxford University Press (2000)
- A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
The execution in Delhi in 1675 is well established. Historians differ on Aurangzeb's motives, which may have mixed religious policy with concern over the Guru's following and travels in Punjab, and the story of the Kashmiri Pandits is recorded in Sikh sources written later.
- The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
- The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies — Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), Oxford University Press (2014)
Why it matters today
Sikhs call Guru Tegh Bahadur "Hind di chadar", the shield of India, and see his death as a sacrifice for religious freedom itself, not only for Sikhs. Gurdwara Sis Ganj in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, marks the spot, and his execution shaped his son Guru Gobind Singh's founding of the Khalsa.