There are solid historical references in it here and there. This poem, born from abroad, has the ability to present the entire global environment including Punjab and India. To study this poem, it is necessary to study history. Novelist Kesar Singh writes about Ghadri poetry that it is a creation of Punjabis, hence most of the references in it are from the history of Punjab. In the light of these references, it is first necessary to explore the subconscious of this poem. From this subconscious, the traditions of the Hindu-Sikh heritage of Punjab, the image of the Punjabi thought stream and the healthy elements of its warlike heritage are also found and the criminal consciousness and guilt of the Sikh-Punjabis are also revealed. The militant, unyielding and freedom-loving peasant-tribal character of Punjab is embedded in every fiber of this poem. It has some such mistakes or accusations in Sikh history in its memory, from which it is struggling to get rid of them and reconnect with the human values and traditions of Sikh doctrine and Sikh history. The fact that the Sikhs have gone beyond their Khalsa religion is particularly painful for the Ghadri poets.
In today’s time, the real Khalsa religion is to die for the freedom of India: The Qazi Pandits and Gyans, do not listen to the word of war. The hungry people will be hungry day and night, their stomachs will remain empty, they will not have bones. The few Khalsa ji, do not eat bad food and worship. Due to the rumors spread by the supporters of the British Raj and flattering historians and simple people, the Sikh community became a victim of such a sense of guilt, which has been working in the unconscious of the entire Ghadri movement and Ghadri poetry. Two sins are particularly burdensome to the poet. The first sin was: during the first war between the Sikhs and the Firangis, Maharani Jinda sent mustard instead of gunpowder: She sent gunpowder instead of mustard, this is what Rani Jind Kaur Beli said.
The second sin was: instead of rebelling against the British rule in the 1857 rebellion, the Sikhs actually helped it. While this poem is addressed to the Sikh community, there is also a hint towards this sin:
When the rebellion took place in the year 1857,
The Panth came to life with great zeal, O Singhs.
Today, the country was to play in freedom,
If you love, you will fight with the rebellion.
It was because of this sin and guilt that the Sikhs of Punjab fought at the forefront of this movement. The shame of the defeat of the Sikh state and the guilt of the 1857 rebellion are like the past standing like a wall between the present and the future of the Ghadri hero. But when he contemplates his past at the level of consciousness, he wants to move forward by recreating the love game, the creation of the Panth, the eighteenth-century Singh movement, the Kuka rebellion and the turban preservation movement of 1907 and making them a living part of his current practical life and poetry, demolishing the wall of past shortcomings and guilt. In Ghadri poetry, the conscious contemplation and description of the history of India has been done under two motives:
• To create a new history by assimilating the living elements of history and human heritage.
• To understand and explain the wisdom of the events of that time.
• To escape the despair and despair of the defeat of the Ghadri.
The history that the British Empire had created and written until now was not the history of India, but the history of India’s plunder. When the Ghadri takes the reins of history, he challenges his people to end the history of the plunder of society and reminds them of the revolutionary events of his history. Historians praised the process of modernization of Indian society by linking it with the technological advancement that took place under the policies of the British Empire. But the Ghadri poet, while praising technological advancement, holds the British government, the kings and the brave soldiers responsible for the slavery and degradation of India and uses the word “monkey” for them with hatred:
The monkeys have destroyed the country, sing with the monkeys that love us.
We have been sold to the English, you have become the brokers of the country.
While imperial historians tried to denounce the popular uprising of 1857 as a mutiny and some saw it as a link to the selfishness of the feudal princely states, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels called it India’s first war of independence:
Soldiers in droves woke up,
Finally they remembered
that they too had a motherland.
The mutiny created Hindu-Muslim unity and instilled national sentiment among the Sikhs, laying the foundation for patriotism and nationalism. It imparted political insight, a desire for freedom among the common people and self-respect and new light among the intellectuals, as a result of which the marginalized middle class like the Congress Party, Singh Sabha etc. also embarked on the path of freedom struggle through deputations, resolutions and appeals. A major change brought about by this mutiny was that the positive role of the army for the revolutions to come was revealed.
The poetry of the Ghadar movement, from the history of Sri Guru Gobind Singh to its contemporary historical events and individuals, depicted the healthy and revolutionary elements without any distinction of religion, caste, region and country. Wherever there was a freedom movement in Russia, China, Ireland, Singapore, India, the Ghadar poets have praised it by calling it Ghadar. To clarify the wisdom of the current events, every event has been described in the context of revolutionary history and ideals:
Why should you cover your mouth like cowards by eating and killing, why should you not be martyred?
Your patriots are your cooks, your Hindu Muslims are your sleepy ghooks.
Let us seize the time now, the rest of your marks will not be forgotten.
The Ghadar poets have poeticized history or historicized poetry, from which one thing is clear that the Ghadars
