Satguru Di Amaldari

Ranveer Singh | @Ranveer5ingh

The below article was originally published in the September 2022 issue of the Sikh Shahadat magazine.

The sacred land and waters of Panjab, that region of the world upon which the Guru Sahiban graced us with their Divine presence, hold the glorious stories of the Sikh Panth. While Guru Nanak Sahib travelled far and wide, in search of the Gurmukhs, they ultimately returned to Panjab and made Kartarpur Sahib their temporal home.

Thus, with the founding of Kartarpur Sahib, Guru Nanak Sahib initiated the movement that shaped Sikh consciousness, and with it, the tradition of founding independent Sikh territory became a defining aspect of Sikhi under the Guru Sahiban. For the purpose of avoiding ambiguity, I am referring to Dr. Gurbhagat Singh’s definition of Sikh consciousness, which can be understood to be comprised of four key elements; “(i) faith in the One, both Sargun (with attributes) and Nirgun (without attributes); (ii) to work towards and be part of Guru’s Sangat and the Guru Panth; (iii) become a non-egoic person, through the guidance of Guru Sahib; and (iv) develop the capability of hearing Anhad Shabad (the unstruck melody)”.

A new space was needed to cultivate the Sikh, or Gurmukh consciousness, amongst the Sangat and later the Panth, a process that required total autonomy. While the Sikh revolution under the Guru Sahiban expanded with the establishment of other towns, cities, reservoirs and wells, going beyond the region of Panjab, the origins of Sikh sovereignty remained firmly rooted in the land of the five rivers. As I discuss in my book ‘Patshahi Mehima’, the cities of Amritsar Sahib and Anandpur Sahib have served as strongholds of Sikh sovereignty at different times, as have other independent Sikh spaces carved out by the Guru Sahiban themselves.

The establishment of Kartarpur Sahib, central to which was the institute of the Guru’s Darbar, is why in the Sikh world, Guru Nanak Sahib is revered as deen duni sacho patshah (true Patshah in the mundane as well as the spiritual world). This provides a clear political resonance to the Guru-ship, standing in opposition to other structures of temporal power and governance. The manifestation of the Guru’s Darbar was powered by the Patshahi of Sache Patshah Guru Nanak Sahib.

Over a period of approximately two hundred and nine years, Panjab was culturally, politically, and socially redefined by the Guru Sahiban through the sovereign agency of the Guru’s Darbar. From Kartarpur Sahib to Khadur Sahib, to Goindval Sahib, Amritsar Sahib and Anandpur Sahib, the Guru’s Darbar evolved until it was the centre of both the learned and the armed. Where the Guru’s Darbar evolved as a hub for propagating Gurmat and literature to increase people’s understanding of both worlds, it was also a fortress adorned with weapons to protect Sikh sovereignty and fight oppression.

There has been a noticeable increase in the use of the terms ‘Sikh sovereignty’ and ‘Patshahi’ across the diaspora. As Sikhs reconnect with a narrative and reality that was an integral part of the Sikh movement, the use of the word ‘Patshahi’ is a welcome addition to discourse on Sikh political engagement and mobilisation. That being said we need to be careful not to infer that ‘Patshahi’ is a synonym for the term sovereignty or political autonomy or independence. Conceptually the two are mutually exclusive terms which carry a subtle but important distinction. 

Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha (1861-1938), author of the voluminous and highly regarded Mahankosh (1924), describes the term ‘Patshahi’ as a reference to ‘Satguru Di Amaldari’. This literally translates to Satguru’s Governance, which was manifested by the Guru Sahiban by the standing of the Guru’s Darbar. It is a testament to the enduring spirit of sovereignty that Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha, who was writing in the 1920s, linked the term to our Guru Sahiban in a way that reflected the precolonial narratives interwoven within the works of our Puratan Granths. It is fascinating because his definition of 'Patshahi' did not fall prey to colonial logic that was otherwise ravaging Panjab through the establishment of Westernised education centres and the formation of “Sikhism”, a world religion defined and categorised by the coloniser.

The narratives preserved and presented within the Puratan Granths speak of Sikhi and celebrate the existence of the Guru’s Patshahi, referring to Guru Sahib as Sache Patshah. These narratives are in turn upheld by Sikhs across the world today. It is clear from reading those accounts that Sikhs understood and acted upon the need to establish political autonomy, as a prerequisite to spread Dharam and deliver on the Divine mandate of the Khalsa, and that it was powered by the Patshahi of Satguru.

Put simply ‘Patshahi’ is the innate self-regulating power which exists within Guru Sahib, who as Sache Patshah, has the power to sanction the establishment of Sikh sovereignty/Raj/political autonomy. This is how the Guru Sahiban themselves founded new towns and cities, raised armies and waged war; they were building parallel power structures. Later that power was bestowed upon the Khalsa in 1699 which saw the beginning of various manifestations of Sikh Raj including Banda Singh Bahadur’s Republic, the formation of the Dal Khalsa, Misl Confederacy and Ranjit Singh’s Darbar-e Khalsa. 

Following the collapse of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Raj in 1849, but notwithstanding certain expressions of Sikh sovereignty in between, the first prolonged expression returned with the Declaration of Khalistan in 1986. The fight for Sikh sovereignty under the Khalistan movement was inspired and empowered by centuries of Sikh sovereign mobilisation and autonomy. 

In is important to understand how the mandate to acquire and uphold sovereignty is tied to the mandate of spreading Dharam with the Guru’s Wisdom in which Guru-inspired values such as Sarbat Da Bhala, Sanjhivalta and Parupkar form the basis of Sikh governance. That is the context within which the Khalistan movement should be understood. The pursuit of Khalistan, much like the pursuit and establishment of other manifestations of Sikh Raj rests upon Satguru Di Amaldari which was empowered by the Patshahi of Sache Patshah Guru Nanak Sahib. There is no middle entity or mediating power that can give Sikhs Raj, that power was bestowed upon the Sikhs by Guru Sahib, the embodiment of Akal Purakh on this Earth. 

Ranveer Singh is an Author and the Chief Editor at Khalis House Publishing based in the UK. Ranveer's books include 'Warrior Queen Rani Sada Kaur'(2021), 'Patshahi Mehima - Revisiting Sikh Sovereignty' (2021), 'Shaheed Akali Baba Deep Singh' (2022), and 'Bibi Gulab Kaur - Defying An Empire' (2024). He has edited and helped publish a further 25 titles through Khalis House, working with both aspiring and established writers across the UK, USA and Canada. Ranveer is also the co-founder of the National Sikh Youth Federation, a collective of Sikh activists, artists, academics, that exists to serve the Panth Khalsa He holds a BA in Law and MA in Philosophy. You can find Ranveer on Twitter at @Ranveer5ingh.