Gurpal Singh Bhuccho Mandi
(Article written by Kulwant Suna)
During the mid 80’s, the movement for a free state for the Khalsa was in its early stages. Scores of Singhs were shot and killed with each passing day. Thousands of bright young men and women came forward to take up arms and fight the Brahmanical oppressors, who were bent on decimating Sikhi forever. The events of 1978 and 1984 had a deep impact on the psyche of every Sikh, this ignited a passion for Sikhi and transformed them into saint-warriors. One such youth was Bhai Gurpal Singh Jee from Bhuccho Mandi, district Bathinda.
Youth
Bhai Sahib was born in 1968 at Bhuccho Mandi, Bathinda. Bhai Sahib came from a very educated, rich, and prosperous family. Both of Bhai Sahib’s parents were teachers who taught at nearby high schools. Bhai Sahib was an amritdhari from childhood and was very devout. He would go to the Gurdwara daily and listen to nitnaem there and only then eat anything. By the time he was in his teens he had many many bannian kanth (memorized) and was a very good akhand paathi from larivaar saroop.
Bhai Sahib get naam dhridh and took amrit of Shri Guru Gobind Singh Jee from the Akhand Kirtani Jatha at the Ludhiana Smagam. From that day he kept Sarbloah Rahit of the Khalsa. When he came home that night, on his shoulder he was carrying a boori, a hemp sack filled with sarbloh battae and other vessels. He immediately took all the china and glassware and threw them in the garbage. Bhai Sahib told his parents, “We will cook in and eat from sarbloah from now on. This is the guru’s rahit.” Before going underground Bhai Sahib was always tayaar-bar-tayyar and wore the Khalsayee bana, with a damala and chola. Bhai Sahib was very strong and had a good physical build.
Bhai Sahib as Engineer
Bhai Sahib was a very intelligent person who was a natural at architecture and engineering. He was under 15 when he designed and oversaw the building of his families beautiful new house. The house was designed in such a way that it stayed cool in the summer and warm in the winter. He himself built a chvara (a second storey room with four half walls open to he skys above). On the top parts of all the outside walls of the chvara he wrote Gurbani shabads in concrete. He did the same on every other wall of the house. He had so much love for bani that he could not live without it. He wanted all that Gurbani in the house to keep reminding him to always read Gurbani.
When he made the chvara he noticed that he could not meditate with as much concentration as he wanted. He thought that he could focus more on bani if all the outside noise was eliminated. So he came up with a plan to make a basement under the master bedroom. At that time (even now) basements were virtually unknown in most Indian homes. It was not a practical building practice then, but Bhai Sahib devised a plan to excavate a bhora (basement) right underneath the existing room on the ground floor. He secretly put this plan into motion, only his parents knew about this. When he was done, this basement was totally self-sufficient and included a vent for air circulation.
Joining the Movement
Bhai Sahib excelled in education and skipped a couple of grades. He decided to enroll in an Engineering Program at Punjab University at Ludhiana. He was one of the most intelligent students that the University had ever seen. It was there that he met Singhs that were working against the tyranical regime. He quickly picked up knowledge about weapons and began to take active part in the movement for freedom. The Singhs at the university did regular sat sang at the university dorms.
Bhai Gurpal Singh jee soon took part in big operations such as the rescuing of Bhai Anokh Singh Jee from the Ludhiana Court houses. He worked together with all organizations of Singhs. Bhai Sahib took action with Bhai Jarnail Singh Halwara and Bhai Manmohan Singh jee. Bhai Sahib was always in chardi kala and had a tremendous nitnaem. No matter what duty brought, he always did two Sukhmani Sahib paths before eating his evening meal. Singhs that saw him talk about the 'red-Gurmukhi glow' that was ever present on his face.
Soon he became the brains of the operations conducted in the Malwa region. In early 1987 Bhai Sahib came to see his parents and told them, “My time is near, do not cry after I am gone, get Singhs to do an akhand paath for me.” Before teaching a lesson to many evil police officers Bhai Sahib’s time to get Shaheedee had finally come.
Shaheedi
It was on one hot spring evening when the young Singh and two companions were asleep in Haripur, Sangroor, when someone tipped off the police and CRPF. Bhai Jarnail Singh Halwara and Bhai Gurpal Singh Jee were inside the building, and another Singh was sleeping outside. The two Singhs heard a scuffle outside and immediately knew what was happening, they locked the front doors and taking their machine guns with them they made their way out the back door. There they were met with heavy resistance by the CRPF. The two Singhs fought like true Khalsa warriors and killed dozens of CRPF and policemen. Both Singhs suffered multiple bullet wounds attaining Shaheedee. Observers said, 'that the heads of both Singhs did not touch the ground, such was the love that Guru Sahib had for these two chardi kala Singhs'. Bhai Gurpal Singh jee was only 19 years of age at the time of Shaheedee!!! The day was May 10, 1987.
After their Shaheedee countless Singhs gathered at Bhai Gurpal Singh’s house and did an akhand paath and akhand kirtan, which was done in great chardikala. The village of Halwara made a new gurdwara in honor of Shaheed Bhai Jarnail Singh Jee Halwara. Those who had known these Singhs will never forget the jeevan they led. The ones that never knew them, now know what they missed.
