7 November
On this day in 1921
The keys to Sri Harimandir Sahib’s "ToshaKhana" (Panthic treasury) were seized by the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar
To forestall SGPC’s decision to acquire them. The clamping of seditious meetings Act as well as the arrest of 103 leading Akalais failed to cow them down. The committee declated that the surrender of the keys to S Kharak Singh, the uncrowned King of the Sikhs, would alone give them satisfaction. An agitation resulted for their returned on Jan. 19, 1922. The keys were returned to Baba Kharak Singh, President of SGPC, during active diwan in front of the Akal Takhat, by District Authorities, Amritsar. Mahatma Gandhi hailed this event as the "first decisive battle for India’s freedom won".
Also on this day
- 1675Guru Tegh Bahadhur was presented to Aurangzeb, after his arrest near Roper on July 12 Aurangzeb did all in his power to xoax Guru Tegh bahadhur to embrace Islam. He offered him wealth, women, power, and reign. The Guru did not accept any one of them. He asked the Emporor for the Royal justice. He opposed the Emporer’s policy of forced conversion. He said that the Emperor’ coercive plan to prosleyytization was against God’s laws. The Emperor was not in a mood to accept defeat. When the dialogue broke down he sentenced the Guru and his companions to death by torture. In the next three days, all the companions of the Guru were brutally tortured to death in front of the Guru’s eyes. Bhai Mati Das was sawed into two pieces from head to lions. Bhai Dayal Das was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water and Bhai Sati Das was hacked to pieces, limb by limb.The Panth observes the Shaheedi of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji on 24 November in the Nanakshahi calendar.
- 1759Khalsa Panth gathered at Sri Amritsar and resolved to attack upon Lahore