SYNOPSIS: ‘THE HAWK HUNTERS’
A MEDIEVAL TALE WITH 21st CENTURY RESONANCE
A novel by Maj-General Pushpendra Singh (retd.) – Indian Army
Historical Background
The Mughals ruled Delhi from the 14th Century for close on 500 years. Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal, was also the last of the ‘Great Mughals’. He seized the throne in a bloody fratricidal war, then blinded and imprisoned his father, Shahjehan, the creator of Taj Mahal. He was a religious zealot much influenced by a fundamentalist view of Islam.
The rise of Sikhism - a monotheistic religion - was more or less synchronous with the first six Mughals. It is a peaceful religion which views all human beings as equals, including men and women, as the handiwork of a Creator - formless and eternal. After the fifth Teacher (or Guru) was inhumanly tortured and killed by Jahangir (Aurangzeb’s grandfather), the successor Guru vowed to arm the Sikhs for self-defence.
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| Author |
Synopsis
At the end of the 17th century, Aurangzeb unleashed a tornado of terror and torture in a drive to convert all of Hindustan to Islam. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth (and last Guru), then created the Khalsa (pure in precept and action) to be dauntless defenders of the Hindu and Sikh faiths.
In pursuit of Aurangzeb’s conversion drive, the Mughal Governor of Sirhind province snared, tortured and then executed Guru Gobind Singh’s two little sons – plumbing the depths of depravity and brutality. As the inferno of war for survival engulfed the Punjab, Shammi a poor Sikh peasant-warrior and Naaz, daughter of a renowned Muslim physician of Sirhind, fell hopelessly in love.
Then, as Guru Gobind Singh lay dying from an assassination bid at Nanded in peninsular India; he deputed Banda Singh Bahadur – a hermit – to lead the Sikh fight-back and rid the Punjab from Mughal tyranny. Starting with just twenty soldiers, this hermit journeyed over a thousand miles to Punjab and liberated present-day Indian Punjab and its adjoining state of Haryana – a territory the size of Austria. This little-known military feat is remarkable by any yardstick.
Shammi was inexorably drawn into the ferocious fight for freedom and through him ‘The Hawk Hunters’ recounts the momentous events and how a remarkable leader galvanized a brutalized citizenry and transformed them into invincible warriors. How did Banda Bahadur succeed in liberating the Sikh homeland? The novel strives to recreate the rival strategies of the antagonists.
Did Shammi succeed in winning his lady-love? ‘The Hawk Hunters’ tells the story in an authentic historical setting that evokes the fragrances and vistas of medieval Punjab. It’s a fast-paced, action-packed tale replete with exalting compassion; acts of great courage, nobility, and supreme sacrifice. The story explores the conflicts of conscience that confront the protagonists and bares the maelstrom of human emotions they face. Without being judgmental, ‘The Hawk Hunters’ highlights the conflict between humanitarian ideals and cynical exploitation of terror and subjugation.
The Nuremberg War Crimes trials at the end of World War II established a benchmark for human rights and new civilisational norms in the twentieth century leading up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, in the twenty-first, ISIS has reverted to medieval savagery and magnified the horror exponentially with electronic media. Viewed in that context, the larger message of ‘The Hawk Hunters’ is of universal human values as opposed to barbaric cruelty and terror as State Policy.
Above all the book celebrates the triumph of the human spirit over ruthless brutality and personal tragedy.
THE AUTHOR HAS PLEDGED ALL ROYALTIES FROM THE BOOK TO A CHARITY WHICH SUPPORTS EDUCATION FOR POOR AND SPECIAL CHILDREN AND ORPHANS.
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| Ms Gul Panag (left) and author's wife |
THE AUTHOR
Maj General Pushpendra Singh is a retired Army officer who lives at ‘Harshabadpuri’ in Panchkula (North India). He was educated at the Lawrence School, Sanawar and St Columba’s, New Delhi and has a first-class M.Sc. from the Madras University. He has written numerous professional papers and articles.
During one of his tenures in J & K he happened to visit the birthplace of Banda Singh Bahadur in Rajouri. Fascinated with this hermit’s success in liberating most of present Punjab and Haryana from the Mughals; he decided to delve deeper into this brilliant military feat, which “The Hawk Hunters” portrays.
A national-level horseman, he is also keen on wildlife and nature. These interests are reflected in the work. He also visited all the main locales for maximum authenticity to the story.
He is married with children and three grand-children. The Hawk Hunters is the author’s first novel - based on historical events.
Review
Chander Suta Dogra At a time when writing historical fiction is fraught with possibilities of polarised situations on accurate depiction, a Sikh General, now retired, has taken upon himself to write a novel set in the times of the famous Sikh military commander, Banda Bahadur. The Hawk Hunters by Maj-Gen Pushpendra Singh (Retd) is an 18th century saga of treachery, sacrifice, romance and war, set against the backdrop of the Sikh wars against the Mughals and how they avenged the killing of the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh and his two young sons. It is also a story that takes place at a time when Sikhism is a nascent and simple new religion where its adherents follow the purest ideals, some still in the process of being crystallised. We find, for instance, that Sikh women enjoyed great independence of thought and deed and the author seems to have gone out of his way to weave this into his narrative — the episodes of forthright articulation by Mai Bhago, a Sikh woman warrior for instance, or the liberal streak in the everyday lives of his Sikh women characters. Set in the times of war, the story is about the tender love of young Shammi (a Sikh peasant warrior) and a Muslim noblewoman Nazneen. The author’s military mind analyses for the reader the lie of the land and the battle tactics it dictates. The former army officer made it a point to visit some of the places that were the site of momentous battles while researching the book. His keen feel for what life was like in rural Punjab when Sikhism was still emerging from the suffocation of Hindu dogma is evidence of his thoroughness. But it is in the imagery he paints, of the opulence of Muslim nobility, the simplicity of peasant Sikhs and the rough and ready lives of Banda Bahadur’s rag-tag force, that the book comes alive. Many of the anecdotes that pepper the book are true and the author has provided the atmospherics to recreate the feel and form. His prose moves from flowery descriptions of the elements to heaving bosoms of lissome maids, from heart-rending scenes of pure brutality to the politics of subjugation practiced by marauding armies. And then, there are the artistic liberties that he takes to dramatise the narrative. Such as, the role of Osman Khan, who killed the Muslim saint Badr-ud-Din Shah of Sadhaura for allying with Guru Gobind Singh. Khan also subjugated the Hindu population of the town in vengeance, but as the author points out in his note towards the end, his role in the Guru’s assassination is fiction. For admirers of Sikh history, it is a riveting read that resonates with their well-honed beliefs about the valour of medieval Sikh warriors and their sense of justice and secularism. For others it is a delightful way to get acquainted with the torturous and bloody saga through which this minority community has emerged and kept its faith intact. To my mind, The Hawk Hunters has a running skein that helps us understand the psyche of the brave and courageous Sikhs, who have influenced history in contemporary India too.
Review
Chander Suta Dogra At a time when writing historical fiction is fraught with possibilities of polarised situations on accurate depiction, a Sikh General, now retired, has taken upon himself to write a novel set in the times of the famous Sikh military commander, Banda Bahadur. The Hawk Hunters by Maj-Gen Pushpendra Singh (Retd) is an 18th century saga of treachery, sacrifice, romance and war, set against the backdrop of the Sikh wars against the Mughals and how they avenged the killing of the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh and his two young sons. It is also a story that takes place at a time when Sikhism is a nascent and simple new religion where its adherents follow the purest ideals, some still in the process of being crystallised. We find, for instance, that Sikh women enjoyed great independence of thought and deed and the author seems to have gone out of his way to weave this into his narrative — the episodes of forthright articulation by Mai Bhago, a Sikh woman warrior for instance, or the liberal streak in the everyday lives of his Sikh women characters. Set in the times of war, the story is about the tender love of young Shammi (a Sikh peasant warrior) and a Muslim noblewoman Nazneen. The author’s military mind analyses for the reader the lie of the land and the battle tactics it dictates. The former army officer made it a point to visit some of the places that were the site of momentous battles while researching the book. His keen feel for what life was like in rural Punjab when Sikhism was still emerging from the suffocation of Hindu dogma is evidence of his thoroughness. But it is in the imagery he paints, of the opulence of Muslim nobility, the simplicity of peasant Sikhs and the rough and ready lives of Banda Bahadur’s rag-tag force, that the book comes alive. Many of the anecdotes that pepper the book are true and the author has provided the atmospherics to recreate the feel and form. His prose moves from flowery descriptions of the elements to heaving bosoms of lissome maids, from heart-rending scenes of pure brutality to the politics of subjugation practiced by marauding armies. And then, there are the artistic liberties that he takes to dramatise the narrative. Such as, the role of Osman Khan, who killed the Muslim saint Badr-ud-Din Shah of Sadhaura for allying with Guru Gobind Singh. Khan also subjugated the Hindu population of the town in vengeance, but as the author points out in his note towards the end, his role in the Guru’s assassination is fiction. For admirers of Sikh history, it is a riveting read that resonates with their well-honed beliefs about the valour of medieval Sikh warriors and their sense of justice and secularism. For others it is a delightful way to get acquainted with the torturous and bloody saga through which this minority community has emerged and kept its faith intact. To my mind, The Hawk Hunters has a running skein that helps us understand the psyche of the brave and courageous Sikhs, who have influenced history in contemporary India too.
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