K S Raju Legal Trust organized a virtual session to celebrate the 400th birth anniversary of the 9th Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur ji.
Speakers from three different religious backgrounds
addressed the webinar including Governor of Kerala Shri Arif Mohammad Khan, Art
of Living founder Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and Chief Minister of Punjab,
Capt Amarinder Singh.
In his opening remarks the moderator of the session,
Dr Jagmohan Singh Raju, Additional Chief Secretary, Govt of Tamil Nadu
lamented that the UN has conveniently ignored the genocide perpetrated on the
Indian populace over centuries ignoring acts of violence against non-Abrahamic
religions like Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.
He also appealed to commemorate Guru Tegh Bahadur’s
martyrdom day as a ‘Day of Commemoration in memory of the Hindu
and Sikh victims of Genocide and Holocaust.
Its objective, Dr Jagmohan Raju said, is to remove bias and protect the future generation from violence and
persecution by learning from the past and protecting human rights.
Recalling
some of the incidents in Sikh history, he said Hindus, and later along with Hindus,
the Sikhs, suffered the worst of genocidal violence and religious persecution
during fifty years of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s reign (1658-1707)
Guru Teg Bahadur, the 9th Sikh Guru was the
one who stood up against this forcible conversion and ultimately faced
execution on 11 November 1675.
The story of fight against religious
persecution by Mughals continued when the 10th Guru of Sikhs, Guru
Gobind Singh, lost his sons in the battles, two of whom were bricked alive in a
wall.
All
the speakers referred to Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom a unique example in the
world when he stood against the oppressors to condemn forcible religious
conversion and persecution of people from different religious beliefs.
S
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