Sardar Baghel Singh and the Khalsa in Delhi, 1783: the gurdwaras of Delhi

This day remembers March 1783, when the Khalsa under Sardar Baghel Singh entered Delhi and raised the Nishan Sahib over the Red Fort. The SGPC's calendar keeps the anniversary on a fixed solar date. Its lasting legacy is the gurdwaras of Delhi, which Baghel Singh built at the places linked to the Gurus.

Sardar Baghel Singh

Baghel Singh was born in the 1730s near Amritsar and rose to lead the Karorsinghia Misl, with lands in the Doaba and around Chhalaudi. In the 1770s and 1780s the misls made repeated expeditions across the Yamuna into the lands around Delhi, where the Mughal empire had grown weak.

Into Delhi

In March 1783 Baghel Singh, with Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Sardar Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, led a large Khalsa force into Delhi. Their camp outside the city, where thirty thousand horsemen were gathered, is remembered in the name of the area Tis Hazari. The Khalsa entered the Red Fort, and the emperor Shah Alam II came to terms with them.

The gurdwaras of Delhi

Baghel Singh agreed to withdraw most of his men on condition that he could stay with a small force to find and mark the places linked to the Gurus, and receive part of the city's revenue to build them. With the help of local people, he identified seven places, and built gurdwaras at them: Mata Sundari Ji, Bangla Sahib, Rakab Ganj, Sis Ganj, Moti Bagh, Majnu Ka Tilla and Bala Sahib. Many of Delhi's best-known gurdwaras stand on his foundations.

How the day is observed

Delhi's sangat celebrates the day as Fateh Divas with kirtan, Ardas and Nagar Kirtan.