Shaheedi of Guru Tegh Bahadur at Delhi

Who: Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru, born 1 April 1621 at Amritsar, youngest son of Guru Hargobind. Emperor Aurangzeb. A group of Kashmiri Brahmins (pandits) who had suffered under the Mughal governor, Iftikhar Khan. The Guru's companions Bhai Mati Das, Bhai Sati Das and Bhai Dayal Das. Bhai Jaita, who carried the Guru's head to Anandpur, and Lakkhi Shah Lubana, a Delhi trader who took the body. The Guru's son Gobind Das, then nine, later Guru Gobind Singh.

What: On 25 May 1675 the pandits came to Anandpur to tell of forced conversion and persecution. According to the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism the Guru resolved to go to Delhi to have the wrong put right or to give his life for the right to follow one's religion. On 8 July 1675 he named Gobind Das his successor, and on 11 July he left Anandpur. Sources differ on the arrest. The common belief has been that he was arrested at Agra, but recent research on the Bhatt vahis places it at Malikpur Ranghran on 12 July. He was held at Sirhind and Bassi Pathanan for over three months, then taken in an iron cage to Delhi, arriving on 4 November. He was ordered to accept Islam or to perform a miracle, and refused both, saying it was never right to interfere in the Will of God. On 11 November he was beheaded in public in Chandni Chowk. The Encyclopaedia says Bhai Mati Das was sawn in two and Bhai Sati Das burnt alive that day. Wikipedia, citing H. S. Bhatia and S. R. Bakshi, says Bhai Dayal Das was thrown into boiling liquid and that Bhai Sati Das was cut to pieces. At nightfall Lakkhi Shah carried the body off and burned his own house to cremate it. Bhai Jaita took the head, under cover of a dust storm, to Anandpur, where Guru Gobind Singh performed its last rites on 16 November.

Where: Chandni Chowk, Delhi, where Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib stands. Gurdwara Rakab Ganj marks where the body was cremated, and Sis Ganj at Anandpur marks the cremation of the head.

Why it mattered: Sikhs remember him as Dharam di Chadar, the protector of dharma. The Encyclopaedia reads his act as a defence of other people's freedom of belief: protecting the Hindus' tilak and sacred thread meant protecting everyone's right to practise their religion, which it calls a matter of human rights and freedom of conscience. Guru Gobind Singh wrote about his father's Shaheedi in the Bachittar Natak. Wikipedia reports that the Shaheedi is commemorated each year on 24 November.