Person
Bhai Subeg Singh
Subeg Singh of Jambar, the Lahore government's envoy to the Khalsa in 1733 and later kotwal of Lahore, broken on the wheel with his son Shahbaz Singh in 1745 for refusing to give up Sikhi.
Bhai Subeg Singh was a Sikh of Jambar village in Lahore district, the son of Rai Bhaga. He learned Arabic and Persian and, working as a government contractor, gained access to Mughal officials. Near the end of Zakariya Khan's rule he was appointed kotwal, the police chief, of Lahore (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism).
He is remembered as a Sikh who served the Lahore government without leaving the Panth, and who died for it with his son.
- 1733: the Mughal authorities, at Zakariya Khan's urging, decided to lift their ban on the Sikhs and offer them a grant. Subeg Singh was sent to negotiate. He met the Sikh assembly at Akal Takht in Amritsar as the Lahore government's vakil, a title that became part of his name. The assembly first made him atone for working with the government. He conveyed the offer of a jagir and the title of nawab, which the Sikhs at first refused, and he persuaded them to accept.
- As kotwal he sympathised with his fellow Sikhs and on several occasions arranged dignified cremations for Sikhs who had been executed, and set up memorials to them.
- When Yahiya Khan succeeded his father Zakariya Khan as governor, he turned hostile to Subeg Singh and readily acted on complaints against him. Subeg Singh was charged with acts prejudicial to Islam and the state.
- 1745: he and his son Shahbaz Singh were arrested on the governor's orders and offered the choice of accepting Islam to save their lives. Both refused. Both were broken on the wheel. The Encyclopaedia says they were reported to have kept chanting "Akal, Akal" as their bodies were broken.
His son Shahbaz Singh had studied Persian and Arabic at a Muslim school and did well. A maulawi who noticed his intelligence, and later the mulla and the qazi of Lahore, tried to persuade him to give up his ancestral faith with various inducements. He refused every offer (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism).
Father and son are remembered together as Shaheeds. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism dates their Shaheedi to 1745, the year before the Chhota Ghallughara of 1746.
Sources
- Subeg Singh (d. 1745), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (ed. Harbans Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala. eos.learnpunjabi.org
- Shahbaz Singh (d. 1745), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (ed. Harbans Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala. eos.learnpunjabi.org