Word: sardar
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Sardar Tara Singh had no cause to love the Moslems. For two bloody centuries his Sikh people had fought them for mastery of the Punjab in northern India, and in those wars, many of his ancestors died martyrs' deaths. One of them, Bhai Mani Singh, fell into the hands of the Great Mogul Aurangzeb, who first chopped off Bhai Mani Singh's fingers, joint by joint, then lopped off his limbs, one by one. Another, Baba Sukha Singh, died under Moslem knives after assassinating a Moslem chieftain who had turned the Sikhs' holy Golden Temple at Amritsar...
Under British rule, Sardar Tara Singh and his Sikh compatriots lived in uneasy peace with their Moslem neighbors. But when the British left and India was partitioned, religious violence broke out once more. Five million Sikhs abandoned their ancestral homes in west Pakistan and fled to the East Punjab, and an equal number of Moslems fled westward. Fanatics on both sides organized themselves into bands and killed as many of the fleeing civilians as they could. White-bearded Sardar Tara Singh shook his head over this massacre of the innocent...
...Sardar Tara Singh put a protective arm around the girl. "I will treat her in a way which will bring the sweetest revenge upon the wicked Moslems." he said. "I will bring her up as a Moslem, and restore her to her relatives when she grows up. And she will be as pure as the white snows of the Himalayas. That will teach the Moslems that a Sikh is pious in peacetime, just as he is invincible...
...Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel...
Serving as Gandhi's right hand-some Indians said "fist" was a better word-Patel first showed a genius for leadership in his organization of civil disobedience campaigns against British land taxes, thereby won the unofficial title "Sardar" which means captain or leader. It was Patel whose iron will and political savvy converted the Indian National Congress from an association of petition writers into the effective organization which ran eight of India's eleven provinces even before the end of British rule...