VAISAKHI (BAISAKHI) - 13th April
The Hindi month of Vaisakh is always on the 13th April.
The date 13 April and the Vaisakhi festival has been very important and is celebrated in religious way by Hindus & Sikhs in Punjab, and the Punjabi diaspora where ever they have settled, in UK , USA or elsewhere inthe world.
On this day the Sikhs 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji formed the Khalsa Panth at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab in 1639 and created a Sikh community of warriors to protect Hindus from the persecution of Muslim rulers and to stop forcible conversion of Hindus to Islam. All over the world Sikhs celebrate Baisakhi to remember the formation of Sikh Khalsa Panth.
By this time harvest in the Punjab is raedy to cut and the farmers in Punjab celebrate the occasion with Punjabi Bhangra dance.
Devout Hindus keep fast on this day and visit to Mandirs and give charity.
13th April is also a NEW YEARS' Day for the Hindu Bengali community and send greetings to friends and relations on this Nav Barsho Day.
Similarly the Tamil Community in Tamil Nadu in South India, also celebrate their New Year on this day
This date has also another historical significance.
It was on this day, the 13Th April, General Brig Reginald Dyer killed more than 300 and injured more than 500 by carrying out firing on the innocent persons who had assembled in Jalianwala Bagh, an enclosed area with only one exit, Amritsar, the Sikhs Holy City, to celebrate Baisakhi, in 1919, also known as the Amritsar Massacre. It is now said that Brig. Dyer handed over the independence of India on this day.
Thirteen (13) years after on 13th March 1932, an Indian youth, Udham Singh, revenged this massacre, by shooting and killing Sir Micheal O'Dwyer, who was the Lt Governor of Punjab in 1919, and had praised Brig. Dyer's action at Jalianwala Bagh. in Caxton Hall, London.
This incident had a profound affect on Indian nationalist leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru. Udham singh was later on arrested and hanged in London. On the 50th Anniversary, of the Jalianwala Bagh massacre in 1969, The Indian hero body of Udham Singh was exhumed and taken to India for ceremonial burial and a memorial in his memory was erected in Jalianwala Bagh, Amritsar.
Sushil Soni