Tyrants who underestimate Sikh women,
Are tyrants taught very harsh lessons.

Mai Bhag Kaur, popularly known as Mai Bhago, was born in village Jhabal, near Amritsar. She was the granddaughter of Bhai Paro Shah, brother of Bhai Langaha, who served Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Har Gobind Ji.

As a young girl, she heard the sakhis of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev and of army attacks on Guru Har Gobind. State terrorism against the Gurus and the Sikhs was often talked about in the family. Her two generations were closely involved with it because they had personally experienced it while serving the Gurus. Hearing of these injustices done to the Sikhs and their harassment by the police and army had a deep effect on her tender heart.

Mai Bhago was still a child when she heard sakhis of Guru Tegh Bahadur and three Sikhs, Bhai Dayala, Bhai Mati Das, and Bhai Sati Das, who were tortured and murdered at Delhi in 1675. She decided to one day do her duty to stop such state violence against the Sikhs. This thought grew stronger and stronger in her mind as she grew into her teens.

She went to Anandpur Sahib along with her father in 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa Panth. She took Amrit and wanted to stay there to learn the art of self defense. Her father, however, took her back to their village because she was a woman and not a man to go to the fighting lines. In her mind, however, Mai Bhago continued to nurse the idea of joining the Khalsa forces.

After returning to her village, she started learning martial arts, particularly the use of the spear. She would go to a nearby forest reserve and practice piercing trees with her spear. She soon became an expert in the art of using this handy weapon in battle.

Government forces surrounded Anandpur in 1704 but they could not defeat the Guru or make him vacate the city. Finally, to save face with the emperor, the army generals requested the Guru to leave Anandpur voluntarily, promising under written oath not to attack him. They agreed not only to let the Guru move out of Anandpur to anywhere he liked to go, but also to let him come and stay at Anandpur again after some time. They wrote to the Guru that their only aim was to make the Guru leave Anandpur at that time and that they had no intention of harming the Guru.

The generals, however, broke their oath and attacked the Guru immediately after he came out of the fort. He was forced to fight battles while crossing the river Sirsa and at a nearby village Chamkaur where many of his Sikhs and his two elder sons were killed.

The news that the Guru had left Anandpur and was coming to Malwa spurred Mai Bhago to take advantage of this opportunity to defend the Guru. She went from village to village to inform the Sikhs and organize them to challenge the army which was trailing the Guru. While addressing people in a village she would tell them, "Our Guru has sacrificed his entire family for our freedom. Why can't we ourselves stand up and protect our own rights?" Her sharp words awakened the souls of many. They marveled at the bravery and intelligence of the woman going around courageously and collecting people together.

Mai Bhag Kaur had organized hundreds of troops and they were planning their strategy when news came that the Guru was proceeding towards Khidrana Di Dhab, the lake now called Mukatsar, and the Mughal Army was following him. They decided to check the army from reaching the lake, the only source of water for many miles around. The Guru with some Sikhs occupied the top of the mound on the bank of the lake. Mai Bhag Kaur's group organized themselves around the lake.

When the army arrived at the lake and attacked the Sikhs, a bloody battle took place. Mai showed her bravery by fighting on the front line. She would use her spear with a smart move. Before a soldier was even in position to attack her, he was already down on the earth with his chest pierced by her spear. The mercenary soldiers could not face the devoted Sikhs. The Guru from the mound provided the necessary support with arrows. The army generals soon found that unless they retreated quickly, all of them would find their graveyard in the battlefield and none would return alive. Historians say that they left even their wounded soldiers unattended and ran away as fast as they could. This was the last battle the Mughal army could dare to fight with the Guru.

After the battle was won, the Guru came down from the mound and took care of the wounded and the dead. Mai Bhag Kaur was lying badly injured. She was treated carefully and she soon recovered. When the Guru asked her to go back to her village along with other Sikhs, she told the Guru of her long cherished desire to become an active soldier in the army of the Guru. The Guru agreed.

Along with the Guru, she went to Nanded in the south of India and lived there for the rest of her life. There is now a Gurdwara where she lived at Nanded, near the Gurdwara Sachkand built in memory of the Guru.

Sikh women are as good at defending human rights as Sikh men. They can organize men, lead them into battle, and win decisively.