But empires do not die easily. The Mughals gathered a massive force. In 1715, after a brutal siege at Gurdas Nangal, Banda Singh was captured. They brought him to Delhi in an iron cage. His men were lined up and executed one by one.
The tide turned when Banda Singh personally led a suicide squad of 500 men directly at Wazir Khan’s elephant. Arrows flew past him. A musket ball grazed his shoulder. He did not flinch. He climbed onto the howdah, his blue robes now black with mud and gore. chaar sahibzaade: rise of banda singh bahadur
Banda Singh traveled north. He was not a general; he knew nothing of cavalry formations or artillery. But he had something more potent: the Guru’s hukam (order) and the silent rage of a subjugated people. He started with a few hundred outlaws, outcasts, and orphans who had lost everything to the Mughal tax collectors. He trained them in the hills of the Shivalik, teaching them guerilla warfare. He did not wear a king’s robes. He wore a simple blue tunic and a seli (woolen cord), the mark of a mendicant. But empires do not die easily
The boy stopped. Tears mixed with dust on his cheeks. He picked up his sword. They brought him to Delhi in an iron cage