gatka
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sikhmartialart?

This 'Jahir Gatka', during conditions hostile to Sanatan Hindu Sikh Shastar Vidiya prevalent in British Raj, flourished at expense of original 'Vidiya'.

The famous Sikh historian Giani Gian Singh Nirmala, writing in the 1890's after first speaking of the ancient skills of archery and great Sanatan Hindu Sikh Shastar Vidiya of the past, lamented with regards to the then state of this art:

'There was talk of such a science of archery and stick fighting only a few years ago in the Punjab that listening of it the English-educated young men will consider it astonishing. In sincerity I believe present day young men might just consider these skills and Shastar Vidiya most likely impossible, because they have not even seen those bows nevermind stringing them. Like this, many sciences and skills after attaining their heights have declined. Before 1857 many quivers full of arrows, matchlocks, flintlock guns, swords, lances, spears, Sang, Katar, Pesh Kabz, pistols, shields etc., weapons, armour and many types of chainmail was found house to house, and all the people in their homes learned and taught Shastar Vidiya and became complete soldiers.
Now no one even speaks of these skills the sons of brave warriors are becoming engrossed in making money, even to us who have employed Shastar Vidiya, it is becoming a dream. In another fifty years or so, this Vidiya would have dried up and people will say it (past skills) were but, all lies'
('Twarikh Guru Khalsa', Giani Gian Singh Nirmala (1899) Vol.1, Pa. 36-37)

Apart from putting the date of the decline of Sanatan Hindu Sikh Shastar Vidiya ten years ahead, so as not to offend his British-backed patron, the King of Patiala, all that Giani Gian Singh writes is correct. Thus, in the 1890's, Giani Gian Singh had predicted that Sanatan Hindu Sikh Shastar Vidiya would be all but extinct and considered a 'dream' in another fifty years (by the 1940's).

His prediction had on the whole come true.