sanatanhindusikh
shastarvidiya
thesundayindian

Whether you like it mild (Gatka) or strong (Shastar Vidiya), Sikh martial arts will floor you, and how!

Source: http://www.thesundayindian.com/

Original article by Anu Gulmohar.

The indomitable spirits of the lion-hearted Sikhs are known to have instilled fear into the hearts of many a soul. Their power even helped the nation retain its cultural and religious identity. The secret to their martial prowess was Shastar Vidya. When the Britishers finally managed to constrain the Sikh army in 1849, they immediately did all they could to dilute the tenacity of Shastar Vidya. Yet, in the following years, the art that re-emerged was a watered down version that came to be called Gatka, but there were people who quietly continued to practice Shastar Vidya in its original form…

Hardeep Singh Khalsa belongs to the oldest Gatka group in Amritsar. He says, “Many Sikh communities have changed the style of practicing Gatka. It used to be Shastar Vidya – hand-to-hand combat, basically fight to kill – but it’s now changed. Shastar means weapons and vidya – knowledge; Gatka was what it was called by the British. They saw that the Sikhs were fearless warriors who used guerrilla tactics. They changed a lot of things in our Indian culture and they made changes in Shastar Vidya too because in the army they didn’t want their officials to face such great fighters going at them. They made it look like a game so people start enjoying it.

But it is still practiced in the old tradition in the older groups till now.” So the style that one learns depends on where he/she learns Gatka from. The milder version that was allowed to flourish under the British Raj has more practitioners and is thus more popular too. Shastar Vidya practitioners in UK, taught by Nihang Niddar Singh, believe that it is a myth that Gatka and Shastar Vidya are similar. “Gatka and Shastar Vidya are worlds apart,” asserts Nihang Teja Singh who has been learning Shastar Vidya for the past 5-6 years.