History Of Gatka
The exact beginnings of Gatka are not clear. What is clear is that it emerged formally from its original birthplace in northern India during the time of Guru Hargobind Sahib (early 1600s), who learnt and instructed his Sikhs to learn the martial art, they were also ment to do nam simran and reciting bani to balance the saint-solider scale.
The Sikhs mastered Gatka and perfected its use in battle. Many battles were won by the Sikhs, despite almost always numbering far fewer than the opposite forces. The techniques within Gatka were combined with the spiritual practices of the Sikhs to create a perfect fighting system. Opposing forces have documented how awesome these Sikhs were at battle!
One account said "These Sikhs are hit, hard enough for them to fall, but they stand up as if nothing happened and fight with even more power than before, these people are trully powerful warriors."
Still to this day historians are stunned by how the Sikhs were able to win so many battles when they only had a small number of man and weapons, where as the opposition was much bigger and had a greater facility of weaponry.
Some writers describe how the Sikhs would try to reach Siri Harmandir Sahib at times such as Vasakhi, "Sikh horsemen were seen riding at full gallop towards their favourite shrine of devotion. They were often slain in the attempt and sometimes taken prisoner; but they used on such occasions to seek instead of avoiding, the crown of martyrdom.... No instance was known of a Sikh taken on his way to Amritsar consenting to abjure his faith."
Some eye-witnesses say that when they cornered a small group of Sikhs, the Sikhs did not surrender but picked up the dead heads around them and let their hair run free and scared away the opposition
The Sikhs used Gatka in warfare for over 200 years, until they finally had their own rule, free from persecution from the tyrant Mughals who rested only when they were defeated. Since then, Gatka has been passed down amongst the Sikh generations, and is still alive up and down the UK and around the world.