It's a knockout

Despite one being over 500-years-old and one being just a few decades old, Sikhi and MMA is about as natural a relationship as Sikhi and meditation or Sikhi and charity work.

From the time Guru Angad Dev Ji Maharaj implemented wrestling practice into the daily community routine, to when Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji Maharaj had Sikhs learn shastar vidya (weaponry use/teachings), learning a mix of martial-arts was clearly advocated by the Sikh Gurus Themselves.

Fast forward centuries and Mixed Martial-Arts (MMA) is today one of the most popular sports in the world, platforming real modern day warriors that compete as fiercely and with as much heart as any of history’s gladiators. But where are the Sikhs on this platform?

Enter Lions MMA. Since the early 2000s Lions MMA have been setting up gyms across the UK to train people in Mixed Martial-Arts within a Sikh ethos. With over a dozen clubs across the country, Lions MMA are slowly creating an army of warriors with an attachment to the Sikh philosophy.

Discipline, focus, courage, humility…martial-arts is a path towards a multitude of characteristics necessary for the Sikh path. To be Sikh is to mould yourself into a Sant-Sipahi (Saint-Soldier), mandating that Sikhs recognise the saintly qualities obtainable through martial training.

This is the role Lions MMA is playing for Sikhs and many others. And this is a glimpse into the world of Lions MMA…

Words: Jasveer Singh

Twitter: @JazzTheJourno

Hola Mahalla online exhibition

Anandpur | Nagar Kirtan | Main Event

Hola Mahalla: The Forgotten Festival

Hola Mahalla is a Sikh festival that takes place annually in India with an estimated attendance of over a million people. Dubbed the Sikh Olympics, it involves sword fights, daring horse stunts with a strong element of spiritualism.

The festival was established in the 17th century in Anandpur Sahib, the 'City of Bliss'. It is celebrated during the Indian month of Chet, which falls in spring during either March or April.

Initiated by Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Sikh Guru), Hola Mahalla, which means ‘mock fight’, was used to ensure Sikhs were spiritually and physically ready for battle. The festival was an integral part of Sikh and Punjabi culture in India, encouraging Sikhs to come together to maintain their martial skills and participate in spiritualism. Traditionally the festival held such importance that all Sikhs were required to attend and those who did not were assumed to have merged with God.

Anandpur

Anandpur Sahib through the early hours during Hola Mahalla.

The Bazaar (Market)

The Nagar Kirtan/prosession passes through the bazaar/marketplace, during the festival it is full of people and very difficult to walk to through.

Nihang Dehrae

The Nihang Dehrae are situated either side of the marketplace where they have set up camp. Members of the Dehra congregate together to take part in gatka demonstrations before the procession.

Gatka at the Nihang Dehrae

Nagar Kirtan - Procession

Wearing electric blue, the Nihangs warriors form the vanguard of the procession. Nihangs are part of an historic military order, and their seniority is shown by the farlah, an extra piece of cloth dangling off the top of their turbans. They ride horses while the rest of the procession is on foot.

Hola Mahalla and Holi

Hola Mahalla happens a day after Holi. Whilst not strictly part of the Sikh religious festival, throwing colour at each other is embraced by some. Hola Mahalla takes place a day after the Hindu festival of colour Holi. As both festivals originate from and are celebrated in India, there is some cross cultural pollenisation.

main event

Arriving at the ground

As people get to the ground, they find somewhere to either sit or stand and observe the events from where ever they can.

The Nihangs filter through the entrance of the stadium and charge like one big Sikh army. They gather together in the middle of the ground whilst spectators patiently wait for their arrival.

Horses

Here we can see Singhs standing on their horse whilst it is stationary. 

It is said that this technique was used in the past during battles. Senior officials such as generals of the enemy would be on elephants and Sikhs would attempt to climb up the elephant by standing on their horse. 

Most of the nomadic Nihangs love having their pictures taken and posing with their horses. As you can see horses are dressed with different colours.

Tent Pegging

Tent pegging also features during the festival. It involves a horseman riding at full speed, picking up bales of hay with a spear. In the past, when Sikhs were battling a rival army, they would attack the opposite camp at midnight. Riding in and pulling out tent pegs, they forced the tents to collapse, causing maximum chaos. Those that successfully score a point by picking up a bale, show it to the crowd like a trophy.

One by one the warriors ride down attempting to hit a target with the ir spear.

The horse are beautifully decorated with colour.

Gatka also features at the ground. Like before there a bouts going on with sticks and mixed abilities are on show. 

A time to reflect

The numbers on the field begin to dwindle as the warriors and spectators say their good byes. Some head back to Kesgarh Sahib as the sun sets on Anandpur . They contemplate their experience of this unique festival and make plans for the following year, where they can celebrate Hola Mahalla once again.

Tradition

"There is a parampara (tradition) with Nihang Singhs, that if a Nihang Singh does not attend Hola Mahalla he is presumed to have merged with God (died). Meaning that every Sikh regardless of where they lived, tried their utmost to attend Hola Mahalla” Baba Nihal Singh

Jathedar (High Priest) of Tarna Dal, Harianvela

“if a Nihang Singh does not attend Hola Mahalla he is presumed to have merged with God””

— Baba Nihal Singh

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Japjeet Kaur is a Yoga Teacher who became a Sikh after a series of spiritual experiences that saw her travel from Belgium to the Golden Temple in India, to find home.

Below is a write up of the interview. 

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I never saw any Sikhs when I was growing up. My first exposure to anything related to Sikhi was through my first Kundalini Yoga class. In that class we did Mool Mantar as part of our practice.

Next day after that class I kept vibrating Mool Mantar inside. I would wake up in the middle of the night and Mool Mantar would be in my mind.

It was different from a song being stuck; it was vibrating, it was doing something inside. Second class, a week later, Gurumantar, some Waheguru Simran, same thing would happen.

A couple of weeks later she introduced us to Jap Ji Sahib, as practiced in Kundalini Yoga. So I started doing that as well, but I was leading a completely different life. I wasn't religious, but I was really being touched by Gurbani without even knowing what tradition it came from. I had no idea it was from a Sikh tradition.

I flew to Delhi, took a train to Amritsar because for some reason I wanted to be there and I arrived in Amritsar on the eve of Guru Nanak Dev Ji's GurPurb. I walked down the steps onto the Pakarma and I put my head down and everything changed.

I don't know how long I was with my head down but I was heavily crying when I lifted my head. I felt that my skin stopped existing, sort of merged into something. I don't know how to describe it.

I felt very lost with it, because I didn’t know where I was. I was there with a friend and as I lifted my head up and they saw what was happening, my friend said "you've come home, this is where you belong".

We spent about a week in Amritsar and I spent most of my time In Harimandir Sahib. I spent a lot of time sitting on the rooftop, trying to figure out what was happening.

I knew that somehow this was home but I never believed in reincarnation. I never believed in past lives - so I couldn’t really make sense of what was going on, even though I had memories of something coming up before that.

When everybody was doing Rehras Sahib, I felt very much that was something I knew. As we walked out in the evening, in the shopping street, an old Sikh gentleman came up to me and started talking in Punjabi, I had no idea what he was saying. He calls his son and they gave me a Kara and said it was written on my forehead “you’re a Sikh of the Guru”.

He called me into his shop, gave me every single English book on Sikhi he had, made me pay for it - he didn't give them. That was the rest of my trip through India, we were there for a month and I just read all I could. Flew back home, about two months later I started wearing a Dastar, looked for Sangat near me in Belgium and there was a Gurdwara Sahib. A friend of mine said come to England with me, go to a Sikh retreat - you’ll meet Sikhs and that's what you probably need. I think with that retreat things got really established for me. Coming back, after three/four days going back to Belgium it was “okay, I need to move to England, I need to be around Sangat, I need to start giving up my life in Belgium and just really put Sikhi first”.

Mahraj blessed me with Amrit on Vaisakhi 2012, so it's been an ongoing journey ever since. Interesting journey. Definitely not ended yet.

Meditation

A few years back while filming the Hola Mahalla documentary, I had the pleasure of meeting a group of Sikhs at Harimandir Sahib from a variety of backgrounds. A couple of American Sikhs who were of a Punjabi descent, nothing new there, Mexican Sikhs that looked like Punjabans, an American Sikh of Iranian descent and a very striking German Sikh called Angad Singh Khalsa.

I found Angad to be a man of few words, very humble and just a great source of inspiration. When we were out in Amritsar, Angad would often be of interest to fellow tourists and Punjabis visiting Harimandir Sahib. His sense of self assurance and belonging at Darbar made it easy for me convince locals that Angad was in fact a fellow Punjabi too and that he was in fact from Phagwara. People just accepted this partly because I can hold a straight face when I'm in the process of telling these tall tales, but also because Angad just seemed to be part of Darbar. 

The Golden Temple, Harimandhir Sahib is one of the most important places for Sikhs. It's seen by many as the unofficial 8th wonder of the world. Many regard it as a Sikhs birth right and absolute duty to visit Harimandhir Sahib. For many it's just referred to as Darbar. 

For those of us lucky enough to go, we get this unique opportunity to visit Darbar, listen to the Parth, Kirtan, do seva and join our guru. How many of us really recognise this unique opportunity and take it? Angad had with both hands. People had seen him doing seva, washing the marble floors, washing the dishes, staying in the Pakarma often on his own doing his own Parth and Simran. 

This interview is part of an ongoing series of documentary shorts that explore the Sikh diaspora and Hola Mahalla. This one touches on some of the concepts surrounding meditation, others in this series include Sacred Sounds depicting the role of Sikhs during WWI. 

Here's a short documentary with Angad.

Below is a longer interview with Angad. 

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"My first experience was like in the Kundalini Yoga class and they were singing these mantras. I didnt like it at all, but it had an affect certainly and I got caught in it. So I liked practising Kundalini Yoga first and when I first like did my 40 day Kundalini Yoga I ended up at the Kundalini Yoga Festival. And there I met my teacher Professor Sunder Singh and I was sitting in the workshop.

I had nothing to do with Sikhi. I didnt know what is turban. I saw the first woman in baana and I was like “oh my gosh, what is that?”. I was just like normal guy you know, travelling around, living day by day and stuff. So I was sitting in this workshop and they were like aliens to me actually. Everybody was beautifully dressed and they had these strange instruments, and then they started to play and I was sitting there closing my eyes; and it was like something in me stopped moving. And I was just sitting there seeing like an old guy and he told me “Angad” my name wasnt Angad at this time. “Angad, you don't need to worry anymore”. So I was really touched by this music. This was not the moment I became a Sikh, this was like a process that took months, but my soul in this time directly knew I have to learn this science of Gurmat Sangeet. This was the moment that I was sitting in the workshop, the first time I listened to the Gurus kirtan, the Gurus way, using the Gurus instruments. My soul was touched and it reminded me of something which I always knew but in this life still had not realised. 

“Am I a Sikh?””

Then after some time, you have to ask yourself a question “am I a Sikh? Do I follow a religion? What is the religion?” I'm not following any religion, Im just following my Guru. But I was asking myself am I a Sikh? I mean I wake up in the morning, I do my sadana, I was telling myself, I study the holly scriptures of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, this is what Im doing but I have nothing to do with Sikhi and Gurus, but I was realising what I was doing and yeah Sikh just means student, so I was studying really hard. It was not a choice to become what I am. I feel like something was pulling me. Something chooseme to do what I have to do in my life. To meet my destiny somehow. 

So then there was a point where I was like “Okay, yes I'm a Sikh”. Just I never decided “Oh I'll become a Sikh” it just happened. I guess I met my destiny. It was like this. Then when I realised that, then I had to decide by myself “do I want this life, this commitment” and my soul was like “yes this is what you have to do”. Since then if somebody asks me, I say “yes I am Sikh”.

Being at the Golden Temple its like a really special blessing because for me its like the heart of everything. Just being here its a blessing. Just touching the soul the heart. 

I love to be here because there are so many things to do so you're never unemployed actually. You can do seva actually everywhere and help the whole thing going on. And for me this place is like a pure healing place. 

Yeah washing dishes, I mean I really don't like it, so I choose the dishes as a seva actually because I hate it, I do it as a seva to drop my ego a little. That's the reason I do this. Cleaning the marble, it just feels like so natural to do for me to do it for whatever reason. Afterwards it feels so good I dont know whether its even seva what Im doing because it has such a positive effect so like its very difficult to do it completely not with the ego you know. Because we do it and we feel so good afterwards, I get more than I give so for me its a seva/its not a seva".

Concepts of Equality

Using Karah Prashad to explore equality. Karah Prashad is given out at Sikh temples and is made of equal parts water, butter, sugar and flour.

Jason Taylor, the filmmaker behind the 'Concepts of Equality' video beautiful explains "By using equal amounts of each ingredient, then blessing it and sharing it equally, this simple offering represented to people the message of equality of both men and women, a message the world seems to have forgotten, not just in the east but in the west too. The three ingredients were at one time sourced from local families who farmed the Gurdwara’s surrounding lands. They would donate them as part of their Dasvand, which literally means, one tenth. Whether financial, agricultural or as service to others, all Sikhs believe that one tenth of everything we have to give should be shared with those less fortunate than us."

Click here to read more about the video and here for more about the project.