Gatka Crisis: Failure to Prevent Beadbi by Training Saroop Pehredaars

Historical Crisis

Not that long ago, Sikhs made history through glorious and courageous acts. Our bravery and commitment to our Guru Sahib brought highly organized armies to their knees. Sikhs attained Shaheedi while saving the honor and lives of countless non-Sikhs, including women and children.

Who would have thought back then, that one day we would become incapable of defending even our own Guru?

Today we are so disoriented that this has now become a historical crisis. That is why the only solution is to regain a clear perspective, and make protection of every single Saroop of Guru Granth Sahib Ji the core purpose of Gatka.

Current Issues of Gatka

Existing structures of Gatka can’t provide reliable services because of the following challenges:

• Current instruction does not have any standardized outcomes
• Primary focus is on visual exhibitions instead of tangible needs of the Panth
• Lack of purpose and duty to serve
• Stagnant revival of heritage

Besides these issues, currently we can’t rely on Gatka also due to its dysfunctional culture: there was no significant reaction to beadbi incidents, even though it represents the epicenter of our martial history.

Therefore, all Gatka Ustaads, Students, and Sangat supporters should take a moment to reflect and make a clear choice: stay stagnant, or dedicate Gatka to protect all Saroops of the same Guru who gave us this Shashtar Vidia in the first place?

Repairing Over Re-Creating

Given the current challenges of Gatka, it might seem that looking for alternatives is better instead of trying to change something that might be too rigid. However, there are several reasons why aligning Gatka with Beadbi Prevention brings the best cumulative outcome for the Panth.

Let’s first consider the following aspects that already exist:

• Gurbani and Rehit are a core aspect of Gatka training.
• Students learn about the spiritual aspect of Shashtars by treating them with sacred respect.
• Gatka directly connects with the historical legacy of Puratan Shaheeds.
• The location of most Gatka teams is usually near a Gurdwara.

All of these aspects are directly compatible with the following core requisites outlined by the Saroop Protection framework:

• Operatives need training in Mariyada-based procedures such as emergency Sukh-Asan
• Protective operations need to be closer to Saroops, that are almost always in a Gurdwara
• Operatives must have discipline of Rehit and Gurbani.

With all this overlap, we can invest our resources efficiently and solve two problems at the same time.

Two Problems Unite

Even in the current state, Gatka is under serving the Panth by not training enough. Right now, there is no basic Kirpan Training available anywhere, that is custom designed for Sikhs who want to, or have already taken Amrit.

Even though Kirpan is the only Kakaar that requires special training, we continue to neglect its importance. This is partially why a higher number of Sikhs may read Gurbani but still not have any foundational training in Shashtar Vidia. Because of this pre-existing deficit, the pathway to prevent Physical Attack Beadbi becomes challenging.

The framework of Saroop Protection needs teams of operatives to provide 24-hour protection every day, to every individual Saroop. This means, without factoring in break times, one operative spots adds up to 168 hours weekly for continuous 24/7 coverage. That is equivalent to four people doing a full 40-hour work week.

Therefore, even a having a skeleton team of two operatives just for one Saroop is the same as hiring 8 new staff members — a strong barrier to adoption by management of any Gurdwara.

However, with Gatka, the barrier shifts away from the management and reduces to just 6-hour slots of Sewa – to be filled twice a week by 14 students, or just once a week if there are 28 students in the local team.

Although this is clearly a simplified calculation, it shows that Saroop Protection isn’t impossible to implement and is completely within the decision-making of the Sangat.

Once we to solve most challenges of Gatka, we can then optimize its output and have a higher number of trained Sangat members. That includes adults that often self-exclude from learning Gatka, when all they simply need is training that is more encouraging and accommodating.

Pargat Vidia

Since all of this can be overwhelming to take on, it’s important to clarify how implementing Saroop Protection could be a pathway that could also help resume the revival of Gatka.

The major underlying issue has been that what was once a complete martial art is now only partially available to us.

Many historical factors caused the loss of most Gatka heritage, and now the chances of a normal recovery are extremely low. However, if we were to look for solutions according to Gurmat, we would realize that there certainly is a way.

Be it Beadbi Prevention or Gatka, the underlying cause for our struggle as a Panth is the same: our lack of acceptance of our Guru Sahib Ji as Jaagdi-Jot. If we were to believe completely, there would be no need to clarify that the same Shashtar Vidia originating from Guru Nanak Dev Ji, used in battles by Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji and Guru Gobind Singh Ji, is still here us, within the Jaagdi-Jot of Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

Unfortunately, we are in such a state of crisis that we even need to highlight that the Gurgaddi of our Puran Guru was given in its entirety. The Shashtar Vidia used in history to win so many battles is still here with us, as Jaagadi-Jot and Puran Guru, Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

The key to accessing that Shashtar Vidia, however, is by first serving the same Guru as Pehredaars with complete dedication.

After that, how and what happens for the revival of Gatka will be completely within the Hukam of Guru Sahib. We just need to do our part and then wait for blessings to come.

From Exhibitions to Drills

While we can’t completely restore our lost heritage right away, we can still try to make the best out of what we already have. However, there is a major roadblock that we must overcome.

While exhibitions have made Sangat aware of our martial heritage, this exclusive focus on visuals for a prolonged time has come at a cost: we failed to transition Gatka into providing tangible services within the Panth. This is strongly perpetuated by a dysfunctional culture, where students are primarily incentivized to strive for visual exhibitions and choreography.

Given that there has been no discussion on the commonsense solution of using Gatka is to prevent beadbi, we could say that the consequences of this misplaced focus have been catastrophic.

This means that we need to course-correct towards a drill-based culture, and practice Gatka for scenarios that serve the specific needs of the Panth, especially protecting Saroops from beadbi attacks.

Pehredaar Training

Right after focusing on the drill-based approach, we need to make Pehredaar Training a core output of Gatka. This means that students should train with drills simulating beadbi attacks. In such scenarios, students can improve their skills to deflect, neutralize, and contain an attacker from getting close to Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

After developing foundational skills, students can then enroll in additional programs to acquire supplemental non-Gatka skills that are needed to become an official Saroop Protection Operative.

Scaling Gatka

With a clear perspective on the general direction of our pathway, we can further improve Gatka training to make it available in all regions of the Panth, at the same level of quality using the Distributed and Localized model.

To do this, first we need to solve some common problems related to Gatka by:

• Standardizing training and instruction
• Establishing trackable metrics for specific skills
• Defining general milestones for various stages

Then, these improvements in quality can allow us to make additional optimizations to our instructional efficiency.

Applied Instructional Technology

While even creating a simple sheet to track standardized skills on paper would be valuable, we should also look at potential opportunities offered by recent technological advancements to track the speed, stamina, strength, and precision of students. There can be multiple implementation of this.

Smart Training Shashtars

We could incorporate sensors that provide data on how a student uses a shashtar. Then, based on that data, they can get customized learning plans that are fine tuned by their Ustaads or a custom AI model.

During training, your Smart Shashtar could give you simple live feedback with color, sound, or haptic reactions whenever your movement is not correct.

Training Simulations

We could develop solutions to use physical space enhanced with sensors to conduct drills. In addition, over the long term, we could also develop either an augmented reality or full VR training capabilities for various drills.

With both options we can significantly increase our mission readiness and become better prepared to serve various needs of the Panth.

Sustainability

Besides those discussed earlier, there are also other internal challenges related to Gatka, such as:

• Lack of stable management of students
• Limited resources and funding
• Missed enrollments because of lack of parchaar

To solve this, we could create an online platform to manage a Gatka Akhara, Academy, or a Team. Students can then access their learning modules, Ustaads can keep track of students them, and those doing administrative Sewa could take care of enrollment and other logistics.

In addition, to solve the problem of funding, the local Sangat and Gurdwara management could support Gatka students by providing financial support in exchange for consistent Saroop Protection Sewa. This way, we could create a positive loop: students get to improve their team while doing Sewa at the same time.

You Decide the Outcome

Deploying Gatka to provide 24-hour protection to all Saroops of Guru Granth Sahib Ji is a major solution to multiple physical harm categories of beadbi. Therefore, now is the time for Gatka Ustaads and students to decide: remain in the current crisis of stagnation, or make this opportunity a historical inflection-point and put an end to beadbi.