Women Martyrs of Mir Mannu Jail

Dadi: "Guddu, tonight I'll tell you about some of the bravest women in our history - women whose courage was so great that their sacrifice is remembered in our daily prayers even today, centuries later."

Guddu: "In our prayers? What did they do?"

Dadi: "In the 1700s, there was a governor of Punjab named Mir Mannu who hated the Sikhs with terrible passion. He promised to wipe out every Sikh in the land. He made it legal to hunt, torture, and kill Sikhs - and paid rewards for it."

Guddu: "That's horrible!"

Dadi: "When his soldiers couldn't find Sikh men - who had fled to mountains and forests - they captured the women and children instead. They brought them to prisons in Lahore, hoping to break them."

Guddu: "What happened in the prison?"

Dadi: "The conditions were terrible, beta. Dry, dusty cells with barely any light. The women were given huge grinding stones - three times heavier than normal - and forced to grind flour all day. Each woman had to grind forty pounds of grain."

Guddu: "That must have been exhausting!"

Dadi: "Those who couldn't finish had heavy stones placed on their chests. They were given only one small piece of bread and a bowl of water for the whole day."

Guddu: "Why didn't they just say what Mir Mannu wanted?"

Dadi: "Ah, that's where their courage shines, beta. Mir Mannu offered them freedom - they just had to convert, to give up their faith. Every single woman refused."

Guddu: "All of them?"

Dadi: "All of them. Instead of crying under their burden, they sang the hymns of Guru Nanak while grinding. Their song rose from the prison, transforming their torture into worship."

Guddu: "What happened to their children?"

Dadi: "This is the hardest part to tell, beta. Mir Mannu ordered all the children killed. Over three hundred infants were murdered before their mothers' eyes."

Guddu: "How... how could anyone do that?"

Dadi: "Evil can run very deep in human hearts. But the mothers' response showed how deep faith can run too. Even watching their children die, not one mother accepted conversion. Not one."

Guddu: "That seems impossible, Dadi. How could they bear it?"

Dadi: "I don't know, beta. Maybe they believed their children were going straight to God. Maybe they couldn't betray their faith even in the worst moment. Maybe they knew that giving in would mean their children died for nothing."

Guddu: "Did anyone rescue them?"

Dadi: "Eventually, yes. The Sikh warriors attacked Lahore twice - first disguised as Sufi saints, then later with full force. In 1753, Mir Mannu died a horrible death, and the survivors were freed."

Guddu: "What happened to the women who survived?"

Dadi: "They returned to their communities as heroes. Their story became part of the Ardas - the daily prayer that Sikhs recite everywhere in the world. Every day, millions of people remember "the Singhnian who happily ground flour on the heavy grinding stones, who wore garlands of their children's bodies around their necks, but never rejected the teachings of Nanak.""

Guddu: "They're remembered in every prayer?"

Dadi: "Every single one. Their names are mostly lost, beta. We don't know them as individuals. But as a group, their sacrifice is honored daily, century after century."

Guddu: "Dadi, there's a saying you mentioned - about sickle and seed?"

Dadi: ""Mir Mannu is our sickle and we are Mannu's seed. The more he cuts us down, the more we increase." It means persecution couldn't destroy the Sikhs - it only made them stronger. The tyrant thought he was destroying a faith; instead, he created eternal martyrs whose memory strengthens that faith forever."

Guddu: "So their courage won in the end?"

Dadi: "It always does, beta. Bodies can be killed. Faith cannot. Those women could have saved their lives and their children's lives with a few words. They chose eternal truth over temporary survival. And because of that choice, their memory survives when Mir Mannu's is cursed."

Guddu: "I'll remember them, Dadi."

Dadi: "That's all they would have wanted. That someone, somewhere, remembers what faith can endure - and refuses to let their sacrifice be forgotten."