By blood a king, in heart a clown

By blood a king, in heart a clown

Thats the fate of majority of Sikhs today. We take pride in our impeccable ancestry but stop just at that: a story here and a story there about our Revered Gurus, Beloved Sahibzadeys, Amazing Martyrs, Stalwart Generals and Gursikhs. Majority of us are reduced to being social network tigers only: a share a story on FaceBook, post a Gurbani Shabad on Twitter, forward Hukamnamas on Whatsapp, Likes, Comments, Texts, so and so forth. 

Sadly! the activism on social media doesn't translate on ground. 

Today's blog is my exasperation observing our people falling head over toes to share an article published by a hitherto unknown online magazine with only a grandiose name to claim. Everyone got carried away with just two words "BILLIONAIRES" and "AUSTRALIA" and went berserk sharing an article which ranked one of the most illustrious Sikh General Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa as world's top CONQUEROR. Just the number one ranking for Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa by a news aggregator site, launched just yesterday, was enough for Sikhs, Punjabi Newspapers, Punjabi TVs, Sikh News Websites. 

No one was alarmed by the title of CONQUEROR being conferred on a very General whose adherence to Gurmat has always been greater pride for the community over his unmatched military astuteness.  

It feels great to know Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa is praised by none less than a foreign publication BILLIONAIRES AUSTRALIA!! and naturally many Sikhs started sharing the link with pride!

I am always sceptical when it comes to news like: "GURU GRANTH SAHIB at top floor of NASA library", "SIKHS pay highest Income Tax as a group", "PAINTING OF GURU GOBIND SINGH JI in WHITE HOUSE", "HARI SINGH NALWA", Blah Blah. Many of these end up only as: crude photoshop or worthless gossip. That's SELF AGGRANDISEMENT at it's worst.

Let's analyse the HARI SINGH NALWA story doing the rounds these days:
QUESTION: who owns BILLIONAIRESAUSTRALIA.COM?
ANSWER: A Media, Marketing and Advertising company called Fortitude Design, based in Sydney, Australia. (information pulled from Whois)

BUT wait!! Lo and Behold!!! the company website www.fortitudedesign.com is non-functional!!
A company that owns BiilionairesAustralia.com doesn't have it's on website!!
All it has for address is a PO Box No.!!

Does that ring a bell?

No rocket science. This is one of many tools of Internet Marketing or SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The website BillionairesAustralis.com is nothing more than a website which pulls different types of news from internet and displays them: news aggregator is the word. In between, very cleverly, web links of clients are also thrown which helps their businesses rank higher in google and other search engines when someone searches certain key words.

Now our friends at Fortitude Designs also need lots of hits for the website www.BillionairesAustralia.com because more the hits better the price they get for banner advrts and associate clients. Best and easiest way to divert lots of internet traffic to their site is create some stories which can generate lots of interests and sharing on social media.

Who'll be the most excited people to read a story?
I know you are smiling now 

(Apart from stories about a community like Sikhs they'll also have other stories which include photographs of scantily clad female models or actors)

But why should we object a story about Hari Singh Nalwa, irrespective of publisher's intentions, it educates Non-Sikhs about our greatest leaders!!. Consider this:
1. 99% of this story is shared among Sikhs only. It will hardly reach other communities as many of us might think.
2. The story it's so much unconvincing. No more than just an opinion of the author 
3. No name of author or original publication
4. No empirical data to compare the exploits of all the Generals
5. In name of research it contains only the information available on Internet, crudely put together

Most IMPORTANTLY the insult in ranking Hari Singh Nalwa as a CONQUEROR. All Conquerors mentioned in the story were murderers and looters who subjected people to utmost cruelty.
Sardar Nalwa only reclaimed the lands that invaders had usurped from erstwhile Punjab. HE then proceeded to establish a post at Jamrod which plugged the Khyber Pass to stop invaders for all times. Sardar Nalwa unlike the other conquerors cared for population under his rule and people loved him like a God.

The most abhoring thing is to rank Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa just above Genghis Khan whom it refers to as "Genghis Khan has become synonymous with gruesome and brutal warfare". It also includes
- Attila the Hun: "plundered and pillaged everything in his path"
- Timur aka Tamerlane: "responsible for the deaths of 17 million people, earning him a barbaric reputation"
- Francisco Pizarro: "brutality in the execution of his opposition’s leaders"

oh yeah!! it's a little cost to educate people about our Sardar Nalwa

It's shame that site owners also try to convince readers by sharing video of stunts by Bir Khalsa Dal and call it Sikh martial art. Too much for a good research!!

This poorly aggregated article on an unknown website caught the imagination of Sikhs like never before. I believe it's not because the article was about Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa that our people got so much excited. In fact it was the two words in the publisher's name that ignited that legacy pride: BILLIONAIRES and AUSTRALIA!!

Apart from incessant sharing over email and social many newspapers, Sikh websites, TV channels and bloggers displayed the news as if some sort of OSCARS was conferred on Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa

1. SIKHNET http://www.sikhnet.com/news/sikh-warrior-hari-singh-nalwa-tops-list-top-ten-world-conquerors
2. ABP SANJHA NEWS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08UfXyylWpM
3. ROZANA SPOKESMAN http://www.rozanaspokesman.com/epaper/fullpage.aspx?edition=main&yview=2014&mview=Aug&dview=23&pview=1
4. SIKH SIYASAT http://sikhsiyasat.net/2014/08/23/sikh-warrior-hari-singh-nalwa-tops-list-of-top-ten-world-conquerors-compiled-by-billionaires-australia/
5. DAILY SIKH UPDATES http://dailysikhupdates.com/hari-singh-nalwa-ranked-10-greatest-generals-history/  (THIS SITE ALSO PUBLISHED MY FACEBOOK POST TO COUNTER THE ORIGINAL POST)
6. KALGIDHAR TRUST BARU SAHIB http://barusahib.org/hari-singh-nalwa/
7. AJIT JALANDHAR http://beta.ajitjalandhar.com/news/20140823/1/660933.cms#660933