NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 2 The Rise of the Sikhs — DON'T MISS OUT

Book page 51 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Do you know what the Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk — the famous shopping area in Delhi — signifies?
Answer

It marks the exact place where Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, was publicly beheaded on Aurangzeb's orders in 1675. (A gurudwara, in Sikhism, is a place of worship.)

What happened there, in the chapter's own account. In 1675 a group of Kashmiri Pandits approached Guru Tegh Bahadur seeking protection from religious persecution. He decided to stand with them and court martyrdom. He was arrested, and Aurangzeb ordered him to convert to Islam. He was tortured, and made to witness three of his disciples being tortured to death. He refused. On Aurangzeb's orders he was publicly beheaded in Chandni Chowk.

What followed. His son Guru Gobind Singh — the tenth and last Guru — established the Khalsa in 1699, “a martial brotherhood committed to justice, equality and defence of the faith”.

How it is remembered today. The gurudwara is “uniquely honoured by the Sikh Regiment, which has saluted it before the President in the Republic Day parade each year since 1979.” The chapter calls it “a powerful symbol of faith and sacrifice in Indian history”.

Why the location matters: Chandni Chowk was, and is, a working market. The execution was carried out in public, in the busiest place in the capital, so that everyone would see what refusal cost. The gurudwara now stands on that same spot, in the same market — so the memory is not shut away in a monument on the edge of the city; it sits in the middle of ordinary life, where the event itself took place.
Did you know? The name says what the place is. Sis means ‘head’ and ganj means a market or a treasury — so Sis Ganj reads as the place of the head. Delhi has a second linked site, Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, associated with the Guru's body. Names of places often carry their own history if you take them apart.
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