Dervish Hassan Askari told us that these reverses were Allah’s warning to us to be better prepared. Our astrologers also predicted that the firangi’s rule would end on the 23rd of June which was the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Plassey. Our Ghazis went out in their thousands and fell upon the enemy who had massed his troops outside the city wall at Sabzi Mandi. Once again Allah granted our Ghazis the houris of paradise but gave the firangi and his Sikh and Gorkha hirelings the pleasure of victory.

The reverses at Sabzi Mandi plunged the city in gloom. People lost faith in their commanders. Everyone accused everyone else of treachery and being in the pay of the firangi. The hot winds blowing from the desert tried people’s patience. Suddenly merchants began to hide their wares. There was no grain or fodder in the market. The poor were driven to desperation. Many turned to thieving and robbery. We did not know what the outcome would be. Then a strange man appeared in Delhi.

Nihal Singh

All my life I had been hearing of Dilli. When I was a child Mai told me of Aurangzeb, King of Dilli, who had cut off the head of our Guru. She called him Auranga and spat whenever she used his name. I also learnt to thoo on Auranga’s name. When I was older, Bapu told me of the exploits of our ancestors who looted Dilli and brought back saddles full of gold and silver. And of Sardar Baghel Singh who built a gurdwara on the very spot where our Guru had been martyred. When I joined the Punjab police, my friends said, ‘If you haven’t seen Dilli you have seen nothing.’ In Dilli, they said, you could get everything; young whores with small mango-shaped bosoms, boys with rounded pumpkin bottoms; and if you did not have money to pay for a woman or a boy, you could have a hijda for a couple of pice—and he (she or it) could give you more fun than either. I prayed that something would take me to Dilli.

The Guru who knows the secrets of our hearts answered my prayer. One day when I was home on leave two men came to our village. One went round beating a drum asking everyone to assemble under the big peepul tree. The other fellow then told us that the Mussalmans had risen against Jan Company and put back a Mughal on the throne in Dilli. This Mughal was the grandson of the grandson of the same Auranga who had murdered our Guru. He said if we joined the army of Jan Company and captured Dilli all the gold and silver we could find would be ours. I asked the man to write an arzi to the police station asking for more leave, touched the feet of my Mai and Bapu and took the road to Dilli.