Overland to London - Delhi via Amritsar to Jammu

A Punjabi farmer ploughing his land

Day 14    Sun 8 June           DELHI – AMRITSAR

Departure time:  8am                 Tach reading  133,649          Distance run: 444kms                                   

               This morning we leave Delhi and head north, through the State of Haryana, passing through the towns of Panipat, scene of a great battle when Babur, the first Moghul Emperor, defeated the Lodi princes and captured India for the Moghuls, Ambala and, after entering the Punjab, Ludhiana.  We will be driving along the famous Grand Trunk (GT) Road, an ancient road dating at least from the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd century BC which originally ran from Chittagong, now in Bangladesh, to Kabul in Afghanistan. The section of road that we will be driving along was described eloquently by Rudyard Kipling in Kim: "And truly the Grand Trunk Road is a wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India’s traffic for fifteen hundred miles in such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world. ... They met a troop of long-haired, strong-scented Sansis with baskets of lizards and other unclean food on their backs, the lean dogs sniffing at their heels. These people kept their own side of the road. moving at a quick, furtive jog-trot, and all other castes gave them ample room; for the Sansi is deep pollution. ..." 

Both Ambala and Ludhiana have busy railway stations which are always interesting to visit, if we have time. It is said that the Indian Railways are a complete microcosm of Indian life, and the trains are always overloaded. Mahatma Gandi aptly described some of the horrors of rail travel in his monograph Third Class In Indian Railways: "The closets attached to these places defy description. I have not the power to describe them without committing a breach of the laws of decent speech. Disinfecting powder, ashes, or disinfecting fluids are unknown. The army of flies buzzing about them warns you against their use. But a third-class traveller is dumb and helpless. He does not want to complain even though to go to these places may be to court death. I know passengers who fast while they are travelling just to lessen the misery of their life in the trains.”  

Ludhiana railway station, Punjab

Always room for one more on an Indian train

    The Punjab means the ‘land of the 5 rivers’ – Sutlej, Ravi, Beas, Chenab and Jhelum, all tributaries of the Indus -  and Amritsar is the State capital. The Punjab is now divided between Indian and Pakistan, a result of the 1947 Independence partition. This act and its subsequent International boundary, known as the Radcliffe Line, brought much bloodshed and heartbreak to Hindu, Sikh and Moslem communities on both sides of the new border. Some 10,000,000 people were uprooted and emigrated to one country or the other. The Punjab is now one of the most prosperous of the Indian states, often being referred to as the breadbasket of India, due to the amount of wheat grown here.

    Amritsar is the capital of the Indian Punjab and is now a thriving city close to the border with Pakistan. In 1919 a British General Dyer ordered the shooting of a large, peaceful crowd that had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh to protest against the arrest of pro-Indelendence leaders. Over 1000 protesters were killed and as many injured. The shooting only stopped when Dyers' force, mainly Gurkhas, Pathans & Baluchis, ran out of ammunition. This incident shocked the British and some consider it a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India. Jallianwala Bagh is now a pleasant garden not far from the Ritz Hotel where we will be staying.

Jallianwala Bagh, site of the 1919 Amritsar massacre

Street scene with Police 'Beat Box', Amritsar

Amritsar, or ‘Pool of Nectar’ is the holy city of the world’s youngest major religion – Sikhism – which was founded in the 16^th century by Guru Nanak. Nanak travelled widely and studied all religions before he made the pronouncement: "i shall follow God's path. God is neither Hindu nor Mussulman and the path which I follow is God's." A popular story told about Nanak was that when he was in Mecca, he was found sleeping with his feet towards the Kaaba. A Moslem kazi who saw him, angrily objected. Nanak replied asking the kazi to turn his feet in a direction in which God or the House of God is not. The kazi understood the meaning of what the Guru was saying - "God is everywhere".

The entrance to the causeway to the Golden Temple

The city is built around the famous Golden Temple, situated in the ‘Pool of Immortality’ and, all being well, we will visit the temple tonight to see the daily ceremony in which the holy book, the Adi Granath, the final and eternal Guru, is packed away – ‘putting the book to bed’ -  and taken in ceremony to its nightly storage place in the Akal Takht, a five-tiered marble building at the ‘Pool’ side.   

The Akal Takht and the Golden Temple, the 'Abode of God', in the Pool of Immortality

Pax comments:  

                 We all live in hope of the day when Lindsay may surprise us all by saying something intelligent

                      “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”

 

Day 15    Mon 9 June           AMRITSAR – JAMMU

           Departure time:  8.30AM                  Tach reading:  134,093          Distance run: 206 kms

       There is One God                                                                                                                       He is the supreme truth                                                                                                              He, The Creator                                                                                                                          Is without fear and without hate                                                                                                  He, the Omnipresent                                                                                                                    Pervades the Universe                                                                                                                He is not born                                                                                                                              Nor does He die to be born again                                                                                                By His grace shall thou worship Him

          Thus begins Jupji – the Sikh morning prayer. Sikhism is regarded as the world’s newest religion, first being preached by the Guru Nanak in the early part of the 16^th century. Nanak rejected the formalism of both Hinduism and Islam and preached a gospel of universal toleration that emphasised the fundamental truths of all religions. Guru Nanak composed the Jupji, the first few lines of which, known as the Mool Mantra, is called the basic belief. Sikhism started out as a way of life rather than a religion, but as it developed through the succession of Gurus, persecution by the Moghuls forced the Sikhs to develop into a close-knit community and eventually the massacres of Aurangzeb at the time of the 10^th and last Guru, Govind Singh, to arm the Sikhs. It was Govind Singh who gave them the ‘5 Ks’: i) Kesh – hair which was never to be cut ii) Kangha – the comb with which the hair was to be groomed at least once a day. iii) Kachha - undershorts, so that they would never been seen naked iv) Kara – the steel bangle all Sikhs wear and v) Kirpan -  sword or dagger to defend oneself.

Sikhs at the Golden Temple - note the different styles of turban

          From this time on Sikhs began to defend themselves against the Moslems, harassing the Moghul armies with guerrilla tactics, but it was Ranjit Singh, the one-eyed ‘Lion of the Punjab’, who finally organised them into a strong army and conquered large tracts of the Punjab and present-day Pakistan in the early 19^th century, until they were defeated in two wars by the British. The name Singh, that every Sikh has after his name, means ‘lion’ and was given to them by Govind Singh. Today, Sikhs form some of the best units in the Indian Army.

Early morning by the Pool of Immortality, Amritsar

          Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holy city developed around the Golden Temple (Sri Harimandir Sahib – “abode of God”). The Golden Temple is not only a central religious place of the Sikhs, but also a symbol of human brotherhood and equality. Anyone, irrespective of cast, creed or race, can seek spiritual solace and religious fulfillment without any hindrance. The Temple rests in the ‘Pool of Immortality’ and there is a Sikh community-run kitchen that serves a free simple vegetarian meal to all visitors. The Temple complex, particularly the Akal Takht, was badly damaged in 1984 after demands to create an autonomous Sikh state was suppressed when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the Indian Army (Operation Blue Star). The aftermath led to Indira Gandhi’s assassination on 31 October 1984.

The Golden Temple, Sri Harmandir Sahib, in Amritsar

          The drive from Amritsar, via Batala, Gurdaspur and Pathankot, to Jammu, in the disputed (with Pakistan) State of Jammu and Kashmir, is relatively short – about 6 hours. Once again we come close to the Himalayas, although Jammu is still on the plains. We stay tonight at the Jammu Motel.

Text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.