Inside an empty hall of a church on London Road, Nihang is an authoritative figure. As 20 men, most of them from the Sikh community, surround him in a semicircle, he demonstrates some self-defence skills. With subtle hand and body movements, he exhibits a form of martial art that he has mastered over 25 years.[break]
But more than 5,000 years after its inception, this form of Sikh martial art known as Shastar Vidiya could soon be relegated to the pages of history books. There are not many practitioners and there is a sole surviving master who embodies the technical and traditional expertise—Singh Nihang.
“My aim as a Gurudev (teacher) is to ensure the art, in all its totality, survives,” says he.
In Slough, throughout the three-hour session, the man with an intimidating body structure standing at 6-feet-one-inch explains the various techniques and also the history behind Shastar Vidiya to casually dressed men, most of them in their traditional turban and beard.
Nidar Singh with chakars (quoits) around his neck
“It’s a science of weapons,” he says, pausing it to describe it more eloquently, “which involves advancing upon the enemy, hitting in a striking range, misaligning his strikes and cutting him down.”
But in its current context, the warrior art form, says Singh, is an “irrefutable science” and a window to the union of different cultures from the Indian subcontinent. Shastar Vidiya has its root in the subcontinent, stretching from Multan across to Nepal, and as far south as Central India.
As his students engage in different unarmed fighting techniques, an array of weapons neatly lay on the table. Singh Nihang steps forward, picks up a Maddu, a small weapon akin to a knuckleduster, and tells how it was used during wart to attack the enemies.
“In the old days, you had to fight people to show your art. Nowadays we can be sensible. We can demonstrate so we can show the art and science behind it,” he says.
Singh Nihang himself is draped in a blue Chola, a kurta-like robe, with white Kachera, knee-length breaches, and sneakers. His sword and a traditional dagger called kirpan are neatly tucked between the blue Kamarkasar, cloth belt, wrapped around his waist.
His traditional getup and a long beard with streaks of white hair may give an intimidating first impression, but he isn’t as fierce as he appears.
Photographed at the Martial Arts Festival, 2011, in Birmingham NEC
Singh Nihang is a combination of wit and a wealth of knowledge. In between his classes, he speaks of history and heritage associated with Shastar Vidiya and does not hesitate to make his students smile. He likes to keep the atmosphere “relaxed but serious.”
“He’s always coming out with jokes and keeps the class light-hearted,” says Jas Singh, a student in Slough.
Dressed in sports trousers and an England football jersey, the 24-year-old project manager at a construction company, chose to learn Shastar Vidiya because “it had a link to Sikh culture.”
Five years later, Jas says Singh Nihang has helped him come closer to the art, science and culture behind Shastar Vidiya and also his heritage.
As the master sits down after his class, he is still energetic, speaking about the art he discovered in 1984. He takes a memory train back to Jalandhar in northern India.
The art, which was kept a secret to save it from the enemies in the early days, was later used by the Sikhs against the British Raj in India. After the British banned it, he says “it broke the institutional instruction of the art.”
But when the British left India, Singh Nihang says they left the “Angrez Sikhism” or English-influenced Sikhism that altered their culture. “That’s one reason the art didn’t flourish,” he says.
But 37 years after India’s independence, when 17-year-old Singh Nihang visited his ancestral abode in Punjab, he was destined to continue the legacy of this dying art.
Stroking his beard, flashing an apparent smile, he mentions his 80-year-old teacher who spotted him at a fair and asked him if he wanted to learn. The tall teenager with striking physical features agreed. He tells the story, sprinkling some Punjabi words in between yet retaining his English accent.
“He gave me a stick and told me to hit him with it. But before I knew it, I was on the floor and he had the stick,” he says in a single sentence.
“The science of what he was doing, I didn’t understand it then,” says Singh Nihang who then stayed back in India for 11 years. “But now I know the art and also the culture behind the art.”
For 42-year-old Iqbal Singh, a Bruce Lee fan, learning the Shastar Vidiya is also understanding about his Indian and Sikh heritage.
“As a parent, I need my kids to know their roots and this is an all-encompassing package to educate them,” the IT consultant and Singh Nihang’s student for five years says.
He defines his master as a “living entity and a torchbearer whose life is on a mission.”
Nidar Singh weilding a khanda (double-edged sword), and krot (steel shield with a spike) in full battle uniform, including char-aina (metal plate armour)
And it’s not an easy duty. Singh Nihang trains from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm everyday and also maintains a meditation schedule.
“This art is more than physical,” the master says. “It’s an intellectual pursuit. On one hand we’re preserving history and culture and on other we’re transmitting them.”
But passing the skills also means preparing the next master. The 100-plus Sikh, Muslim and Christian students in Singh Nihang’s classes throughout the UK, he says, belong to the “wrong generation” of becoming the master.
He thinks the younger generation, the kids in his class, including his 7-year-old son, have more chances of succeeding him. They have more time to be shaped into the technical, cultural and historical side, qualities that a master should embody.
The 44-year-old’s passion and commitment for the art’s protection and preservation is apparent. While he is teaching or talking about it, his skills and depth of knowledge is evident.
Amrit Pal Singh speaks fondly of his master. “The passion he has is addictive and he conveys it very well to his students,” the 25-year-old engineer says. He’s very inspirational and he dedicates his life to the art.”
However, not everyone agrees. Singh Nihang has received numerous death threats from Sikh fundamentalists who disagree with the ideologies of Shastar Vidiya.
But the determined and assertive warrior gives an uncanny smile, explaining that his critics are not aware of the wider spectrum of their own culture. He uses the phrase “intellectual rape” as the method he uses to tackle such problems.
Despite the mounting problems and challenges of saving a historical martial art with a cultural significance and finding a successor, he is still nurturing the knowledge he acquired in 1984. Finding a successor, he says, will not be an end to his pursuit.
“I’ll never retire,” he delivers promptly in a firm tone. “If I die and I can come back, I’ll train. We’re not meant to retire.”
Bhandari is the UK based correspondent of The Week.
All photos copyright NIHANG TEJA SINGH
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