In India, there are hundreds and thousands of jokes made on Sardars and the famous one is “Sardar ke 12 bajgaye.” People usually associate the dialogue BARAH BAJ GAYE (its 12 ‘0’ clock) with Sardars (Sikhs). It is a remark which means that they go into a ‘mad’ mood at twelve o’ clock and start acting crazy and do all sorts of crazy things. We even say this dialogue to anybody who acts really foolish at any point of time. And, what’s even worse, we leave no opportunity to reduce any Sikh we know to a mere joke. But not many of us are aware of the story behind the origin of this dialogue. It’s time we tell you how the ’12 baje gaye’ phrase got associated with the Sikhs.

During the 18th Century, India was invaded by Nader Shah, the Shah of Persia. Nader Shah’s army raided Delhi in the year 1739 and looted Hindustan. Countless Hindus and Muslims were killed and the women were held captives. The only people who stood against these people were the Sardars. Sardar Jassa Singh who was the Commander of the Sikh army at that time decided to attack Nadir Shah’s Kafila.  With ‘guerilla’ tactics, they attacked the Muslim camps and liberated the Hindu women from the clutches. They even helped those rescued women return home safely.

The usual time of such attacks was either at noon or midnight. The attacks were so ferocious, that the Muslims began dreading the expected attacks of the Sikhs at 12 o’ clock, midnight or noon.” After that time when there occurred a similar incidence, people started to contact the Sikh army for their help and Sikhs used to attack the raider’s at Midnight, 12 O’clock.

It was these people who coined the phrase that “Sardaron ke barah baj gaye.” But over time, the Hindus started referring to this kind gesture in the form of the 12 o’clock joke without even realizing that had it not been for those Sikhs, their women wouldn’t have survived. The irony is that descendants of the rescued people are making fun of the rescuers. They went out of their way to help their brothers and what they got in return was an insensitive joke that stereotyped their community on a ridiculous level.

It’s easy to joke on a Sardar, but it’s too difficult to be a Sardar. We think it is time to stop joking about this incident. So now I guess anybody who reads this might reconsider before using this dialogue.