Guru’s baaz, Punjab’s State Bird, rare hawk creates a flutter in poll ring

The venerable status of Northern Goshawk in Punjab, and its designation as State Bird, flow from the belief that the majestic white and black hawk is the avian species that features in depictions of Guru Gobind Singh. Due to this, the Tenth Guru is often referred to as Bajanvala, or the Master of the Hawk, with the bird seen as a symbol of royal authority, sovereignty, and the fearless warrior spirit of the Khalsa, founded by Gobind Singh.

The Akali Dal, which guards its Panthic vote eagle-like, was the first to claim a sighting. After Badal was attacked outside the Nanded gurdwara on August 13, his wife and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the Guru had sent his “baaz” to protect him. At a series of rallies in Punjab, Harsimrat displayed photos of “150 stitches” that she said Badal had received following the deep cut on his right hand, and claimed their children had seen the falcon flying outside the hospital where the former Deputy CM was admitted (he received treatment first in Maharashtra’s Nanded, and then Gurugram in Haryana).

Guru Gobind Singh with his baaz. From the book, “In Pursuit of Empire: Treasures from The Toor Collection of Sikh Art” by Davinder Toor.

“My children told me a baaz was constantly circling the sky outside the hospital. So when Bajanvala is here to protect us, why should we fear anyone? We won’t fear, we won’t bend, we will rest only after making them flee Punjab,” Harsimrat said, attacking the AAP.

Circling in, CM Mann started telling people in every speech that the bird outside the hospital wasn’t there to “protect” Badal, but to “protect its own eggs from him”, as the former Deputy CM might have “demanded a business share in the eggs too”. The AAP and Mann have repeatedly accused the Badals of building massive business empires at the cost of Punjab’s development, including in transport, sand, cable TV, etc.

Why would the Guru send his baaz to protect the Badals, Mann added, given that they “disrespected Sri Guru Granth Sahib”, in a reference to the 2015 sacrilege incidents that happened during the SAD-BJP government, and continue to stir Punjab’s political pot.

During his recent “Lok Milnis (public interactions)” in several districts, Mann made his point while mimicking with his hands a bird circling around a building: “She (Harsimrat) says Guru’s baaz was flying around to protect Badal. Oye oye hoye hoye… Is baaj wella (idle) to guard such people who got beadbiyaan (sacrilege) done?”

The baaz, or Northern Goshawk. (Credit: Vikram Jit Singh)

He added: “Firstly, it is not even clear if it was actually a baaz. Some say it was a kaan (crow), others say it might be an ill (kite). But even if I believe it was a baaz, it wasn’t there to protect or guard this family. The bird’s wife must have laid eggs nearby. She must have sent him to check that Sukhbir Badal stays away from their nest.”

At his most recent Lok Milni gathering, at Teera village in Mohali district, the CM embellished this further and, pointing to a big bird flying overhead, said the baaz was actually flying over the sky during his speech, corroborating what he was saying. “See, he is here to thank me. He has got to know that whatever I said about him was true. In fact, he must have gone to the hospital to tell Sukhbir that ‘Ehna harkataan ton baaj aaja (Beware such claims)’,” Mann said, leaving the audience in splits.

Paramvir Singh, Professor, Department of Encyclopedia of Sikhism, Punjabi University, Patiala, says the association of a hawk with Sikhism isn’t just limited to Guru Gobind Singh, but even older.

“The first major armed battle between Sikhs and the Mughal Empire in 1634 was due to a baaz. Sixth Sikh master Guru Hargobind Singh fought – and defeated – the Mughals over the possession of a rare, white hawk who had flown into the Guru’s sharan (protection) on his own. The battle had a deep symbolic meaning. For the Mughals, the majestic bird was a rigid symbol of imperial status and dominance. By keeping the bird, Guru Hargobind Sahib sent a clear message: true sovereignty belongs to the people, not to a tyrannical empire,” Paramvir Singh said.

“Guru Gobind Singh kept the baaz as his companion as a symbol of absolute freedom, the fearless spirit of the Khalsa and battle against injustices,” he said.

If the Badals and Mann are both winging it, the baaz at least is used to it. In 1989, Punjab had named ‘Eastern Goshawk’ as its State Bird. The state changed it only in 2015, 26 years later, to ‘Northern Goshawk’, after realising there was no ‘Eastern Goshawk’ in modern terminology. The closest in name is the ‘Eastern Chanting Goshawk’, which is a bird native to Africa with zero connection to India or Sikh history.

Vikram Jit Singh, Member, Empowered Committee of the Punjab Forest & Wildlife Preservation Department on Determination of State Bird 2011, says: “Not every bird from the hawk family is a baaz. It is only the female of the Northern Goshawk that is a baaz, historically associated with Sikh history. The male is called a jurra. The female is larger than a male.”

Noting that it is common “to confuse every hunting bird, be it eagle, black kite or Shikra with a baaz”, Singh says: “There is no recorded sighting of baaz in present-day Punjab or even Haryana. The closest sightings are in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. There are very rare sightings of the goshawk in Maharashtra, but confined to winters when this raptor migrates from the Himalayas.”