Drink of champions that is attracting onlookers, queues

While the making of ‘Shaheedi Degh’ is traditionally done by the Nihang Sikhs (warrior Sikhs) twice a day -- and they are doing it ritualistically at the Singhu Border -- half-a-dozen other Sikhs too have been involved in its preparation throughout the day at the farmers’ protest camp on the Delhi side of the police barricades here.

The long and laborious ritualistic process of preparing the ‘Shaheedi Degh’ (a sacrament drink of the Sikhs) that involves grinding a host of dry items by using a mortar and an unusually long and heavy wooden pestle has been drawing curious onlookers and long queues at the farmers’ protest site in Singhu.

The grinding process, which has been drawing curious onlookers, goes on for anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the quantity of the ingredients. (Amal KS/HT Photo. Representative image)

While the making of this drink is traditionally done by the Nihang Sikhs (warrior Sikhs) twice a day -- and they are doing it ritualistically at the Singhu Border -- half-a-dozen other Sikhs too have been involved in its preparation throughout the day at the farmers’ protest camp on the Delhi side of the police barricades here.

“This drink contains all necessary ingredients to keep the body strong. Every farmer here has this drink at least once everyday. This is what is keeping the Coronavirus away from the farmers’ protest,” said Sukwinder Singh, a resident of Sabhra village in Tarn Taran and joint secretary of Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan Committee (Punjab).

There is no scientific evidence to prove that the drink provides protection from the coronavirus. Also, farmers are not undergoing any Covid-19 tests to establish if anyone at the protest site has been infected or not.

The grinding process, which has been drawing curious onlookers, goes on for anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the quantity of the ingredients.

Two men join hands to go about grounding a dozen ingredients such as almonds, cardamom, melon seeds, black pepper and sugar in a medium-sized mortar made of stone, called sunara. A four-five feet tall wooden log made of either sandalwood or a neem tree trunk, weighing as much as 20 kilos, serves as the pestle which they call “salottar”.

“It requires men with strong muscle strength to go about the grinding work. One chants the hymns (vaani) while the other grinds. When one gets tired, they exchange roles. Our belief is that the vaani adds spiritual strength to the drink,” said Das Gurmeet Singh, a Nihang Sikh from Nanded district in Maharashtra.

The juice of the paste is finally squeezed using a white cloth and offered to the people in the queues after prayers.

What also drew the attention of the onlookers was a ritualistic practice in which the left overs are rolled into small balls after which a Nihang Sikh hurls them in the air after a short run up. On Monday, one such ball landed right next to a family of rag pickers collecting plastic waste near a camp.

“We believe that this process clears our hurdles in whatever we do. Right now, it is the farm law that is our hurdle,” said Satnam Singh, a Nihang Sikh from Chamkaur Sahib town of Rupnagar in Punjab.

Apart from making this drink, a group of Nihang Sikhs accompanied by horses and a baaz (Northern goshawk) are guarding the farmers at this border since Friday night.