In June this year, Karwan e Mohabbat organised a festival in Hyderabad called Rehmat, to celebrate radical love and courageous kindness. Rehmat in Urdu means compassion, kindness, and caring. The people celebrated in this festival contribute to our understanding of these concepts and to our understanding of India. Ahead of, on, and after Independence Day, we look at them in a series. Read the first story here, the second, here, and the third here.§In May 1704, during the Mughal-led siege of Anandpur in Punjab, aided by Rajput forces, Bhai Kanhaiya was often seen moving across the battlefield with a goatskin water bag, offering water to anyone suffering from thirst, regardless of which side they belonged to. His actions upset some Sikh soldiers, who reported to Guru Govind Singh that he was helping wounded enemy fighters regain their strength. When questioned by the Guru, Bhai Kanhaiya acknowledged the accusation but explained that, in the midst of the battle, he did not perceive distinctions between Sikhs and Mughals. Instead, he saw only human beings in need of compassion. Deeply touched by this response, Guru Gobind Singh not only approved of his service but also provided him with medical supplies so that he could care for the injured as well.The ideals embodied by Bhai Kanhaiya would be invoked again more than three centuries later. On February 24, 2020, as Delhi was engulfed in one of its worst episodes of communal violence in recent years, the Muslim community in the city’s northeast found itself abandoned by the very institutions meant to protect it. Political leaders of the ruling establishment delivered inflammatory speeches, while videos emerged showing police personnel assaulting Muslims and forcing injured men to sing the national anthem. In several neighbourhoods, even long-time Hindu neighbours allegedly assisted rioters in identifying Muslim-owned homes and businesses. Amid this atmosphere of communal frenzy, Mohinder Singh and his son, Inderjit Singh, stood out as rare examples of courage and humanity. In the Hindu-majority locality of Gokulpuri in Northeast Delhi, they helped rescue around 70-80 Muslims during the violence. Using their two-wheelers, father and son reportedly made nearly twenty trips each, ferrying terrified residents from Gokulpuri to the relative safety of Kardampuri, a Muslim-majority neighbourhood about a kilometre away.Mohinder Singh spoke in detail about his experience at the Rehmat festival.When the local mosque in Gokulpuri market – Jannati Masjid – came under attack after the Bajrang Dal got to know that the Muslims had gathered there, he put his own life on the line and went through the back door of that mosque and evacuated those trapped inside. He tied turbans on their heads so that their beards and the turbans would make them appear as a Sikh. Meanwhile, his son sheltered around 25-30 Muslim women and children in his own home. When the news spread that he had kept Muslims at his own house, he sensed that his house was going to be attacked and these Muslims would also be killed. It was at that moment he decided that everyone had to be moved to Kardampuri immediately.In a society that is being morally fragmented in the name of religion with every passing day, what made him disregard his own safety completely to save the lives of those who are being constantly vilified by the media and politicians? How did he remain untouched by hatred? Mohinder, who runs an electronics shop in Gokulpuri’s main market and served as a member of the Delhi Minorities Commission until 2024, was unequivocal in attributing his actions to his Sikh upbringing that prompted him to rescue those Muslims from the rioters. In his own words, “The essence of Sikhism is not only in bowing your heads to the Guru Granth Sahib but in learning and understanding the implied meanings that are not explicitly stated.” He asserted that the meaning of Sikh is a student or a disciple, so one has to keep studying to get to the core meaning of Sikhi.For him, the spirit of religion is captured in the all-encompassing Shabad (Kirtan verse) by Sant Kabir Das Ji, recorded in the Sikh holy book Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, “Ek noor te sab jag upja kaun bhale ko mande (when the entire universe was created from the light of that one God, how can we determine who is good and who is bad?)” and the 10th Guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh’s message, “Maanas ki jaat sabai ekaai pahichanbo (the entire human race should be recognised as only one race).”The haunting memories of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom – during which his family was protected by Muslim and Hindu neighbours – also instilled in him a sense of duty to rescue Muslim families from the mobs driven by hatred. When pressed about the historical conflicts between the Sikhs and the Mughals, as well as the Partition riots in undivided Punjab – events often invoked to fuel contemporary political narratives – he offered insights that remain relevant to a society struggling with division and prejudice. “The Sikhs fought the Mughals, not the Muslims, and we must understand this crucial distinction,” he said. “The Mughals sought to establish and sustain their empire; they were not representatives of Islam.”To underscore his point, he cited the laying of the foundation stone of the Golden Temple by the Sufi saint Mian Mir at the request of Guru Arjan Dev. He also recalled the example of Bhai Kanhaiya. This, he reiterated, reflects the core Sikh teaching of “Maanas ki jaat sabai ekai pahichanbo”. In the same spirit, when some people condescendingly remarked that he had saved Muslims during the riots, he would respond that he never saw them as Muslims but simply as fellow human beings in need of help – a sentiment deeply rooted in Gurbani and the Sikh tradition of universal compassion. According to Mohinder, it was never Muslims, Sikhs, or Hindus killing one another; it was people who had abandoned the ethical core of their faiths and become instruments of a politics driven by power.His understanding of religion is inseparable from his understanding of politics and power. To explain this, he offered the example of why Akal Takht (the supreme temporal seat of Sikhism) is not visible from Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) whereas the temple is distinctly visible from the Akal Takht. This symbolises that worldly justice and politics must always remain grounded in spiritual devotion and conversely, when one is in the presence of the Divine, worldly and political concerns should fade away completely.Mohinder Singh at the Rehmat festival. Photo: By arrangement.Once the violence had abated, Mohinder regularly visited displaced families and urged them to return to their homes. Many eventually did so because of the trust they placed in him. Mohammad Salahuddin and his aunt Taslima, for instance, recalled that, “if Sardarji was asking us to come back then we had to because we knew he would never put our lives in danger.” Yet, Gokulpuri Main Market which housed around 40-50 Muslim families, now has only half of the Muslim population that once lived there. Naeem, whose family was among those rescued by the father-son duo, said that, “if it was not for Sardar ji, there would have been loss of lives at a very large scale in this locality.” For Mohinder, the more enduring tragedy was not the violence itself but the fact that many families never felt secure enough to return.When asked whether he would act the same way if faced with a similar situation again, he responded without hesitation that despite the calls for his social boycott and the threats he received from various Hindutva organisations, he would gladly do exactly the same. His selfless efforts, he noted, left an imprint far beyond Gokulpuri.He recalled a land dispute in Saharanpur between the Sikh and Muslim communities, where a Gurudwara had been built on land claimed by Muslims. The court directed the Gurudwara committee to pay Rs 62 lakh to the Muslim community. However, after learning of his efforts during the riots, members of the Muslim community returned the entire amount and voluntarily ceded the land to the Sikh community.For Mohinder, the episode affirmed the enduring power of solidarity across religious lines. Becoming a bridge between Sikhs and Muslims, he said, remains the greatest honour of his life.As our memorable conversation drew to a close, Mohinder Singh reflected on his aspirations for the future. An electronics engineer by training, having graduated in 1982, he has long been involved in struggles for civil and social rights. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he also played a significant role in helping people across Delhi by arranging oxygen cylinders for those in desperate need.Now, he hopes to sell his shop and devote himself entirely to social activism. For a man whose life has been guided by service, compassion, and a commitment to justice, it is simply the next step in a journey dedicated to the welfare of others.The American historian, Howard Zinn, once wrote that “Human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage and kindness. What we choose to emphasise in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.” If one was to seek an embodiment of these words, one need look no further than Mohinder Singh and his actions. Omair Khan is a peace and conflict studies researcher who documents and analyses hate speech and hate crimes at Karwan-e-Mohabbat.