This chapter takes a specific example from the museum's narrative—the story of Baghel Singh's conquest of Delhi—to show the use of history paintings and the museum's narrative in contemporary heritage politics. The choice of this episode is relevant for several reasons. Bhai Mati Das Museum has four paintings dedicated to this story, and the event it describes unfolds at a site very close to the Gurdwara Sisganj and the museum, the Red Fort. Similar paintings on Baghel Singh appear in other Sikh museums too, including the Central Sikh Museum, Amritsar. Another prominent Sikh museum in Delhi, the Baba Baghel Singh Sikh Heritage Multimedia Museum (Baba Baghel Singh Sikh Virasat Multimedia Ajaibghar) at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, not only includes this story but is also named after its main protagonist. Also, Dilli Fateh, or the Sikh conquest of Delhi, is a popularly known story and remembered with great pride in the Sikh community. And, in recent years, the story of Baghel Singh's victory over Delhi through his occupation of the Red Fort has acquired tremendous relevance in heritage politics. It is widely invoked and celebrated in prominent events (such as the Fateh Diwas celebrations at the Red Fort which began in 2014, and the historic Farmers’ Protests in Delhi in 2020–21). This claim and its symbolism are important to understand heritage politics in India today. This chapter includes a discussion of the different ways in which stories of the Sikh tradition are invoked. These ways of producing and consuming Sikh history offer insights into not only what the Sikhs think of their past but also what the Sikhs think of themselves today, of their place in contemporary India.

In early 1972, a group of Bengali civil servants residing in Islamabad were able to deliver a petition to David Ennals (1922–1995), a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) and human rights campaigner in the United Kingdom. Ennals, a former minister, was the leader of a group called the Friends of Bangladesh Conciliation Mission at the time. In their appeal for the safety of Bengalis in West Pakistan, the petitioners described their circumstances as below:

This chapter investigates Pakistan's encampment system for Bengali military personnel during the wartime period, 1971–1974. This reveals the captivity landscape by analysing the location, categorisation and spatial regulations of the camps in different parts of West Pakistan that housed Bengali military personnel, non-combatant servicemen and their families.

This information is collected from the interviews and the personal collections of the artists and employees of the gurdwaras and the PSB and compiled with reference to the existing collection at the Bhai Mati Das Museum. The PSB does not maintain an archive of the paintings or the calendars. The following list provides the year of issue and theme of the calendar, the descriptions of the paintings, along with the credits as originally published in the PSB calendars. The calendars carried the text in English and Punjabi (and at times in Hindi); I have reproduced the English text here. All illustrations refer to history paintings unless otherwise mentioned; the more recent calendars mostly publish photographs. This is an incomplete list—due to the lack of available information. At times, it was difficult to find all the pages of a calendar or the text accompanying a painting; in some cases, no information was available about the annual calendar, which is visible as a gap or missing year (for example, the years 1977 and 1980–1988). The following text has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.

1974 Important Personalities [title provided by author, original title not available]

Bhai Vir Singh, Bhai Nand Lal Goya, Bhai Gurdas, Sant Mian Mir, Baba Buddha, Bhai Kanhaiya

1975 Women in Sikh History [to mark the UN International Year of Women]

First disciple: Bebe Nanaki

Soul of sacrifice and humility: Mata Khivi

Mata Sahib Devan contributing womanly sweetness to amrit

Mai Bhago leading forty muktas in the battlefield at Muktsar

Bibi Bhani: Guru's daughter, Guru's wife and Guru's mother

Women plying heavy grindstones in Mir Manu's prison, as punishment for their steadfast faith

The PSB's collection of paintings found its way to the Bhai Mati Das Museum through the efforts of Baba Harbans Singh Kar Seva Dilli Wale (1920–2011). He was a much-respected Sikh who organised kar seva (voluntary service) for the construction of gurdwaras, including the historic gurdwaras in Delhi, Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, Gurdwara Tarn Taran and Gurdwara Paonta Sahib, among others (Khatri n.d.). It appears that it was on his initiative that the building of Majestic cinema at Chandni Chowk was purchased by the DSGMC and replaced by a museum. The bank donated its paintings for the purposes of display, and the Bhai Mati Das Museum opened in 2001. There is little information available on the process of selection of paintings, curation of the display and the people involved. Initially, artist Amolak Singh (1950–2006) was in charge of the museum, but at present there is no artist or curator associated with it. The sevadars of the gurdwara act as caretakers of the museum, and their role is limited to opening, cleaning and closing it.

Bhai Mati Das Museum has 169 history paintings, each provided with a description in three languages, English, Hindi and Punjabi. Here, Sikh history is presented in chronological order, beginning with Guru Nanak (in the fifteenth century), covering the ten Gurus, the events of the eighteenth century that saw conflict with the Mughals and Afghans and subsequently the emergence of Sikh misls and Ranjit Singh's kingdom in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Beyond this, the story is patchy, with a few canvases on the bhagats, whose verses are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikhs’ struggle against the British and their contribution to the army of free India.