Sikh Religion
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Sikh Religion
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India
By R. V. Russell
Of The Indian Civil Service
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.
LIST OF PARAGRAPHS 1 . Foundation of SikJdsiii—Bdba 5 . Character of the Ndnakpanthis Ndfiak. and Sikh sects. 2. The earlier Gurus. 6. The Akdlis. 3. Guru Govind Singh. 7. The Sikh Council or Guru- 4. Sikh initiation aitd rules. Mdta. Their coviu/unal meal.
Sikh, Akali
The Sikh religion and the history of the i. Founda- tion of Sikhism — Sikhs have been fully described by several writers, and all that is intended in this article is a brief outline of the main Haba tenets of the sect for the benefit of those to whom the more ^"^ important works of reference may not be available. The Central Provinces contained only 2337 Sikhs in 191 i, of whom the majority were soldiers and the remainder probably timber or other merchants or members of the subordinate engineering service in which Punjabis are largely employed.
The following account is taken from Sir Denzil Ibbetson's Census Report of the Punjab for 1 8 8 1 : " Sikhism was founded by Baba Nanak, a Khatri of the Punjab, who lived in the fifteenth century. But Nanak was not more than a religious reformer like Kabir, Ramanand, and the other Vaishnava apostles. He preached the unity of God, the abolition of idols, and the disregard of caste distinctions.^ His doctrine and life were eminently gentle and unaggressive. He was succeeded by nine gurus, the last and most famous of whom, Govind Singh, died in 1708. " The names of the gurus were as follows :
1. Baba Nanak 1469-1538-9 2. Angad 1 539-1 552 3. Amar Das 1552-1574 1 See article Nanakpanthi for an account of Nanak's creed.
2. The earlier Gurus. 4- 5- 6. 7- 8. 9- lo. Ram Das Arjun Har Govind Har Rai Har Kishen Teg Bahadur Govind Sinijb 1574-1581 1581-1606 1606-1645 1645-1661 1661-1664 1664-1675 1675-1708 " Under the second Guru Angad an intolerant and ascetic spirit began to spring up among the followers of the new tenets ; and had it not been for the good sense and firmness displayed by his successor, Amar Das, who excommunicated the Udasis and recalled his followers to the mildness and tolerance of Nanak, Sikhism would probably have merely added one more to the countless orders of ascetics or devotees which arc wholly unrepresented in the life of the people. The fourth gum, Ram Das, founded Amritsar ; but it was his successor, Arjun, that first organised his following. He gave them a written rule of faith in the Granth or Sikh scripture which he compiled, he provided a common rallying- point in the city of Amritsar which he made their religious centre, and he reduced their voluntary contributions to a systematic levy which accustomed them to discipline and paved the way for further organisation. He was a great trader, he utilised the services and money of his disciples in mercantile transactions which extended far beyond the con- fines of India, and he thus accumulated wealth for his Church.
" Unfortunately he was unable wholly to abstain from politics ; and having become a political partisan of the rebel prince Khusru, he was summoned to Delhi and there im-
prisoned, and the treatment he received while in confinement hastened, if it did not cause, his death. And thus began that Muhammadan persecution which was so mightily to change the spirit of the new faith. This was the first turning-point
in Sikh history ; and the effects of the persecution were
immediately apparent. Arjun was a priest and a merchant ; his successor, Har Govind, was a warrior. He abandoned the gentle and spiritual teaching of Nanak for the use of arms and the love of adventure. He encouraged his followers to eat flesh, as giving them strength and daring ; he substituted
zeal in the cause for saintlincss of life as the i)rice of salva-
tion ; and he developed the organised disciplincMvliich Arjun
had initiated. He was, however, a military adventurer rather than an enthusiastic zealot, and fought either for or against the Muhammadan empire as the hope of immediate gain dictated. His policy was followed by his two successors ; and under Teg Bahadur the Sikhs degenerated into little better than a band of plundering marauders, whose internal factions aided to make them disturbers of the public peace. Moreover, Teg Bahadur was a bigot, while the fanatical Aurangzeb had mounted the throne of Delhi. Him therefore Aurangzeb captured and executed as an infidel, a robber and a rebel, while he cruelly persecuted his followers in common with all who did not accept Islam.
" Teg Bahadur was succeeded by the last and greatest 3. Guru guru, his son Govind Singh ; and it was under him that ?.°"'^ what had sprung into existence as a quietist sect of a purely religious nature, and had become a military society of by no means high character, developed into the political organisa- tion which was to rule the whole of north-western India, and to furnish the British arms their stoutest and most worthy opponents. For some years after his father's execu- tion Govind Singh lived in retirement, and brooded over his personal wrongs and over the persecutions of the Musalman fanatic which bathed the country in blood. His soul was filled with the longing for revenge ; but he felt the necessity for a larger following and a stronger organisation, and, follow- ing the example of his Muhammadan enemies, he used his religion as the basis of political power. Emerging from his retirement he preached the Khalsa, the pure, the elect, the liberated.
He openly attacked all distinctions of caste, and taught the equality of all men who would join him ; and instituting a ceremony of initiation, he proclaimed it as the pdhul or ' gate ' by which all might enter the society, while he gave to its members the prasdd or communion as a sacrament of union in which the four castes should eat of one dish. The higher castes murmured and many of them left him, for he taught that the Brahman's thread must be broken ; but the lower orders rejoiced and flocked in numbers to his standard. These he inspired with military ardour, with the hope of social freedom and of national independence, and with abhorrence of the hated Muhammadan. He grave
them outward signs of their faith in the unshorn hair, the short drawers, and the bkie dress ; he marked the military nature of their calling by the title of Singh or ' lion,' by the wearing of steel, and by the initiation by sprinkling of water with a two-edged dagger ; and he gave them a feeling of personal superiority in their abstinence from the unclean tobacco. " The Muhammadans promptly responded to the chal- lenge, for the danger was too serious to be neglected ; the Sikh army was dispersed, and Govind's mother, wife and children were murdered at Sirhind by Aurangzeb's orders. The death of the emperor brought a temporary lull, and a year later Govind himself was assassinated while fighting the Marathas as an ally of Aurangzeb's successor.
He did not live to see his ends accomplished, but he had roused the dormant spirit of the people, and the fire which he lit was only damped for a while. His chosen disciple Banda suc- ceeded him in the leadership, though never recognised as gum. The internal commotions which followed upon the death of the emperor, Bahadur Shah, and the attacks of the Marathas weakened the power of Delhi, and for a time Banda carried all before him ; but he was eventually con- quered and captured in A.D. 1 7 1 6, and a period of persecution followed so sanguinary and so terrible that for a generation nothing more was heard of the Sikhs.
How the troubles of the Delhi empire thickened, how the Sikhs again rose to prominence, how they disputed the possession of the Punjab with the Mughals, the Marathas and the Durani, and were at length completely successful, how they divided into societies under their several chiefs and portioned out the Province among them, and how the genius of Ranjit Singh raised him to supremacy and extended his rule beyond the limits of the Punjab, are matters of political and not of religious history. No formal alteration has been made in the Sikh religion since Govind Singh gave it its military shape ; and though changes have taken place, they have been merely the natural result of time and external influences, 4- Sikh "The word Sikh is said to be derived from the common and rules. Hiudu tcrm Scwak and to mean simply a disciple; it may be applied thcrcfcjre t(j the followers of Nanak who held
aloof from Govind Singh, but in practice it is perhaps understood to mean only the latter, while the Nanakpanthis are considered as Hindus. A true Sikh always takes the termination Singh to his name on initiation, and hence they are sometimes known as Singhs in ^ distinction to the Nanakpanthis. A man is also not born a Sikh, but must always be initiated, and the pdhul or rite of baptism cannot take place until he is old enough to understand it, the earliest age being seven, while it is often postponed till manhood. Five Sikhs must be present at the ceremony, when the novice repeats the articles of the faith and drinks sugar and water stirred up with a two-edged dagger. At the initiation of women a one-edged dagger is used, but this is seldom done.
Thus most of the wives of Sikhs have never been initiated, nor is it necessary that their children should become Sikhs when they grow up. The faith is unattractive to women owing to the simplicity of its ritual and the absence of the feasts and ceremonies so abundant in Hinduism ; formerly the Sikhs were accus- tomed to capture their wives in forays, and hence perhaps it was considered of no consequence that the husband and wife should be of different faith. The distinguishing marks of a true Sikh are the five Kakkas or Ks which he is bound to carry about his person : the Kes or uncut hair and unshaven beard ; the KacJih or short drawers ending above the knee ; the Kasa or iron bangle ; the KJuuida or steel knife ; and the Kanga or comb.
The other rules of conduct laid down by Guru Govind Singh for his followers were to dress in blue clothes and especially eschew red or saffron-coloured garments and caps of all sorts, to observe personal cleanliness, especially in the hair, and practise ablutions, to eat the flesh of such animals only as had been killed hy j'atka or decapitation, to abstain from tobacco in all its forms, never to blow out flame nor extinguish it with drinking-water, to eat with the head covered, pray and recite passages of the Granth morning and evening and before all meals, reverence the cow, abstain from the worship of saints and idols and avoid mosques and temples, and worship the one God only, neglecting Brahmans and Mullas, and their scriptures, teaching, rites and religious VOL. I Y
symbols. Caste distinctions he positively condemned and instituted the prasdd or communion, in which cakes of flour, butter and sugar are made and consecrated with certain ceremonies while the communicants sit round in prayer, and then distributed equally to all the faithful present, to whatever caste they may belong. The above rules, so far as they enjoin ceremonial observances, are still very generally obeyed. But the daily reading and recital of the Granth is discontinued, for the Sikhs are the most uneducated class in the Punjab, and an occasional visit to the Sikh temple where the Granth is read aloud is all that the villager thinks necessary. Blue clothes have been discontinued save by the fanatical Akali sect, as have been very generally the short drawers or Kachh.
The prohibi- tion of tobacco has had the unfortunate effect of inducing the Sikhs to take to hemp and opium, both of which are far more injurious than tobacco. The precepts which forbid the Sikh to venerate Brahmans or to associate himself with Hindu worship are entirely neglected ; and in the matter of the worship of local saints and deities, and of the employment of and reverence for Brahmans, there is little, while in current superstitions and superstitious practices there is no difference between the Sikh villager and his Hindu brother." ^ 5. Char- It scems thus clear that if it had not been for the Ni.nak^^'^^ political and military development of the Sikh movement, it panthisand would in time have lost most of its distinctive features and Si sects, j^^^g come to be considered as a Hindu sect of the same character, if somewhat more distinctive than those of the Nanakpanthis and Kablrpanthis.
But this development and the founding of the Sikh State of Lahore created a breach between the Sikhs and ordinary Hindus wider than that caused by their religious differences, as was sufficiently demonstrated during the Mutiny. In their origin both the Sikh and Nanakpanthi sects appear to 1 Here again, Sir U. Ibbetson notes, number of deities, and their answer in it is often the women who arc the every case has been that tliey do not original offenders : " I have often asked themselves believe in them; but their Sikhs how it is that, believing as they women do, and to please them they are do in only one God, they can put any obliged to pay attention to what the faith in and render any obedience to Brfdimans say." Ikahmans who acknowledge a largo
have been mainly a revolt against the caste system, the supremacy of Brahmans and the degrading mass of super- stitions and reverence of idols and spirit-worship which the Brahmans encouraged for their own profit. But while Nanak, influenced by the observation of Islamic mono- theism, attempted to introduce a pure religion only, the aim of Govind was perhaps political, and he saw in the caste system an obstacle 'to the national movement which he desired to excite against the Muhammadans.
So far as the abolition of caste was concerned, both reformers have, as has been seen, largely failed, the two sects now recognising caste, while their members revere Brahmans like ordinary Hindus. The Akalis or Nihangs are a fanatical order of Sikh 6. The ascetics. The following extract is taken from Sir E. Maclagan's account of them : ^ " The Akalis came into prominence very early by their stout resistance to the innovations introduced by the Bairagi Banda after the death of Guru Govind ; but they do not appear to have had much influence during the following century until the days of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. They constituted at once the most unruly and the bravest portion of the very unruly and brave Sikh army.
Their headquarters were at Amritsar, where they constituted themselves the guardians of the faith and assumed the right to convoke synods. They levied offerings by force and were the terror of the Sikh chiefs. Their good qualities were, however, well appreciated by the Maharaja, and when there were specially fierce foes to meet, such as the Pathans beyond the Indus, the Akalis were always to the front.
" The Akali is distinguished very conspicuously by his dark -blue and checked dress, his peaked turban, often surmounted with steel quoits, and by the fact of his strutting about like Ali Baba's prince with his ' thorax and abdomen festooned with curious cutlery.' He is most particular in retaining the five Kakkas, and in preserving every outward form prescribed by Guru Govind Singh. Some of the Akalis wear a yellow turban underneath the blue one, leaving a yellow band across the forehead. The yellow turban is 1 Punjab Census Report (1891), para. 107.
7. The Sikh Council or Guru- Mata. Their com munal meal. worn by many Sikhs at the Basant Panchmi, and the Akalis are fond of wearing it at all times. There is a couplet by Bhai Gurdas which says : Stall, Sufed, Surkh, Zardae, Jo pahne, sot Giirbhaij or, * Those that wear black (the Akalis), white (the Nirmalas), red (the Udasis) or yellow, are all members of the brother- hood of the Sikhs.' " The Akalis do not, it is true, drink spirits or eat meat as other Sikhs do, but they are immoderate in the consump- tion of bhang.
They are in other respects such purists that they will avoid Hindu rites even in their marriage ceremonies. " The Akali is full of memories of the glorious day of the Khalsa ; and he is nothing if he is not a soldier, a soldier of the Guru. He dreams of armies, and he thinks in lakhs. If he wishes to imply that five Akalis are present, he will say that ' five lakhs are before you ' ; or if he would explain he is alone, he will say that he is with ' one and a quarter lakhs of the Khalsa.' You ask him how he is, and he replies that ' The army is well ' ; you inquire where he has come from, and he says, '
The troops marched from Lahore.' The name Akali means ' immortal.' When Sikhism was politically dominant, the Akalis were accus- tomed to extort alms by accusing the principal chiefs of crimes, imposing fines upon them, and in the event of their refusing to pay, preventing them from performing their ablutions or going through any of the religious ceremonies at Amritsar." The following account was given by Sir J. Malcolm of the Guru-Mata or great Council of the Sikhs and their religious meal : ^ "
When a Guru-Mata or great national Council is called on the occasion of any danger to the country, all the Sikh chiefs assemble at Amritsar. The assembly is convened by the Akalis ; and when the chiefs meet upon this solemn occasion it is concluded that all private animosities cease, and that every man sacrifices his personal feelings at the shrine of the general good. ' Accounl of the Sikhs, Asiatic Researches.
" When the chiefs and principal leaders are seated, the Adi-Granth and Dasama Padshah Ka Granth ^ are placed before them. They all bend their heads before the Scriptures and exclaim, ' Wah Gtiruji ka Khdlsa ! zuah Guriiji ka Fateh ! ' ' [Perhaps what was meant was: {Jai} Wahey Guruji ka/ da Khalsa ! Wahey Guruji ki/ di Fateh ! '] A great quantity of cakes made of wheat, butter and sugar are then placed before the volumes of their sacred writings and covered with a cloth. These holy cakes, which are in commemoration of the injunction of Nanak to eat and to give to others to eat, next receive the salutation of the assembly, who then rise, while the Akalis pray aloud and the musicians play. The Akalis, when the prayers are finished, desire the Council to be seated. They sit down, and the cakes are uncovered and eaten by all classes of the Sikhs, those distinctions of tribe and caste which are on other occasions kept up being now laid aside in token of their general and complete union in one cause.
The Akalis proclaim the Guru-Mata, and prayers are again said aloud. The chiefs after this sit closer and say to each other, ' The sacred Granth is between us, let us swear by our Scriptures to forget all internal disputes and to be united.' This moment of religious fervour is taken to reconcile all ani- mosities. They then proceed to consider the danger with which they are threatened, to devise the best plans for averting it and to choose the generals who are to lead their armies against the common enemy." The first Guru-Mata was assembled by Guru Govind, and the latest was called in 1805, when the British Army pursued Holkar into the Punjab. The Sikh Army was known as Dal Khalsa, or the Army of God, khdlsa being an Arabic word meaning one's own.^ At the height of the Sikh power the followers of this religion only numbered a small fraction of the population of the Punjab, and its strength is now declining. In 191 i the Sikhs were only three millions in the Punjab population of twenty-four millions.
Sikhs in politics
The Times of India, Mar 13, 2016
Chidanand Rajghatta
Justin ‘Singh’ Trudeau and the Sikhs of Canada
Long before Justin Trudeau became Canada's Prime Minister and sprang to limelight as the world's latest political heartthrob, a video circulated on the "Youbiqutous" YouTube of him dancing the bhangra at an Indian community event in Canada, jocularly referred among accent snobs by its Punjabi name "Kannedda". The dance, to the song "Dil Bole Hadappa", at an event organized by the India-Canada Association of Montreal when the young politician was still an MP, also earned him the moniker "Justin Singh Trudeau". So it came as no surprise when Prime Minister Trudeau inducted four Sikhs in his 30-member cabinet soon after coming to office last year given his comfort level with the community. This week, the affable Canadian leader pointedly mentioned the fact at a public engagement in Washington DC during a state visit, going as far as boasting (in a playful way), "I have more Sikhs in my cabinet than Modi does." Indeed, the Modi cabinet currently has only two Sikh ministers — Maneka Gandhi (who is Sikh by birth) and Harsimrat Kaur Badal. But India has done one better overall — with a Sikh Prime Minister among the 15 who have occupied the office so far. Sikhs constitute about 2 per cent of India's population; Canada is about the same, but in an overall population of 36 million.
Whether it was intended to tease India or twit the United States, which has had a spotty record with Sikhs in the post 9/11 days, Trudeau succeeded in reminding the world that he has managed to compose the almost perfectly representative cabinet, notwithstanding the (over) weightage of Sikhs: one that he says "looks just like Canada." As much as the Sikh element in the cabinet is the gender balance — it has 15 men and 15 women. Arguably, no country in the world has managed that. "It's 2015 (that's why)," Trudeau replied crisply when he was asked about it, earning him universal admiration, particularly from women. Sikhs in the Trudeau cabinet include Harjit Singh Sajjan, who is the defence minister; Amarjeet Sohi, minister of infrastructure and communities; Bardish Chagger, minister of small business and tourism and Navdeep Bains, minister of science and economic development.
Sajjan and Bains are turbaned Sikhs, and the fact that a bearded, turbaned Sikh heads the military of a western country, an ally and neighbor of the United States, is a matter of pride for many Sikhs, who are having a rough time South of the border. A Sikh heading the Canadian military should be of no surprise either. The first Sikh settler in Canada is said to be Kesur Singh, a Risaldar Major in the British India Army, who arrived in Vancouver on board Empress of India in 1897.
Jathedar, role of
1984-2023
IP Singh, April 11, 2023: The Times of India
JALANDHAR: With the state and central governments’ crackdown on Waris Punjab De having larger implications on Sikhs, journalists and Punjab, the role of the Akal Takht jathedar — who is considered the central head of Sikhs worldwide— is coming to the centre stage again in the Sikh religio-political space.
In the three weeks since the hunt for WPD chief and radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates began on March 18, Akal Takht acting jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has already convened two meetings and played a central role in both. In usual circumstances, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) or the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) would have articulated the concerns of the community and given direction.
Happens for the fourth time since Bluestar
Since Operation Bluestar, this is the fourth time that the Akal Takht jathedar is playing a pivotal role in articulating the politics and concerns of the Sikh community, and providing leadership at the same time.
During Operation Bluestar in 1984, When nearly all of the Akali leadership, including the then SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra, was thrown in jail the five Sikh high priests, called Panj Piyare, took over the role of leadership and articulated Sikh sentiments.
In the second part of the 1980s, when there was a leadership crisis and the Sikh political space had fragmented due to differences between mainstream and radical leadership, Prof Darshan Singh Ragi was appointed the acting jathedar. During his stint, he played a central role in articulating the community’s sentiments and providing leadership on the ground. This included a massive dharna ouside Batala police station on September 1, 1988, against detention and alleged torture of a few Sikh women. He also attempted to forge unity among Akali Dal factions
In the early 1990s, acting jathedar Prof Manjit Singh gained a central role due to a fragmented Akali leadership. He also tried to forge Akali unity and SAD (Amritsar) was formed and Amritsar declaration was announced. Parkash Singh Badal had stayed away from this exercise and his faction had strongly opposed the move. The jathedar also got flak for this.
Badal family’s control over Sikh institutions
By the second half of the 1990s,the question of leadership was settled with the emergence of Parkash Singh Badal, who built hegemonic control over SGPC and, by implication, Akal Takht. In 1999, Akal Takht jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh was sacked for trying to call a truce between Badal and Tohra. Later, jathedars started playing second fiddle to SGPC and SAD. Jathedar’s authority hit the nadir when Gurbachan Singh pardoned Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in September 2015.
Though Akal Takht is considered the supreme temporal seat of Sikhs, it is after around 30 years that the jathedar is beginning to find a central role, primarily because of the sensitive situation at hand and a leadership crisis in the community. Though he hit rough patches in his stint over four and a half years, Giani Harpreet’s recent actions have increased his acceptance and authority.
Nine days after the security agencies started their crackdown, by when the rammifications of the action could be actually gauged in Punjab, the jathedar on March 27 called a meeting of Sikh representatives at Amritsar. Then, amid reports of security agencies also restricting journalists, the jathedar convened a meeting with members of the fraternity at Takht Damdam Sahib on April 7. Jathedar Giani Harpreet’s role in future would now depend upon other stakeholders, like SAD and SGPC, and also on the way jathedar would conduct himself.
