8.Hindu-Sikh Relationship PDF
8.Hindu-Sikh Relationship PDF
8.Hindu-Sikh Relationship PDF
Ram Swarup
Voice of India
2/18, Antari R.oad,
NEW DBLHI-l10 002
February, 1985
PRICE : R~.3.ClO
TERMS OF THE DEBATE / 1
HINDU-SIKH RELATIONSHIP
RAM SWARUP
VOICE OF INDIA
2/18, Ansari Road,
New Delhi ñ 110 002.
2
INTRODUCTION
Sikh Spirituality
The Sikh sect was founded by Guru Nanak Dev
(1469-1538 A.D.) and promoted further by nine other Gurus,
the last of whom, Govind Singh (b. 1675), died in 1708 A.D.
Guru Nanak came from a Vaishnava family in that part of the
Punjab which went to Pakistan after the partition in 1947.
He was born at a time when the sword of Islamic invaders
had already swept over the length and breadth of India and
done immeasurable damage not only to the shrines and
symbols of Hinduism but also to the self-confidence of
Hindus. The Punjab alongwith North-West Frontier and Sindh
had suffered more heavily than elsewhere. Many Hindus in
these provinces had been converted to Islam by force. The
rest had been reduced to second class citizens who could not
practise their religion publicly without inviting persecution
at the hands of Muslim theologians and tyrants.
It was in this atmosphere that Guru Nank asserted the
superiority of his ancestral spirituality as against Islamic
monotheism which had divided mankind into hostile camps
4 HINDU - SIKH RELATIONSHIP
Sikh History
Guru Nanakís message came like a breath of fresh
breeze to Hindus in the Punjab who had been lying prostrate
under Muslim oppression for well-nigh five centuries. They
flocked to the feet of the Sikh Gurus and many of them
became initiated in the Sikh sect. The sect continued to grow
till it spread to several parts of the Punjab, Sindh and the
North-West Frontier. Gurudwaras sprang up in many places.
The non-Sikh Hindus whose temples had been destroyed by
the Muslims installed the images of their own gods and
goddesses in many Sikh Gurudwaras. The Hindu temples
which had survived welcomed the Adi Granth in their
precincts. In due course, these places became community
centres for Hindu society as a whole.
This resurgence of Indiaís indigenous spirituality could
not but disturb Muslim theologians who saw in it a menace to
the further spread of Islam. The menace looked all the more
serious because Sikhism was drawing back to the Hindu fold
some converts on who Islam had sat lightly. The theologians
raised a hue and cry which caught the ears of the fourth
Mughal emperor Jahangir (1605-1627 A.D.), who had
ascended the throne with the assistance of a fanatic Islamic
faction. He marty red the fifth Sikh Guru, Arjun Dev, for
ìspreading falsehood and tempting Muslims to apostasy.î
Hindus everywhere mourned over the foul deed, while
Muslim theologians thanked Allah for his ìmercy.î Guru
Arjun Dev was the first martyr in Sikh history. Muslim rulers
continued to shed Sikh blood till Muslim power was
destroyed by resurgent Hindu heroism in the second half of
the 18th Century.
The sixth Sikh Guru, Har Govind (1606-1644 A.D.), took
up arms and trained a small army to resist Muslim bigotry. He
was successful and Sikhs escaped persecution till the time of
SIKH HISTORY TERMS OF THE DEBATE / 7
the sixth Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707 A.D.), who
was a veritable fiend in a human from so far as Hindus were
concerned. He summoned the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh
Bahadur (1664-1675 A.D.), to the imperial seat at Delhi and
martyred him in cold blood on his refusal to embrace Islam.
Some followers of the Guru who had accompanied him were
subjected to inhuman torture and torn to pieces. This was as it
were a final signal that there was something very hard at the
heart of Islamóa heart which the Gurus had tried to soften
with their teachings of humanism and universalism. Sikhism
had to accept the challenge and pick up the sword in
defence of its very existence.
This transformation of Sikhism had been started already,
though in a small way, by Guru Har Govind. The tenth Guru,
Govind Singh, completed the process when he founded the
Khalsa (Party of the Pure) in 1699 A.D. He was a versatile
scholar who knew several languages, kept the company of
learned Brahmins and composed excellent poetry on varied
themes. He had been fascinated by the Puranic story of
Goddess Durga particularly in her incarnation as
Mahisamardini. He performed an elaborate Yajna
presided over by pundits of the ancient lore and invoked the
Devi for the protection of dharma. The Devi came to him in
the shape of the sword which he now asked some of his
followers to pick up and ply against bigotry and oppression.
Those who could muster the courage and dedication to die in
defence of dharma were invited by him to become
members of the Khalsa by wearing the five emblems of this
heroic orderóKesh (unshorn hair) Kangha (comb), Kada
(steel bracelet), Kachha (shorts) and Kirpan (sword).
A new style of initiation termed pahul was ordained for this
new class of Sikh warriorsósipping a palmful of water
sweetened with sugar and stirred by a double-edged sword.
Every member of the Khalsa had to add the honorific Singh
(lion) to his name so that he may be distinguished from the
non-Khalsa Sikhs who could continue with their normal attire
8 HINDU - SIKH RELATIONSHIP
Sikh Separatism
The British had conquered India through their superiority
in the art of warfare. They could not hope to hold such a big
10 HINDU - SIKH RELATIONSHIP
Hindu-Sikh Relationship
ìSikhism in Dangerî
Imperialism thrives on divisions and it sows them even
where they do not exist. The British Government invited one
Dr. E. Trumpp, a German Indologist and missionary, to look
at Sikh scriptures and prove that their theology and
cosmology were different from those of the Vedas and the
Upanishads. But he found nothing in them to support this
view. He found Nanak a ìthorough Hindu,î his religion ìa
Pantheism, derived directly from Hindu sources.î In fact, the
influence of Islam on subsequent Sikhism was, according to
him, negative. ìIt is not improbable that the Islam had a great
share in working silently these changes, which are directly
opposed to the teachings of the Gurus,î he says. However,
to please his clients, he said that the external marks of the
Sikhs separated them from the Hindus and once these were
lost, they relapsed into Hinduism. Hence, Hinduism was a
danger to Sikhism and the external marks must be preserved
ARMY POLICY TERMS OF THE DEBATE / 15
by the Sikhs at all costs. Precisely because there was a
fundamental unity, the accidental difference had to be
pushed to the utmost and made much of.
From then onwards, ìSikhism in dangerî became the cry
of many British scholar-administrators. Lepel Henry Griffen
postulated that Hinduism had always been hostile to Sikhism
and even socially the two had been antagonistic. One Max
Arthur Macauliffe, a highly placed British administrator,
became the loudest spokesman of this thesis. He told the
Sikhs that Hinduism was like a ìboa constrictor of the Indian
forests,î which ìwinds its opponent and finally causes it to
disappear in its capacious interior.î The Sikhs ìmay go that
way,î he warned. He was pained to see that the Sikhs
regarded themselves as Hindus which was, ìin direct
opposition to the teachings of the Gurus.î He put words into
the mouth of the Gurus and invented prophecies by them
which anticipated the advent of the white race to whom the
Sikhs would be loyal. He described ìthe pernicious effects of
the up-bringing of Sikh youths in a Hindu atmosphere.î
These youths, he said, ìare ignorant of the Sikh religion and
of its prophecies in favour of the English and contract
exclusive customs and prejudices to the extent of calling us
Malechhas or persons of impure desires, and inspire
disgust for the customs and habits of Christians.î
It was a concerted effort in which the officials, the
scholars and the missionaries all joined. In order to separate
the Sikhs, they were even made into a sect of Islam. For
example, one Thomas Patrick Hughes, who had worked as a
missionary for twenty years in Peshawar, edited the
Dictionary of Islam. The work itself is scholarly but, like most
European scholarship, it had a colonial inspiration. The third
biggest article in this work, after Muhammad and the Quran,
is on Sikhism. It devotes one fourth of a page to the Sunnis
and, somewhat more justly, seven fourth of a page to the
Shias, but devotes eleven and a half pages to the Sikhs!
Probably, the editor himself thought it rather excessive; for
he offers an explanation to the Orientalists who ìmay,
16 HINDU - SIKH RELATIONSHIP
Army Policy
The influence of scholarship is silent, subtle and long-
range. Macauliffe and others provided categories which
became the thought-equipment of subsequent Sikh
intellectuals. But the British Government did not neglect the
quicker administrative and political measure. They
developed a special Army Policy which gave results even in
the short run. While they disarmed the nation as a whole,
they created privileged enclaves of what they called martial
races. The British had conquered the Punjab with the help of
Poorabiya soldiers, many of them Brahmins, but they
played a rebellious role in 1857. So the British dropped them
and sought other elements. The Sikhs were chosen. In 1855,
there were only 1500 Sikh soldiers, mostly Mazhabis.
In 1910, there were 33 thousands out of a total of 174
thousands, this time mostly Jatsójust a little less than one-
fifth of the total army strength. Their very recruitment was
calculated to give them a sense of separateness and
exclusiveness. Only such Sikhs were recruited who
observed the marks of the Khalsa. They were sent to receive
baptism according to the rites prescribed by Guru Govind
Singh. Each regiment had its own granthis. The greetings
exchanged between the British officers and the Sikh soldiers
were Wahguruji ka Khalsa! Wahguruji ki Fateh. A secret
C.I.D. Memorandum, prepared by D. Patrie, Assistant
Director, Criminal Intellegence, Government of India
(1911), says that ìevery endeavour has been made to
preserve them (Sikh soldiers) from the contagion of
idolatory,î a name the colonial-missionaries gave to
DE - HINDUIZATION TERMS OF THE DEBATE / 17
Hinduism. Thanks to these measures, the ìSikhs in the Indian
Army have been studiously nationalized,î Macauliffe
observed. About the meaning of this ìnationalizationî, we
are left in no doubt. Petrie explains that it means that the
Sikhs were ìencouraged to regard themselves as a totally
distinct and separate nation.î No wonder, the British
congratulated themselves and held that the ìpreservation of
Sikhism as a separate religion was largely due to the action of
the British officers,î as a British administrator put it.
De-Hinduization
The British also worked on a more political level. Singh
Sabhas were started, manned mostly by ex-soldiers. These
worked under Khalsa Diwans established at Lahore and
Amritsar. Later on, in 1902, the two Diwans were
amalgamated into one bodyóthe Chief Khalsa Diwan,
providing political leadership to the Sikhs. They all wore the
badge of loyalty to the British. As early as 1872, the loyal
Sikhs supported the cruel suppression of the Namdhari Sikhs
who had started a Swadeshi movement. They were
described as a ìwicked and misguided sectî. The same
forces described the Ghadarites in 1914 as ìrebelsî who
should be dealt with mercilessly.
These organisations also spearheaded the movement for
the de-Hinduization of the Sikhs and preached that the Sikhs
were distinct from the Hindus. Anticipating the Muslims,
they represented to the British Government as far back as
1888 that they be recognized as a separate community. They
expelled the Brahmins from the Har Mandir, where the latter
had worked as priests. They also threw out the idols of
ìHinduî Gods from this temple which were installed there.*
* A student, Bir Singh, in a letter to Khalsa Akhbar, (Feb. 12, 1897) tells us
of a picture of Durga painted on the front wall of a room near the
Dukhbhanjani Beri in the Golden Temple precincts. ìThe Goddess stands
on golden sandals and she has many handsóten or perhaps twenty. One
of the hands is stretched out and in this she holds a khanda. Guru Govind
Singh stands barefoot in front of it with his hands folded,î he says.
18 HINDU - SIKH RELATIONSHIP
– A letter in Khalsa Akhbar (Oct. 8, 1897) tells us how ìthe pujaris of the
Taran Taran Gurudwara held the Shraddha ceremony of Guru Arjun on
Tuesday, Bhadon, 31.î
VOICES OF REVOLT TERMS OF THE DEBATE / 19
sad to think that very important classes of Sikhs like Nanak
Panthis or Sahajdahris did not even think it ìincumbent on
them to adopt the ceremonial and social observances of
Govind Singh,î and did not ìeven in theory, reject the
authority of the Brahmins.î
The glorification of the Sikhs was welcome to the British
to the extent it separated them from the Hindus, but it had its
disadvantages too. Mr. Petrie found it a ìconstant source of
danger,î something which tended to give the Sikhs a ìwind
in the head.î Sikh nationalism once stimulated refused British
guidance and developed its own ambitions. The neo-
nationalist Sikhs thought of a glorious past and had dreams of
a glorious future, but neither in his past nor in his future ìwas
there a place for the British Officer,î as a British
administrator complained. Any worthwhile Sikh nationalism
was incompatible with loyalty to the British. When neo-
nationalists like Labh Singh spoke of the past ìsufferings of
the Sikhs at the hands of the Muhammadans,î the British
found in the statement a covert reference to themselves.
When they admired the Gurus for ìtheir devotion to religion
and their disregard for life,î the British heard in it a call to
sedition.
Sikh nationalism was meant to hurt the Hindus, but in fact
it hurt the British. For what nourished Sikh nationalism also
nourished Hindu nationalism. The glories of Sikh Gurus are
part of the glories of the Hindus, and these have been sung
by poets like Tagore and others. On the other hand, as
Christians and as rulers, the British could not go very far in
this direction. In fact, in their more private consultations,
they spoke contemptuously of the Gurus. Mr. Petrie
considered Guru Arjun Dev as ìessentially a mercenary,î
who was ìprepared to fight for or against the Mughul as
convenience or profit dictated;î he tells us how ìTegh
Bahadur, as an infidel, a robber and a rebel, was executed at
Delhi by the Moghul authorities.î As imperialists, they
naturally sympathized with the Moghuls and shared their
view-point.
20 HINDU - SIKH RELATIONSHIP
Voices of Revolt
While the British were devotedly busy consolidating the
Empire, other forces detrimental to their labour were also at
work. Indians were an ancient people and they could not be
kept in subjugation for long. The Time-Spirit was also against
the British. Even during the heydays of Sikh loyalty to the
British, there were many rebellious voices. One Baba Nihal
Singh wrote (1885) a book entitled Khurshid-i-Khalsa,
which ìdealt in an objectionable manner with the British
occupation of the Punjab.î When Gokhale visited the Punjab
in 1907, he was received with great enthusiasm by the
students of the Khalsa College, an institution started in 1892
specifically to instill loyalty in the Sikh youth. The horses of
his carriage were taken out and it was pulled by the students.
He spoke from the college Dharamsala from which the
Granth Sahib was specially removed to make room for him. It
was here that the famous poem, Pagri Sambhal, Jatta, was
first recited by Banke Dayal, editor of Jhang Sayal; it became
the battle-song of the Punjab revolutionaries.
There was a general awakening which could not but
affect the Sikh youth, too. Mr. Petrie observes that the ìSikhs
have not been, and are not, immune from the disloyal
influences which have been at work among other sections of
the populace.î
A most powerful voice of revolt came from America
where many Punjabis, mostly Sikh Jat ex-soldiers, had
settled. Many of them had been in Hong Kong and other
places as soldiers in the British regiments. There they heard
of a far-away country where people were free and
prosperous. Their imagination was fired. The desire to
emigrate was reinforced by very bad conditions at home.
The drought of 1905-1907 and the epidemic in its wake had
killed two million people in the Punjab. In the first decade of
this century, the region suffered a net decrease in
population. Due to new fiscal and monetary policies and
new economic arrangements, there was a large-scale
POST - INDEPENDENCE PERIOD TERMS OF THE DEBATE / 21
alienation of land from the cultivators and hundreds of
thousands of the poor and middle peasants were wiped out
or fell into debt. Many of them emigrated and settled in
British Columbia, particularly Vancouver. Here they were
treated with contempt. They realized for the first time that
their sorry status abroad was due to their colonial status at
home. They also began to see the link between Indiaís
poverty and British imperialism. Thus many of them, once
loyal soldiers who took pride in this fact, turned rebels. They
raised the banner of Indian nationalism and spoke against the
Singh Sabhas, the Chief Khalsa Diwan and the Sardar
Bahadurs at home. They spoke of Bharat-Mata; their heroes
were patriots and revolutionaries from Bengal and
Maharashtra, and not their co-religionists in the Punjab whom
they called the ìtraffickers of the country.î
Post-Independence Period
Independence came accompanied by division of the
country and large displacement of population. The country
faced big problems but she managed to keep above water.
We were also able to retain democracy. But just when we
thought we had come out of the woods, divisive forces
which lay low for a time reappeared. The old drama with a
new cast began to be enacted again. Muslim separative
politics, helped by huge Arab funds, has become active
again. Christian missions have their own ambitions. They
both are looking at the politics of extremist Sikhs with great
hope and interest and they find it fits well with their own
plans.
When the British showed solicitude for the minorities,
national India resented it and called it a British game. But
POST - INDEPENDENCE PERIOD TERMS OF THE DEBATE / 23
surprisingly enough, the game continues to be played even
after the British left. The minorities are encouraged to feel
insecure and aggrieved. The minority stick is found handy to
beat the majority. Hindu-baiting is politically profitable and
intellectually fashionable. Constantly under attack, a Hindu
tries to save himself by self-accusation; he behaves as if he is
making amends for being a Hindu.
The atmosphere provided hot-house conditions for the
growth of divisive politics. Our Sikh brethren too
remembered the old lesson (never really forgotten), taught
to them by the British, that they were different. Macauliffeís
works published in the first decade of the century were
reissued in the sixties. More recent Sikh scholars wrote
histories of the Sikhs which were variations of the same
theme. In no case, they provided a different vision and
perspective.
In the last two decades, another separating factor too has
been silently at work. Thanks to the Green Revolution and
various other factors, the Sikhs have become relatively more
rich and prosperous. No wonder, they have begun to find
that the Hindu bond is not good enough for them and they
seek a new identity readily available to them in their names
and outer symbols. This is an understandable human frailty.
ìYou have been our defenders,î Hindus tell the Sikhs.
But in the present psychology, the compliment wins only
contemptóand I believe rightly. For self-despisement is the
surest way of losing a friend or even a brother. It also gives
the Sikhs an exaggerated self-assessment.
Under the pressure of this psychology, grievances were
manufactured; extreme slogans were put forward with
which even moderate elements had to keep pace. In the last
few years, even the politics of murder was introduced.
Finding no check, it knew not where to stop; it became a law
unto itself; it began to dictate, to bully. Camps came up in
India as well as across the border, where young men were
taught killing, sabotage and guerilla warfare. The temple at
24 HINDU - SIKH RELATIONSHIP
HINDU.S1KH RELATIONSHIP
OUR PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLISH
by Ram Swarup
Swarup
Thoroughly researched and documented, Understanding Islam
heologians, Islam is a· "complete" Through Hadis is a valuable reference and source of scholarly insight
not merely with theological matters for theologian and layperson alike.
's life. and superseding all previously
ism and Christianity. Islam has Published in the U.S.A., 1983
prising the revelations vouchsafed
Indian, Reprint, 1984
h, and the Hadis, an extensive
ing on Muhammad's person'allife
Demy Octavo Price Rs. 80.00 HB Pages 287
eople who actually knew him.
., 30.00 PB
Hadis are regarded as wo.rks of
only the mode of expression differs.
n, revelation made concrete in the
centuries of Islam, many thousands
ted and sifted, and those considered
ing six collections (sahis) considered
. Ram Swarup quotes extensively
ill Muslim, one of the top "two
nglish translation. He also quotes
eluding the Quran and the orthodox
s), in order to provide a Unique
ractices.
I; )
THE WORD AS REVELATION
Names of Gods
by Ram Swarup
Publishers
IMPEX INDIA
2/18, Ansari Road
New Delhi-110 002
ATION
e meanings of a word, •
physical objects become
, in turn, become names
of Gods, become names q. '3G1<:r1:fT=r ~~fcsc
~
the deeper meanings,
ttention, called medita-
«If" (I¥t 'l)lffl' ~o ~.oo
of a mystic conscious-
theological mind ? ~~~if~~1
or ideologies aiming at ~~ ~f.r~ Qm~ I
d conquest through
In this fight for men's minds, our only weapon is Truth. Truth
must be told, as much about Hindu society and culture as about the
alien ideologies which have been on the war-path since the days of
foreign domination over the Hindu homeland.
Published by Sita Ram Gael (or Voice or India, 2/18, Ansarl Road,
New Oclhi·llOOO2 and printed by A. G. Printin, Press, 1/9346-8. Well
Rohta. Nagar. Shahi Moballa, Shabdara Dclhi-I10031.