Dear Editor:
Dr. Gurbhagat Singh’s article entitled “Quest for Hierological Model” in WSN of 12/2/88 was a gross distortion of Sikh religion. His observation that the Sikh Gurus used a religious veil to cover a_ political movement’ is both blasphemous and full of ignorance. It is blasphemous since it implies opportunism to the Gurus and it is ignorant because it confuses the spiritual ideology of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of mankind with the so-called class struggle of dialectical materialism.
The two ideologies are poles apart ontologically: One believes in transcendence the other in materialism. Nor is it any use to give a grandiloquent name “Avant garde” Punjabi’s, to the youth. No one will be misled by it. Sikhs would be inspired only by their old nomenclatures since they are backed by the Spiritual heritage and martyrdoms of the Guru for truth and justice and their great traditions. They need no veil. Other arguments apart, the Sikhs would never have faith in dialectical materialists and their acrobatic jargons. Dialectical materialism is an outdated ideology and is waning, not Sikhism.
Author used the word ‘subversive’ for Bani. It is sacrilege and I strongly condemn usage of such words, especially by one who claims to be Singh. We ought to present the true essence of this noble religion. Harbans Singh Sraon Irvine, CA
Article extracted from this publication >> January 13, 1989
