By: Dr. Hakam Singh
One may read cart loads of books or pack caravans with them, One may read boat loads of books or fill cellars with them, One may read in every breath through months, years and all ‘one’s life. But says Nanak, there is only one factor (the God’s love) that counts; the rest is all useless prattle of ego.” (Guru Nanak, Adi Granth P.468) After going through Harjot Oberoi’s book, “The Construction of Religious Boundaries”, one is immensely impressed by the amount of work put in its preparation and the time he must have devoted task. He must have read “cart loads” of books and read them for many years (fourteen years according to his own statement) which are quite evident from the number of references listed in the book. He seems to have taken great pains to go to some totally obscure sources like Ruchi Ram’s autobiography to prove some insignificant point which he feels would substantiate his thesis that towards the end of nineteenth century the Singh Sabha movement created the so called “Tat Khalsa” which, by formulating new doctrines on what Sikhism ought to represent, challenged all existing definitions of belief and being within a pluralistic Sikh tradition (P.416)”. This essentially leads to conclude that according 10 Oberoi the Singh Sabha movement was a reform movement which changed the very basic definition of “Sikh” ‘To support his thesis Oberoi gives some categorical statements without any historical substantiation, which is in discord with the fundamental definition of good research ‘work. For example, on page 76:
“Khalsa Sikhs accepted a line of nine successors of Guru Nanak. Sahjdhari Sikhs often had a radically different version of the line of succession”. He further goes on 1osay that, “Khalsa Sikhs began to recognize Adi Granth as Guru, Sahjdhari Sikhs were not given to accept a texts as a Guru and favored living human Gurus “. By saying that Khalsa Sikhs “began to recognize Adi Grant has Guru” Oberoi seems to imply that immediately after the death of Guru Gobind Singh the Khalsa Sikhs did not start recognizing the Adi Granth as their Guru. He thus seems to deny the historical evidence offered by Rahat Namas written by authors who were contemporary to the tenth Guru, that before his death he gave the Guruship to the Adi Granth.
Before going into a detailed appraisal of the contributions of this book it would be appropriate to review briefly the relevant historical background, Since this book deals mainly with the Sikhs and the Sikh movements in the nineteenth century (although in the preface of the book the author claims that, “this book seeks to answer two closely related questions, ‘How Indian religions are to be conceptualized?’ and ‘What did it mean to be a Sikh in the nineteenth century?’ a brief account of evolution of the Sikh religion up to the second half of the nineteenth century will be useful. Sikh religion, as everyone knows, is a relatively young religion and it is not impossible to find historical documentary evidence for its most significant events.
From Guru Nanak through Guna Arjun (the fifth Guru) ideals and basic tenets of the new religious order were laid down. These included strict monotheism, forbidding of idol worship and meaning Jess form and rituals, On the social side the main attributes were; ‘equality of all human beings irrespective of caste, color, and geographical origin. The householder’s life with all its responsibilities was preferred over monastic or ascetic life. Asa practical step towards the equality of humankind the institution of langar (common kitchen) was established where high as well as low would sit together and eat. Sikh temples (Dharamsala) were established that were open to everyone. The most important event of this period was the compilation of the Adi Granth, an anthology of hymns of the five Gurus together with those of many contemporary and earlier ants and Bhagat’s. ‘The theocratic monarchy of the time considered this new movement to be a challenge and a “state within state.” For this the fifth Guru had to sacrifice his life.
From Guru Har Gobind (the sixth Gum) onward a new phase started. The use of force to uphold right teousness, to defend the oppressed, and for self defence was justified. The ninth Guru (Tegh Bahadur) sacrificed his life for protecting the religious freedom of Hindus, The tenth and the last living Guru (Gobind Singh) started the so called Amrit ceremony and through this he initiated the Sikhs into the Khalsa order, He gave them a dress code, changed their names (to Singhs) and enjoined them to keep unshod hair. The most unusual aspect of this baptismal ceremony was that after baptizing the first five (the Piyaras the beloved ones) he himself requested, and was baptized by them, thus bringing equality to an ultimate level. It is important to note that four out of the five Piyaras belonged to the untouchable castes; Hothousing practicality finished the distinction of caste system which the earlier Gurus had professed to be the worst malady of the society. A summary of Guru Gobind Singh’s address at that time, based ‘on the report of news writer, sent to the Mughal court and vouched by the Persian historian, Ghulam Mohiudin, goes as follows: “
I wish you all to embrace one creed and follow one path. Let the four Hindu castes that have different rules laid down for them in the Sastras abandon them altogether and adopting the way of cooperation mix freely with one another. Let no one deem himself superior to another. Do not follow the old scriptures, Let none pay heed to the Ganges, and other places of pilgrimage which are considered holy in the Hindu religion, or adore the Hindu deities such as Ramakrishna, Brahma and Durga, but all should believe in Guru Nanak and his successors. Let men of the four castes receive baptism, eat out of the same vessel and feel no disgust or contempt for ‘one another’. After the death of Guru Gobind Singh 1708 came Banda Bahadur. He came like whirlwind and toppled the Mughal Empire in Punjab. He stayed for a very short period—was captured in 171S and tortured to death. However, he gave the taste of freedom to Sikhs and proved that dreams could be realized with unity and resolve. After the death of Banda the number of Khalsa Sikhs could no$ be more than a few thousands. The next few decades were even more of a test for the Sikhs. They were Persecuted, were put to death whenever caught, and there was a Price on the head of a Sikh. A couple of times they were even thought to have been exterminated. Inspite of all these adversities the Khalsa did not lose courage and stayed steadfast on the path fighting against the tyrants with an unshakable faith in the Guru.
Punjab at that time was in great political turmoil. Afghan invaders from the Northwest swooped over the country year after year and plundered the land with impunity. The only resistance was offered by Sikhs who, with their guerilla tactics, harassed the invaders. They rattled like a thorn in their side and time and again their efforts to destroy the Sikhs were frustrated, finally they got their chance in 1762 when in a direct confrontational battle the Sikhs who were badly outnumbered took heavy losses. Out of about thirty thousand Sikhs, which included a majority of old men, women, and children, more than half were killed. The episode is appropriately known as Vada Ghalooghara or the great holocaust.
Even this great setback did not diminish the confidence of Sikhs because they all believed in“‘chardi kala” as taught to them by Guru Gobind Singh.
After the ninth and last invasion of Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1769, the Sikh Misls that were active for the past three decades found a power vacuum in Punjab and filled it immediately. However, instead of joining together each Misl started its own territory which resulted in frequent internecine skirmishes, this continued towards the end of eighteenth century when Ranjit Singh established a unified Sikh commonwealth in Punjab. Although no definite figures are available it will be hard to put the total number of Sikhs at that time to be over one hundred thousand. Soon after the establishment of the Khalsa Commonwealth a large number of Hindus and a relatively small number of Muslims started converting to Sikhism. So much so that within a couple of decades the number of Sikhs is estimated to have risen to over one million, This seems to be a reasonably correct figure because the reports of first census in 1881 indicate the number of Sikhs to be 1.7 million.
With this historical background and statistical data Iet we examine the view point of Oberoi regarding the culture, identity. and diversity in the Sikh tradition in the nineteenth century, specially prior to the Singh Sabha movement, Later on we will examine his views on the work and achievements of this movement more critically.
To be continued.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 4, 1994
