The Sikhs are on a double trial They are threatened from within and without; externally, they are in the danger of being run over by the speeding vehicle of Hindu fascism; and internally, they are threatened by the erosion of the changing values and deviation in form. Both the vital aspects, ‘Content’ and ‘Form’ (Bani and Bana) are being neglected. The external threat can be faced and countered if there is no erosion from within; but the internal danger of erosion is more subtle and knotty.
The crux of the problem is that if we ourselves do not feel proud of the Sarup (form) of the Khalsa, why should anybody else do so? In any case what are we fighting for? Is it not a fight for identity of the Sikhs and freedom of their faith? But if we do not love our Guru, our form, our culture, and our traditions, what sort of a distinct identity are we struggling for? Those of us who slight the Khalsa by violating tenents of Sikhism, would know that they are not only damaging the cause of their faith, but are in fact helping their oppressors in their task of destroying the identity and distinctiveness of the Khalsa.
The saddest part of the erosion of the Sikh values and Khalsa Sarup is that it has deeply, if not irretrievably, affected the younger generation, who, following the footsteps of their parents, have totally aborted the Khalsa form and appear to be on their way to a ‘complete departure from Sikhism, A deeper cause of this deplorable state of affairs is negligence on the part of parents n not teaching their children the Gurmukhi script with the result that neither can the younger generation read and enjoy Gurbani nor can they learn and enjoy Shabad Kirtan.
Thus modern materialism has made us completely extrovert and has eroded our inner self with the result that we are not able to draw any happiness and bliss from within us. In the race for materialism we have lost both Bani and Bana (Nam and Form) but we still claim to be Sikhs of the Guru; ‘we neither have inner faith nor the outer form, but we still wish to be hounoured as the mighty Khalsa of Guru Gobind Singh. What a contradiction!
The above is a brief exposure to the question of threat to Sikhism arising out of internal erosion of Sikh values and form among the Sikh masses. How can we eliminate this internal threat to Sikhism? Obviously, the answer in not so simple; it needs a critical analysis of all aspects. The problem has been dealt with by the author in a paper entitled “Concept of a Sikh” in the above mentioned book.
‘The next problem that is internally eroding the Sikhs is the doubt as to whether the Sikhs should keep their religious issues totally divorce ed from politics or should their religion be the guiding spirit behind the Sikh politics.
There are a number of Sikhs who questions the wisdom of mixing the politics with religion. We wish that these not so well informed Sikhs could spare some time to study the origin, development and transformation of Sikhism and find out for themselves that the Khalsa was created for the purpose of fighting the evil forces of bigotry, tyranny and oppression, and that the Order of Khalsa was, besides being fundamentally religious, a sociopolitical order, which transformed the saintly God dedicated and peaceful community into a militant force that fought against the tyrant and bigoted Mughal oppressors, stood the onslaught of their persecution and finally rolled them out of India.
‘As the Khalsa was created the fight against the oppression and tyranny, the fight against the evil forces still continues; only the tyrant oppressors have changed; instead of Mughals, now the Sikhs have to face the Hindu fascist rulers of India. How can the KhaIsa withdraw from its sacred duty of fighting against the evil forces, for whose destruction the Guru created it? how can the religious light stop guiding the temporal or the sociopolitical affairs of the Khalsa Panth? If the spirit of the religion stopped guiding the KhaIsa in to secular affairs, the Khalsa would become static and stagnate, Against all canons of common sense, against all lessons of history and historical experience of the Sikh community, against traditions set by their ancestors and against the teachings of their Guru, itis rather strange that some Sikhs recommend that politics should be separated from the Sikh religion.
It is because of these rather strange views held by a section of ‘Sikhs that the author has examined in detail the question of dependency of Sikh politics on Sikh religion in a paper entitled, “Sikhism: Can Politics be separated from Religion?”
‘There are grave lurking dangers to the Sikhs from the Hindu Fascism which is growing in India and is assuming a dangerous and threatening posture against Sikhs. To understand dispassionately the treacherous psyche of the Hindu fascist rulers the Sikhs must reflect on the historical events since 1947, which prove that noose around the Sikhs peoples neck has been gradually tightening under a well-planned conspiracy with a view to totally exterminate them.
After Independence, the Hindu rulers of Delhi started repression of the Sikh people. They totally betrayed them and eventually launched a communal crusade to crush them; Operation Bluestar and planned antiSikh riots of November 84 were their inhuman and barbarous attempts to crush and kill the ‘Sikh people.
But the big question facing the Sikhs now is as to whether the grand ‘Operation Genocide Sikhs? is over or what has been done to the Sikhs in 1984 was only a part of the Grand Operation. Are there any more lurking dangers which the Sikh people are likely to a face from Hindu fascist rulers or has the peace returned forever after the Rajiv Longwall Agreement of July 85?
Some of the Sikhs are so credulous that they believe that there is no danger to the Sikhs from the Hindu Government at Delhi. They are gullible even to the point of self deception believing that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s and his advisers’ hearts have undergone a metamorphosis and that there is going to beno ‘more conspiracy to commit genocide of Sikhs. Such Sikhs have fallen in the trap laid by the Delhi Government, They have too soon forgotten the horrendous happenings in Punjab and rest of India in Which tens of thousands of innocent Sikhs have been Killed in a Well-planned manner in 1984,
The author in his paper entitled “Lurking Dangers to Sikhs from Hindu Fascism” has analysed the present political scenario. grown Out of the fascist attitude of Hindu rulers of Delhi and has predicted that Sikhs are threatened with an imminent danger if extension in Punjab as well as outside Punjab all over India, In the paper he has spelled out the lurking dangers to the Sikhs and the modus operandi, the rulers of Delhi are likely to adopt in their attempt to exterminate Sikhs. He closes his discussion with suggestions as to what should Sikhs do to counter and escape these dangerous.
In yet another paper entitled, “Khalistan: The Only Option for Survival of Sikhs” the author, keeping in view the present state of subjugation of Sikhs and the imminent dangers to their existence, analyses and outlines the necessity for an independent homeland for Sikhs.
(THE KHALSA PANTHIS PASSING THROUGH A CRITICAL TIME. WE ARE FACING THREATS FROM WITHIN AND FROM WITHOUT. DR. S.S. DHARAM, WHO HOLDS A DOCTORATE IN SIKH PHILSOPHY, AND IS THE AUTHOR OF ABOUT A DOZEN BOOKS, ANALYSES THESE THREATS AND PUTS FORWARD SUGGESTIONS FOR OVERCOMING THE SAME IN HIS BOOK ENTITLED “INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL THREATS TO SIKHISM”. WE GIVE HERE A GLIMPSE OF THE THREATS DISUCSSED IN FIVE PAPERS BY THE AUTHOR IN HIS BOOK. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF EACH OF THESE PAPERS WILL BE GIVEN BY US IN A SERIES OF ARTICLES TO BE PUBLISHED IN FUTURE ISSUES OF SIKH NEWS)
Article extracted from this publication >> March 28, 1986