Dear Editor:
I do not wish to get needlessly drawn into a contest over Mrs. Satnam Kaur Khalsa’s interpretation of some of the selective words from my article “The Many Faces ‘of Neo Sikhism”, However, her reading of the article which appears to twist the meaning just to reinforce someone else’s own views cannot be allowed to pass without a challenge. In rebuttal, therefore, I have just this to say: 1. Infighting and clawing at one another is what makes Sikhs “their own worst enemy”. Since 1984, myriad Sikh forums and organizations have sprouted, each believing I’ m as good as you are. Even at the higher echelons we have not been spared such a divisive streak (e.g. AISSF — Gunjt faction and AISSF Manjit faction). And, how about ushering thru the turn’s tile of the appointees to High priest Dom at Akal Takht.
- In Mrs. Khalsa’s making a new version of some of the most precious Sikh thoughts (e.g. in simplifying “mixing of religion and politics”) an apt Urdu verse comes to find:
Her shaks bun giya hai khuda
Teray shahr mein
Translated the verse means that everyone, without exception, has taken the high moral around, where is the ordinary mortal. One will be foolhardy to claim that one knows best what the Gurus may have meant. Mrs. Khalsa needs to be reminded that the Gurus hoped to subvert the politically evil Mughal Empire by strengthening the resolve of the followers through religious ordinances.
- I thought it was “fair and dandy” for the Sikhs to have embraced “the straitlaced puritanism of bygone times”, though I made my quarrel over any of their attempts to brutally impose their own values on others”. In twisting my words “true believers” to mean “zealot”, Mrs. Khalsa shows utter disregard of the truth. And, her attempts to try and differentiate between a “fundamentalist” and a “fanatic” is merely a play on words like Shakespearian saying: “a rose is a rose by any other name”.
- What gnawed me the most were those veiled innuendos over the 5K’s, which 5K’s Mrs. Khalsa herself appears to trivialize by speaking of them as “a uniform”. I have always viewed the 5K’s to symbolize, not as physical elements, but an eternal reminder to a votary to fight injustice at all times. Moreover, I would like to correct her thinking over confusing the terms “Khalsa” and “Sikh” as being synonymous. Simply put, every Khalsa is a Sikh, by virtue of his vows of “Amrit”, though not all Sikhs are Khalsa though they are true believers and practitioners of the Granth Sahib.
- Lastly, the references to “squatting on the floor” for langar was little understood and needs to be put in its true perspective. For example, for a long time most of the Gurdwaras, in the West, served the langar on tables and chairs. Recently, with the recuperation of the religious fervor, some Sikhs at some Gurdwaras have arm twisted the local committee’s into serving the langar in the “traditional manner”. This merely illustrates the nature of our priorities. The Sikh people are facing a life-and-death struggle at their own “Little Bighorn” and all some of the Sikhs can think of are appearances.
References to wearing of the kirpan should have been seen in the context that those who wear the kirpan, say on Sundays only, and not on the other six days of the week especially at workplace, as a doctor, lawyer, teacher or a machinist, are sending the wrong signals. In conclusion, I will simply say that the saving of Sikhism’s soul will depend not just on religious militancy, but also on political understanding especially in the Canada and Britain. Casting stones at one another in a holier than thou attitude is simply counterproductive, which will force many Sikh to the sidelines. B.S. Mahal Quebec, Canada
Dear Editor:
We hear many news stories circulated by the Indian press of the views of many Indian Government stooges, quislings, and other indentured servants who fancy themselves as moderate “Sikhs”. Why is it that while the cry for freedom rings out from the countryside of Punjab, we see these so called Sikhs in obvious betrayal of their countrymen? The affluent middleclass Sikhs of Delhi and other cities apparently have not felt the crushing heel of oppression on their heads. They wish to return to the statuesque by bowing in submission to their oppressors. History repeats itself wherein we find that Guru Gobind Singh Ji drew his troops mostly from the peasantry, and again the army of the Khalsa rises from the common class of people. The uncommitted middleclass Sikhs fear that they may be forced to exchange their material prosperity for their honor.
For the Sikhs, survival of the body is not sufficient, we feel it essential to safeguard the dignity of the Sikh nation, without which there would be loss of spiritual integrity. Under the guidance of the fascist Brahmin gurus, the comfortable government stooges consider that the Freedom Fighters are breaking the law by taking up arms against the Indian government. However, who are the real criminals? To take up arms against a government when it can be avoided is certainly a crime, but to fail to do so in the face of oppression is even a more serious crime.
The true Freedom Fighters stand in honour, while the quislings will be mocked for their cowardice today, and in history.
There is ample proof that the time has come to raise the sword. No people oppressed by a brutal government has ever been uplifted any other way. It is obvious that this is the only answer of the Sikh Nation to the crimes of the Indian Government. It is the devious Indian government that has impelled us to this struggle for independence, and we have no alternative but to carry it out. At this point, compromise would be equal to defeat.
Satnam Kaur Khalsa
Mount Horeb Wisconsin
Dear Editor:
A CALL FOR UNITY TO SIKH BROTHERS AND
SISTERS
Once again our house has been set on fire. Once again the lives of our brothers and honors of our sisters are at stake,
What are we going to do about it? Let the arsonists, looters, murderers and rapists go free with all their crimes and let them have a free hand in burning our holiest shrine and kill our innocent children? Is this going to happen because we are without any red blood in ourselves or because we care more about the credit for the service rather than the honor and dignity of our Harmandir or the lives and honors of our brothers and sisters?
Dear brothers and sisters when some arsonists set a family’s house on fire it is not the time to criticize each other, it is not the time to sit idle either and say let the leaders extinguish the fire. It is the time to unify and coordinate our firefighting efforts. All the young and old have to form a kind of assembly line, some have to arrange buckets, some have to fill them with water, and others have to carry it to the fire front, where the front lines have to throw the water at appropriate places. Some have to attend to the wounded fire fighters, while some others have to go after the arsonists and not let them start more fires. But there is no room or place to start fighting for any credits or honors for the services rendered. Even if somebody claims more credit and our services are ignored, we should learn to be still happy because God knows who did what and because we care more for the safety of our house and lives and honors of our brothers and sisters rather than credit for our services.
Some of us have been fighting over the best methods to extinguish this fire. Some are in favor of using fire engines, others buckets of water, others throwing sand, still others building an entirely new fire proof house where the arsonists cannot enter again. Let us not condemn each other for their individual solutions, let us hear, each other out with dignity and. respect and try to work towards a common good in spite of our individual preferences.
As you have read in the recent news, we already had a Panthic unity meeting at Glenrock Gurdwara, New Jersey. This meeting did help us lay out our differences in open and bring us closer to each other. Let us have a similar meeting in West Coast or Midwest and sort out our differences in a calm and constructive manner.
Let us once against get united both in body and spirit and send a strong signal to those arsonists, murderers and rapists that the Sikh nation like its glorious traditions will not tolerate any such insults no matter what mighty armies it may have to face because Sikh nation is the army of the God and God’s army has always to win.
Daljit Singh Jawa Topeka, Kansas
Article extracted from this publication >> May 27, 1988
