In so far as Marriage is concerned, it is almost universal among the Sikhs. But Sikhism disapproves of early marriage Sikh Rehatnama lay down that a girl should marry only when she reaches adulthood and forbids Marriage when a boy or a girl is of tender age. Sikhism also encourages widow remarriage but it does not approve of widows marrying again when they have children living with them. It is apparent that some of the aforementioned factors tend to increase fertility while others tend to reduce fertility. Prem Sumarg Granth also specifies rules governing behavior in marriage. There are taboos against intercourse on particular days (for 16 days) during a month and during pregnancy, which tend to reduce fertility. Excessive indulgence in sex is discouraged as it amounts to animality in man. Sikhism allows for judicious organization and temperate gratification of bodily pleasures so as to improve the overall quality and rhythm of life. Sikhism also puts great emphasis on personal hygiene so as to promote physical fitness. All these factors taken together tend to save the girls from unwanted early and frequent pregnancies and consequent high risk of death. These can go a long way in improving their health, longevity and status. Woman are then in a better position to perform their multifarious roles in the society. It may be said that there is no scriptural injunction in Sikhism that goes against birth control measures, There is no evidence available that shows religious resistance to human interference with fertility. Sikhism, seems to encourage its adherents to keep a check on their pro creative powers. This sanction can help a great deal in reducing fertility and thereby growth of population.

However, when we observe the value system as it operates in the Sikh society, we find once again a wide divergence between the precept and the practice. The Sikh society strongly sanctifies the patriarchal social structure in which marriage, motherhood and service to husband become the most valuable attributes of woman and which perpetrate the negation of woman’s personality. Woman is for the above mentioned roles but she is generally placed in a secondary position to man. It is man who takes precedence over her in all privileges of life, whatever   her merit. Accordingly, a Sikh woman like a Hindu woman does not have much of a say in decisions relating to the number and spacing of children. This affects her so completely that she cannot exercise and enjoy other options in life. Social norms as in Sikh or Hindu society favor high fertility. A sterile woman is looked down upon and woman with many sons is greatly respected, It is considered a great “fortune to have many sons. “May _you have seven sons  is a blessing given to a newly-wedded girl. Sons “are ‘continuance of the family line, for performance of the last rites of parents, and for looking after parents in their old age. In a society not covered by any public social security system, they offer a safeguard as nothing else does, All this stands in the way of planned families and ends up in high fertility rates.

The foregoing analysis of Sikh thought on women clearly point to the great hiatus between what Ought to be and what actually is. There may be a difference of degree in the male dominance of the Sikh society and the resulting socioeconomic disabilities as compared to woman’s position in other major Indian religions but the fact that the Sikh society too is male dominated is beyond the pale of doubt. The forces that suppress women have survived the strong counteracting impact of the Sikh religious thought though their hold and rigor have been gradually weakening. As of today, a Sikh woman does not at all have an identity of her own and the autonomy that she enjoys is determined entirely by the degree of tolerance shown by the male members of her household. The value system as it operates among Sikhs in relation to women is sharply at variance with the code of conduct laid down in the scripture with the consequence that the favorable impact which their proper integration with the labor force could have exercised on material and human development is severely hamstrung. Attitudes to family and fertility and women’s participation in gainful economic activities are the two major variables that are thwarted in the process. The limited empirical evidence that is available shows that total fertility as well as total marital fertility rates are almost identical in the case of the Hindus as well as the Sikhs, The influence of the Sikh precepts on fertility is not clearly discernible, Again, the sex ratio in the Punjab State the home state of the Sikhs has been persistency adverse to women due to various sociological reasons. If participation of women in eco seats is considered, the female participation rate in the State as a whole is among the lowest in the country. There is an urgent need to dismantle iniquitous social barriers to release woman from her timeworn stranglehold so as to enable her to play her true role as a free productive agent in promoting human welfare and happiness. The progress in this direction will largely depend on the vision and fair-mindedness which the Sikh male society comes to acquire in its march toward modernism.

References

  1. Status of Women and Family Planning, quoted in United Nations, Population of India (New York, ESCAP Population Publication, Country Monograph Series No.10,1982), p.359.
  2. S.Radha Krishnan, Religion and Society (London, George Allen and Un win Ltd., 1966), p.139.
  3. SJaiswal, Origin and Development of Vaisnavism, pp.115118.
  4. H.V.S. Marthy, Vaisnavism of Sankra Deva and Romanuja, p.212.
  5. It may be pointed out here that degradation of women was not a characteristic of Hindu society alone. Woman has been considered inferior and relegated to the background in almost all the societies in the past. Great thinkers like Socrates and Aristotle assigned a lower status to woman in society, She was considered weak of will and therefore incapable of independence of character. Continuing in the same vein, W .Shakespeare held woman to be another name for frailty and John Milton regarded her as the mischief incarnate who was responsible for the expulsion of Adam from the Garden of Eden, The commonly held belief among the Christians is that woman represents evil; she destroys God’s image in man. To” quote S ,Radhakrishnan, “According to a great religious tradition, scarcely had woman been created than she was accused in the revealing -sentence:

woman tempted me.” Christian Europe has been brought upon the belief that death would have been unknown but for the unkindness of woman, She was accused of treachery, backbiting and tempting men to their doom (Religion and Society, p.143). The Catholic Church even today upholds asceticism and celibacy as great virtues. The Christian priests, monks and nuns are required not to marry. The position of women in Islam also suggests certain infirmities. Whereas it encourages its adherents to lead a normal householder’s life, woman are not at the same social footing as men. For example, when they go out of their homes they are required to use a covering known as burqas. Their participation in social activities is also somewhat restricted, In property too, they do not have the same rights as men. There are other sex-based taboos which make men more equal than women. For example, a man can have four wives and his fidelity is also not to be questioned. He is also permitted to take a wife from outside his religion. In his case, divorce also does not require much of an advance notice and can be settled in a very simple ceremony. A study conducted by Government of India concedes it when it states, “female seclusion and the unilateral right of male to divorce are the two handicaps that Islam has placed upon Muslim Women” (Towards Equality, Delhi, 1975), p.43.

  1. G.S.Ghurya, Caste and Race in India, pp.24-32.
  2. Cited by R.C. Majumdar, Ancient India (Delhi, Motilal Banarasidass, 1960), p.474.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Ibid, p.474.
  7. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, translated and annotated by Gopal Singh
  8. SGGS,p.747.
  9. SGGS, p.967.
  10. The Sikh view on this issue is not in concord with the Hindi view or the Christian view. According to the scheme of four eshramas (stages of life), a Hindu has to pass through the progressive path laid down for him from that of a student to successively that of a householder, an ascetic and a recluse. Such a scheme does give importance to living in a family set-up at one stage, but, as the Hindu tradition goes, much greater sanctity is attached to the monastic way of life. There are many sects in Hinduism that take vow of celibacy and adopt monasticism as a way of life. But in Sikhism the house-holder’s way of life is the only proper and natural course. Accordingly, man and woman become equal partners in this relationship and work together to promote godly causes There is nothing unwholesome about sex life. Like Hinduism the great occidental religion Christianity too views sex life as somewhat unholy, Commenting on this aspect of Christianity, S.Radhakrishnan observes; “Jesus did not marry; and the whole idea of Immaculate Conception indicates that there is something unclean about normal sex life.” Radhakrishn and quotes St Jerome who said, “Marriage peoples earth, but virginity heaven. There are virgins in the flesh who are not in the spirit whose body remains untouched but whose soul is corrupt. Only a virginity which has never been soiled, by a desire either of flesh or of the spirit, is a worthy offering to Christ (See Religion and Society, p.148). All this implies that if one wants to attain perfection, one must deprive oneself of sex life and the normal family affections. As opposed to this, Sikhism looks upon married sex life as sacred and the house holder’s life as an important adjunct to spiritual life.
  11. SGGS, p.748.
  12. Gopal Singh, Thus Spake The Tenth Master (Patiala, Punjabi University, 1978) p.142,
  13. Bhai Gurdas, Varan (Amritsar, S.G.P.C., 1977) Var, 29, Pauri 11.
  14. Compiled from (i) Census of India, 1961, paper No.2 of 1963, Religion, pp. iv-v. (ii) Census of India, 1971, Series 1, Paper 2 of 1972, Religion, pp.2-4. (iii) Statistical Abstract of Punjab, 1986 (Chandigarh, Economic Adviser to government Punjab Feb .1987.
  15. Parminder Bhachu, Twice Migrants: East African Sikh Settlers in Britain (London, Tavi stock Publications, 1985),
  16. Bhai Randhir Singh ( d), Prem Sumarag Granth, pp.41, 48, and A Guide to the Sikh Way of Life (Patiala, Academy of Sikh Religion and Culture), p.-13.
  17. Bhai Randhir Singh, op. city p.75.
  18. Census of India, 1971, Paper 2 of 1977; Census of India, 1981, Series of 17-Punjab, Part-II .

Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 7, 1992