Dr. Ganda Singh, M.A.Ph.D. Litt.

This article was written by the Great Sikh historian Dr. Ganda Singh some time back, How true is his version even today.

WSN is reproducing for the benefit of our own worthy readers.

The rot that is setting in certain section of the Sikh community has sunk it to a level which is perhaps, deeper and darker than that of the seventies of the nineteenth century when then leaders of the Singh Sabba Movement had to raise the standard of revolt against the religious monopolists of the priestly classes. The Sikh temples and institutions were then under the control of some hereditary Sadhs, Pujaris, Granthis, Babas and Bawas. In their ignorance or selfishness they had drifted back to many a Brahmanical practice and ritual. With the spread of education and religious awakening, it was, however not very difficult to disillusion the people and to launch a revivalist movement and enthuse them with the spirit of puritanism of the Sikh faith.

First Reformist Movement

Thanks to the efforts of Sardar Takar Singh Sandhwalia and some of his frienus, the Singh Sabha Movement has a very successful beginning with the support of the Khalsa Diwan, Lahore. With the turn of the century, the Chief Khalsa Diwan came into existence and spread a network of Singh Sabhas with the result that the Brahmanical influence over the Sikhs came to be gradually weakened and the various un-Sikh accretions, that had gathered around Sikh customs and practices removed.

The Gurdwara Reform Movement of 1920 was also the result of the puritanical spirit infused in the Young Khalsa by the Sikh Sabhites. But the leaders of the Gurdwara Reform Movement we soon attracted to politics. As long as the old guards continued to beat the helm of affairs the management of the gurdwaras and their funds remained fairly satisfactory. But then the leaders became the only vocation and profession of a number of people, they began to look upon the gurdwara funds as the offering and charities of the faithful devotees for their subsistence., this created a class of good for nothing else Parasites who would not hesitate to misuse the gurdwara funds and thus lower their own character and tarnish the image of the community.

There seems to be no hope of any social reform work from the present day leaders of the Panth. They are sunk too deep in bag of politics. Some of them, who, at times feel for the community, have neither the time nor the inclination for it.

Relapse into lapses

With these corrupt people coming into power the management of the gurdwaras, cliques came to be formed on the basis of illaqas and class affinities. This helped caste and profession groups with un-Sikh and unhealthy divisions and subdivisions to the detriment of Panthic principles and solidarity.

This was strengthened by the periodical elections that came in the wake of the Gurdwara Act of 1925. The situation was worsened with adult franchise in the hand of uneducated and ignorant! masses. Particularly in the rural areas where they could be easily exploited by unscrupulous politicians lever schismatic and hypocritical sadhus with sharp tongues and abnormal attires,

Most of the people thus elected to gurdwara committees were not chosen on the basis of their knowledge of and devotion to religion. Therefore in their simplicity and ignorance, they were incapable of detecting that religious practices in the Sikh temples were again gradually returning to the brahmanical ways and that saints, sadhus and granthis allured by additional offerings, could not resist the temptation of compromise with the idolaters and anti-Sikh practices of the Hindu temples.

The unity and uniqueness of God, obeisance to the Master’s World and to nothing else, which are the fundamental Planks of Sikhism are openly flouted in many a Sikh temples when in the presence of the holy Guru Granth Sahib, people are seen prostrating before, and making offering to the self-styled saints and sadhus. This has encouraged a number of fraudulent impostors and pretenders to assume the form and character of gurus and gather round themselves gullible men and women of weak minds.

Hindu practices in Gurdwaras

The evening prayer is in some gurdwaras followed by the Hindu way of art with lighted lamps. This had been strongly criticized by Guru Nanak at Puri as artificial worship.

Akhand Path The lighting of ghee lamps keeping of kumbh or a jar of water covered by a red cloth, fastened by a real and white thread, with a coconut placed there on at the time of the ceremonial reading of Guru Granth Sahib, particularly at Akhand path is nothing but a brahmanical practice.

The akhand path itself is becoming a hollow ritual. As it is, this type of rapid and continuous day and night reading with at times nobody to hear it, has no sanction of Gurus or of the Guru period. It is later innovation over half a century after the death of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. It of course then had a special significance and shows the intensity and depth of the faith of the fairest of the mideighteenth century Sikhs when they were engaged in a life and death struggle with the foreign invaders and were ever ready to lay down their lives in the cause of the Panth. But that was an extraordinary emergency.

Sadharan Path Under normal circumstances, it is the Sadharan path, as coming from the days of the Gurus, which should be in vogue. It can be performed easily by an individual, by the members of a family, or even by professional granthis. When read slowly, the hymns can be followed by the hearers and easily understood, leaving an indelible impression upon their minds. The sadharan path, as a regular part of one’s life, keeps one in tune with the Master and makes life sublime and serviceable freeing it of one’s egotism. Ready Made Paths.

At times we hear professional readers and granthis of gurdwaras telling a suppliant devotee that they have a number of readings of the Guru Granth Sahib ready completed and that one or more of them can be credited to his account by reciting the Ardas in his favor on payment of a certain amount of money to the each path.

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Article extracted from this publication >>  March 10, 1989