41

So Brahman could subsist in its state of self-same, unchanging oneness, while

being (immanent) in time and space. Brahman is timeless not in the sense of time-

transcendence but in the sense of being eternal, that is, eternally self-same (living) in

(passive spatial) time. Thus the Vedantic immanence of Brahman qua Being means the

unchangeability not only of the Absolute but also of phenomenal reality. Hence the

static that is, stable enduring character of Hindu civilization. If on the other hand

phenomenal reality is to be thought of dynamically, then, that would mean restoration

of historicity to time, so that to be in time could mean to be subject to change and

development. The time- transcendence of the Absolute (Akal Murat) as such becomes a

pre-condition not only for the Being-in-itself of God but also of His Descent into time

(history). Such a conception of the Absolute on the basis of the historicist notion of time

makes room for dynamic view of phenomenal reality as envisaged in the Sikh concept of

creation. That is how the causal relation of the Absolute Spirit (Karta Purakh) with

phenomenal reality (in terms of creation, which, in a sense, is Self-determination of the

Spirit in time) involves the historical view of time as against the Vedantic notion of its

spatiality. The social dynamism of Sikhism is, in a sense, an expression of the underlying

historical view of time.

As the spatial conception of time is nothing but a denial of its historicity, so in

Vedantic thought the causal relation of Brahman with phenomenal reality could be

conceived only in such terms as appearance, reflection, manifestation, configuration,

42

modification, etc., as involve the spatiality of time in the context of which there is either

no change but only an illusory appearance (vivartavada). Or at the most a change in

form (parinamvada) in which the potential becomes the actual, the cause delivers the

pre-conceived effect; Brahman maintains the substantial self-identity of its Being-in-

itself in the midst of its phenomenal modification, transformation or transfiguration. In

the case of parinamvada, which is common to Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita, Madhva's

Dvaita, Nimbarka's Dvaitadvaita and Vallabha's Sudhadvaita, the change being only in

the form, there is no real evolution, growth and development, no emergence of new

quality or novelty. If in Shankara's vivartavada phenomenal becoming is only a matter

of illusion caused by maya, in parinamvada it represents an inferior, secondary,

transient reality of derivative nature. Such, then, is the nature of the world of time and

space in the Vaishnva (theistic) schools of Vedanta, while for Advaita Vedanta the

wordly reality is only a phenomenon of illusory appearance caused by maya which

super-imposes sensory forms onto Brahman.

The concept of spatial time flows from its homogeneity8 which means that all

temporal instants and intervals are in every respect equivalent to and identical with one

another. Hence no temporal instant can be said to be ‘before’ or ‘after’ any other

instant. So there is no beginning, no end of time, which as such, has to be conceived of

as uncreated. Time, accordingly, becomes infinite duration or durational infinity.

43

Basing itself on the spatiality of time the classical Hindu tradition of religious

thought had equated reality with eternity in its concept of Sat: the real is eternal in time

and the eternal alone is real. The world of time and space, being subject to the

processes of becoming - origination and development, preservation and disintegration-

is, accordingly, deemed as untrue and unreal in itself; at the most it possesses

secondary, derivative reality.

Ontological and epistemological categories of Sikhism are qualitatively different

from the Vedantic and other thought-systems of India. The Sikh conception of the

Absolute; definition of reality; concept of time and ontological status of phenomenal

world are radically different from their counterparts in earlier systems. As against the

fundamental concept of Being (Sat) of Vedantic metaphysics, the basic category of

Sikhism is Spirit contradinguishable from the Vedantic concept of supreme reality as

Brahman (Being). The Absolute in Sikhism is the self-conscious Spirit. Vendantic

(isotropic) time is eternity, a beginningless and endless (uncreated) continuum in which

a thing continues in its self-same state of being eternally. From here follows that the

Real is eternal and the eternal Real. The world of phenomena, being transient, does not,

as such, qualify to be real. On the hand, Sikh metaphysics involves the concept of

anisotropic time in the form of historical time, being a dimension in which the Spirit

becomes determinate reality. Guru Arjun says:

Tnzekfo T[sgksh, ehnk fdB;[ ;G oksh 9

44

God created not only mater but also time (metaphonically day and night).

Hence the Nankian expression (in Japji Sahib) Aad Jugad, wherein Aad refers to

logical beginning and Jugad means historical beginning (the beginning of eons). From

here the definition of reality also becomes different from the Vendantic conception.

Apart from the Absolute Reality, the phenomenal world having been created in

(historical) time is also real. The noumenal is real and eternal; the phenomenal is real,

though transient. These original concepts and their irreducible connotations, interalia,

constitute the doctrinal sovereignty of Sikhism, as I explained in my book The

Sovereignty of the Sikh Doctrine.10

Religion being the realm in which Spirit has revealed itself from time to time,to

humankind, in its quest for a new World civilization, is turning again to religion, as

distinct from religiosity or religious dogma.

It is not the spirit dogmatized in religion. It is the self-realizing spirit which is the

very creativity of the Divine, the dynamics of the cosmos; the élan vital of history; the

source of values for society and the very essence of human spirit. The spirit is not an

incarnation of the world soul; cosmic consciousness; demiurge; nor it is a version of

Platonic Idea, Aristotelian Form, Spinoza's Substance, Hegelian Geist. Spirit is an out

flowing current, an outpouring of energy; it is becoming in which novelty emerges in

each new configuration, new qualities evolve that characterize the new wholes.

45

Unlike Vedantic thought systems, having Being as their basic category, Sikhism

has Spirit as its foundational principle. In the Mul Mantra right in the beginning of Sri

Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Nanak, the first Prophet of Sikh religion, predicates the

Absolute as Creative Spirit (Karta Purakh in Mul Mantra). Guru Arjan Dev says:

i'fs ;o{g ik eh ;G tE[11

He is (substanceless) Spirit,

though all substantial existence is His, is from Him

The Absolute in the act of creation determinates itself as Spirit having

determinate relationships with entire creation in which is immanent the Divine Spirit:

;G wfj i'fs i'fs W ;'fJ..12

The Divine Spirit pervades all.

The same Divine Spirit being pervasive in all creation (man, nature), for the

holistic vision of Sikhism, God, man and nature come to have integral bond with each

other.

The Divine Spirit descends in (created) time, that is, in the history through the

Guru - person. Ultimately, the spiritual aspect of the Divine revealed to the Guru's Word

(Shabad) becomes immanent in Sri Guru Granth Sahib while the temporal aspect

becomes manifest (determinate) in the body corporate of the Panth, the Khalsa:

46

nekb g[oy eh ;{os J/jk

gqrfN nekb ykb;k d/jk.. 13

The Khalsa in its ideal form is the Spirit-in-history for realizing a new value

pattern for the humanity as a whole.

The new value pattern, that has immense significance for the third millennium

civilization, is characterized by liberalism, humanism, universalism and pluralism.

Liberalism, among other things means that Sikhism is not a totalizing creed

binding men and women in straightjacket formalism and dogmatism from prenatal to

post—mortem stage.

Eulogizing Hinduism as a great mystical religion, Fritjof Capra goes to the other

extreme by observing that “Hinduism cannot be called a philosophy, nor is it a well

defined religion. It is, rather, a large and complex socio-religious organism consisting of

innumerable sects, cults and philosophical systems and involving various rituals,

ceremonies and spiritual disciplines, as well as the worship of countless gods and

goddesses………”14

Humanism in Sikhism means not that man is the measure of all things and the

source of all values; it rather, here means that all humanity is one in spirit and that the

primary identity of man is his humanness, though secondary identities are equally

47

important because it is in and through these that the primary identity determinates

itself out. Guru Gobind Singh says:

wkB; eh iks ;p? J/e? gfjukBp'

(Recognize all humanity as one in spirit).

Universalism is another significant aspect of Sikh value pattern. The concept

unfortunately has been reduced to simply, a verbal recitation in the daily prayer of

praying for the welfare of all humanity, with little practical involvement in the existential

concerns of the people of the world. Universalism in Sikhism also means that Sikhism is

neither region- specific, nor class-specific, nor caste-specific. Unfortunately Sikhism has

come to be bracketed with a particular region (Punjab) and a particular ethnicity

(Punjabiat).

Sri Guru Granth Sahib is a unique living example of religious pluralism. Religious

pluralism would be one of the pillars of the edifice of a new global civilization. In this

context the relevance of Sri Guru Granth Sahib becomes all the more significant. One of

the main reasons for the bloody conflicts between the world's religions has been the

claim of each combative religion that it alone is the full and final revelation of God, the

full and final manifestation of truth, the full and final expression of reality; but Sikhism

stakes no such claim, as it accepts the significance of different revelations delivered to

48

humankind from time to time , with possibility of future revelations as well in the

evolutionary course of the speculative thought of the world. Proclaims Guru Nanak:

;{oi[ J/e' o[fs nB/e..

BkBe eos/ e/ e/s/ t/;..15

Numerous are the seasons emanating from the one Sun,

Numerous are the guises in which the Creator appears.

With no absolutist claim to be the sole franchisee of the Divine, Sikhism in its

pluralistic approach, accepts variety of different paths to the Divine. The third Prophet

of Sikhism, Guru Amar Das, symbolically stresses this point in the following hymn in Sri

Guru Granth Sahib:

irs[ ibzdk ofy b? nkgDh feogk Xkfo..

fis[ d[nko? T[po? fss? b?j[ T[pkfo.. 16

The world is ablaze, 0 Lord! Shower your benediction,

Through whichever door it can be delivered save it that way.

The Sikh Scripture - Sri Guru Granth Sahib - is unique also in that it contains holy

compositions of not only of Sikh Prophets but also of Hindu Saints and Muslim Sufis. The

holy Granth exhorts a Hindu to be a good Hindu and a Muslim to be a good Muslim. This

means not only religious tolerance but also positive acceptance of self-identities of

49

different groups based on distinctive ethnicities, creeds, languages, regions or other

principles of group cohesiveness. This point becomes all the more significant in view of

the fact that if class-contradictions constituted the dialectic of social reality in the 20th

century, today, their place has been taken by ethnic, ethno-social and ethno-religious

contradictions marking heightened consciousness of the group identities in the face of

the homogenizing tendencies of globalization. Guru Gobind Singh says in Akal Ustit:

d/j[ok w;hs ;'Jh

g{ik n" fBtki TJh

A temple and a mosque are same

Hindu worship and Muslim prayer are similar

The point is that the inner vision, dynamism and unrealized potential of Sikh

religion can and should contribute significantly towards the shaping of a multi-focal

global civilization” a new world civilization of the third millennium, leading to a multi-

focal global civilization in which there would be no “clash of civilizations.” But this would

be possible only if contemporary Sikhism comes out of its shell, while updating its

praxis.

In brief:

yN[ do;B tos? toskok..

50

r[o ek do;B[ nrw ngkok..11117777

The six systems of (Hindu) thought have pervasive influence over man.

But the Guru’s system transcends them all.

51

REFERENCES

1. Arnold Toynbee: A STUDY OF HISTORY, Oxford University Press, 1934-54, Volume

V, p- 667.

2. Fritjof Capra: THE TURNING POINT, Harper Collins Publishers, London, 1983, p-

15. M

3. Samuel P. Huntington: THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF

WORLD ORDER, Penguin Books, 1996

4. Jean-Francios Leotard, THE POSTMODERN CONDITION: A REPORT ON

KNOWLEDGE, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1997, p. XXIV.

5. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 268

6. Ibid, p. 1150

7. M.N. Srinivas, SOCIAL CHANGE IN MODERN INDIA, Los Angeles, California, 1966,

p. 6.

8. Milic Capek, THE PHILOSOPHICAL IMPACT OF CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS, D. Van

Nostrand Company, Inc., N.Y., 1961, p-99

9. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p- 1003

10. Dr. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SIKH DOCTRINE, Singh

Brothers, Amritsar, 2006, pp. 241-242

11. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p- 1150

52

12. Ibid., p- 13

13. Prehlad Rai (a venerated writer of a Sikh Rehatnama)

14. Fritjof Capra, THE TAO OF PHYSICS, Flamingo, 1991, page-97

15. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p-12

16. Ibid., p- 853

17. Ibid., p- 360-61

53

END OF HISTORY?

The collapse of the Soviet Union has been declared as “the end of history”1 by

Francis Fukuyama in the sense of history seen in Marxian sense as a clash of classes

which would, according to Marxian logic, come to an end in classless communism. For

Francis Fukuyama history came to an end with inevitability of Western style liberal

democracy2 which would bring in a new world order. He further adds: “the twin crises of

authoritarianism and socialist central planning have left only one competitor standing in

the ring as an ideology of potentially universal validity: Liberal democracy …………..”3

On the other hand, the present age is marked by the “clash of civilizations”4

according to Samuel P. Huntington.

In the clash of civilizations the role of a class in the Marxian sense has been taken

over by a community characterized by religion, culture and language. Samuel P.

Huntington says that religion is “the principal defining characteristic of civilization.”5

Sikhism is distinctive as a community marked by religious, cultural and linguistic

identities and as such can play a significant role in bringing about a new world

civilization in the third millennium.

Apart from outdated modern Western civilization of the last 300 years there have

been earlier other civilizations. According to Samuel P. Huntington Greece was “the

home of Classical civilization.”6 Islamic civilization has also played significant role

54

marked by “the Arab-Islamic sweep outward from the early seventh to the mid-eighth

century that established Muslim rule in North Africa, Iberia, the Middle East, Persia and

northern India7deriving their inspiration from their Prophet Hazrat Muhammad. In 1095

Christendom launched the Crusades against Islamic expansion, for establishing Christian

rule in the Holy land and adjoining areas in the Near East. In the meantime Ottoman

Turks captured Constantinople in 14538

- a land mark in world history. Christianity

derived its inspiration from its Prophet Jesus Christ.

Now is the time for emergence of a new world civilization of the third

millennium, realizing the vision of ten Prophets of Sikh religion.

Is it not ironical that Sikh religion has territorially shrunk to the present Punjab. In

fact the Sikh community is running fast backward! Eminent scholar Prithipal Singh Kapur

in his book MASTER TARA SINGH: HIS REMINISCENCES writes as under:

“Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress leaders were in

jail in connection with the Quit India Movement of 1942, but Shri Rajagopalachari had

not courted arrest. He was making concerted efforts to forge an agreement between

the Muslim League, the Congress as also the other communities so as to force the

British to grant independence to India on the terms delineated by the Indian leaders

themselves. In Britain, the Labour government had been voted to power and it had

55

committed to grant independence to India. Moreover, the labour party was favourably

inclined towards the Congress than the Muslim League.

“Rajaji had visited Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders detained in various jails

and held discussions with them. Consequently, he hammered out a communal

agreement and presented it before the leaders of all provinces whom he had called for a

meeting. About twenty to twenty-five Hindu and Sikh leaders were sitting in the Birla

House and Mr Jinnah was at his own bungalow. Raja Maheshwar Dayal acted as

interlocutor and shuttled between us and Mr. Jinnah. We were able to reach an

agreement by communicating messages to each other in this manner. It was agreed that

the areas with at least sixty-five per cent of Muslim population and with less than 35 per

cent of Non-Muslim population should be included in Pakistan. According to this plan,

the Indo-Pakistan border would have been somewhere beyond the river Ravi, though it

did not reach anywhere near the river Chenab. However, it meant that large territories

of Lahore, Sialkot and Gujranwala districts and some areas of Lyallpur (now Faislabad in

Pakistan) and Montgomery (now Sahiwal in Pakistan) districts would come to our side.

However, Jinnah put a condition that this agreement should remain a strict secret and it

should become public only when it appeared in the newspapers. Jinnah had also said

that he would deny having reached any such agreement if any news regarding the

agreement got leaked.

56

“After this agreement had been arrived at orally, we suggested that we should

commit this agreement to writing. At that time, Gokul Chand Narang suggested that we

should invite some other Punjabis particularly some Sanatanist Hindus also. During the

parleys preceding the above agreement, Gokul Chand Narang happened to be the only

Punjabi Hindu, Giani Kartar Singh and myself were the only Sikh representatives.

Following this suggestion of Narang, Swami Ganesh Dutt of Sanatam Dharma was

summoned telegraphically. He came accompanied by another person, Kundan Lal

Lamba. Immediately both of them rejected the agreement that we had arrived at.

Consequently, a favourable proposal for an agreement got aborted. The fault for this

must lie with us and not with Mr Mohd. Ali Jinnah.”9

While realizing the dream of our ten Prophets for bringing in a new word

civilization of the third millennium, we have to keep in mind the observation of

outstanding scholar, Dr. Mujahid Kamran, Vice Chancellor of University of the Punjab,

Quaid-I-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan, about “the world-wide conspiracy of certain

forces for the overthrow of civilization”.10

Apart from territorial shrinkage of the Sikh community, which is also experiencing

downward trend in terms of Sikh population, with the Sehajdharis having been recently

declared ineligible for voting in the SGPC elections, we have also to project our language

Punjabi on both sides of the 1947 border between India and Pakistan. In this context we

have to remember the following observation of Samuel P. Huntington: “The end of the

57

Soviet empire and the Cold War promoted the proliferation and rejuvenation of

languages which had been suppressed or forgotten. Major efforts have been underway

in most of the former Soviet republics to revive their traditional languages. Estonian,

Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Georgian, and Armenian are now the national languages

of independent states. Among the Muslim republics similar linguistic assertion has

occurred and Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have shifted from

the Cyrillic script of their Turkish Kinsmen, while Persian-speaking Tajikistan has adopted

Arabic script. The Serbs, on the other hand, now call their language Serbian rather than

Serbo-Croatian and have shifted from the Western script of their Catholic enemies to

the Cyrillic script of their Russian kinsmen. In parallel moves, the Croats now call their

language Croatian and are attempting to purge it of Turkish and other foreign words,

while the same Turkish and Arabic borrowings, linguistic sediment left by the Ottoman

Empire’s 450-year presence in the Balkans, have come back into vogue in Bosnia.

Language is realigned and reconstructed to accord with the identities and contours of

civilizations.”11

Samuel P. Huntington further writes that “The late twentieth century has

seen a global resurgence of religions around the world.”12

This is an opportunity, a challenge, for Sikh religion to realize its Divine mission.

58

REFERENCES

1. Francis Fukuyama, THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN, Penguin Books,

2012

2. Ibid., p-37

3. Ibid., p- 42

4. Samuel P. Huntington, THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF

WORLD ORDER, Penguin Books, 2016.

5. Ibid., p- 253

6. Ibid., p- 162

7. Ibid., p- 209

8. Ibid., p- 210

9. Prithipal Singh Kapur, MASTER TARA SINGH AND HIS REMINISCENCES, SINGH

Brothers, Sri Amritsar, 2015, pp- 235-236

10. Dr. Mujahid Kamran, THE INTERNATIONAL BANKERS, WORLD WARS I, II AND

BEYOND, Vice Chancellor of University of the Punjab, Quaid-I-Azam Campus,

Lahore, Pakistan, 2015, p-316

11. Samuel P. Huntington, THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF

WORLD ORDER, Penguin Books, 2016, p- 64

12. Ibid., p-64

59

WHITHER SIKHISM AND ‘THE SIKHS’ TODAY?

A look-back on the past Sikh history since Maharaja Ranjit Singh is essential in

this context. The coronation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1799 as the sovereign ruler was

both the climax and the beginning of the anti-climax of the Sikh movement. The crusade

of Sikhism had started with the first odyssey of Guru Nanak Dev in 1499 after the direct

revelation of the Divine message by God Himself. The Maharaja kept the Sikh generals

away from his cabinet which was dominated by the self-seeking Dogras and the U.P.

Brahmins apart from the loyal Muslim Faqirs in the ministry. Guru Gobind Singh had

sent five Sikh scholars of his times to Kashi (Benaras) for Sanskrit studies. In the hands of

these scholars, known as Nirmalas, the Sikh doctrine got Vedantic coloring as they used

Vedantic idioms in interpreting Sikhism which became Vedanticised. The Sikh polity

gradually became feudalized and the Sikhs society relapsed into ritualism, and became

caste-ridden and ultimately Brahiminised.

Writes eminent Sikh scholar, Dr. Sangat Singh, as follows, - “Ranjit Singh during

his entire rule never sought to know what was pure or original in Sikhism, much less

make arrangements to preach it or organize studies and research in Sikh history or

theology. He was not unaware of Baba Dayal’s initiating the Nirankari movement in

1815 seeking to rid Sikhism of Brahminical accretions, violative of teachings of the Sikh

Gurus. He turned his blind eye towards it. Rather by his whims, fancies and

superstitions, he strengthened the position of Brahminism and their occult science, so

60

much so that the whole population including Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims were deeply

steeped in that.1

The population of Sikhs at the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was around 8-10

million and after that it was reduced to just 10-20% of original population. On the other

hand (Islam with just one Prophet Abu Al Qasim Muhammad) from the early seventh to

the mid eighth century established Muslim rule in North Africa, Liberia, the Middle East,

Persia and northern India- to quote just one instance of Islamic spread. There has been

shrinkage of Sikh population. As per census of 2011 the Sikh population in Punjab is 1.75

crore of which 55 lakh are baptized and the remaining over 70 lakhs are non- baptized/

technically sehajdharis.

Taking an overview of the 20th century Sikh praxis, it appears that, in a sense, the

community has been running fast enough to remain in the same place! One would recall

here how Alice, in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, was astonished to hear the

following utterance of the queen: "now here, you see, it takes of all the running you can

do to keep in the same place". In other words the 20th

century Sikh praxis while serving

the needs of the times, generated certain stereotypes that, unfortunately, have become

embedded in the Sikh mind as the unchangeable, all- time valid, categorical imperatives,

particularly the following, as I wrote in my book Liberating Sikhism from 'the Sikhs'

(2003)2: coalescent, rather than differentiated, unity between miri (temporal authority)

and piri (ecclesiastical power); symbiotic relationship between religious and political

61

institutions; ascendancy of Sikh clergy as a class exercising Brahminical roles of exegesis,

prescription of code of conduct, imposition of religious punishment; ex-communication;

their functioning as theocrats; most of the SGPC members acting as the legal mahants,

in the words of Master Tara Singh who replaced hereditary mahants in the management

of the Sikh shrines treated as 'property' rather than as missionary institutions:

predomination of the existential concerns of the Sikhs over the universal concerns of

Sikhism, and the concept of sovereign self-expression of a community becoming

determinate only in a particular territorial dimension (Punjab). Out of these, the most

manipulative stratagem is the symbiotic relationship in which the religious and the

political leadership sustain each other, strengthen each other, weaken each other,

exploit each other, while all the time complementing each other. It is liberation from

such stereotyped Sikh praxis that I, euphemistically, call Liberation of Sikhism from 'the

Sikhs' - a liberation from an obsolescent mindset; a liberation from the hardened dogma

encrusting the spirit of Sikhism; a liberation from the self-styled custodians of the faith;

a liberation from the theocracy of the Takht clergy, claiming virtually regency of the

Guru and God on earth; a liberation from the Jekyll and-Hyde type of leaders who well

qualify as dramatis personae of the political theatre of the Absurd; a liberation from

mushrooming sants emitting scented stinks; a liberation from "pop" intellectuals of

Sikhism; a liberation from theologasters delivering in the shrines shallow discourses with

62

sprinkling of (little understood) sakhis; a liberation from Stupid Sikhs (in the words of

Sirdar Kapur Singh).

Earlier in my book Liberating Sikhism from 'the Sikhs' I had written as under: "A

kind of Lutheran reformation- the second Sikh reformation- is needed without which

Sikhism would survive, but not the Sikhs, in the same way in which in India today

Buddhism is surviving without there being a reckonable distinct Buddhist community".

But now I have re-thought the matter: Without a kind of Lutheran reformation- the

second Sikh reformation- leading to a new praxis- the Sikhs, observing growing

Brahminical, ritualism, would survive in different parts of the world but Sikhism would

not emerge as a world religion with its universal values and concerns. At the most

Sikhism would become a species of the Hindu genus. At Kanyakumari on can see

intermingling waters of three distinct shades: the water of Indian ocean, the water of

the Arabian sea on one side and the water of Bay of Bengal on the other side. This

seems to be a good analogy of Hinduism in which there are freely intermingling distinct

creeds whether monotheistic, polytheistic, agnostic or atheistic.

I reproduce below what I wrote earlier:

*f;Zy fJfsjk; d/ gktB g[opK dhnK -skpdhnK wBkT[D dk f;bf;bk ft-/- s"o s/, 1966 ftu nkozG j'fJnk id'

r[o{ r'fpzd f;zx ih d/ gqrN j'D dh shih -skpdh wBkJh rJh. T[d'A s' j[D se nB/eK -skpdhnK wBkJhnK iKdhnK

ojhnK jB. jo/e -skpdh ;w/A ;qh r[o{ rqzE ;kfjp d/ nyzv gkmK d/ f;bf;b/ nkozG/ rJ/, bZyK dh frDsh ftu f;y

-oXkb{nK tb'A tZy-tZy sohfenK Bkb -oXk d/ c[Zb G/AN j'J/, r[oXkwK d/ do-B ehs/, tZvh frDsh ftu nzfwqs SekJ/ rJ/,

63

ehosB dopko j'J/, tZv/-tZv/ ib{; eZY/ rJ/, :ksok rZvhnK uZbhnK, ns[ZN bzro toskJ/ rJ/, ftuko r'-NhnK dh Gowko

j'Jh, ;'B/ dhnK gkbehnK th fsnko j'JhnK. ;qh r[o{ rqzE ;kfjp r[oskrZdh dh shih -skpdh d/ nt;o s/ ;qh ji{o ;kfjp

fty/ eo'VK o[gJ/ dh bkrs tkbk jhfonK ifVnk 12 feb' -[ZX ;'B/ dk Sso, ;qh r[o{ rqzE ;kfjp bJh ;'B/ dk ghVQk ;kfjp,

;'B/ dh vzvh tkbk u"o ;kfjp, ;qh ;kfjp ns/ uKdh dhnK gzi u'pK G/NK ehs/ ikD pko/ fwsh 29-9-2008 d/ nihs n-pko

ftu -po Sgh W. eh ;'B/ dhnK gkbehnK, ;'B/ dk Sso, ;'B/ dk ghVQk, ;'B/ dh vzvh tkbk u"o ;kfjp ns/ nfij/ j'o wkJhnk-

gqdo-B s/ you j'D tkb/ eo''VK o[gJ/ ;qh r[o{ rqzE ;kfjp dh u'Dth pkDh - ft-t dhnK w[Zy Gk-ktK ftu nB[tkd eokT[D

ns/ fJ; soQK f;ywfs d/ ;[B/j/ - j'oBK d/-K d/ t;BheK bJh T[jBK dhnK nkgDhnK- nkgDhnK Gk-ktK ftu T[ikro

eoBk tX/o/ T[g:'rh Bjh< eh fJj eo'VK o[gJ/ gSVhnK -q/DhnK d/ efbnkD bJh Bj] tosD/ ukjhd/< eh fJj XB eohp

pZfunK dh T[u/o/ gZXo dh gVQkJh s/ Bj] you j'D/ ukjhd/< d' t/b/ dh o'Nh th Bk ewk ;eD tkb/ rohpK bJh o'-rko d/

t;hb/ g?dk eoB bJh Bj] you/ ik ;ed/< go Bj], n;] sK GkJh bkb' d/ BkBe-Xow - wfbe Gkr dk Xow pDkT[D s/

s[b/ j'J/ jK, fi;- t/y e/ tkfo; -kj dk fJj f-no :kd nkTA[dk WL “tko; -kj Bk NbKrh oKMD/ s'A, Gkt/A pkg d/ pkg dk

pkg nkt/.” ;qh ji{o ;kfjp fty/ r[oskrZdh dh shih -skpdh wBkT[D d/ nt;o s/ bzro ftu 300 gqeko d/ G'iB toskJ/

ikD dhnK -poK th n-pkoK ftu SghnK. eJh gkf;UA fJj ;tkb T[m/ jB eh nfijk bzro fe;/ wjkoki/ dk -kjh bzu

;h iK pkd-kj dot/- ;qh r[o{ r'fpzd f;zx d/ -oXktkB GkJh bkb'nK dk bzro ;h. ;kv/ gktB g[opK dhnK -skpdhnK

f;ZyK dhnK, f;ZyK bJh, f;ZyK tb'A wBkJhnK iKdhnK -skpdhnK pD e/ ofj rJhnK jB. T[Zu gZXo dh fJe th nzso-

ok-Noh, nzso-Xkofwe ftuko-r'-Nh Bj] j'Jh fi; ftu j'oBK XowK d/ ftdtkBK - ;qh r[o{ rqzE ;kfjp pko/, iK f;Zywfs

pko/, nkgD/ ftuko gq;s[s eoB dk T[Zdw ehsk iKdk. ;qh r[o{ rqzE r[ost shih -skpdh wBkT[D bJh “300 ;kb r[o{ d/

Bkb” dk pj[s Y[ZetK ;zebg u[fDnk s/ goukfonk frnk. dwdwk ;kfjp (sbtzvh ;kp') fty/ BkBe-kjh ebzvo nB[;ko

20 nes{po 2008 - w[Zy ;wkrw j'fJnk. ;qh ji{o ;kfjp fty/ fpeowh ;zws nB[;ko fJ; gktB fdt; dh shih -skpdh

29 nes{po s'A 4 Btzpo 2008 sZe wBkJh rJh, :kBh ;w[Zuk gzE fJe fwsh s/ th ;fjws Bj] j' ;fenk. 300 ;kb r[o{ d/

Bkb ofjD dk dkntk eoB tkb/ f;Zy GkJhuko/ B/ ;z;ko nZr/ nkgD/ fej' fijh Sth fgS/ SZvh< uzvhrVQ s'A Sgd/ gzikph

fNqfpT{B d/ gfjb/ ;-/ dhnK ji{o ;kfjp ;wkrw pko/ -poK dhnK w[Zy ;[o-hnK fJj ;BL r[oskrZdh ;wkrw d"okB gzEe

r[ZNK Óu eb/-, ;kpek gqXkB tb' wzu s/ ep-kl -q'wDh ew/Nh gqXkB tb' pkJhekN. uzvhrVQ s' Sgd/ o'-kBk d/- ;/te

n-pko B/ gfjb/ ;-/ s/ fJj w'N/ nZyoK ftu -po bkJhL @r[oskrZdh fdt; d/ ;wkrw dh ;N/i s/ rkbh rb'ul Nhatha

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u?Bb gZsoeko dk th N[ZfNnk e?wok.@ fJj 300 ;kb r[o{ d/ Bkb ofjD dk toskok W< iK 300 ;kb r[o{ s' p/-w[Zy ukb dk

B-kok W< fwsh 17 Btzpo 2008 d/ o'-kBk nihs n-pko ftu Sg/ fJe b/y nB[;ko ;qh ji{o ;kfjp fty/ ;wkrwK dh

;wkgsh ;wko'j ftu ;qh r[o{ rqzE ;kfjp - r[o{ wzBD dk r[owsk g/- ns/ gqtkB eotkfJnk frnk, :kBh ;qh r[o{ r'fpzd

f;zx ih d[nkok ;qh nkfd (r[o{) rqzE ;kfjp - r[osk-rZdh ;'AgDh ek-h Bj] ;wMh rJh, s/ r[o{ ;kfjp d/ nX{o/ (<) ezw -

;qh ji{o ;kfjp gqpzXe ew/Nh d/ gqpzXeK B/ r[owsk gk; eotk e/ g{ok ehsk. (fJ; xo e' nkr bZr rJh xo e/ fuok-

;/).

uzvhrVQ s'A Sgd/ nzro/ih fNqfpT{B B/ fwsh 3-11-2008 d/ nze d/ gfjb/ ;-/ s/ fJj -po Skgh Bulldozing of

heritage at Hazur Sahib. fJ; -po ftu nZr/ ik e/ fJj fbfynk frnk W fe wjkok-No ;oeko ns/ s-s ;qh

ji{o ;kfjp dh gqpzXe ew/Nh tb' nBw'b f;Zy ftok;sh fpbfvzrK - Yfj-Y/oh eoB bJh e'Jh e;o Bj] SZvh rJh. i/

n;h -[d jh nkgDh ftok;s - wfbnk-w/N eod/ rJ/ sK nkgD/ fto;/ ftu ;kvhnK iVQK fet/A pu ;eDrhnK, s/ i/eo n;h

iVQ' jh N[ZN rJ/ sK T[gobhnK -k-ktK fet/A johnK-GohnK ofj ;eDrhnK. r[o{ noiB d/t ih dh fJ; ;ktXkBh pko/

fpbe[b e'o/ j' u[Ze/ jKL

g/v[ wzYkj{ efNnk fs;[ vkb ;[ezd/3333

If the roots of a tree are cut out, its branches wither

;qh ji{o ;kfjp fty/ fJ; gftsq T[s;t s/ peok MNek e/ T[;d/ y{B Bkb d-w/- fgsk d/ --so ;k- ehs/

rJ/. j-koK feb' d[ZX Bkb ;qh s-s ji{o ;kfjp ezgb?e; - X'sk frnk, fco r'dktoh Bdh d/ ib Bkb ;k- ehsk

frnk. fJBQK d'jK o;wK pko/ w?- d/--pd/-'A Gkoh frDsh ftu f;Zy -oXktkBK B/ ;tkb g[ZS/L i/eo ;qh ji{o ;kfjp fty/

peo/ d/ y{B Bkb jh r[o{ ;kfjp d/ --so X' e/ ;k- j' ;ed/ jB sK eh f-o fJj ;wfMnk ikt/ eh pkeh r[oXkwK, (;w/s

dopko ;kfjp ;qh nzfwqs;o) fty/ oZy/ r[o{ ;kfjp d/ --so ;k--;[Eo/ Bj], fiE/ peo/ d/ y{B - ;-kJh bJh Bj] tofsnk

iKdk< eh wZMK dk d[ZX r[o{ r'fpzd f;zx ih dh uoB-S'j s/ Bdo-fBjkb Bkb gktB gftsq j'Jh r'dktoh Bdh d/ ib Bkb'A

tX/o/ gftsq W< eh T[j jikoK feb' d[ZX, fi; Bkb ;qh s-s ;kfjp dh fpbfvzr X'sh rJh, T[jBK rohp pZfunK - Bj] ;h

fgnkfJnk ikDk ukfjdk fijBK - ed/ d[ZX dh fJe p{zd th B;hp Bj] j'Jh j't/rh< w?A ;tkbK dh p[SkV bkT[D tkb/

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-oXktkBK - fejk eh s[jkv/ gq-BK ftu fJzBK d/ T[Zso ftdwkB jB, f-o th i/eo s[;h tX/o/ ;gZ-NheoB ukj[zd/ j' sK

gqpzXeK s' g[ZS' i' f;Zywfs ftu r[o{ ;kfjpkB tb' oZd ehs/ eow-eKvK - f;Zywfs ftu gqt/f-s eo oj/ jB.

The above lines are relevant when we celebrate 350th

birth anniversary of Guru

Gobind Singh early next year, as a big sarkari show for which the central government

has sanctioned 100 crores of rupees! Some political foes of the present Akali Govt in

Punjab are bent upon creating an impression- which is wrong – that the purpose of this

mega-event is vote catching strategy early next year.

I am not an anointed ideologist with political leanings to any party in the political

sense, though I have been playing ideological roles in matters of Sikh praxis, attempting

to update it in the fast-changing circumstances. The Anandpur Sahib resolution was

approved by the working committee of the mainstream Shiromani Akali Dal on 16-17

October 1973 at Sri Anandpur Sahib (claimed to have been drafted by Sirdar Kapur

Singh), the Sachi Sakhi of which is given in Guru Gobind Singh Foundation's publication

SRI AKAL TAKHT co-compiled by Dr. H.S. Dilgir and myself. This resolution sought

separate constitution (aaeen is the expression used in the resolution) for re-organized

Punjab to enable the Sikhs to experience the glow of freedom (separate deshkal for

Panthic Azad Hasti (page 3). This resolution of the working committee was proposed to

be ratified by the general house of the Akali Dal which was planned to be held on 28-29

October 1978 at Ludhiana. But there was no unanimity in the Akali Dal. Jathedar

Gurcharan Singh Tohra came to my house and wanted to skip the controversy; so he

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chose to move a resolution on the Nirankari issue which was very hot, then. During

discussions I brought him round to the question of the 1973 Anandpur Sahib resolution

which, being controversial, he wanted to evade. I suggested to him that he might move

a resolution seeking full autonomy for Punjab in federalized polity of India. Jathedar

Tohra entrusted to me the task of preparing the draft of the resolution along with his

speech that he would like to read out at the conference to be presided over by Jathedar

Jagdev Singh Talwandi. I prepared the draft resolution and the elaborative speech which

was later published both in Punjabi and English. The resolution was seconded by S.

Parkash Singh Badal and approved by the general house. The text of the resolution

along with salient 15 points in Jathedar Tohra's speech is given in Guru Gobind Singh's

book SRI AKAL TAKHT (English translation given in my book Liberating Sikhism from 'the

Sikhs’ which also contains a 15- point chapter on federalizing Indian polity). My identity

as the drafter of the resolution was revealed by the then editor of the Tribune in

editorial note captioned as "A Draftsman’s Identity" by Sh. Prem Bhatia in the issue of

17 July 1979. I being then in the govt. service, the chief secretary at once called me for

my explanation (If the chief secretary were a petty person he would have "suspended"

me!). I took both the resolutions (of the working committee passed at Sri Anandpur

Sahib and the general house resolution of the Akali Dal at the Ludhiana conference) to

show the same to the chief secretary. I said to him, "Sir, supposing I drafted the 1978

resolution in place of the executive committee resolution passed at Sri Anandpur in

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1973, which of the two resolutions is better"? The chief secretary was an enlightened

personality; the issue was smiled away. It was the Ludhiana resolution that was the

basis of the Rajiv- Longowal Accord and was published by the central government in its

White Paper on the Punjab problem. The 1978 resolution brought about a new Sikh

praxis in the Akali politics.

Now onto the All India Sikh Gurdwaras Act which was first sought by the S.G.P.C

in November 1926 in a resolution demanding control over all the gurdwaras in India.

The Akali Government appointed a committee headed by Justice (retd) Harbans Singh

who prepared the draft for enactment of All India Sikh Gurdwaras Act which was also

envisaged in the Rajiv- Longowal Accord (in its clause 5.1). After the passing away of

Justice (retd) Harbans Singh, the draft with cosmetic changes, was again sent by the

central govt. to the Akali govt. in Punjab, headed by S. Parkash Singh Badal Ji who

convened a meeting of the SGPC top functionaries, some Akali leaders, and some Sikh

scholars, as well as the successor of Justice (retd) Harbans Singh, who had prepared a

new version but only with cosmetic changes in the draft prepared by Justice (retd)

Harbans Singh. The successor of Justice (retd) Harbans Singh spelt out main features of

the revised draft prepared by him. S. Badal Sahib turn by turn asked the views of the

participants. Most of the speakers praised the draft. When my turn came, I pointed out

that the draft Bill proposes setting up of nine state/ regional boards and that the

present SGPC was just one of these state/ regional boards, having control over the

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concerned gurdwaras in the Punjab and U.T, Chandigarh. Himachal Pradesh and

Haryana would have separate regional boards. (Earlier there was proposed only one

board for the gurdwaras in Punjab, U.T Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh). I

further explained that a central board was proposed for managing Sri Harimandar Sahib,

in Sri Amritsar Sahib, and the five Sikh Takhts, etc, to be elected by all the state/ regional

boards in India. In other words the present SGPC was to be trifurcated and would no

more be in charge of the management of Sri Harimandar Sahib and the Takhts (the

three in the Punjab) and there would be eight other rival state/ regional boards in India.

Now there was only the Delhi Sikh Gurdwaras Board as a rival (?) body and after the

proposed Bill becoming an Act there would come into being many other rival state /

regional boards, apart from the management of Sri Harimandar Sahib and Sri Akal Takht

going out of the hands of the present SGPC, the fragmentation of which would be

inevitable, instead of the extension of its control over the gurdwaras all over India. This

came as a shock to Sardar Badal Ji who dispersed the meeting, telling the SGPC

leadership to lock the draft Bill in an almira. Since then there has been no Akali demand

for All India Sikh Gurdwaras Act. After the meeting Sardar Badal Ji patting me on my

shoulder said to me: "You have saved the SGPC". During those day, I along with like-

minded scholars had been opposing the draft Bill of the All India Sikh Gurdwaras Act,

from the forum of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation that published three Booklets: All

India Sikh Gurdwaras Legislation, The Draft Proposals; A Study of the Draft Proposals

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on All India Sikh Gurdwaras Legislation, and The 1999 Sikh Gurdawaras Bill: An

Analysis - all authored by me. Reacting to this crusade, one evening Justice (recd.)

Harbans Singh, highly upset, said to me on phone: "Tell me, how else do I liberate the

gurdwaras from these legal mahants who are worse than the hereditary mahants, as

observed by Master Tara Singh"? Any answer to this question!

While building up the University at Fatehgarh Sahib, since 2004, I forgot that the

Sikh community, (the religious leadership at least) has not spared any leader, any writer,

from dishonoring, not even Master Tara Singh who passed away forlorn, unattended in

his last days. Dr. Piara Singh, an eminent scholar, was given punishment, by the Sikh

religious establishment of cleaning the shoes at Sri Harimandar Sahib; he soon after this

punishment died of heart attack. Prof. Gurmukh Singh, a leading figure of the first Sikh

reformation was ex-communicated from the Sikh community on 18th

March 1887

though there is no ex-communication envisaged in the Sikh doctrine. Gurbilas Patshahi 6

has been published by the SGPC. When its Brahminical legends were exposed by

eminent Sikh scholar Gurbakhsh Singh Kala Afgana in his book Gurbani Di Kaswati te

Gurbilas Patshahi 6, he was also ex-communicated by religious establishment from the

Sikh community. In this book of the SGPC, it has been written that Mata Ganga Ji had

delivered Vishnu Devta in infant form who grew up as Guru Hargobind Ji. For details the

readers may study Akal Takht book by eminent Sikh scholar Dr. Iqbal Singh.

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The day is not far off for the emergence of the second Sikh reformation, the focus

of which would be reshaping the management body of the gurdwaras, the religious

leadership of which is already getting out of control. At a national seminar in New Delhi

eminent Sikh scholar Dr. Jaswant Singh Neki, former Director of the PGI, had already

given a call for liberating the Sikh shrines from the Mafia- type religious leadership of

the gurdwaras- labeled by him as legal mahants. A prominent member of the SGPC, S.

Hardeep Singh, has expressed his views in the Rozana Spokesman of 16th

January 2013,

that Sikhism is not safe in the hands of the present SGPC leadership and that the

participation in the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, these days, is highly deplorable and is

another step towards bringing Sikhism under the shadow of Brahminical rituals which

were discarded by the Sikh Gurus. This shows how voices are being raised against the

SGPC leadership as well as the 1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Act and also the Delhi Gurdwaras

Act on the ground that both these Acts are ultra vires of the Constitution of India.

I want to touch upon the Sikh polity in general and some other aspects of 1925

Act which now covers historical/notified gurduwaras in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and

U.T. Chandigarh- the Sikh shrines, in Haryana, earlier under the 1925 Act, have been

recently separated off through a legislative Act.

The five Sikh Takhts, (particularly Sri Akal Takht) as Institutions are symbols-and

not seats-of the temporal authority vesting in the Khalsa Panth. This temporal authority

is not embodied in any individual after Guru Gobind Singh who bestowed it on the

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Khalsa Panth, while vesting Sri Guru Granth Sahib with the spiritual sovereignty. The

1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Act does not call the Takht Heads as "Jathedars"- but as the Head

Minister. A minister means a member of the clergy to perform religious functions a la

Christian clergy; even to call the Takht Heads as Head Ministers is wrong because there

is no clergy in Sikhism. The first elected heads of the Takhts, including Sri Akal Takht,

(Baba Kharak Singh, Master Tara Singh, etc.,) were not described as "Jathedars".

Section 4(vii) of main section of Definitions (2) defines Minister which term does

not include Head Minister because the term Head Minister is mentioned separately in

section 43-A of the 1925 Act and also in section 43 of the Act. A Minister of a Notified

Sikh Gurduwara is not eligible to be a member of the Committee as per section 90 of the

Act while Head Ministers are ex-officio members of the management body of the

shrines mentioned in section 85 of the Act.

Sikhism is not a hierarchical religion, nor are the gurdwaras envisaged in a

hierarchical series. The sacred Birs in all the Sikh shrines are equally respected as the

Divine-Word. The S.G.P.C. chief is only head of the management of the Sikh shrines. Way

back in 1994, as reported by a leading Punjabi Daily (Ajit) in its issue of June 24, 1994,

Sardar Parkash Singh Badal suggested election of the Akal Takht Head by a conclave of

saintly persons, scholars and representatives of the Sikh community so as to ensure

higher status of the Takht Head. As reported in The Tribune of May 16, 1994, Prof.

72

Manjit Singh the then acting jathedars of Sri Akal Takhat pleaded for scrapping the 1925

Act.

The 1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Act under Section 43 envisages the Jathedars of Sri Akal

Takht and of other Takhts as well as Head Granthi of Sri Darbar Sahib as ex-officio

members of the Board (renamed as SGPC) as management authority of the shrines

mentioned in section 85 of the Act. In other words whosoever happen to be the Takht

Jathedars and Head Granthi of Sri Darbar Sahib would continue as such till last breath or

resignation. But the Act is silent about their appointing authority. The power exercised

by the SGPC is only arbitrary.

Another factor that has stood in the way of Sikhism becoming a universal religion

is that it remains ethnicized, having become confined to Punjabi ethnicity. The first five

Sikhs (Panj Pyare) baptized by Guru Gobind Singh - who became the first members of

the Order of the Khalsa-belonged to different castes and different regions of India, while

forgetting that they had different ethnicities also. So de-ethnicizaion of contemporary

Sikhism is a categorical imperative for Sikhism to become a truly universal religion.

Christianity moved towards becoming a universal world religion, when St. Paul, taking it

out of its original Jewish context, spread it to non-Jewish milieu and environs. In its

future evolutionary course, as a world religion, contemporary Sikhism, while remaining

uni-focal on religious level, would have to be multi-focal on ethnic and cultural levels.

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The patterns of management of Sikh shrines in different parts of India are not

only diverse but also violative of Sikh tenets. The gurduwaras in Delhi are under the

Delhi Gurduwara Management Act 1971. The management of the Sikh shrines at

Nanded in Maharashtra is regulated by the Nanded Sikh Gurdwara-Sach Khand Sri Hazur

Abchalnagar Sahib Act of 1956. The Act confers vast jurisdiction on the state

government that is empowered to (a) nominate members of the Board including

nomination of the Chairman, (b) to supersede the Board and (c) to issue binding

directions. The gurdwaras in Jammu & Kashmir are governed by the J & K Sikh

Gurdwaras and Religious Endowments Act, 1973. Mysore Religoius and Charitable

Institutions Act, 1927; Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1959; Andhra Pradesh

Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1966, are applicable to

the gurdwaras in their respective areas, while the Public Trusts Acts of Mumbai, Madhya

Pradesh and Rajasthan have within their ambits the gurdwaras situated in their

respective jurisdictions. The management of the Patna Sahib Takht and other associated

gurdwaras there rests with the District Judge, Patna, who has the powers, inter-alia, to

appoint the manager of the Takht- the very Patna Sahib where 350th

Anniversary of Sri

Guru Gobind Singh has been planned to be celebrated early next year. Section 43 of the

1925 Act through Punjab Act 44 of 1953, section 2, has made the Head Ministers of the

Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Amritsar, Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib,

Takht Sri Anandpur Sahib, Takht Sri Patna Sahib, and Takht Sri Hazur Sahib, Hyderabad

74

Daccan. It is a moot point whether a Punjab Act does square up with the above

mentioned provision regarding the Takht Jathedars outside Punjab.

The 350th

birth anniversary of Sri Guru Gobind Singh next year (2017) announced

to be celebrated in a massive way at Patna Sahib, by Hon’ble Chief Minister Punjab

S. Parkash Singh Badal should herald the long overdue reformation in the management

of the Sikhs shrines in India. In this context I offer the following suggestions for

consideration of the Sikh intelligentsia; the political parties are mostly status quoist.

Envisaging an integral federal framework, it is proposed an inter-related three-

tier system of management. There should be a Central Board, having All India Sikh

(proportional) representation, as the apex body with supervisory powers in respect of

the Regional/State Boards and the historical and notified gurdwaras there-under. The

purview of the Central Board should extend to all the gurdwaras including the non-

historical ones in so far as the observance of the Sikh rahat maryada is concerned. The

Central Board should also directly manage Sri Harimandar Sahib, Amritsar, the five Sikh

Takhts and certain others gurdwaras mentioned in section 85 of the 1925 Act.

The Regional/State Boards should have autonomy of management powers in

respect of the gurdwaras within their respective ambits.

75

There should be local committees for gurdwaras or a group of gurdwaras for

ensuring grass-roots participation of the sangat in the gurdwaras management.

In other words, there, as such, will be autonomous Regional/State Boards for

management of the gurdwaras in their respective areas with integral inter-relationship

of these Boards with the Central Board so as to realize true federal form in integral

framework. There being All India Sikh representation on the Central Board, Sikhs as a

whole would come to have equitable say over all the historical and presently notified

gurdwaras.

The term 'Sikh' should- include sahajdhari Sikhs as in the earlier 1925 Act. The

sahajdharis should also be eligible to be co-opted/nominated members of the Central/

Regional/State Boards, while there should be a condition that only amritdhari Sikhs qua

voters would be eligible for election to the membership of the Central/Regional/State

Boards as in the 1925 Act. There should be obligatory registration for the

historical/notified gurdwaras, while registration should be optional for other gurdwaras.

The gurdwaras which voluntarily opt for registration should be made entitled to certain

privileges and benefits, qua registered gurdwaras, such as exemption from income tax,

etc; registration, when so opted for, would also give representation to the management

of the gurdwaras on the electoral college for electing Regional/State Boards. Thus,

optional registration would be attractive enough without bringing in the element of

76

coercion which is not only contrary to the liberal spirit of religion but might also result in

quite a large number of shrines declaring themselves as not being gurdwaras at all.

The Sikhs abroad should also be given representation on the proposed Central

body.

The above proposal would ensure both democratization and modernization of

the gurdwaras management with the entire Sikh community having a say in managing

their holy shrines free from contingencies of the day-to-day Party politics.

There is another problem relating to Sri Guru Granth Sahib as juristic person.

Unfortunately it was the Shromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee that pleaded

before the Supreme Court of India for declaring Sri Guru Granth Sahib as juristic person.

In September 2015, one person filed a suit before Patiala Civil Judge and obtained

summons in the name of Sri Guru Granth Sahib as juristic person with reference to one

Kanal of land adjoining the Gurdwara at Maddo Majra village that was purchased by one

person who donated it to the shrine. This donation was challenged by a village resident

who claimed that the land was in his possession and he had been tilling it for several

years.

The summons to Sri Guru Granth Sahib as juristic person (entitled to sue and be

sued as such) evoked protests, in view of which the person who filed the suit

substituted the management committee for Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The court

77

accordingly issued summons to the management committee. But this was only a

temporary measure. Tomorrow another person in some part of India where some piece

of land might be mutated in the revenue record in the name of Sri Guru Granth Sahib

may file a suit and get summons in the name of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Supreme

Court has declared Sri Guru Garnth Sahib a Juristic person in a disputed case dating

back to the mutation entries of 115 bighas of land, in 1928, in village Bilaspur, in the

name of Sri Guru Granth Sahib who can sue and be sued as juristic person (reversing the

decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court) (AIR 2000 S.C 1421). So the solution lies

in filing review/revision petition in the Supreme Court for declaring the management

committee of the Sikh shrine as the juristic person in place of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. No

Holy Granth of any other religion is treated as juristic person, to the best of my

knowledge and belief. But in our case it was the SGPC which pleaded for Sri Guru Granth

Sahib as juristic person-

fJ; xo e' nkr br rJh xo e/ fuok- ;/aaaaa

The reason being obvious that our religious leadership has become more

interested in the property of a Sikh shrine that in the institutional role.

In this context another practice by the SGPC needs to be referred to. The sale of

siropas with Pinni Prashad in the precincts of Sri Darbar Sahib Amritsar, by the S.G.P.C, is

a revival of the sacrilegious practice which prevailed there when most of the holy

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shrines were in control of hereditary mahants under influence of the Nirmala-Udasi

tradition which had made inroads into Sikhism. If this practice is not stopped, then the

day is not far off when the sacred sarovar water in bottles would get being sold by the

S.G.P.C. A siropa is not a priced commodity, it is a rare honour which ought to be given

to the most deserving personality by the Akal Takht head. If this practice-as saleable

commodity-gets being followed by other Sikh shrines in India and abroad its dignity

would get reduced to a piece of cloth.

The Shiromani Akali Dal has its legitimacy as political organization due to its basis

in the gurdwaras management, the religious leadership of which should not be allowed

to go astray, as that would reflect back on the Akali Dal.

Due to the Miri-Piri concept, the political and religious organizations of the Sikhs

are correlative to each other, though the forms of this correlation depend upon

variables of times and places; for instance with the spread of the Sikhs all over the

world, and their construction of the gurdwaras abroad, a time might come when the

shrines there might require statuary enactments for their managements. No

government can usurp the right of a follower of religion (a Sikh in this case) to define

and prescribe as to who is a Sikh. In no Act the government has kept to itself the right to

define a Hindu, or a Muslim or a Christen etc. But in the 1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Act Article

2(9)/10/10(A) defines and prescribes as to who is a Sikh. There are a large number of

Sikhs in foreign countries. If, say, the Canadian Government enacts an Act, regarding the

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Sikh shrines, then the definition of a Sikh would have to be given. The possibility of a

Sikh being defined in Canadian Act may be different from the definition in the Indian

Acts. So the best way would be to define a voter rather than a Sikh in the enactments

concerning the elections of the gurdwaras management committees. The present

definition of the term ‘Sikh’ should be replaced by definition of a voter to the

management elections under the 1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Act and the 1971 Delhi Sikh

Gurdwaras Act and the Haryana Act. Under the present Act the Govt, has immense

power over the Sikhs shrines including the fixing of the dates for the election of the

general houses under the Acts. The 1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Act and the 1971 Act and the

Haryana Act are the gateways for interference of the Government in the religious affairs

of the Sikhs as agitated by the Sikh leadership from time to time.

In case these Acts do not violate Article 25(1) and 26 (b) of the Constitution of

India, then a proviso should be added to the Acts that notwithstanding the Supreme

Court pronouncement (AIR 2000 S.C, 1421) Sri Guru Granth Sahib would not be treated

as property- holding juristic person- the management committee concerned should be

treated in law as the property-holding person.

There are many other practices which have crept into contemporary Sikhism

contrary to its essentials and these practices have made this religion a ritualized creed.

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Further distorting miri-piri concept, Sikhism has already become politicized as vote

catching strategy.

New praxis for the 21st century challenges and imperatives would also warrant

redefinition of relationship between the Sikh institutions, particularly Sri Akal Takht

inherited from the Sikh traditions- on the one hand and on the other hand the religious

and political institutions that arose in the 20th century, including those likely to emerge

in the present century. In this context becomes very pertinent the relationship among

the five Sikh Takhts, as also the relationship between Sri Akal Takht and the Shiromani

Gurdwaras Parbandhak Committee. How ironic that on the one hand Sri Akal Takht is

revered as the symbol of the sovereign Sikh temporal authority, while on the other hand

the S.G.P.C treats the Takht "Jathedars" as its 'employees"! The 1925 Sikh Gurdwaras

Act does not confer on the S.G.P.C. power and competence to appoint or remove the

Akal Takht "Jathedar" or of any other Takht "Jathedar". The S.G.P.C. is exercising the

power arbitrarily. There is no provision in the Act for appointment of the Head

Ministers. It is only a practice under which S.G.P.C. is exercising power to appoint &

remove Takht "Jathedars" without empowerment under the Act. The question then

arises how & who is to appoint "Jathedar" of Sri Akal Takht and of other Takhts at least

in the Punjab. This would require amendment of the Act. One way would be to elect the

"Jathedars" through election by all the voters enrolled as such for general election of

the S.G.P.C. for fixed tenure of five years. This position would deservingly place .the

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"Jathedars" above the S.G.P.C president. The Takhts, particularly Sri Akal Takht, as

Institutions are symbols of the temporal authority vesting in the Khalsa Panth. This

temporal authority is not embodied in any individual after Guru Gobind Singh who

bestowed it on the institution of the Guru Panth, the Khalsa Panth. Sikhism is not a

hierarchical religion, nor are the gurdwaras envisaged in a hierarchical series. The sacred

birs in all the Sikh shrines are equally respected as the Divine Word. The S.G.P.C. chief is

only head of the management of the Sikh shrines. Way back in 1994, as reported by a

leading Punjabi Daily (Ajit) in its issue of June 24, 1994, Sardar Parkash Singh Badal

suggested election of the Akal Takht head by a conclave of saintly persons, scholars and

representatives of the Sikh community so as to ensure higher status of the Takht heads.

A provision should also be made in the proposed amendment to make the Akal Takht

head as the appellate authority in respect of the decisions of the SGPC and its president.

There is Section 127 of the Act, under which the SGPC is authorized to administer trust

funds. But this provision is silent about the composition and headship of the trusts. It

would also be desirable to make eminent personalities as the presidents of the trusts,

set up by the SGPC, comprising experts in the field in which a trust is created. Now there

is no provision in the Act, under which the SGPC chief himself becomes the president of

all the trusts, thereby exercising dictatorial powers.

A few words about the Sikh Rahit Maryada of the Shiromani Gurdwaras

Parbandhak Committee. On page 22 of the October 2008 edition, it is written that the

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daughter of a Sikh should be married to a Sikh only. When there is gender equality in

Sikh religion then why this injunction is there only for marriageable females. The point

is: why such discriminatory Rahit Maryada on this and many other aspects is propagated

by the SGPC.

There is a need for the second Sikh reformation necessary also for a new version

of All India Sikh Gurdwaras management. The Akali Dal has been demanding All India

Sikh Gurdwaras Act.

[As mentioned above, the then Akal Takht Jathedar Manjit Singh demanded

scraping of the 1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Act as having become "redundant", as reported by

the Times of India of 16/5/1994, and the Tribune and Indian Express of May 17 & 18,

1994.]

The Sikhs are a religious community and also a political entity, symbolically

represented by the SGPC and the mainstream Akali Dal, sandwiched between the

Congress party on political level and the BJP on ideological level. The Akali Dal should

keep the SGPC leadership within the envelope of control, otherwise it would become a

liability for the Akali Dal; the splinter Akali groups are at present of little reckoning.

Sh. Chandarbabu Naidu invited S. Parkash Singh Badal to dinner at his residence

when I was also present. Sh. Naidu suggested to Badal Ji to become rallying point on All

India level for all the regional parties committed to federal polity.

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Sometime ago I wrote the following poem which well depicts the present

situation of the Sikh community.

Xosh W nkgDh Bk nkgDk W nzpo

noEh - nkgDh th oyKr/ feZE/.

gsMV d/ gZs/ jK, okjK d/ ezeo

fJj ezeo, fJj gZs/ th, ;KGKr/ feZE/.

pzBQ e/ ;w/A -, gbzx d/ ;h gkt/

pVh B]d ;[Zs/, irkfJnK Bk ikr/

Xwke/ s'A T[Zm/, ;wK s[o frnk ;h

fJj yzvo puk e/ th oyKr/ feZE/.

X[o s'A jK eZN/, iVQ'A th jK N[ZN/

pkjo'A ;okg/ jK, nzdo'A r[nku/.

ubd/ i' GNe/, GNe/ jh ubd/

‘go’ d/ ;jko/ jK, gj[zuKr/ feZE/.

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REFERENCES

1. Dr. Sangat Singh, THE SIKHS IN HISTORY, Singh Brothers, Sri Amritsar, 2005, p-

109

2. Dr. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia. LIBERATING SIKHISM FROM ‘THE SIKHS’, Unistar,

2003, p- 18

3. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p- 317

……………………………………………………

PS. Presently SGPC President has taken over as President of Takht Sri Patna Sahib also.

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GREAT SCIENTIST EINSTEIN ON TRUE RELIGIOUSNESS

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the

highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend

only in their most primitive forms- this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true

religiousness."* Albert Einstein

* Quoted by Anil Ananthaswamy, THE EDGE OF REASON, Penguin Books India, 2010, p-

29.

"Did God have any choice when He created the universe"? Albert Einstein **

** Quoted by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, THE GRAND DESIGN, Bantam

Press, London, 2010, P-165.

Footnote to Einstein's insights:

Reality, whether material or spiritual from countless multiverses in which our

universe is just one of the possible 10500

universes as implicated by the string theory of

modern physics that arose in the late 1960s, and in which universe, our solar system, is

no bigger than a pinpoint to the human brain having more than 100 billion neurons

networked into millions of miles of 'wires' evokes a mind-boggling sense of wonder at

this mysterious spectacle, postulated by science to be eternally self-existent in whatever

form (forms), created by God as contended by religion. In Sikh religion, the known,

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knowable, unknowable wonderful reality, with its "most radiant beauty", having been

divinely created, the Creator is hailed as wonderous God (Waheguru) Who Himself is the

ultimate Beauty: nfs ;[zdo ngko nB{g in the holy words of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Prophet

of Sikhism.

Is reality constituted by particles more elementary than the hitherto supposed

elementary particles like protons and neutrons that are just patterns of vibrations

having only length, but without height or width, as held by the string theory?

Alternatively or perhaps correlatively is reality pulsation of the Spirit in unstruck

melody (called anhad nad in Sikh religion)? Only God knows! But then Einstein once

posed the question: "Did God have any choice when He created the universe"? Only

God knows!!