by Owen Cole
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Insight
The scripture was installed in the Harimandir Sahib and here again openness is symbolized. Unlike a mandir it had four entrances, indicating that members of all four varnas might worship in it. By extension, in modern times it has become common to extend the symbolism to include people from the four corners of the earth. Sikhs also cherish a tradition that a Qadarite Sufi, Mian Mir, laid the foundation stone, though many Sikh historians question this while acknowledging that he was probably present on the occasion.
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Whether anything can be made of Guru Arjan’s aspirations for his son, Hargobind, is a matter of conjecture. The name means ‘world lord’, and when the child was born, late in the Guru’s life by Indian standards, when he was 32, he declared:
The Sat Guru has sent the child. The long-lived child has been born by destiny. When he came and acquired an abode his mother’s heart rejoiced greatly. The son, the saint of the world ruler lord [Gobind], is born. The primal writ has become manifest amongst all. In the tenth month by divine command, the baby has been born.
Sorrow has departed and great joy become manifest. The Sikhs sing the gurbani in their joy. (AG 396)
Sikh confidence and self-esteem was high, as the above passage demonstrates. The Panth was large enough and wealthy enough for rivals to covet the gaddi. In part Hargobind’s birth was welcome as a means of thwarting such ambitions. At this time the Mughal ruler Akbar the Great was viewing all religions benignly. Jesuits were present at this court and had some hopes of Guru Arjan’s conversion, while Muslim courtiers and theologians were dismayed by his respectful tolerance, which extended to being married to a Hindu princess. Soon after the Adi Granth had been compiled, enemies of the Guru told the Emperor that it contained material blasphemous to Islam. He asked to see a copy and one was dispatched to him under the care of Bhai Buddha and Bhai Gurdas. Portions were read, of which Akbar approved, and he gave money towards costs incurred in producing it, saying that he would visit the Guru on his return from Lahore. After enjoying the Guru’s hospitality he acceded to his request that the taxes of Punjab should be revoked for one year to offset the effects of a serious famine. It may be that Guru Arjan hoped that his might be the religion to provide the Emperor with the alternative to Hinduism and Islam for which he was searching through his monotheistic syncretism known as ‘The Divine Faith’.
Guru Arjan also stated, however:
I do not keep the fast [vrat] or observe Ramadan. I serve only the One who will save me in the end. The One World ruler is my God who ministers justice to both Hindus and Muslims. I do not go on hajj to the Ka’ba or worship at tiraths. My body and soul belong to the One and no other. I do not perform puja or namaaz. Taking the formless One in my mind I make obeisance there to God. I am neither a Hindu nor a Muslim. My body and soul belong to the One called Allah by Muslims and Ram by Hindus. (AG 1136)
This is not to be regarded as a denial of the authenticity of either of the major religions but a proclamation of a God who transcends them both.
Whatever Guru Arjan’s hopes, they were dashed only two years after his meeting with Akbar. The Emperor died and Guru Arjan was accused of taking the side of the loser, Prince Khusrau, in the war of succession won by Jehangir. The Guru was tortured and died in 1606, becoming the first Sikh martyr.
This event made the Panth reassess its relationship with the Mughals and its self-understanding.
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Insight
There is a Sikh tradition that Guru Arjan told his son that when he mounted the gaddi of guruship he should wear two swords, those of miri and piri, signifying temporal and spiritual authority. The confidence that had been part of the Sikh psyche only a few years before was challenged and trust between the Panth and government never fully recovered.
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Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh
The year 1675 was the occasion of an even more devastating and significant event, the execution of the ninth Guru, the grandson of Guru Arjan. It is regarded by Sikhs as unequivocally an act of religious persecution. A group of Kashmiri pandits looking for help against the aggressive attempts to convert them by the Emperor Aurangzeb came to him. At the suggestion of the Guru’s young son, he went to Delhi with a small group of followers but was arrested. They were offered the choice of conversion or death. Preferring the latter they were executed, the Guru last. A gurdwara stands on the site in Chandi Chowk. Here are some words by Guru Gobind Singh, the son who had encouraged Tegh Bahadur to take up the Hindus’ cause:
For their frontal mark and their sacred thread he wrought a great deed in the age of Darkness. This he did for the sake of the pious, silently giving his head.
From this time ‘Mughal’ is replaced by ‘Muslim’ in the vocabulary of persecution. But even now the story does not become one of unrelenting Sikh–Muslim hostility. In fact Guru Gobind Singh was campaigning with Aurangzeb’s successor, Bahadur Shah, in 1708 when he received a mortal blow from an assassin.
He exemplified the beliefs of his predecessors in saying:
Salute him who is without the label of a religion.
More fully, in a composition known as Akal Ustad, the tenth Guru wrote:
Hindus and Muslims are one. The same Being is creator and nourisher of all. Recognize no distinction between them. Puja and namaaz are the same. All people are one, it is through error that they appear different. … Allah and Abhek are the same, the Puranas and Qur’an are the same. They are all creations of the One.
The eighteenth century
Sikhs often present the eighteenth century as a continuous armed struggle for survival when, for much of the time, a price was put on the heads of Sikhs. Paintings in gurdwaras often depict this graphically: the heads of decapitated Sikhs being carried on the heads of spears, and famous martyrs dying heroically. These undoubtedly still influence the attitudes of young Sikhs in the twenty-first century but at the time lasting harm may not have been done to Sikh–Muslim relations, however, because of an event that took place at the very end of the period.
In the nineteenth century the Sikh Empire was established under Maharajah Ranjit Singh, who captured Lahore in 1799. It came to an end only as the result of two wars with the British after his death in 1839 and their annexation of the Punjab in 1849. During this period Muslims served in the imperial administration and relationships generally seem to have been lastingly amicable. Elderly Sikhs, born as late as the 1930s, still talk of learning and speaking Urdu and of villages in which the religions existed harmoniously. Many Sikhs regard the Sikh Empire as a forerunner of the secular state established by Nehru in 1947.
It is significant that one of the reasons given by Sikhs for not participating in the Mutiny or First War of Independence in 1857 is that they had no desire to see a Mughal empire restored as the result of success!
Independent India
Towards the end of the nineteenth century Sikhs were alarmed by the missionary zeal of two groups, Christian and Hindu in the form of the Arya Samaj. The latter did not meet with great success because its founder, Dayananda Sarasvati, displayed a scornful attitude towards Guru Nanak and Sikh scriptures. Sikhs perceived the danger posed by these sophisticated challenges and responded through the Singh Sabha movement, which, from 1873, established educational institutions and generally encouraged learning. There was a flourishing of Sikh intellectual and cultural activity. One of the most important products of this resurgence was Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha’s Hum Hindu Nabin (‘We Are Not Hindus’). As the twentieth century opened, opposition became principally directed at the British Raj.
Partition and its aftermath
In 1947 came the Partition of India. The Sikhs opted to live in secular India rather than join the Islamic state of Pakistan. The Punjab was divided between the two. Lahore, the capital city of the nineteenth-century Sikh Empire became part of Pakistan, as did Guru Nanak’s birthplace, Talwandi. This time there was outright warfare and, although historia
ns may distinguish between Mughal and Muslim in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century conflicts, it was now a struggle between religions. Punjabi villages can still be seen in which the mosque has become a fodder store and mounds of earth show where Muslim inhabitants were buried after being killed.
There is no need to pursue this topic further other than to warn readers that they may encounter Sikh–Muslim hostility even though they have been told that Sikhs are friends with everyone. A few years ago an interfaith group planned a meeting on Sikhism and was advised that no Muslims would attend. However, the group did not take the comment seriously and when the day came no Muslims were in the audience. Nowadays the religions may enjoy better relationships in diaspora communities, perhaps less so in India, and occasionally Pakistan which no longer has a Sikh population other than those caring for Sikh shrines. Sikh pilgrims to the shrines have not always been welcomed with traditional hospitality; however, it should be stated that this has often been when India and Pakistan have been at war. At the time of writing Sikhs report well-cared-for gurdwaras and freedom of access.
Operation Blue Star 1984
Hindu–Sikh relationships have generally been good. There is a saying: ‘Hindu–Sikh bhai bhai’, ‘Hindus and Sikhs are brothers’. Sometimes part of a family will be Sikh while other members are Hindu. In the diaspora it has become common to see Sikhs worshipping in a mandir especially where there is no local gurdwara. They also share some celebrations, such as Divali, and though they may interpret them differently, at the level of celebration they may unite.
During the events leading up to and after Operation Blue Star, in which the Indian army stormed the Darbar Sahib in 1984, there was considerable and often violent animosity between the two communities. Some of this has been consigned to history but the policy of militant Hindus, Hindutva, and other attempts to make India a more Hindu state, perpetuate anxiety. No one should doubt how terrible and lastingly significant for the collective Sikh memory and the Panth’s psyche this event was. Worldwide celebrations of the tercentenary of the Khalsa in 1999, including a major event at the Albert Hall and an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which travelled to other cities worldwide, can disguise this. The most recent celebration by Sikhs worldwide were events to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of the compilation and installation of the Adi Granth. These were held wouldwide in 2004.
The new Nanakshahi calendar which relates significant Sikh celebrations to the solar calendar instead of the Hindu Bikrami/Samvat era is not intended to distance Sikhs from Hindus (the principal melas will continue to be observed on the traditional occasions), but some people may regard it as a statement of Sikh distinction from Hinduism.
Sikhs actively participate in many inter-religious activities and, for example, have been present as observers at recent gatherings of the World Council of Churches. They do find it difficult, however, when they hear Jews, Christians and Muslims describing themselves as the ‘three monotheistic religions’. By now, readers of this book should be aware that no religion can claim to be more monotheistic than that founded by Guru Nanak!
As for the future one can only speculate but it is clear that Sikhs will remain faithful to the critical universalism of the Gurus while the historical and social context in which they live is likely also to be influential.
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THINGS TO REMEMBER
Sikhs have always been open to the truth as expressed by other religions.
The bhagat bani is the supreme affirmation of this belief.
Practical situations exert a strong influence, for example, the long-standing relationship with Muslims most recently seen in the Partition of 1947 and the rise of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism).
Sikhs are very active in the multi-faith movement.
Sikhs are not pleased to hear only the Abrahamic religions described as monotheistic.
A sense of universalism does not mean that distinct identity ceases to be important.
The attitude to Jains expressed by Guru Nanak is not one that is come across today.
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16
The Sikh dispersion
In this chapter you will learn:
about the story of Sikh migration
about reasons for migration
about the possible future of the Panth.
A story that Sikhs never tire of telling is that of Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon. His pride at being first was soon dispelled when a taxi drew up and its Sikh driver asked him, ‘Where to, sir?’
Sikhism began in Punjab 500 years ago but that is not where it ends, even though that part of India is still the place that Sikhs regard as home. Migration is one of the most important aspects of Sikhism in the last 150 years, especially the latter half of the twentieth century. Sikhs are now to be found in every English-speaking country and many others, particularly in Europe, South America and the Gulf States where most are temporary contractual workers.
Sikhs were active in various parts of India before 1849 but it was after that year, when the British annexed Punjab, that the story of Sikh migration really began. Another important date for Sikh migration beyond India was 1857, the year of the first independence struggle, known to British historians as the Mutiny. Sikhs stood aside from the uprising because they had no wish to reinstate the Mughals or any other Muslim rulers, and that seemed to them the likely consequence of its success. This won Sikhs favour with the British who began recruiting them into the army in increasingly large numbers. By 1870, Sikh soldiers were serving overseas. On retirement, after demobilization in India, they often returned to the colonies where they had been stationed, such as Malaya or Hong Kong, to become members of the police force or security guards for private companies. During the First World War, Sikhs fought at Gallipoli and in other parts of Europe, as well as in Africa as part of the British army.
Sikh civilians also migrated. Sometime in the 1860s or 1870s individuals were working as camel drivers in Australia; usually they were described as Afghans, just as today they are sometimes called, by ignorant persons, ‘Pakis’ in Britain and ‘Iraqis’ in the USA, especially during the Gulf Wars.
There was, however, migration by whole groups of Sikhs by the end of the century. Sometimes almost all the men of a village would go abroad, not to settle, but to make enough money to improve farms, businesses and family property back home. It would be interesting to know what motivated them to head for countries such as Australia or New Zealand, and how in those days they came to hear of prospects there for economic success.
Sikhs were especially prominent in the development of East Africa in the 1890s, helping to build the railways. They were Ramgarhias for the most part, a group mainly of tarkhans (carpenters), but including some blacksmiths, masons and bricklayers, who had the skills the British needed and the native Africans lacked. Rather than train the Africans, they encouraged Indians to migrate.
Other Sikhs went to California and Vancouver, as well as other areas of the Pacific region before the First World War. In 1902 Sikh soldiers from Hong Kong went to Canada to take part in celebrations marking the coronation of Edward VII. Some eventually returned as settlers to work in British Columbia’s lumber mills. Sikhs were also to be found in California before the outbreak of the First World War.
Migration to Britain (the United Kingdom)
The first known Sikh to arrive in Britain was Maharajah Dalip Singh, son of Ranjit Singh, the last ruler of the Sikh Empire. After the empire was annexed in 1849, its 11-year-old ruler was placed in the custody of Sir John Login of the Bengal army, in whose care he converted to Christianity. Five years later Dalip Singh came to England, was received by Queen Victoria, and bought an estate in Elvedon, Suffolk. As time passed he became increasingly dissatisfied with his treatment and attempted to return to India, where he intended to be re-admitted to the Sikh faith. He was stopped at Aden and returned to Europe, but not before he had taken amrit. In 1893 he died in Paris and was buried in Elvedon in Suffolk
in the churchyard near his estate. So much attention has been given to Dalip Singh because in 1993, the centenary of his death, Sikhs planned pilgrimages and services and asked for a monument to be set up in Elvedon, to the consternation of its inhabitants. It has been reported that Anglican parishioners have wondered whether their church should be reconsecrated after a Sikh was found praying in it! For many years, the villagers have watched the visits of Sikhs with some anxiety.
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Insight
Dalip Singh and Ram Singh, builder of the Indian rooms in Queen Victoria’s Osborne House, were among the very few, but in their cases notable, Sikh visitors to Britain.
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In 1911 the first gurdwara in Britain was established in Putney with financial support from the Maharajah of Patiala, but others appeared only after the Second World War. Britain was apparently too far away for Sikh migrants and showed no sign of needing them, as nearby Ireland could meet all its labour needs.
Sikh and other Indian traders came to Britain between the wars. Many of them belonged to the Bhatra jati. They would arrive at a port, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff or Portsmouth, for example, set up base in rented rooms, buy small domestic items such as brushes, cleaning cloths, shoelaces, perhaps culinary utensils, and go from door to door with their immense cases. Women might buy some items on credit and provide the salesman with a regular if hard-worked-for living. Other Sikhs might work in the open-air markets. None of these intended to settle. Their families remained in Punjab and the men returned to them when they had made enough money to go back to their villages with pride (izzat) and the ability to give their family some prosperity. Their success encouraged others, sometimes of different jatis, to take their chance.