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Hindu Sikh Relationship (2/5)
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Hindu Sikh Relationship (2/5)
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From: Prasad Gokhale <f0g1@unb.ca>
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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 12:27:47 -0400
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In-Reply-To: <4dndh6$pq7@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: University of New Brunswick
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References: <4d2a1v$6of@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4dndh6$pq7@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
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Hindu-Sikh Relationship (Part 2/5)
By Shri Sita Ram Goel
Courtesy: Voice of India.
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This transformation of Sikhism had been started already,
though in a small way, by Guru Har Govind. The tenth Guru,
Govind Singh, completed the process when he founded the Khalsa
(Party of the Pure) in 1699 A.D. He was a versatile scholar
who knew several languages, kept the company of learned Brahmins
and composed excellent poetry on varied themes. He had been
had been fascinated by the Puranic story of Goddess Durga,
particularly in her incarnation as Mahisasuramardini. He performed
an elaborate Yajna presided over by pandits of the ancient lore
and invoked the Devi for the protection of dharma. The Devi
came to him in the shape of the sword which he now asked some of
his followers to pick up and ply against bigotry and oppression.
Those who could muster the courage and dedication to die
in defence of dharma were in- vited by him to become members of
the Khalsa by wearing the five emblems of this heroic order--Kesh
(unshorn hair) Kangha (comb), Kada (steel bracelet), Kachha
(shorts) and Kirpan (sword). A new style of initiation termed
pahul was ordained for this new class of Sikh warriors--sipping
a palmful of water sweetened with sugar and stirred by a double-
edged sword. Every member of the Khalsa had to add the honorofic
Singh (lion) to his name so that he may be distinguished
from the non-Khalsa Sikhs who could continue with their normal
attire and nomenclature. No distinction of caste or social
status was to be recognised in the ranks of the Khalsa.
The Khalsa was not a new religious sect. It was only a martial
formation within the larger Sikh fraternity,, as the Sikhs
themselves were only a sect within the larger Hindu society. It
was started with the specific mission of fighting against Muslim
iryranny and restoring freedom for the Hindus in their ancestral
homeland. Soon it became a hallowed tradition in many Hindu
families, Sikh as well non-Sikh, to dedicate their eldest sons to
the Khalsa which rightly came 'to be regarded as the sword-arm
of Hindu society.'
Guru Govind Singh was forced to fight against a whole
Musiim army before they could consolidate the Khalsa. His
two teen-aged sons courted matyrdom along with many other
members of the Khalsa in a running battle with a fully equipped
force in hot pursuit. His two other sons who were mere boys were
captured and walled up alive by the orders of a Muslim governor
after they refused to embrace Islam. The Guru himself had to
go into hiding and wander from place to place till he reached
Nanded town in far-off Maharashtra. He was murdered by a Muslim
fanatic to whom he had granted an interview inside his own tent.
But the mighty seed he had planted in the shape of the Khalsa
was soon to sprout, grow speedily and attain to the full
stature of a strong and well-spread-out tree.
Before he died, Guru Govind Singh had commissioned Banda
Bairagi, a Rajput from Jammu to go to the Punjab and punish the
wrong-doers. Banda more than fulfiled his mission. He was
joined by fresh formations of the Khalsa and the Hindus at large
gave him succour and support. He roamed all over the Punjab,
defeating one Muslim army after another in frontal fights as well
as in guerilla warfare. Sirhind, where Guru Govind Singh's
younger sons had been walled up, was stormed and sacked. The
bullies of Islam who had walked with immense swagger till only
the other day had to run for cover. Large parts of the Punjab
were liberated from Muslim depotism after a spell of nearly
seven centuries.
The Mughal empire, however, was still a mighty edifice which
could mobilize a military force far beyond Banda's capacity to
match. Gradually, he had to yield ground and accept defeat as
his own following thinned down in battle after battle. He was
captured, carried to Delhi in an iron cage and tortured to death
in 1716 A.D. Many other members of the Khalsa met the same fate
in Delhi and elsewhere. The Muslim governor of the Punjab had
placed a prize on every Khalsa head. The ranks of the Khalsa had
perforce to suffer a steep decline and go into hiding.
The next upsurge of the Khalsa came in the second half of the
Century. The Marathas had meanwhile broken the back of
Mughal power all over India and the Mughal administration in the
Punjab had distintegrated speedily. A new Muslim invader, Ahmad
Shah Abdali, who tried to salvage the Muslim rule, had to give up
after several attempts from 1748 to 1767 A.D. His only satisfaction
was that he demolished the Harimandir and desecrated the
sacred tank with the blood of slaughtered cows, two times in a row.
But the Sikh and non-Sikh Hindus rallied round the Khalsa again
and again and rebuilt the temple every time.
The Khalsa had a field day when Abdali departed finally from the
scene. By the end of the century, Muslim power evaporated all
over the Punjab and several Sikh principalities came up in
different parts of the province. The strongest of them was that of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1783-1839 A.D ) who wiped out the Muslim
rule from Kashmir and the North West Frontier as well. He would
have conquered Sindh and Afghanistan also but for the steam-
roller of British imperialism which took over his farflung
kingdom as well, soon after his death.
The British had conquered India through their superiority in
the art of warfare. They could not hope to hold such a big
country by means of military might alone. They had to devise
policies of devide any rule. The residues of Islamic imperialism
had become their allies quite early in course of the conquest.
Now they had to contend with the national society constituted by
Hindus. It became the main plank of their policy, therefore, to
fragment Hindu society and pit the pieces against each other. At
the same time, they tried to create pockets of solid support for
their regime in India. One such pocket was provided by Sikhs.
The British planned and put into operation a move to separate
and seal off the Sikh community from its parent Hindu society by
converting it into a distinct religious minority like the Muslims
and the Christians. Tutored Sikh theolgians and scholars were
patronised to make them pronounce that Sikhism was a decisive
departure from Hinduism, the same as Christianity was from
Judaism. The labours of Christian missionaries and the timings of
Western Indology were mobilized in order to achieve this end.
[To be concluded]
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Original poster: "M. Jagadesh Kumar" <kumar@caddac1.uwaterloo.ca>
