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Hindus,
Mohammedans Vis-a-Vis Sikhs*
Bhai Ardaman Singh
Sikhs have generally been working under the Hindu spell
that they were created only to defend the Hindu Dharam and
Hindu Nation. This purpose having been fulfilled, a section
of the Hindus who have never tolerated the independent existence
of the Sikhs, have begun to suggest that the Sikhs should
better merge now into the Hindu fold. This spell had even
created a common aversion amongst the Sikhs towards the
Muslims as a whole. It will be worthwhile, therefore, to
look into the facts and reality of their mutual relations.
Sikhism, the Satguru’s way of life, was founded by
Guru Nanak. We have seen that when Guru Nanak started this
movement in India, the Aryan and Semitic thoughts and cultures
were in conflict. Sometimes it took shape of bloody happenings
and aggression and tyranny on the physically and politically
weak which were the Hindu Aryans. Guru Nanak struck the
middle way. It steered clear of both, though it passed through
the middle. It was an independent approach. This is vividly
and definitely made clear by the tenth Satguru in his significant
Swayya that we recite every evening:
Since I have embraced Thy Feet, I have brought no one under
my eye:
gkfJ rj/ ip s/ s[wo/ sp s/ e'T{ nKy so/ Bjh nkB:' . Ram
and Rahim, the Purans and the Quran express various opinions,
but I believe in none of them.
okw ojhw g[okB e[okB nB/e ej?_ ws J/e
B wkB:' . The Smritis, the Shastras, and the Vedas
all expound so many different doctrines, but I accept none
of them.
f;zfwqfs ;k;sq p/d ;G? pj[ G/d ej?_
jw J/e B ikB:' . O Holy God, by Thy favour, it is
not I who have been speaking, all that has been said, hath
been said by Thee.
;qh nf;gkB feqgk s[woh efo w? B ej:' ;G s'fj pykB:' .
But
it was not meant to come in conflict with the already warring
elements or to elbow out anyone of them. Instead the Satguru
wanted to bring the two systems, at loggerheads with each
other, together in amity. That is why Sikhism is also called
the third way of life (sh;ok
gzE) and independent way (fBowb
gzE). The Satguru has brought together both Hindu
and Mohammedan men-of-God, who believed compassion to be
the fountain-head of religion and spiritual purification
and clean action as the ultimate aim. The presence of the
bani in the Holy Granth of such different sages, Muslims,
Vaishnavs, high castes and untouchables together, and the
respectful status equal to that of the Guru thus granted
to them, is the living evidence of it. When a Sikh pays
his obeisance to the Holy Granth, he bows and offers his
head to all of them. In Sikhism, certain philosophical interpretations
are common with Hindu thought, like life after death, while
such concepts as the Oneness of God and congregational worship
have much in common with Islam. In some ways, it can be
said that Sikhism is nearer to Islam than to Hinduism. Sikhism,
in fact, is a bulwark against ritualism, formalism and hollow
philosophies whether in Hinduism or in Islam. It advocates
and preaches the revival of unflinching and devoted faith
and confidence in the Ultimate Reality, the truth; and interpreting
this faith and belief in actual life.
It is a basic principle of Sikhism not to bend before brute
force, aggression, or tyranny. This has to be opposed tooth
and nail even with our lives, first by non-violent and peaceful
struggle and even by offering our life. This example was
set by the fifth Satguru. If this did not succeed, the struggle
was not to be given up in frustration or abject surrender.
It becomes incumbent, then, for a Sikh to wield the sword
as the sixth Satguru did. It was a mere chance that the
rulers, at that time, were Mohammedans and were bigoted,
tyrants and aggressors. They had, therefore, to be opposed.
While the Hindus were weak, imbecile, oppressed and unable
to defend themselves. Naturally they came closer to the
Sikhs who became their saviours. But it is important to
keep in mind that Sikhism and Sikhs were not opposed to
Islam or the Mohammedans as such. Now it will be proper
to have a look at the relations between the Sikhs and either
of the two.
Hindus being the vicitims of the Mohammedan rulers’
bigoted fanaticism and tyranny, came closer to the Sikhs
to seek protection. Naturally, therefore, most of the conversions
to Sikhism happened to be from amongst the Hindus. But conversions
from Mohammedans also continued. There is no denying the
fact that Guru Nanak Dev and his three successors came from
Hindu stock. But after the fourth Satguru, the Guruship
remained confined to the Sikhs (xo
dh xo ftu ojh).
History tells us that the first who discerned the Divine
Light in Guru Nanak was the Mohammedan Chief, Rai Bular,
of Talwandi Rai Bhoi Ki, and Satguru’s first disciple
and companion was Bhai Mardana, a minstrel, who played on
the rabab and remained in Satguru’s attendance till
his end. His last rites were performed by the Satguru himself.
Bhai Mardana and his successors, Satta and Balwand, had
the honour of getting their compositions, included in the
Holy Granth. Then we find the third Guru establishing twenty-two
Manjis, that is, centres of Sikh Mission. One well-known
centre was under a Mohammedan called Allahyaar in the area
now called Kapurthala.
Emperor Akbar got so enamoured of the efforts and policy
of the Guru Darbar in bringing about unity and integration
among the different communities at loggerheads with each
other, that he came all the way to Goindwal to have an audience
with the third Nanak and study the Sikh way, which he later
adopted at the Imperial Court.
The present site of Amritsar was obtained from Emperor Akbar
in 1577 by the fourth Guru by paying 700 Akbari rupees to
the residents of Tung who were the owners of the land.
By the time of the fifth Guru, Mohammedans, especially Sufis,
came very close to the Sikhs. So much so, when the foundation
stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was to be laid, the
fifth Guru called Hazrat Mian Mir from Lahore to do it.
The sixth Nanak, Guru Hargobind, began to collect volunteers
for his forces to protect and safeguard their worldly and
religious interests. In these volunteers, there were several
Mohammedans too. It will be worth noting that while building
the town of Kiratpur in the hilly Sutlej Valley, the Satguru
erected, besides gurdwaras, temples as well as mosques,
at his own expense. At Sri Hargobindpur also he built a
mosque at his own expense for the use of his Mohammedan
troops.
Prince Dara Shikoh, like many other Sufis, was an admirer
of the Satguru and close to the Sikhs. When pursued by the
army of Aurangzeb, Prince Dara Shikoh asked for the Guru’s
help which was extended by Guru Har Rai by sending out his
force to guard the passage of the Beas till the Prince was
able to cross and escape.
When the birth of Guru Gobind Singh took place at Patna,
Bhikhan Shah, a Mohammedan Pir, sitting at Ghuram in the
district of Karnal, now in district Patiala, bowed to the
East, when he read his Namaz of Thayjud. His followers were
surprised and asked the reason for it, because Muslims bow
towards Mecca in the West. Bhikhan Shah replied that the
Divine Light had flashed in that direction, and he marched
off to Patna to see the Guru. In the battle of Bhangani
near Paonta, Syed Budhu Shah along with his four sons and
700 disciples joined the forces of the Guru against the
Hill Rajas who were defeated and routed at the end of February,
1686. Budhu Shah lost his four sons and several of his followers
in the battle. We all know of Ghani Khan and Nabhi Khan,
the two Pathan brothers of Machhiwara who risked their own
lives, staked everything, and took the Guru on a palanquin
on their shoulders and with timely assistance of Qazi Pir
Mohammed got the Satguru through the enemy lines to safety
after the escape from Chamkaur, while the Hindu and Mughal
Imperial Forces were in hot pursuit. It was the Muslim Nawab
of Malerkotla, who had the courage and daring to protest
when the two younger sons of the tenth Guru, innocent children
of seven and nine years, were cruelly tortured and put to
death by Wazir Khan at Sirhind. We find that this devotion
and love of the house of Malerkotla towards the Guru and
the Sikhs continues to this day. On the ninth of March,
1969, the Nawab got an Akhand Path of Guru Granth Sahib
performed in his Darbar Hall at Malerkotla. At the place
of the throne of the Nawab Ruler, the Holy Granth was opened.
Personally, orthodox Muslims themselves, His Highness the
Nawab and the Begam Sahiba stood in attendance with chauwar
in their hands. I had the pleasure and privilege to be personally
present at the occasion. Recently, the Nawab was returned
to the Punjab Legislative Assembly on an Akali Ticket. His
close relative leading a jatha on September 15, 1971, comprising
of Sikhs as well as Mohammedans to Delhi for liberation
of the gurdwaras in the capital, surpasses everything.
The Sikh conception of God resembles more the monotheistic
God of the Muslims than any of the gods connected with the
polytheistic view of the Hindus. In other ways too like
castelessness, congregational worship, community dining,
joint action, and positive activities in living, the Satguru’s
way of life is nearer to Islam than to individualistic,
introvert, self-centred Hinduism.
This nearness is confirmed in the words of the tenth Master
in Zafarnama when he wrote to Aurangzeb that he had to battle
the mischievous hill people as they were idol-worshippers
and he was an idol-breaker.
It is not correct to say that the Sikh conflict was with
the Muslims as a whole at any time. If it were so, Muslims
of note like Syed Budhu Shah, Syed Begh, and Maimu Khan
would not have fought on the side of the Sikhs against the
Mughal Forces. They did so because they appreciated the
rightful stand of the Satguru and the cause his Sikhs were
fighting for. If it were so, Mata Sundri would not have
established her residence at Delhi itself after the evacuation
of Anandpur and the barbarous treatment meted out to her
family and innocent children, and she could not have issued
her writs to the Panth from under the nose of the Emperor
after Guru Gobind Singh’s death. Two orchards and
a village presented to the child Gobind Rai by Nawabs Rahim
Bakhsh and Karim Bakhsh are to this day with the Patna Sahib
Takht. 5,000 acres of land belonging to the Nanak Matta
Gurdwara in U.P. was an offering from a Muslim Begum. Sometimes
I begin to feel, when studying without prejudice, the Zafarnama,
the letter of victory written by the tenth Guru to Emperor
Aurangzeb, that there was no bitterness at all or any enmity
between them. The way the Satguru puts up his case, reprimands
the Emperor for having lost his sense of duty and his failure
to administer justice evenly to people who were put under
his charge by the Almighty God and reminds him of the day
of reckoning, and describes to him the atrocities and tyrannies
that his men perpetrated on innocent citizens of the land,
all these are certainly not the normal way to address an
enemy. This letter was written after the escape from Chamkaur
and the deaths of the Satguru’s four sons and mother.
As a result of this epistle, a meeting between the Emperor
and the Satguru was being negotiated when the Emperor expired.
After the death of Aurangzeb, we find Guru Gobind Singh
taking part in the war of succession and helping win the
throne for the right claimant, Bahadur Shah. No enemy would
do that.
Similarly, the Sikhs have had very close connections and
relations with the Hindus. The first four Gurus having come
from Hindu families, the circle of relatives, friends and
associates, naturally expanded more with them than with
Muslims. Most of the ceremonies and rites performed by the
Sikhs are very near to those of the Hindus. Our habits,
customs and most of the ways of living are similar to that
of the Hindus, though some of our important principles,
tenets, and outlook are nearer to Muslims than to Hindus.
If the Sikhs came into conflict with the Mughal rulers,
it was for the sake of and to protect the Hindus. In fact,
the Sikhs have fought the battles of the Hindus. Naturally,
therefore, the enrolement of volunteers and conversions
to Sikhism came mostly from the Hindu fold. When the Sikhs
were fighting their battles against tyranny, as a natural
consequence, the Hindus looked after the Sikh families in
the villages. It may be mentioned that it was under these
circumstances, when the Sikh womenfolk and youngsters came
under the Hindu influence that Sikhism began to be corrupted
by Hindu ideas. The martyrdom of the ninth Guru, as we have
seen, was due to the word he had given to the Brahmins from
Kashmir that their Dharam would be protected and the Mughal
tyranny extirpated. In reality it was a sacrifice for freedom
of everybody’s faith.
It is surprising to see that in spite of all this suffering,
sacrifices, martyrdoms offered by innumerable Sikhs for
them, there has always been an important section among the
Hindus that has invariably opposed the interests and the
very existence of the Sikhs. They call us as one of them,
but in doing so in reality they mean the denial of any separate
Sikh identity. At one time, it was Chandu who became instrumental
in torturing the fifth Guru to death, at another it was
Sucha Nand, who prompted Wazir Khan to execute the young
innocent sons of Guru Gobind Singh at Sirhind. When the
son and successor of Guru Teg Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh,
was preparing to preserve the link and fulfil the promise
that his father had given to the distressed and helpless
Hindus, it were the Hindu Hill Rajas who began to harass
and attack him. The first battle, therefore, the Guru had
to fight at Bhangani, was forced upon him by these Hindu
Chieftains. When convincingly routed, these Hindu Rajas
approached the Mughal Emperor at Delhi and brought the Imperial
Forces to help them against the Guru. Then we have the ignominious
Lakhpat Rai who personally commanded the Lahore Forces during
the first holocaust at Kahnuwan. It was he who got a general
proclamation issued for the extirpation of Sikhs and began
to implement it from 10th March, 1746.
This mentality of some of the Hindus has persisted even
into our own times. It should suffice to cite just one instance
here about it, and that too of no smaller person than Mr
Gandhi himself.
In the mid-thirties of this century, alarmed by the spate
of conversions of the untouchables to Islam and Christianity,
the great Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Dr Ambedkar realised
that the salvation of the depressed scheduled castes from
the unjust oppression and cruel tyranny at the hands of
the so-called higher castes since times immemorial could
only be in their wholesale conversion to Sikhism. In their
wisdom and farsight, they drew up a scheme and agreed to
a pact and started to implement it. Dr Ambedkar paid visits
to Amritsar and left some of his fellow workers there to
study and understand Sikhism and its institutions. The Khalsa
College at Bombay is one of the outcomes of this. But to
the misfortune of all concerned, this scheme was confided
to Mahatma Gandhi on a strict and definite understanding
not to let it out till the proper time. But unless the Mahatma
was swept by rank communalism and prejudice against the
Sikhs, why should he have thrown the confidence reposed
in him to the winds and without any qualms of conscience
committed a breach of faith by a premature condemnation
of the scheme, saying “It would be far better that
the crores of untouchables of India got converted to Islam
than they become Sikhs.” Eventually, at his threat
to fast unto death the whole effort flopped. Friends who
negotiated with Dr Ambedkar and once met him even at Janjira
— a small island near Bombay in May, 1937, will bear
me out. They included Sardar Narain Singh, then Manager
of Nanakana Sahib, Principal Kashmira Singh, Master Sujan
Singh, Bawa Harkishan Singh Principal, Sardar Ishar Singh
Majhail, Sardar Teja Singh Akarpuri and Sardar Gurdit Singh
Sethi, then President Singh Sabha, Bombay, who are still
present in this world.
There is another more recent instance also, which I presume
most of us clearly remember. In 1929, Sikhs were given a
solemn assurance by Hindu Congress leaders, including Mahatma
Gandhi, Pandit Moti Lal Nehru and Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru,
and also assured by a formal resolution of the All India
National Congress at Lahore, that no Constitution of free
India shall be framed by the majority community unless it
was acceptable to the Sikhs. Until August, 1947, this was
repeatedly re-iterated. But when later on after independence,
Jawahar Lal Nehru was reminded of it, he blandly told the
Sikhs that circumstances had now changed, as if pledges
are given to be eaten away when convenient. Not only that,
we all know that a circular was issued in the Punjab soon
after the partition of the country that an eye be kept on
the Sikhs. They have since been practically looked upon
as if they were aliens.
The same mentality worked when the present Punjab state
was presented to us – a torso of a state (Suba) without
head, arms, or legs.
There are friends and foes among both Hindus and Muslims
but sometimes only one side of the picture is projected
and that too after having been partially drawn and prejudicially
coloured. These facts, some pleasant and some may be unpleasant,
are mentioned only to show in what awkward and difficult
situations the Satguru’s mission is taken forward.
Where there is frontal confrontation, as was the case during
the conflict with the Mughal Forces and the Pathan and Durrani
invaders, the matter is straight and simple. The steel clanked
and blood flowed.
Strong sinews and tough muscles with a courageous heart,
perseverance and faith, along with fighting tact and will
to sacrifice, ultimately count. But when the attack is cloaked,
surreptitious, camouflaged, and from within, a stab in the
back, a hit below the belt, sugar-coated poison administered
within our hearths and homes, the matter becomes serious
and dangerous, and conflict complicated and difficult. You
have to guard and protect every nook and cranny. This is
what the Sikhs have to face today when the country has attained
independence.
Unfortunately, Sikh history has not been written without
an ulterior and alien edge on it. Some attempts of late
have been made by some men of letters to probe and dig deep
into facts and to narrate the happenings without any bias,
and project a true and factual picture. But writing or rewriting
history is a colossal job. It should be tackled effectively
on a collective level only rather than individually. It
will be an important achievement when this task is fulfilled,
because the teachings of the Satguru can best be understood
from the anecdotes of history wherein those teachings stand
implemented and explained in actual life.
¤
©Copyright Institute of Sikh Studies,
2007, All rights reserved.
