ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ

ਸ੍ਰੀ ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕੀ ਫਤਿਹ



Should Sikhs partake in politics in their western host country and join the military? Colonialism and Imperialism discussed.

Puneet Singh

(@SikhTalk Instagram Page)

Saturday, June 9th over a thousand British soldiers marched in London to celebrate the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. [1] One soldier stood out from the rest with a black Dastaar (turban) and a full beard instead of the traditional tall bearskin hat. The recent worldwide coverage of Charanpreet Singh Lall of Leicester becoming a Coldstream Guards soldier [2] has sparked some fringe, but heavily passionate and personally charged criticism of his decision to join the Coldstream Guard. On Sukhraj Singh’s Instagram page, @SikhTalk with almost 5,000 followers, made a personal attack on Charanpreet Singh by posting a picture of him with “murderer” written in lower-case yellow letters. Although Sukhraj Singh later attempts to say this was not a personal attack in the description of the picture, his Instagram story shows otherwise by personally attacking any Sikh whether in the British, Canadian or American army as being a killer or murderer. [3,4,5] The narrative that is being adopted by some fringe Sikh think-tanks is reminiscent of many Islamic extremists who openly protest British troops while shouting profanity and abuse at all soldiers. This sentiment of painting a black and white picture of all individuals in the army being held accountable for individual human rights violations committed by members of the army has also fueled radicalization and terrorist attacks, like in Woolwich, where a knife wielding terrorist maimed and beheaded an innocent British army drummer in the street. [6] While acknowledging a State and military can be criticized for human rights abuses and lobby to prevent atrocities from happening again, it is still important to not degenerate into a black and white or good vs bad narrative. With this approach, an individual soldier’s liberty to be seen for his or her own actions and personal beliefs are stripped. The British did colonize Punjab and were responsible in taking the Sikh Kingdom from the Sikhs, but this may not necessarily mean Sikhs can’t join the army or partake in the 21st century politics in a State, even if the state is Great Britain. The rest of this paper will attempt to critically examine, within the context of Sikh history and Gurbani, whether Sikhs should be disallowed from joining the military or act as employees in a government in the form of a job or a politician.

History: How did our Guru Sahiban deal with functioning states that were unjust?

~Sri Akaal Takht Sahib Fresco~

Guru Hargobind Sahib and Bhai Bidhi Chand presenting two turkish horses

Looking at Sikh history and principles started by the Gurus helps give context and guidance to Sikhs today, even in the 21st century. Looking at various hukamanamas and historical proof from the time of Guru Hargobind Sahib, Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib and Guru Gobind Singh, we can get a good picture of what Guru Sahib would or wouldn’t allow Sikhs in the 21st century by looking at how Guru Sahib dealt with the Mughal state. First, it is important to understand that the relationship between the Guru Sahiban and the Mughal State was complicated and constantly changed. This can help us understand how to deal with different modern, western democracies as Sikhs, albeit there are rights and liberties in secular democracies that protect religious minorities, something that was not true in Islamic, Mughal India. Looking at both the history and Bani of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, we can see the various methods Guru Sahib employs to deliver a message. In Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s bani in Sri Raag, Guru Sahib describes the human being as a merchant (vanajaarha) and the emphasis of partaking in an honest trade (sacha sauda) that is devoid of falsehood. Guru Nanak Dev Ji says those who are imbued in the color of Naam/Love for God make the True profit. [7,8] It’s important to note that Guru Nanak Dev Ji explains a Sublime message of love filled meditation for God (Prema Bhagti/Naam abhiyaas) in a way that a merchant can easily understand. One of the first things taught in Sikh/Khalsa schools is the history of Guru Nanak Dev Ji and how Mehta Kalu Ji was from a merchant background and wanted Guru Nanak Dev Ji to become either a merchant or a book keeper. Guru Nanak Dev Ji was given 20 rupees at a very young age by his father and was told to go buy goods and resell them to make a profit, but instead of doing this, Guru Nanak Dev Ji bought food and donated it to needy people thus immortalizing what a True Bargain (Sacha Sauda) really is and immortalizing the tradition of Guru Ka Langar. In order to understand what type of Panth and system Guru Hargobind Sahib later formalizes, understanding the basics of this Bani by Guru Nanak is very important. Guru Hargobind Sahib, the 6th Guru, created a standing Sikh army and formalized the concept of temporal and spiritual authority (Miri and Piri). In the early 17th century Guru Hargobind Sahib wrote letters to the Sikh community that emphasized that performing sewa and rozgar (donations) are interlinked. This instructed Sikhs that by individually doing simran and collectively working as a community the Guru would maintain their rozgar (donations/tribute). In another letter sent by Guru Hargobind Sahib to Patna’s sangat, it is further made clear that doing sewa in the sangat, giving donations, being vegetarian, doing kirtan and maintaining community organization that the Guru will bless them. Naturally, due to the nature of the appeal of allowing for bhagti while also pursuing financial gain and performing rozgar to the Guru, this largely appealed to the khatri community and thus many Sikhs during this era were khatri merchants. [9] Since there were rival lineages that also competed with Guru Hargobind Sahib for the Guruship Seat, Guru Sahib required funds and the Mughal state was seen as an excellent source of funding. [10] This system of amassing wealth by the Gurus is continued, but transforms from the masand system to the hundi system during the time of Guru Gobind Singh. It is clear that the Khatri Sikhs in Delhi have been entrenched in the financial and Mughal government in New Delhi and despite some conflict with the newly established Khalsa in wanting to maintain non-Sikh customs that were banned, Guru Sahib intervened and ruled in favor of Khalsa and the Delhi Sikhs accepted. What is important in this story is that the Delhi Sikhs were still very much entrenched in the Mughal State and used their position to amass wealth and fund the Khalsa. [11] If you fast forward to the mid-18th century Diwan Kaura Mall, a Sahajdhari Sikh, was a trusted Mughal officer in the Mughal Empire in Punjab. After Kaura Mall joined the service as a soldier at Lahore where he rose to become a Prime Minister during a very turbulent time in Sikh history when there were bounties on the heads of Sikhs and Sikhs were persecuted throughout Punjab. Kaura Mall was a friend of the Sikhs and helped tip Sikhs off and gave certain regions to Sikhs to collect revenue in order to help fund the Khalsa to fight. Many of these regions later became Sikh territories. [12] Priceless diamond in the Sikh Panth Bhai Sahib Dr Vir Singh actually narrates that his forefather, from his father’s side, was Kaura Mall. Bhai Sahib Vir Singh beautifully describes Kaura Mall, despite being a Sahajdhari Sikh, was endeared and called Mitha (sweet) Mall instead of Kaura (bitter) Mall. He was an ally to Sikhs and saved many lives by facilitating the Khalsa who fought from within the system. [13] The story of Bhai Subeg Singh and Shabaz Singh being martyred is popularly seen in paintings at Gurdwara Sahibs with their bodies being broken and shaheeed by a a cruel method of torture of spinning their bodies on a spiked wheel. Bhai Subeg Singh was employed by Zakariya Khan, but was a very devout GurSikh, and would tip off the Khalsa who were fighting against the Mughal State. It is reported that Bhai Subeg Singh would cremate the severed heads of Singhs that were brought with respect without anyone noticing, but eventually the father of the governor pushed to convert Subeg Singh and after he refused both Bhai Shabaz Singh and Bhai Subeg Singh were Shaheed on the wheel while proudly repeating Akaal. [14] It is established that Guru Sahiban not only allowed, but required Sikhs to pursue honest means of earning money, even deeply within the Mughal government, so long as there was bhagti and rozgar (donations) given to the Guru. A strong sense of community (Panth) was emphasized. This method eventually helped Sikhs out and paved the way for Sikhs to gather enough strength to finally become rulers in Punjab.

Sikhs in the 20th and 21st Century

Dharmi Faujis who were either shahid or were jailed for rebelling

Many Sikhs who served in the British Indian army later became Babbar Akalis and used the skills they learned from the British Indian army to inspire rebellion against the British and fight for Azaadi. Also, many notable Sikh Gianis who did a lot of Parchar in Punjab were ex-British Indian army soldiers such as Baba Attar Singh Mastuane Wale, Baba Isher Singh Rara Sahib Wale and more. Due to Baba Attar Singh Mastuane Wale being exposed to world during his time in the British Indian army, he emphasized the need for girls to be educated in both worldly and spiritual pursuits. He sent Baba Teja Singh to Harvard University to get vidiya (knowledge) to come back to Punjab with the aim of doing Parchaar (Sikh preaching) in Punjab. To contrast to a darker side of this era, months prior to partition the Muslim League ensured partition would occur by initiating large scale killings. On March 5th the rape of Rawalpindi occurred and entire pinds were wiped out and liquidated of Sikh populations. No child, woman or man was spared. Entire pinds were emptied with mutilated corpses of women, children and men just lying in the sun to decay and for scavenger birds and maggots to feast on. This gave the vital push, by the Muslim league, to push for partition and ensure a Muslim nation-state formed. The main problem during this time, for Sikhs, was that we did not have a majority in most regions during both the Sikh Empire and the British Raj, but the skill-set that many Sikhs who served in the British Indian army made them the most organized, best trained and most armed and were able to equally push back against a numerically larger opponent. Sikh Jathas were formed and responded to the violence that was started by the Muslim league months prior to Partition. Bankrolled by Hindu tycoons and Sikh Maharajas, including the ruler of Faridkot, many Sikh ex-military men who had fought for both the Japanese-sponsored rebel forces and the British were recruited in an attempt to retake west Punjab. [15] When push came to shove many Sikh Jathas were brutal and very cold in killing, with what they viewed as the enemy, who had started partition; also arguably Sikh Jathas that formed prevented the Muslim West Punjab, which was drunk with power, from expanding and taking East Punjab. Without these Sikh Jathas the story of Partition would have been different. [16] In 1984, after the attack on Harmandir Sahib and Sikhs across Punjab, it was clear that Indira Gandhi had tactfully ensured that the Sikh regiments were spread out outside of Punjab. On top of this, Indira Gandhi ordered a complete media blackout and military enforced curfew throughout Punjab to cut off the entire Punjab from the rest of the world. [17,18] This was to ensure no information was dispersed about the atrocities that the Indian army would commit, and there was no chance for Sikh regiments to be within Punjab to immediately retaliate. After Sikh regiments began to learn about Operation Blue Star on June 5-6th, approximately 5,000 Sikhs rebelled and attempted to march to Golden Temple in Amritsar. In one case, the Sikh regiment outside of Punjab in Bihar killed its Hindu commander and headed for Punjab, but the mutiny was largely crushed with approximately 103 soldiers killed in the battle to quell the mutiny. If the Sikh army regiments and officers were in Punjab during the attack, the entire course of history related to 1984 would have changed. [19]

How is colonialism effecting Sikhs today?

Colonization has effected every society in history. There is virtually no untouched civilization that hasn’t been effected by colonialism. If you look at Punjab it was colonized by Babur and Mughals in relatively recent history, but was also colonized by Persians and Afghans in different successions, changing powers almost cyclically. The culture, language and influence of colonialism doesn’t only stretch from when the Sikh Raj fell to the British. To understand colonialism as an inevitable product of time is essential. To attempt to understand our place in the world, as Sikhs, we have to understand modernity and how this effects Sikhs. Modernity refers to the condition of being modern. In a Sikh context it means changing how we dress, occupations we perform, how or what we eat and how we connect to Guru Sahib. These changes are inevitable as society progresses and technology advances. Just as Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib in Salok Mahalla 9 tells us that everything is temporary and ever changing, so is our condition, but the only constant is Guru Sahib. When Bhai Sahib Dr Vir Singh saw the implications that arose from a Sikh Panth that was stripped of its dignity with a lost Raj, he found a modern medium, inspired by Gurbani, to usher an age of renaissance in Sikh theology, literature, poetry and inspirational fictional cannons with strong Sikh female protagonists. Bhai Vir Singh, as a Gurmukh, was able to transform Professor Puran Singh Ji just through their presence and aura of having Naam Kamayi. This is how we must progress in the 21st century to ride the wave of inevitable modernity and ever changing society. Instead of focusing on an impossible task of decolonizing and reverting time, we must take inspiration from the likes of Bhai Vir Singh and create authentic, organic art fueled by our subjective and independent connection to Guru Sahib to inspire people to become Gurmukhs. This is the only way forward as a Panth and the only way to combat modernity. Like Sirdar Kapur Singh in his paper, Who Killed Guru Tegh Bahadur, he criticizes Dr Fauja Singh for making a story about how Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji was actually a pre-Marxian revolutionary who espoused the cause of land tillers and attempted to organize a Che Guevara-type insurgence to assume Guru Sahib’s role as a class-conscious revolutionary. In short, Sirdar Kapur Singh is making fun of this notion and making fun of Dr Fauja Singh. There are many Dr Fauja Singhs today who also conflate their academic social theory or Marxist theory (mainly those who haven’t read Marx) and try to pass it off as being Sikh ideals. In most cases they are not compatible with Sikhi. This will always fail because Sikhi is only about Naam Simran and the Panth (community).

Conclusion:

It is clear that Guru Sahib issued edicts, in the form of hukamnamas, that allowed for Sikhs to pursue monetary success as traders within the Mughal government fabric and Guru Hargobind Sahib also openly encouraged gathering money from the Mughal state, which often required Sikhs to either be employed as officials under government or Sikhs to directly do business with the Mughal government. Guru Sahib gave Sikhs the liberty to work in a diversified means of enacting change that consisted of diplomacy, working within the system or when all means had failed – to enact justice with the sword. This directly translates to today’s situation of Sikhs in the west. Sikhs were intelligent enough to be embedded in the system, but still had Panthic souch (thinking with the community in mind). From Kaura Mall, a sahajdhari Sikh, who was a soldier in Lahore and eventually a Prime Minister in the Mughal government was endeared and loved by Sikhs for how much he helped. He passed on his good karma (merits) to his descendant Bhai Sahib Dr Vir Singh and Bhai Sahib proudly cites how Kaura Mall was called Mitha Mall by fellow Sikhs. In 1947 and then in 1984 it is clear that Sikhs who were in the system always had Sikh and Panthic pain and when push came to shove most Sikhs stood up for the Panth. Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale spoke out in appeal for Sikhs to take inspiration from Israel on how despite being such small community are able to keep many Arab countries at bay. While disconnecting the human rights abuses from their ability to defend themselves, we must be able to create an international lobby that will act in defense of Sikh interests and ensure justice. In order to do this we need Sikhs in high positions worldwide who, when push comes to shove, will prioritize Sikhi or will have Panthic souch and help in any means possible. We have many hurdles that we will face in both the diaspora and in India, but by connecting to Guru Sahib, the Panth will remain in chardikala and face the currents of time with Kirpa (blessings) of Guru Gobind Singh Ji Maharaj.

ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕਾ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕੀ ਫਤਿਹ

1. https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/09/europe/sikh-soldier-turban-guardsman-trnd/index.html

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldstream_Guards

3. https://i.imgur.com/M2uqGEu.jpg

4. https://i.imgur.com/sQc9eRG.png

5. https://i.imgur.com/7o5yg8m.jpg

6. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10075488/Woolwich-attack-the-terrorists-rant.html

7. https://www.sikhitothemax.org/shabad?id=76&

8. https://www.sikhitothemax.org/shabad?id=184&

9. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.885.9901&rep=rep1&type=pdf (pg 324-325)

10. Syan, Hardip Singh. Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India. I.B. Tauris, 2013. Page 102

11. Syan, Hardip Singh. Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India. I.B. Tauris, 2013. Page 201-205

12. Harbans Singh, Bhai Vir Singh. Father of Modern Punjabi Literature Delhi, 1972

13. Chahal, Devinder. (2018). BHAI SAHIB Dr VIR SINGH Father of Modern Punjabi Literature.

14. Rattan Singh Bhangu, Prachin Panth Parkash Episode 105 – The Episode About Subeg Singh Jambar (The Great Guru upheld the Devout Sikh’s Dignity)

15. Hajari, Nisid Did Sikh Squads Participate in an Organised Attempt To Cleanse East Punjab During Partition? 30 June 2015. http://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/did-sikhs-squads-participate-organised-attempt-cleanse-east-punjab-during-partition

16. Urvashi Butalia “The other side of Silence” pages 157 – 194 http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/27224/10/10-chapter%204-.pdf

17. Hamlyn, Michael (6 June 1984). “Journalists removed from Amritsar: Army prepares to enter Sikh shrine”. The Times. p. 36.

18. “Gun battle rages in Sikh holy shrine”. The Times. 5 June 1984. p. 1.

19. July 2, 1984, on Page A00006 of The New York Times of the National edition with the headline: GENERAL PROMISES TO PUNISH SIKH MUTINEERS. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/02/world/general-promises-to-punish-sikh-mutineers.html