Professor (Late) Harbans Singh presented three papers on Sikhism at the University of California in Berkeley. These are commonly known as Berkeley Lectures On Sikhism. The following article is one of the papers presented by the learned Sikh scholar.--Editor
Begining as a spiritual, monothestic and ethical faith with the Revelation of Guru Nanak, Sikhism gradually developed into a cohesive and well-marked order, with a pronouncedly social outlook. Within half a century of Guru Gobind Singh's passing away, it had turned into a political force. In another 40 years, it had become a State. The process was accelerated by the political situation it confronted and the persecution it had to endure.
The Sikh leader who presaged a troublous century's daring chain of events was Banda Singh Bahadur (1670 - 1716), who had received the rites of Khalsa initiation at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh at Nanded, in Deccan, in 1708. He came to the north carrying a drum, a banner and five arrows the Guru had bestowed upon him. As he entered the Punjab, he started seizing territory. On May 14, 1710, the important town of Sirhind was occupied. Banda Singh assumed the style of royalty and struck coin in the name of Guru Nanak - Gobind Singh. He thus laid the foundation of Sikh sovereignity in the Punjab. Rendered into English, the Persian inscription on the coin read:
By the grace of the True Lord is struck the coin
in the two worlds;
The sword of Nanak is the granter of all boons,
And the victory is of Guru Gobind Singh, the King of Kings
Banda Singh's rule, though short lived, had a far reaching effect on the history of the Punjab. With it began the decay of the Mughal authority and of the feudal system of society it had created. Banda Singh abolished the zamidari system in the territories under him and made the tillers masters of the lands by conferring upon them proprietary rights. This marked a major change in the social order in the Punjab and led to the emergence of peasants as a potent force in the political life of northern India.
The Mughal authority retaliated with severity. Banda Singh was captured and executed in Delhi. The persecution became fiercer and prohibitory laws against the Sikhs were enforced with added vigour. That was a time of trial and suffering - of grim challenge. But this is not my theme today. The challenge I refer to is the one that Sikhs faced after the annexation to British dominions in India of the State they had carved out. They had survived the persecution and risen up to establish their sway in the Punjab.
How the Sikh Sardars set their seal of authority on the territories they acquired is graphically described by the British historian, Joseph Davey Cunningham, in his book, A History Of The Sikhs (1849):
"Riding day and night, each horseman would throw his belt and scabbard, his articles of dress and accoutrement, until he was almost naked, into successive villages to mark them as his."
Their acquisitions were then recorded in the misls or papers of each Sardar at the Akal Takht in Amritsar. Twelve Sikh independencies, called misl, thus came into being. These principalities were welded into the powerful State of the Khalsa by Ranjit Singh (1780 - 1839). Born heir to one of these confederacies, he had the foresight to visualize a united Sikh power. By his superior military skill and political acumen, he succeeded in consolidating the Sikh territories on the right bank of the river Sutlej and in joining people of the Punjab into a strong nation. He occupied Lahore on July 7, 1799, and subsequently took the far-flung provinces of Multan, Peshawar and Kashmir.
The kingdom Maharaja Ranjit Singh had established did not last long. Within ten years of his death, it was conquered by the British. The British had established a foothold in the Punjab at the conclusion of what is known as the first Anglo-Sikh war (1845-46). The second Anglo-Sikh war (1848-49) which took place in the reign of the minor Sikh Maharaja, Duleep Singh, ended in the abrogation of the Sikh rule.
Unwarily, a process of backsliding now took over. The decline had in fact set in during the days of the Sikh power. The stern religious discipline which had sustained the Sikhs through a period of difficulty and privation gave way to a life of luxury and plenty. They lost what, following Ibn-Khaldun, may be described as their "desert qualities." A second - and even more sinister - debilitating factor was the Brahminical ritual and practices which had gained ascendancy as an adjunct of regal pomp and ceremony. These now took a firmer hold on the Sikh mind. In this way, Sikh faith became garbled beyond recognition.
The teachings of the Gurus which had supplied Sikhism its potent principle of re-creation and consolidation were obscurred by the rising tide of conservatism. It was fast losing its characteristic vigour and its votaries were relapsing into beliefs and customs which the founding Gurus had clearly rejected. Absorption into ceremonial Hinduism seemed the course inevitably set for the Sikhs. This was the critical challenge they faced in the years following the British occupation of the Punjab.
Such had been the dereliction of the faith that several British observers prognosticated dismally for it. One thought it was already dead; others felt it was due for extinction. The following excerpt from the Punjab Administration Report for 1851-52 - a bare two years after the annexation of the Punjab - will illustrate:
The Sikh faith and ecclesiastical polity is rapidly going where the Sikh political ascendancy had already gone. Of the two elements in the old Khalsa, namely, the followers of Nanuck, the first Prophet, and the followers of Guru Gobind Singh, the second great religious leader, the former will hold their ground, and the latter will lose it. The Sikhs of Nanuck, a comparitively small body of peaceful habits and old family, will perhaps cling to the faith of their fathers; but the Sikhs of Gobind (Singh), who are of more recent origin, who are more specially styled the Singhs or lions, and who embraced the faith as being the religion of warfare and conquest, no longer regard the Khalsa now that the prestige has departed from it.
These men joined in thousands, and they now desert in equal numbers. They rejoin the ranks of Hinduism whence they originally came, and they bring up their children as Hindus. The sacred tank at Umritsar is less thronged than formerly, and the attendance at the annual festivals is diminishing yearly. The initiatory ceremony for adult persons is now rarely performed.
The fall in numbers supported the gloomy predictions about the final eclipse of the Sikh faith. A demographical detail was worked out by the British in 1855 in respect of the Lahore division. There were found only two hundred thousand Sikhs to an aggregate population of about three million. These figures related to the Majha region, known as the central home of the Sikhs. The following comment on this point is from the Punjab Administration Report for 1855-56:
The circumstance strongly corroborates what is commonly believed, namely that the Sikh tribe is losing its number rapidly. Modern Sikhism was little more than a political association (formed exclusively from among Hindus), which men would join or quit according to the circumstances of the day. A person is not born a Sikh, as he might be born a Muhammaden or born a Hindu; but he must be specially initiated into Sikhism. Now that the Sikh commonwealth is broken up, people cease to be initiated into Sikhism and revert to Hinduism. Such is the undoubted explanation of a statistical fact, which might otherwise appear to be hardly credible.
The Sikhs, roughly estimated to be about ten million in Ranjit Singh's Punjab, dwindled to a mere 1,141,848 in the enumeration made in the Punjab in 1868. In the regular census of 1881, the Sikh figure stood at 1,716,114. This included the entire Punjab as well as the area covered by the cis-Sutlej Princely states, mainly Sikh.
Two factors reclaimed the Sikhs from this state - their adherence to the outward marks of their faith, especially the kesh, their hair and beards, and a series of protestant currents which arose among them to purify the prevelant religious usage and rekindled the Sikh spirit. Of these two, the external religious symbols of their faith were the more crucial. But for these, relapse into the Hindu fold would have been swifter and categorical. That would have precluded the necessity or possibility of any reform. Despite the laxity in religious customs, the form they had received from Guru Gobind Singh - their hair and beards - helped them to retain their sense of individuality and cohesion. This eventually stimulated a process of self-regeneration.
The first manifestation was the Nirankari movement. Its founder Baba Dayal (1783-1855), was a contemporary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A man of humble origin, he cavilled at the shortcomings of the mighty and assailed the rights and observances which had perverted the Sikh way of life. His main target was the worship of images against which he preached vigorously. He reemphasized the Sikh belief in Nirankar - the formless One. From this, the movement he started came to be known as the Nirankari movement.
What an unambiguous, important development this Nirankari movement was in Sikh life will be borne out by this extract from the annual report of the Lodiana Christian Mission for 1853:
Sometimes in the summer we heard of a movement....which, from the representations we received, seemed to indicate a state of mind favourable to the reception of Truth. It was deemed expedient to visit them, to ascertain the true nature of the movement, and if possible, to give it a proper direction. On investigation, however, it was found that the whole movement was the results of the efforts of an individual to establish a new panth (religious sect) of which he should be the instructor and guide...
They professedly reject idolatory, and all reverence and respect for whatever is held sacred by Sikhs or Hindus, except Nanak and his Granth....They are called Nirankaris, from their belief in God, as a spirit without bodily form. The next great fundamental principle of their religion is that salvation is to be obtained by meditation on God. They regard Nanak as their saviour, inasmuch as he taught them the way of salvation.
Of their peculiar practices only two things are learned. First, they assemble every morning for worship, which consists of bowing their head to the ground before the Granth, making offerings, and in hearing the Granth read by some of their numbers, and explained also if their leader be present. Secondly, they do not burn their dead, because that would assimilate them to the Hindus; nor bury them, because that would make them too much like Christians and Musalmans, but throw them into the river.
In its emphasis of the primacy of the Guru Granth Sahib in the Sikh system and on self identity, the Nirankari movement foreshadowed the principle concerns of the Singh Sabha movement. This comment of the Lodiana missionaries barely four years after the lapse of Sikh sovereignity falsifies the hastily advanced view that the new sense of self-consciousness among the Sikhs was the creation of the British policy.
Like the Nirankari, the second reform movement known as the Namdhari, or Kuka movement, also had its origin in the north-west corner of the Sikh State, away from the places of royal magnificence such as Lahore and Amritsar. It harked back to a way of life more in keeping with the spiritual traditions of the community. It's principle concern was to spread the true spirit of Sikhism shorn of tawdry customs and mannerism which had grown on it since the begining of Sikh monarchy. In the midst of national pride born of military glory and political power, this movement extolled the religious duty of a pious and simple living.
Because of their rather restricted scope and because of the schismatic character they had acquired, both Nirankari and Namdhari movements failed to stir the Sikh people as a whole. The Singh Sabha which followed them had a deeper impact and influenced the entire community. By leavening the intellectual and cultural processes, it brought a new dimension to the inner life of the community and marked a turning point in Sikh history. It touched Sikhism to its very roots, and made it a living force once again. This stimulus it provided has shaped the Sikhs' attitude and aspiration over the past one hundred years.
The main motivation of the Singh Sabha was search for Sikh identity. This entire period can be interpreted and understood in terms of this central concern. Under the Singh Sabha impulse, new powers of regeneration came into effect and Sikhism was reclaimed from a state of utter ossification and inertia. The Sikh mind was stirred by a process of liberation and it began to look upon its history and tradition with a clear, self-discerning eye. What had become effete and decrepit and what was reckoned to be against the Gurus' teachings was rejected. The purity of Sikh precept and practice was sought to be restored. Rites and customs considered consistent with Sikh doctrine and tradition were established. For some, legal sanctions was secured through government legislation.
With the reform of Sikh ceremonial and observances came the reformation of the Sikh shrines which, again, was clinched by an impressive demonstration of communal mobilization and by eventually legal sanctions secured from the government of the day. This period of reform and of modern development witnessed the emergence of new cultural and political aspirations. Literary and educational processes were renovated. Through a strong political platform, the Sikhs sought to secure recognition for themselves.
What were the anxieties and apprehensions which then assailed the more conscious among the Sikhs? I quote from a Punjabi newspaper of the time:
An English newspaper writes that the Christian faith is making rapid progress and makes the prophecy that within the next twenty-five years, one third of Majha area will be Christian. The Malwa will follow suit. Just as we do not see any Buddhists in the country except in images, in the same fashion the Sikhs, who are now, here and there, visible in turbans and in their other religious forms like wrist-bangles and swords, will be seen only in pictures in the museums.
Their own sons and grandsons turning Christian and clad in coats and trousers and sporting toad stool-like caps will go to see them in the museums and say in their pidgin Punjabi: 'Look, that is a picture of a Sikh - the tribe that inhibited this country once upon a time.' Efforts of those who wish to resist the onslaught of Christianity are feeble and will prove abortive like a leper without hands and feet trying to save a boy falling off a rooftop.
This was a note which appeared in the Khalsa Akhbar of Lahore, May 25, 1894, from the pen of its editor Giani Ditt Singh. It reveals the nature of the identity crisis Sikhism faced at that time. But the real concern did not have so much to do with Christian proselytization as with the absorption into the Hindu stream. Conversions had in fact been only few and far between.
Christian missionary activity had started in the Punjab with the influx of the English. Even while Ranjit Singh, the Sikh sovereign, reigned in Lahore, a Christian centre had been set up at Ludhiana, the north-western British outpost near the Sikh frontier.
The founder was Rev. John C. Lowrie, the first American missionary to travel to India, who reached Ludhiana on November 5, 1834, with the object of establishing a mission on behalf of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, Philadelphia. The Punjab presented to him "the best field of labour" because of its numerous and hardy population, better climate, ready access to the lower ranges of the Himalayan mountains in case of failure of health. Another reason, as he records in his book, Travels In North India, was the Sikh population "to whom our attention at first was specially directed."
With the abrogation of the Sikh rule in 1849, the Ludhiana Mission extended its work to Lahore. Two of its members, C.W. Forman and John Newton, were set apart for this duty and sent to the Punjab's capital immediately. Amritsar, headquarters of the Sikh religion, became another important seat of Church enterprise. In 1852, T.H. Fitzpatrick and Robert Clark, the first missionaries of the Church of England appointed to the Punjab, arrived in station. In the valedictory instructions given to them, they had been told:
Though the Brahman religion still sways the mind of a large population of the Punjab, and the Mohammedan of another, the dominant religion and power for the last century has been the Sikh religion, a species of pure theism, formed in the first instance by a dissenting sect from Hinduism. A few hopeful instance lead us to believe that the Sikhs may prove more accessible to spiritual truth than the Hindus and Mohammedans....
The first Sri Guru Singh Sabha was established in Amritsar on October 1, 1873. As laid down in its objectives, the Sabha undertook to:
i. Restore Sikhism to its pristine glory;
ii. Edit and publish historical and religious books;
iii. Propagate current knowledge, using Punjabi as the medium, and to start magazines and newspapers in this language;
iv. Reform and bring back into the Sikh fold the apostates; and
v. Interest the highly placed Englishmen in, and insure their association with, the educational program of the Sikhs.
The Singh Sabha gained quick support of diverse sections of the community and many Sikh scholars and leaders volunteered to join its ranks. Two of its major thrusts were the depreciation of un-Sikh customs and social evils and the encouragement of Western education. The progressive concern was as pronounced as the revivalist impulse.
Initially, the supporters of the Singh Sabha encountered severe opposition. They were scorned and ridiculed for what appeared to be their novel ideas. An epigrammatic couplet satirizing their newfangled enthusiasm became part of Punjabi folklore:
When the barn is emptied of grain,
What better can you do than turn a Singh Sabhia?
More mordent in humour was the villagers' deliberate corruption of the name of the movement from Singh Sabha to Singh Safa, the word safa signifying widespread destruction caused by the plague epidemic in 1902.
The Singh Sabha ideology percolated to the Sikh peasantry primarily through soldiers serving in the army or those who had retired from the service. One of the regiments had constituted the choir of reciters to go around the villages and sing Sikh hymns in Singh Sabha congregations. Singh Sabhas were now springing up all over in Punjab. Apart from cities such as Amritsar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Patiala and Simla, Singh Sabhas flourished in small towns and villages as well. The most energetic of these was the one in Bhasaur, a small village in the erstwhile Princely state of Patiala. More original and fundamental ideas flowed from it than perhaps any other Singh Sabha in Punjab.
In that period of intense religious and cultural interaction, the Christian missions had their own view of the Singh Sabha activity. To quote from the 61st Annual Report of the Lodhiana Mission (1896):
In opposition to our work a Singh Sabha (a society of Sikhs) was started during summer and a number of people were enrolled.
The Singh Sabha's response to the existing challenge was bipolar. It looked back to what was essential, to what was of fundamental import in the Sikh heritage. This was no delusive withdrawal into the past, but a positive recognition of the permanent, life-giving elements in it. At the same time, the Singh Sabha looked to the future adapting itself to the changing situation, but without compromising its own ideals.
It reacted constructively to the new forces, striking a balance between the opposite forces of creativity - absorption and rejection. Along with the revivalist impulse, it accepted the principle of change and renovation and exhibited sensitiveness to contemporary needs.
From the period of stirring of the spirit, the Sikhs emerged with a strong sense of self-preservation as well as with a will to move with the times. One of the more concretely formulated urges was for Western style education so that they might refurbish their own religious and literary conventions and be able to compete with other communities for government employment and have their share in the power then available to Indians. In the farewell address presented to Lord Ripon, the outgoing Viceroy of India, on behalf of the Amritsar Khalsa Diwan on November 13, 1884, Kanwar Partap Singh of Kapurthala said:
Our efforts are now directed to secure the march of that intellectual progress permanently by setting up such institutions as colleges, schools, etc., which will become unceasing sources of benefit to our posterity.
The example of Christian missions led to the formation of Indian religious societies for opening and maintaining educational institutions after the new pattern. In northern India, this trend manifested itself in the rise of two popular movements - Aligarh and Arya Samaj, besides the third, i.e. Singh Sabha. They favoured the Western style education and adopted it in schools and colleges they sponsored. But they were simultaneously committed to reviving their distinctive religious and literary traditions. The cultural resurgence was thus channelized along communal lines.
The Aligarh movement incarnated the urge of the Muslims for re-establishing their religious identity and for the development of the Urdu language. Likewise, Vedic religion and Hindi came to be equated with the Arya Samaj and Sikh values and Punjabi with the Singh Sabha.
A government college had been established at Lahore in 1864, with the famous linguist, Dr. Gottlib Wilhelm Leitner, as Principal. Dr. Leitner was a zealous advocate of oriental learning. He founded on January 21, 1865, the Anjuman-i-Punjab with a view to developing literature in Indian languages and disseminating popular knowledge through this medium. The Anjuman held meetings for the discussion of questions of literary, scientific and social interests, sent memorials to the government, established a public library and compiled a number of treatises and translations in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi.
It also started an oriental school and was instrumental in the establishment, in 1870, of the Punjab University College which was assigned to
"promoting the diffusion of European science, as far as possible, through the medium of the vernacular literature generally, affording encouragement to the enlightened study of the Eastern classical languages and literature, and associating the learned and influential classes of the Province with the officers of Government in the promotion and supervision of popular education."
On October 14, 1882, this college was converted into the Punjab University. The Punjab Arya Samaj opened in Lahore, in 1886, a school which was raised to a college in 1889. To have a college of their own for imparting instructions in English and Western sciences and for promoting Punjabi and Sikh studies became an article of faith with the Sikhs. The leaders of the Singh Sabha worked assiduously to realize this dream. The government favoured the proposal. In 1890, Khalsa College Establishment Committee was set up, with Colonel W.R.M. Holroyd, British Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, as the president, and another Englishman, W. Bell, Principal of Government College Lahore as the secretary.
The committee enlisted wide support for its plans, and sought especially the help of the Sikh Maharajas who were persuaded to make liberal donations. A Khalsa College did materialise eventually. Sir James Lyall, Lieut-Governor of the Punjab, laid the foundation stone of the building in Amritsar on March 5, 1892. The teaching started with the opening on October 22, 1893, of middle school classes in rented premises in the city.
Another important development was the establishment, in 1908, of the Sikh Educational Conference. A Sikh missionary group visiting Sind happened to attend one of the sessions of the Mohammaden Educational Conference at Karachi in December 1907. They picked the idea that a similar conference be set up for the Sikh community as well. Returning to Amritsar, the leader of the group, Sundar Singh Majithia, called a meeting on January 9, 1908, inviting leading Sikhs of the day.
Among those who attende were the Sikh poet and mystic, Bhai Vir Singh (1872-1957), Bhai Jodh Singh (1882-1981), educationalist and theologian, who became the first Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University in 1962. Sardar Umrao Singh, father of the painter Amrita Sher-Gill, also lent his helping hand. Plans were formulated for the establishment of Sikh Educational Conference. Among the objectives laid down for it were:
i. Spread of Western education among Sikhs;
ii. Promotion of the study of Sikh literature;
iii. Improvement of Sikh educational institutions;
iv. of new educational institutions;
v. Furthering the cause of women's education among Sikhs; and
vi. Promotion of technical and agricultural education.
The first session of the Conference was held at Gujranwala on April 18-19, 1908. Under the auspices of the Sikh Educational Conference, a number of Khalsa, or Sikh, schools were opened throughout Punjab.
1873, which saw the emergence of the Singh Sabha, was a crucial date in the modern period of the Sikh history. For the Sikhs, the Singh Sabha was a great regenerating force. It articulated the inner urge of Sikhism for reform and gave it a decisive direction at a critical moment of its history, quickening its latent sources of energy. A comparison between the state of Sikhism before the Singh Sabha and since will reveal the extent of its moral effect.
The Sikh faith had waned incredibly before the first stirrings of the movement were felt. A sense of lassitude pervaded the Sikh society which had sunk back into the priest-ridden debilitating cults antithetical to Sikh belief. The teachings of the Gurus had been forgotten and the Guru Granth Sahib, confined the the Gurdwara, had become the concern only of the Bhai and the Granthi. From this condition the Singh Sabha rescued the Sikhs, bringing to them a new awareness of their past and of the essentials of their faith.
The Singh Sabha touched the very base, the mainspring of the Sikh life and resuscitated the true content of the Sikh belief and exercise. It restored to the Sikhs their creedal unity and their religious conscience. It opened for them the doors of modern progress and endowed them with the strength and adaptability to match the pressures created by new social and scientific thought.
The momentum which the Singh Sabha gave the Sikh resurgence still continues. The principal concepts and concerns of Sikhism today are those given or restored to it by the Singh Sabha. Its understanding of Sikh history, belief and tradition retains its validity. The practice and ritual it established still prevail, largely and centrally. The form of Sikhism as defined by the Singh Sabha will remain valid for generations to come.
The Singh Sabha's eagerness for promotion of education and Punjabi literature led to unprecedented activity in the fields of literature and learning. With a donation from Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha, Khalsa Printing Press was set up at Lahore. Kanwar Jagjodh Singh, a grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, started in his estate in Oudh, the Guru Nanak Printing Press. He employed several scholars with whose help he published a number of works in Punjabi.
Newspaper and tractarian writing stimulated by the Singh Sabha movement established the form of Punjabi prose, disinheriting it of the more pretentious and conventional elements. The pioneer in the line was the weekely "Khalsa Akhbar" of Gianai Jhanda Singh Faridkoti. This paper rose to its full stature under Giani Ditt Singh, who was one of the pioneers of the Singh Sabha renaissnace. He was agreat scholar and a considerable poet and especially excelled at argument, never yielding to anyone a point in polemics. He sometimes wrote the newspaper leaders and comments in Punjabi verse, too.
Another important newspaper of this period was the "Khalsa Samachar", founded by Dr. Charan Singh's son, Bhai Vir Singh. In the latter's hands, the Khalsa Samachar set up a high standard of Punjabi prose-writing and of religious discussion. Under the same patronage, the Khalsa Tract Society of Amritsar produced a series of books and tracts on Sikh lore and piety. Besides, Punjabi, there were also papers started in Urdu. Among these, two well known ones were, Bhai Maya Singh's Khalsa Gazette and Sardar Amar Singh's Loyal Gazette which later turned into the formidable Sher-i-Punjab.
Weightier works of learning on Sikh history and philosophy began to appear. Pandit Tara Singh Narotam (1822-91), a schoolman of the Nirmala order, wrote among other books a theological treatise Gurmat Nirnai Sagar (1877) as well as a lexicon of the Sikh Scriptural texts Gur Girarath Kosh, completed in 1889 and published posthumously in two volumes - the first in 1885 and the second in 1898.
His celebrated disciple, Giani Gian Singh (1822-1921), published his classical volumes on the history of the Sikhs, namely the Panth Prakash (1880) and the Twarikh Guru Khalsa (1891). Pandit Sadhu Singh (1840-1907), another Nirmala scholar, wrote about the Sikh metaphysical and philosophical concepts in his famous work Gur Sikkhia Prabhakar (1892). Giani Hazara Singh, Giani Sardul Singh, Baba Sumer Singh of Patna Sahib and Dr. Charan Singh were other eminent men of letters who enriched Sikh scholarship by their writings.
After them came Bhai Kahn Singh of Nabha (1867-1938) and Bhai Vir Singh. The former enjoyed unequal celebrity for his impeccable taste and wide learning and wrote a number of books such as Gurmat Prabhakar and the Gurmat Sudhakar, besides a comprehensive encyclopaedia of Sikh literature, the Gurushabad Ratnakar Mahan Kosh. His Hum Hindu Nahin, (We're Not Hindus), first published in 1897, reflected tellingly in its deliberately challenging title as well as in its daring argument the Singh Sabha's emphasis on Sikh identity.
Bhai Vir Singh presented the exemplary nobility and glory of Sikh character in his historical romances which have thrilled and influenced generations of Sikh readers. The Puratan Janamsakhi, which is one of the oldest biographies of Guru Nanak and which preserves the earliest style of Punjabi prose, was, with the help of the government, resurrected from the British Museum and published. Raja Bikram Singh of Faridkot, who was one of the chief protagonist of the Singh Sabha, had a commentary of the Guru Granth Sahib prepared by a distinguished synod of Sikh schoolmen of the period. This work, popularly known as the Faridkoti Tika, is the first authentic record of the traditional interpretation of the sacred texts coming down from the days of the Gurus, and is for this reason highly regarded in Sikh exegetical literature.
Some foreigners also took to the study of the Sikh religion. The India Office commissioned a German orientalist, Dr. Ernest Trumpp, to render Sikh Scripture into English. To make up for the imperfections for Trumpp's work and to assauge the Sikh sentiment hurt by the offensive tone of some of his comments, Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841-1913), a member of the Indian Civil Service, resigned his post to undertake a fresh rendering of the Guru Granth Sahib. His translations of the Sikh hymns, along with a detailed history of the period covered by the ten Gurus of the Sikhs, were published in six volumes by Oxford University Press in 1909.
Among the Sikhs who first wrote of their religion in English were Nihal Singh Suri, who published translations of the sacred hymns, and Bhagat Lakshman Singh who wrote two admirable books, Life Of Guru Gobind Singh and Sikh Martyrs. Sewaram Singh published his book on the life and teachings of Guru Nanak in 1904, and Khazan Singh, his History And Philosophy Of Sikh Religion, in 1914.
Sant Teja Singh, who had obtained his Master's Degree at Harvard University, carried on missionary work among the Sikh immigrants in the United States and in Canada. He published several tracts on Sikhism. The finest work in English came from the pen of Professor Teja Singh whose exposition of Sikhism and renderings of the holy texts such as Japuji, the Asa-di-Var and the Sukhmani (the Psalm of Peace) created a new intellectual taste in the community. Till then only one frame of reference - the Vedantic - was available for the interpretation of Sikhism. Contact with Western thought brought forth many another standpoints and insight. A fresh understanding of Sikh philosophy and tradition began to emerge through the writings of the English educated Sikh scholars.
One factor crucial to Singh Sabha's campaign for recovering Sikh identity was the re-establishment of the centrality of the Guru Granth Sahib enjoined by Guru Gobind Singh when he declared it to be the Guru after him. Known variously as Granth Sahib, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Adi Granth, Sri Adi Granth or Adi Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Guru Granth Sahib is the religious Scripture of the Sikhs as well as Guru eternal for them. The basic words in the expressions listed is Granth meaning a book, sahib and sri being honorifics, Guru indicating its status as successor in the Guruship after Guru Gobind Singh and Adi, literally original, first or primary, distinguishing it from the other sacred book of the Sikhs, Dasam Granth, which contains the poetic compositions of the Tenth Guru.
The Guru Granth Sahib is an anthology of the sacred compositions of the Gurus and some of the medieval Indian saints. The latter came from variety of class and creedal background - Hindu as well as Muslims, high caste as well as low caste. One criterion for choosing their works for the Guru Granth Sahib apparently was its tone of harmony with the teachings of the Gurus. The anthology was prepared by Guru Arjan, the Fifth Guru, in 1603-04. To it were added by Guru Gobind Singh the compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Guru.
Even before the time of Guru Arjan, pothis or books, in Gurmukhi characters, existed containing the holy utterances of the Gurus. A line in Bhai Gurdas, Var I, 32, suggests that Guru Nanak during his travels carried under his arm a book, evidently containing his own compositions. According to the Puratan Janamsakhi, he handed over such a manuscript to Guru Angad as he passed on the spiritual office to him. Two of the collections of hymns, or pothis prior to the Guru Granth Sahib are still extant. They are in the possession of the descendents of Guru Amar Das. One of the families in the line lives in Patiala and the pothi it has inherited is on view for the devotees in their home on the morning of the full-moon day every month. A collateral family which is in possession of the second pothi lives in the village of Darapur, in Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab.
RThe Gurus' bani or holy utterance was held in great veneration by the Sikhs even before the Holy Volume was compiled; also, by the Gurus themselves. It echoed the Divine Truth; it was the voice of God - "The Lord's own Word", as said by Guru Nanak in the Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Amar Das says:
vahu, vahu, bani nirankar hai tis jevad avar na koe
Hail, hail, the Word of the Guru which is Formless Lord
Himself;
There is none other, nothing else to be reckoned equal to it.
Since the day Guru Gobind Singh vested succession in it, the Guru Granth Sahib has commanded the same honour and reverence as would be due to the Guru himself. It is the focal point of Sikhs' devotion. The only object of veneration in Sikh Gurdwaras is the Guru Granth Sahib. Gurdwara is in fact that place of worship where the Guru Granth Sahib reigns. No images and idols are permitted inside a Gurudwara. The Holy Volume is opened ceremonially in the early hours of the morning after ardas or supplication. It must be enthroned, drapped in silk or other pieces of clean cloth, on a high seat on a pedestal, under a canopy. The congregation takes place in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, with the officiant, who could be anyone from among those present, sitting in attendance, with a chanvar or whisk in his hands which he keeps swinging over it in homage.
The singing of hymns by a group of musicians will go on. All the time devotees are coming and bowing before the Holy Book to pay homage and taking their seats on the ground in front. The officiant or any other learned person who will take his place behind the Guru Granth Sahib will read out a hymn and expound it for the audience. At the end of the service, the audience will stand up in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, with hands folded in front, in reverence, and one of them leading the ardas or the prayer.
At the end of the evening service, the Holy Book will be closed, again after a short prayer, and put to rest for the night. The Guru Granth Sahib is similarly kept in some Sikh homes, where a separate room is set apart for it. It is opened in the morning and put to rest in the evening in the same style and manner. Before starting the day's work, men and women will go into the room where the Guru Granth Sahib has been ceremonially installed, say a prayer in front of it and open the book at random and read the first hymn which meets the eye to obtain what is called vak or the day's lesson or order (hukam). Breviaries contain stipulated Banis from the Guru Granth Sahib which constitute daily offices and prayers of a Sikh.
A very beautiful custom is that of akhand path or uninterrupted recital of the Guru Granth Sahib from the begining to the end. Such a recital must be completed within forty eight hours. The entire Guru Granth Sahib, 1430 large pages, is read through in a continuous ceremony. This reading must go on day and night, without a moment's intermission. The relay of reciters who take turns at saying Scripture must ensure that no break occurs. As they change places at given intervals, one picks the line from his predecessor's lips and continues. When and how the custom of reciting the canon in its entirety in one continuous service began is not known. Conjecture traces it to the turbulent days of the eighteenth century when persecution scattered the Sikhs to far-off places. In those exilic days, uncertain times, the practice of accomplishing in the shortest time a reading of the Holy Book by continuous recital is believed to have originated.
Important days in the Sikh calendar are marked by akhand paath(s) in the Gurdwaras. Celebrations and ceremonies in Sikh families centre around the reading of the Holy Book. The homes are full with holiness for those two days and nights as the Guru Granth Sahib, installed with due ceremony in a room especially cleaned out for the occasion, is being recited. Apart from lending the environment sanctity, such readings make available to listeners the entire text. The listeners come as they wish and depart at their will. Thus they keep picking up parts of the bani from different portions at different times.
Without such ceremonial recitals, the Guru Granth Sahib, a large volume, would remain generally inaccessible to the laity except for bani(s) which are recited by the Sikhs as part of their daily devotion. In bereavement, families derive comfort from these pothis. Obsequies, in fact, conclude with a completed reading of the Guru Granth Sahib and prayers are offered in the presence at the end for the departed soul. There are variations on akhand path as well.
A common one is the saptahik path wherein the recital of the text is taken in parts and completed within one week. A sahj or a slow reading paath may continue for a longer time, even for months. At such paaths the Holy Book is recited or intoned, not merely read. This brings out tellingly its poetic quality and its power to move or grip the listener. But it must be listened to in silence, sitting on the floor in front of it in a reverent position.
The bani of the Guru Granth Sahib is all in the spiritual key. It is poetry of pure devotion, artistic rather than philosophical, moral rather than cerebral. It prescribes no social code, yet Guru Granth Sahib is the basis of Sikh practice as well as of Sikh devotion. It is the living source of authority, the ultimate guide for the spiritual and moral path pointed by the Gurus. Whatever is in harmony with its tenor will be acceptable; whatever not, rejectible. Guidance is sought from it on doctrine, on the tenets of the faith.
The Sikh Panth as a whole will resort to Guru Granth Sahib as will the individuals in moments of perplexity or crisis. Instance comes to mind of the early days of the Gurdwara movement aiming to reform the ritual in Sikh places of worship. On October 12, 1920, a meeting of the Sikh backward castes, sponsored by the faculty and students of Khalsa College at Amritsar, was held in the Jallianwala Bagh. The following morning some of them were taken to the Golden Temple, but the granthis in control refused to accept karah prashad or sacramental pudding they had brought as an offering and to say the ardas on their behalf.
There was an outburst of protest against this discrimination towards the so-called low caste Sikhs totally contrary to the Sikh teachings. A compromise was at last reached and it was decided that the Guru's direction be sought. The Guru Granth Sahib was, as is the custom, opened at random and the first verse on the page read was:
He receives the lowly into grace
And puts them in the path of righteous service.
Singly or in groups, in their homes or in congregations, in their places of worship, Sikhs conclude their morning and evening prayers, or prayer said at any other time as part of personal piety or of a ceremony with a supplication called ardas.Ardas is followed by the recitation of these verses:
agya bhai akal ki tabhi chalayo panth,
sabh Sikhan ko hukam hai guru manio granth.
guru granthji maniyo pargat guran ki dehi,
jo prabhu ko milibo chahai khoj shabad main lehi"
By the command of the Timeless creator,
was the Panth promulgated.
All Sikhs are hereby charged
to own the Granth as their Guru.
Know the Guru Granthji to be
the person visible of the Gurus.
They who would seek to meet the Lord
In the Word as manifested in the book shall
they discover Him.
This is the status, the significance of the Holy Book in the Sikh way of life. Restoring to the Guru Granth Sahib its central authority became the major concern of the Singh Sabha and thereby it was able to rescue the Sikh community from the crisis it faced in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
