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Umh!, Whats this?

Sangh’s blasphemy

Having systematically mounted attacks against Christians and Muslims over several years, the RSS is now provoking Sikhs in Punjab, a move which could destroy stability in that volatile state

By Patwant Singh
The RSS is yet to understand the difference between statesmanship and political 
subterfuge, possibly because it has no direct role in the governance of this multi–religious, multilingual and culturally diverse nation. Being a behind the scenes player, the RSS is unconcerned with accountability and transparency, and because of it has little time for constitutional proprieties or due process of law.  
The French President Georges Pompidou summed up the relationship between statesmen and the state rather well years ago: “A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service”.  
Whatever the label it wishes to be known by the RSS’s very reason for existence is to wrest political power in order to realise its goal of Hindutva, or Hindu self–assertion in India. To avoid the inconvenience of accounting for its actions, it has the BJP as its principal political arm so that if statesmanship is at all required of a Hindutva–oriented organisation the BJP can provide it. It is not the only organisation spawned by the RSS to help make India a theocratic state. At least a dozen others have been created too to take to the streets whenever necessary. 
According to Gyanendra Pandey, a noted Indian historian, “the Right-wing movement for Hindutva is marked by shades of McCarthyism, by its arrogant declaration of who are the natural wielders of power and by the startling ease with which it moves to a language of violence as the answer to all existing ills...” Pinpointing the real threat he says: “The greatest danger posed by the Right-wing movements is that they suppress all differences of opinion and the very possibility of debate in the name of true religion, authentic tradition, real nationalism.”  
The danger Pandey underscored is no longer a remote possibility, but a cause of everyday concern to millions whose religious beliefs are anathema to Hindutva’s proponents. Having systematically mounted attacks against Christians and Muslims over several years — through violence against their religious beliefs and places of worship – the RSS is now provoking Sikhs in Punjab, a move which could destroy stability in that volatile state.
Sikhism — one of the world’s six great religions — exercises a magnetic hold over the hearts and minds of its followers. Being the youngest, its antecedents are not lost in myths and legends. On the contrary the valour, courage, sacrifices and zest with which the founding Gurus and their followers laid down their lives in defence of their faith, are remembered with pride. And daily recitations from the Guru Granth Sahib are listened to reverently everyday in Gurdwaras and homes all over India and abroad.
The vitality of institutions which represent the Sikh faith has in no way weakened and by trifling with them the RSS is betraying a brashness, which — aside from unleashing bloody violence once again in the nation’s vulnerable northern reaches –could end up threatening the Republic¹s very existence. This is not as far–fetched as it may seem; it is a distinct possibility if the mindless folly of the RSS’s recent moves in Punjab is not realised in time. A look at the tenets of the Sikh faith would explain why.
 When Guru Nanak founded the Sikh faith in the fifteenth century it was at a time when Hinduism and Islam, the subcontinent’s two dominant religions were, set on a collision course. Nanak’s philosophical bent of mind led him on a search for an alternative, a new faith — a tisar panth – which would draw on the basic compassion of Hinduism and the essential brotherhood of Islam to evolve a faith which would wean people away from idolatry and the pernicious caste system on the one hand, and from fanatical attitudes which made people destroy temples and idols on the other.  
Far from being against established religions Nanak travelled for twenty–eight years to some of the great centres of learning for exchanges with scholars, thinkers and mystics of different faiths, to understand from their beliefs, insights and convictions and to clarify his own thinking.
Nanak’s travels took him as far afield as Tibet, Kabul and Mecca, and to Hardwar, Benares, Kamrup (Assam), Jagannath (Orissa), southern India and Ceylon — not a small feat considering the distances and hazards involved. His encounters with men of learning helped him to crystallise his own ideas and give sharper definition to the contours of the faith he was developing. Faith in one God.  Not a God with a physical form but an amalgam of truth, integrity, courage and enlightened thinking. An inner God present in every person. Not the property of a few purveyors of priestly wisdom but of all living beings. 
What emerged as the bedrock of Sikh beliefs — the word Sikh evolved from the Sanskrit term shishya, which means a disciple or devoted follower — were these tenets of the new faith: equality between all Sikhs and rejection of the pervasive caste system; complete parity between men and women and as an extension of this reform the practice of sati was abolished, widows could remarry, women did not have to wear veils, and they could head manjis — the equivalent of ecclesiastical districts. 
The institution of langar or community kitchen was also established in which Sikh men and women would cook, serve, eat and keep the kitchens clean. It was another way of enabling congregations to overcome caste prejudices which prevented the higher and lower castes from eating together. The practice of voluntary service evolved into the ideal of sewa, or service rendered to humanity. Since God in Sikhism does not have a physical form but is seen as present in each human being, time taken out for sewa is considered a form of worship, of humanity. Sewa and worship are sanctified by tradition and tenet to encourage a caring attitude towards human beings irrespective of caste or creed.  
Since God was an ideal and not a physical entity the worship of idols — or butprasti —was prohibited. In time these cardinal principles of the faith were incorporated in their sacred scriptures called the Granth Sahib. This holy book includes the writings of some of the ten Sikh Gurus who founded the Sikh faith, as also the writings of several Hindu and Muslim saints and sufis of those times like Farid, Namdeva, Sain, Kabir, Ravi Das and others. 
The entire volume is set in 31 classical ragas so that the rationality of thought is rendered lyrically. When the tenth and last Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa — or the baptised Sikhs — in 1699, he enjoined his followers before his death to look to the Granth Sahib as the supreme guru after him. They were to worship wisdom and knowledge from then on, not an individual.
By elevating the Granth Sahib to the status of a guru, a unique concept of leadership was introduced which has worked admirably over the centuries. Sikhs have looked to it for spiritual direction ever since: whether in triumph or tragedy, rejoicing or grief. They have found philosophical answers in it to their many vexing questions.  
(The size of the Guru Granth Sahib is fixed at 1430 pages for every single copy, anywhere in the world).
No wonder then that Sikhs today are outraged at the RSS’s move to install the Guru Granth Sahib in Hindu temples under the false garb of wanting to worship it, and to thereby pre–empt a uniquely venerated symbol of the Sikh faith into the fold of Hindu beliefs. Nothing could be more outrageous from the Khalsa’s point of view. The Sikh code of conduct and conventions are strictly observed in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, and the traditions and rules which govern the Sikh way of approaching this exalted emblem of their faith are inflexible, requiring absolute adherence to the norms laid down. 
The very idea of seeing their venerated Guru Granth Sahib in a setting other than that of a Gurdwara where all the proprieties are strictly observed, adhered to, is enough to inflame Sikh passions. They are equally incensed at efforts to give the Dasam Granth a status it does not possess, and to attribute to Sikh Gurus observations they never made.  
Is it wise of the RSS, or of any other group, to bruise Sikh sensitivities to this extent?  And to what end? To enable the RSS to lay claim to Sikhism as a part of Hinduism?  Each religion was shaped by the influences, perceptions, insights and understanding of the times during which the central idea evolved as a separate entity; a new philosophical concept. Sikhism has drawn from the many wise ways of the Hindus as it has from those of the Muslims, Sufis and Buddhists. But does it mean it is a subsidiary of any of these? To suggest that is to invite trouble and Sikhs can be quite troublesome if they are needlessly provoked.  The RSS would do well to make careful note of this.