India is not a Hindu Rashtra
Sikh Organizations: India not a Hindu Rashtra
Ram Puniyani
RSS ideologues and leaders
regularly keep stating that India is a Hindu Rashtra. This has been most
annoying for the religious minorities, particularly Muslims, Sikhs and all
those believing in Indian Constitution. This Dussera; when RSS supremo Mohan
Bhagwat; in his hour long speech reiterated the same formulation, a large
number of Sikh organizations and intellectuals showed their opposition to it
and at many a places protests has been planned against this statement.
Editorials in prominent Punjabi
newspapers like Punjabi Tribune and Nawa Zamana criticized the statement in
strong terms. While the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and the
Shromani Akali Dal (SAD) which is a constituent of the NDA and has been an ally
of BJP also gave strong reaction to the statement of Mr. Bhagwat. Giani Harpreet
Singh, the acting jathedar (head priest)
of Akal Takht said that he believes
the RSS’s actions will create divisions in the country. “The statements being
made by RSS leaders are not in the country’s interests,” he told the media in
Amritsar on Monday. Also Punjab Lok Morcha chief Amolak Singh stronger
language to point out that the statement was part of a bigger conspiracy and
must ring alarm bells.
This strong reaction against
Bhagwat’s statement from Sikh organizations has a reason behind it. Sikhs are
being projected as part of Hinduism by RSS so this strong reaction from these
organizations. This is not the first time that Sikhs are showing such a
reaction. One recalls that in the past also similar statements from Hindu
nationalist organizations have drawn such an opposition and criticism. In year
2000 when K. Sudarshan was the Sarsanghchalak he went on to say that Sikhism is
a sect
of Hindu religion and Khalsa was created to protect Hindus from Mughal
tyranny. RSS has also floated an organization, Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, to co-opt
Sikhism into the fold of Hinduism. Even earlier there were protests in Punjab.
The origin of Sikhism with Sant
Guru Nanak has been one of the major phenomenons of Sixteenth Century in India.
Guru Naka’s teachings came in the backdrop of prevalent Brahmanism to which he
and his successors were opposed. Sikhism’s
teachings drew from Bhakti-Sufi saints in particular. The latter were for
egalitarian values away from the Brahmanical rigidities and inequalities
dictated by them. Guru Nanak was inspired by Saint Kabir and Baba Farid in
particular. Sikhism drew from diverse sources, the teachings which focused on
humanism and equality of all beings. Nanak denounced orthodox practitioners of
Islam as well as Hinduism and placed his emphasis on the vibrant intercommunity
relationships based on the subaltern versions of Islam and Hinduism. His
teachings at one level are a synthesis of the values of both the religions like
reincarnation and the doctrine of Karma from Hinduism and oneness of God and
congregation in worship from Islam. Sikh Gurus opposed Caste, worship of Cow
and sacred thread. As this religion evolved it developed its own identity with
Guru Granth Sahib as its major tome and other practices which had deep roots in
intercommunity interactions.
The assertion of RSS about
Sikhsim being sect of Hinduism is a part of political agenda of Hindu
nationalism. It begins with the definition of Hindu by Savarkar, where Hindu is
one for whom the land spread from Sindhu river to seas is their holy land and
father land. This definition cleverly puts Muslims and Christians separate from
the groups of people who own this land. Going further Islam and Christianity,
despite their being very old were labeled as ‘foreign religions’. The attempt
was to bring together all non Muslims-non Christians in a political mobilization
for Hindu nation.
With time due to the political
contingencies the definitions kept changing. As initially the word Hindu was
used for this land spread from Sindhu River to the seas, the attempt is also on
to co-opt all others in to the fold of Hindutva politics, in this direction now
even Muslims and Christians are now called as Hindus in their scheme of things.
This is a clever maneuver. First to call everybody as Hindus and then to impose
the Hindu identity symbols: Cow, Gita, Ganga, Lord Ram: on them as their
deities. This is a political intervention into the realm of religion. Murali
Manohar Joshi, when he became President of BJP (1990), cleverly put that all
the Muslims are Ahmadiya Hindus and all Christians are Christi Hindus.
The problems with their
formulations are multiple. The confusions which they try to create are also
multiple. The Jains demanding minority status had been a long struggle. The
followers of Buddhism or Sikhism in no way can forget or give up their own
religious identity. Earlier also attempts were made to undermine Sikh identity
and Punjabi language. In the face of that Bhai Kahan Singh wrote a book, “Hum
Hindu nahin” (we are not Hindus). While RSS cabal wants to call them Keshdhari
Hindus (Hindus who are not cutting their hairs, long hairs and beard), Sikhs
own self perception is that of being Sikhs at religious level.
So many a Sikhs ideologues have
clearly stated that each Indian should follow their own religion and RSS should
not try to impose the Hindu norms on Sikhs, whose traditions have been very
syncretic and away from Brahmanical norms. It is in line of this that Guru
Granth Sahib draws from Saint Tradition, Sufi and Bhakti both. One recalls that
it was Miyan Mir who was invited to lay the foundation stone of Golden temple,
the major Sikh Shrine, where intercommunity meals mark the unity of communities
away from caste and religious boundaries.
Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an arm of
RSS is active in Punjab in propagating that Sikhism is a sect of Hinduism. RSS agenda
of Hindutva, Hindu nationalism, which has Brahmanical values at its base, is
far away from what Sikhism stands for, so no wonder that most of the Sikh
groups and ideologues are standing in unison to oppose the statement that India
is a Hindu Rashtra.
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