By Gurnam Singh | Opinion
Brave, honest and sobering piece by my good friend Gurmukh Singh. He refers to a prediction by Khushwant Singh that the Sikh Panth would be virtually finished by the end of the 20th Century. Though his prediction did not materialise, it is correct to say that the Panth is in a state of existential crisis. This might sound surprising given the vast networks of marble-clad Gurdwaras, not only in Panjab but across India and the world. But, using computer science language, it’s a case of, ‘our hardware’ appears to be in good shape, but our ‘software’ is outdated and riddled with viruses!
As Gurmukh Singh rightly notes, “Sikh parcharaks lack the education and missionary zeal to respond to the falsehood about Sikhi being spread by non-Sikh preachers often in Sikhi sarup! Meanwhile, vast Sikh resources are being wasted on marble-clad, gold-plated Gurdwaras as Sikh heritage buildings and artefacts are being neglected or destroyed”.
So the question we face is, what is to be done? There are two different mechanisms, both of which have proven to be effective in reviving Sikhi. As we saw with the historic kirsani (farmer) movement, the first is that we simply wait for the next state-sponsored attack, and we react accordingly! The problem with this is that such periods of successful struggle or ‘sangarsh’ are often followed by decades of conflict and decline.
The other mechanism, as was so powerfully demonstrated by the Singh Sabha Movement of the early 20th Century, is to develop a turbocharged education strategy to research and teach Sikhi through identifying the clear and timeless principles and applying these to the global challenges of our time; crime, poverty, discrimination, inequality, justice, environmental degradation, racism and other forms of oppression, hunger, all kinds of violence, corruption and ignorance.
This is a tall order because the present tekhedar’s (incumbents) of our Panth have very little interest in upsetting a very successful financial model, which feeds the Sikh masses all kinds of superstitious, ritualistic faith, and in return, keeps the money flowing into the gholaks (collection).
So, part of the strategy must be to either dislodge the Pujari’s, which, given most Sikh preachers, directly or indirectly, are on their payroll, will prove to be a difficult task. The other option is to take a lead from the Singh Sabha scholars, and that is to bypass the ‘Pujari’s’ and, through modern communication methods, social media, university spaces, and other community spaces, put forward a Gurbani centred progressive rethinking of Sikhi for the contemporary age. That does not mean disposing of traditional Sikh literature, but it does mean new and more critically informed readings of it.
I think intellectuals such as Gurmukh Singh and others, along with progressive publishing houses, such as Asia Samachar, can lead the way, but we must expand the intellectual base to avoid even intellectuals becoming the modern-day Pujari’s.
Gurnam Singh is an academic activist dedicated to human rights, liberty, equality, social and environmental justice. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Warwick, UK. He can be contacted at Gurnam.singh.1@warwick.ac.uk
* This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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