By Karminder Singh Dhillon | The Sikh Bulletin |
Why are Sikh religious leaders within Punjab infatuated with the notion of increasing the percentage of Sikh population within the state? Why are they fixated on the view that the number of Sikhs in Punjab are dwindling? Are they really concerned about the welfare of Sikhs and the future of Punjab? Or is there something else at play here? A look at the reasoning behind three calls by three leaders will help shed some light on the issue.
In May 2024, the head of Dera Chowk Mehta, known as Damdami Taksal from the 1970s onwards, Harnam Singh Dhuma called on Sikh families to have at least five children. He added that if the families could not afford to raise the children, then four of them should be handed over to the Dera to be brought up. He said that his organization would raise and nurture all these children. “You should not limit yourself to one child, otherwise, in the coming times, Sikhs will be a minority and will suffer,” he said.
He added that his Dera would transform children handed over to them as Sikh preachers who would promote the religion in an effective manner.
In August 2023, then Takht Damdama Sahib Jathedar and former Akal Takhat Interim Jathedar Harpreet Singh called on members of the Sikh community to not migrate from Punjab. He was concerned that the Sikh population within the state was dwindling due to migration and that such a trend was bad for the state.
In May of 2015, then Akal Takhat Jathedar Gurbachan Singh had called on every Sikh family to have at least 4 children. Facing criticism – both for the suggestion and for his dubious reasons behind the call, he doubled down during a media conference a few days later and said “it is easier for parents to discipline many children than just one.”
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The Hindustan Times, on May 16, 2015 reported Gurbachan Singh as saying: “Sikhs have followed the national family planning concept religiously and limited their numbers.” He added that “We adopted the two-child theory first and single-child idea now. It has done more harm than good to the community.
Single children get an overdose of love and affection, which spoils them, eroding human values and family discipline,” he explained. The Jathedar further claimed that in the “good old days”, families had three, four, or even more children; with no favorites and everyone treated equally and kept in check. “If one of the four children turns out to be bad, there still are three good ones; but when a single child goes astray, it shatters the family,” he contended.
THE HOLLOWNESS OF IT ALL.
All three calls by all three religious leaders are just different shades of a hollowness that rings loud and clear – even if disguised as being driven by “Sikh anxieties or panthik trepidations”.
They are empty calls devoid of sound logic, proper reasoning, and rigorous rationality. Jathedar Gurbachan Singh could not be bothered about the economic consequences of having large families and its impact on society. He had no answer to the criticism that his call – if implemented – would aggravate unemployment and make agricultural land holdings smaller.
Interim Jathedar Harpreet Singh did not appear concerned that Sikhs who migrated out of Punjab did so for pressing and legitimate reasons – chief amongst which being the inability of Sikhs to find gainful employment within Punjab – even if they had acquired decent education. Many a Sikh family had found it financially sound to spend their money to send their children out of Punjab rather than pay huge sums of money to corrupt officials to secure employment in Punjab. Harpreet Singh did not think that the push factors were as strong, if not stronger than the pull factors.
Harnam Singh Dhumma appeared least perturbed by the fact that if every family handed him four children to be turned into Sikh preachers, what would be the future of these “un-employable” persons. Is he trying to tell us that Sikh organizations have a severe shortage of Sikh preachers and are waiting for Dhuma’s outfit to produce them? Or is Dhumma merely concerned about keeping his dying outfit relevant? In any case, wouldn’t Dhuma’s call be going against the “don’t migrate” call of Harpreet Singh? After all, large numbers of Sikh parcharaks are lining up to migrate overseas – to fill up positions at diaspora Gurdwaras or become truck drivers or fast food join workers in Western countries.
All three calls by all three religious leaders are also not based on facts and figures. The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India had reported that the percentage of Sikh polulations had increased by 1.24% over the period of 1950 to 2015, while that of Hindus declined by 7.82%. So, if its anyone whose religious leaders should be sounding the alarm, it ought to be ones of Hindu organizations.
Sikhs have finally come to realize that they served the function of being regularly called to the streets to take part in protests, agitations and demonstrations for an unending but unproductive slew of issues and demands. Sikh youth especially have realized that the time has come for them to put their own interests above those of their religious leaders. Migration out of Punjab is perhaps one solution for our youth. It may well be that the crux of the worry of our religious leaders is that they have become generals without an army to command.
Come to think of it; what’s the use of fussing to increase the population of Sikhs in Punjab, if large number of Sikhs are eventually going to fall prey to the colossal onslaught of religious conversion that is taking place in Punjab now. Given that these Sikh religious leaders are either un-concerned about this monumental shift in the religious demographics of Punjab; or actually have no response to it – are they even genuine in their concerns over the dwindling Sikh population in Punjab? After all, our religious leaders have told the Sikh world that there really is no such problem of religious conversion. It only concerns the “lower castes” and this group has no relevance within the designs and parameters of our religious leaders. It may well be that our religious leaders are losing their relevance within the parameters of Punjab and Sikhism – hence their nonsensical calls.
Sikh thinker, writer and parcharak Karminder Singh Dhillon, PhD (Boston), is a retired Malaysian civil servant. He is the joint-editor of The Sikh Bulletin and author of The Hijacking of Sikhi. This article appeared in the The Sikh Bulletin – 2024 Issue 3 (July-September 2024). Click here to retrieve archived copies of the bulletin. The author can be contacted at dhillon99@gmail.com.
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