Guru Gobind Singh gifted vigour to a
dead society
By Surjit Singh Hans

IN 1999 the world is going to celebrate the tercentenary of the foundation of the Khalsa. The event has a worldwide importance. Firstly, because the Sikhs have spread all over the world. Sikhism is a world religion. But more importantly, the foundation of the Khalsa has a universal significance because the event addresses a problem of mankind.

Theologically the ritual (amrit-samskar) makes the Sikh spiritually immortal. Apart from this, there is a sociological angle to it.

The foundation of the Khalsa, sociologically, means that the ‘dead’ of society dare to join the ‘living’. The manuscript, Jassa Singh Binod, a historical account of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, makes it clear that in the 18th century only the wielder of violence was human, and the victim was supposedly dead. The rule of violence stopped with zamindars and muquaddams. Down below the kamins or working castes had no recourse to violence. Violence and class intertwined. The dovetailing of administration and land use ensured that only the Zamindars, Jagirdars and Ijaradars had the monopoly of violence. Along with extra-social lawlessness, violence was an anthropological characteristic of society.

In B-40, Janamsakhi (1733) the richest picture is that of Bhola, the robber, who shared his meals with 500 horsemen (i.e. the robbers).

The said manuscript makes out that Ahmed Shah Abdali asked the father of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia to exchange his life of dacoity for the governorship of Punjab. In 1818 the British made a Pindari chief the Nawab of Tonk as a tactic to put an end to thugee in India.

The contemporary army was followed by a host of robbers, called vahir. From crossing over the Sutlej to reaching Delhi the numbers could swell five-fold.

A person lost his manhood after defeat to become destructible. General Barkhurdar lost to the Sikhs, went to see Abdali, who got him killed. Amir Khan, Sarbuland Khan and Nabi Khan were wiser in seeking refuge in Hindustan (northern India ) after losing.

Ahluwalia was himself arrested by Mali Singh Ramgarhia. "... Ahluwalia regained consciousness ... he neither ate nor drank ... Sorely dejected he stopped wearing the sword ... The Sikh sardars like Ganda Singh Bhangi, Jai Singh Ghaniyya, Gujjar Singh etc told him that they wield sword because of his potence. All the sardars requested him to wear arms ..."

In a famine the starving people are described as "humble, beggarly, ordinary men". After the Sikh victory over Punjab "the humble and the Hindus" are said to be rejoicing.

That the ordinary man is dead has consequence in two other institutions of society. The idea behind begar, unpaid labour, is that the dead cannot receive money. Even today an artisan would offer to forego payment for minor repairs.

The verbs used for collecting an army, skelan, batorn, also denote a ‘heap’. The proverbial rout of an army is, in part, a consequence of the nature of the ‘dead’.

A physical person is not the same as a social individual. Turban, beard, tilak, nails mark the boundary between social and the natural.

In ancient India an impotent man could not be a witness in a court of law. There is no such prohibition today. During the sultanate a slave could not be a king unless he was formally freed by the caliph. In mediaeval times a person with a defective body could not be a ruler. That is why the rivals to imperial throne were routinely blinded.

Even today a child is not fully human. He is buried, not cremated. The beggars are the citizens of the country but not the ones of society.

In pre-British writings on politics servants are called ‘dead’. (Only the lucky ones rose to be servants). "The servant is as light as a dog ... He is always hungry... He is a corpse by the door... He joins the living only when he lays down his life for the master".

Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa with his gift of violence to the ‘dead’ of society. Bhai Santokh Singh writes of the ‘martial’ Jats in the 19th century in his Suraj Parkash (p. 5227). "The Jats are daily Kamin. They become lions after taking pahul. They wear sword, gun, hair and breeches. They shout their challenge to think little of kings and emperors". The Five Beloveds, the first Sikhs who offered to give their heads to be the Khalsa of Guru Gobind Singh, tell the Guru of their social background. "We are kamin, poor, beggarly, dependent, weak and comfortless" (5059).

Recently I was surprised to find Sikh scholars worrying over the change from Charn Pahul to Khande Di Pahul. In Sikhism the Guru is God. Linguistically the Guru has risen to be Waheguru (God). The Pahul (water of transformation) from the charn of the Guru is symbolically from the foot of God. Guru Gobind Singh theologically changed God into "death, great death, sword, one whose banner is sword". Bhai Vir Singh equates ‘one whose banner is sword, kirpan-ketu with Akal Purakh’ (4899).

The Sikh prayer begins with prithm bhagauti simrke, first remembering sword ... Before parshad is distributed a sword is moved in it along with the words ‘may you (God) partake of it’. God as sword shares food with his worshippers. The anthropological ideas is that spiritual essence can be had in common only on the condition of sharing food. The idea was current in the 19th century Africa. It is still current in parts of the world.

Repeating the words of Jassa Singh Binod: "The Khalsa wields sword because of God’s omnipotence". That is why Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh — the Khalsa belongs to God, to Him belongs the victory — of the Sikh salutation is truer than is often realised.

Guru Gobind Singh raised violence to the level of theology. His vision of violence is profounder than any modern revolutionary, say Frantz Fanon. This is not an excuse for vain glory but an opportunity to exercise the Sikh virtue of man nivan mat uchchi, humility in highmindedness, daily prayer for to God. The point is to explore our own tradition.

The foundation of the Khalsa in the sense of capacity for violence has a modern context. Violence in the 18th century was physically obvious.