Sikhism: A march from Polytheism to Monotheism
Scene1:
It was a pleasant morning in Kodungallur (Malabar area of Kerala) in year 629. King Cheraman Perumal was presiding over affairs of royal court. A group of Arabian men wearing cotton Kandura (traditional Arabian dress) were seen among visitors. A minister informed king that these Arabian traders are regular visitors to Kodungallur for many years now. Most of these traders had learnt to speak local language as well. The group handed over big bouquets of gifts brought especially from Arabia. Perumal asked if their stay in Kodungallur was comfortable. After sharing of their general wellbeing in Kodungallur, traders mentioned that sometimes they do miss their family. They also mentioned that being Moslem they prey five times a day and miss the Masjid (prayer room), where they could recite Kalma and read holy book Koran (By the time of death of Prophet Mohammed in 632AD, all revelations of Koran were already in place). King Perumal immediately ordered his officials to allow use of defunct and abandoned Buddhist shrine of Kodungallur as Masjid. So as goodwill gesture of King, the very first monotheist place of worship was setup in land of polytheism.
Polytheist king Perumal had no idea that from same Masjid, these traders were declaring supremacy of their god and his messenger, five times a day, in following prayer (Azaan)
Allahuu Akbar Allahuu Akbar (ALLAH is Most Great. ALLAH is Most Great)-4 times
Aashhadu Aanna Muhammadar rasulul-lah (I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of ALLAH)-2 times
Haiya ‘Alal-falah (Come to prayer)-4 times
Aasaalaatu Khaayrum Minan-Nauum. (Prayer is better than sleep)-2 times
Allahuu Akbar (ALLAH is Most Great)-2 times
Laa ilaaha Illal-Laah. (There is no god except ALLAH)
Scene 2:
Between 13th to 15th centuries, many sea expeditions from Europe tried to reach India without success. Finally a Portuguese sailor Vasco Da Gama somehow reached African port of Malindi (present day Kenya), on 14 April 1498. He found many Indian traders with their big ships lined up at port. In general conversation, he informed them about purpose of his voyage. He mentioned that he was on mission to find a sea route to India for trade that would avoid hostile land route of Arabian Desert. Anecdotal story is that renowned Gujarati sailor Kanji Malam and Gujarati trader Chandan, who owned large fleet of ships, guided Vasco Da Gama’s ship from Malindi to Calicut, (now Kozhikode). In those days Calicut was the biggest and busiest trading ports under control of Monarch-Zamorin (Samoothiri). (Samoorithi of Calicut is also mentioned in memoirs of famous Arabian traveller Ibn-Batuta). Veteran sailor Kanji Malam and Samoorithi of Malabar had little inkling that the voyager whom they have invited on Indian soil would sow seeds of India’s colonization. Goa inquisition, massacre of native polytheists in Konkani region from 1546 to 1812 on requested by Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier through a letter dated 16 May 1546 to King John III of Portugal was direct culmination of welcoming Vasco Da Gama by polytheist of India. Again in supremacist cult of Christianity, presence of polytheist non-kinsman even as masses was intolerable. (A historical document St. Francis Xavier-Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543 sheds much light on hate for native-polytheist Francis and Christians had. Quote “As to the numbers who become Christians, you may understand them from this, that it often happens to me to be hardly able to use my hands from the fatigue of baptizing: often in a single day I have baptized whole villages. Sometimes I have lost my voice and strength altogether with repeating again and again the Credo and the other forms. The fruit that is reaped by the baptism of infants, as well as by the instruction of children and others, is quite incredible. These children, I trust heartily, by the grace of God, will be much better than their fathers. They show an ardent love for the Divine law, and an extraordinary zeal for learning our holy religion and imparting it to others. Their hatred for idolatry is marvellous. They get into feuds with the heathen about it, and whenever their own parents practise it, they reproach them and come off to tell me at once. Whenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place with a large band of these children, who very soon load the devil with a greater amount of insult and abuse than he has lately received of honor and worship from their parents, relations, and acquaintances. The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them down, break them to pieces, spit on them, trample on them, kick them about, and in short heap on them every possible outrage.” Unquote)
**It is important to mention here some sentences of Catholic prayer Nicene Creed that must have influenced St. Francis to get Goa inquisition done
I believe in one God, Father, the Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
Of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
The only-begotten Son of God,
Born of the Father before all ages,
God from God, Light from Light,
True God from true God,………….
……….I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins…….**
If king Perumal of Kodungallur, Samoorithi of Calicut, sailor Kanji Malam and Gujarati trader Chandan could somehow transcend through time in today’s 21st century Kerala, Konkan and Goa, they would have definitely repented their decision to extend hospitality to strangers.
Above two stories from annals of history are quoted to make a general observation about interaction of polytheists with monotheist cults- once monotheist-hawks enter a habitat of polytheist-doves masking their real intent, extermination of polytheists and usurpation of their properties including their knowledge is the end result. Abrahamic sects and their followers bear supremacist and intolerant attitude towards non-kinsman. They use all means including extreme violence to decimate non-kinsmen.
As any civilization progresses, societal transformation builds pressure on the civilization to upgrade old traditions and values. A tug of war would start between old traditional practices and values that have expired their shelf life and new transformational forces. A tradition/way of life/ way of worship frozen in time but firmly adhered to in later age is anachronistic and unacceptable. In Indic thought system nothing is frozen in historical time. Rama is Yugpurush (role-model) of Treta Yug (around 14000BC) while Krishna having contrasting persona is Yugpurush of Dwapar Yug (around 7000BC). As time progress, new spiritual/cultural leaders emerge, who help upgrade society to face new challenges of their times.
Born in Nankana Sahib (Now part of Pakistan), Guru Nanak lived (1469–1539) during gloomiest era for polytheists of sub-continent. Native civilization was collapsing from both internal and external pressures. Internally, traditional division of society kept majority of people out of warfare and defense related work. Pacifism of Buddhism and Jainism on society had already created a large pool of people, who neither had ability nor had the will to defend themselves from any aggression. Externally repeat attacks of ferocious barbarian clans from west and north kept pushing these decapacitated polytheists towards south and east of sub-continent. In those difficult times, Guru Nanak’s spiritual and community uniting messages acted like ray of hope in dark tunnel for demoralised masses. By invoking Ek-Omkar from Vedas- Ekam-Sat-Vipra-Bahudha-Vadanti, “There is only one truth (or true being) and learned persons call it by many names.” Guru tried to spiritually unite all polytheists. By conducting langar (community kitchen) Guru helped in reducing social divisions and conflict among different strata of society. These simple ideas of Guru Nanak helped in survival of Indic civilization in tough times. Arrival of new Gurus on scene after Nanak kept the Indic tradition of upgrade of civilization alive. 10th Guru Gobind Singh ji(1666–1708), who was a great scholar of Hindu scriptures, compiled best teachings of Gurus and other saints in poetic form as Dasham Granth that included hymns, mythological tales from Hindu texts. Guru Gobind Singh ordained Dasham Granth (Guru Granth Sahib) as his successor, ending the line of human Gurus. He also formalised five-K identity principles for Khalsa in 1699. Here inadvertently Guru led the Sikh-sect on path of Abrahamism Upgrade in tradition and values of Sikh-sect was not possible now. As sectarianism and supremacism are in DNA of Abrahamic sects, it was matter of time only similar behavior would finally make inroads among Khalsa followers.
Transformation of Gurudwaras from spiritual centers to political power centres would be next change that happened. Old traditions among Khatris of erstwhile Punjab to donate elder son for Khalsa/Sikh cause died ignominious death. Later British colonisers recognised importance of sikh warriors in their mission. In 1846 they created dedicated infantry of Sikh regiment to fight local kings and Mughal lords. Along with Gorkha regiment (estd. 1815) and Jat regiment (estd. 1795) this warrior class was also on payroll of British masters.
After 1857 revolt of natives against British failed, colonial masters understood need to chop civilizational roots that nurtured sense of unity and also gave resistance. Post revolt many policies and laws were introduced to meet those objectives. Initiated by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and recommended by Lord Macaulay much before revolt, new education policy was implemented to produced brown skin Englishmen who would hate natives with renewed vigour. (More details can be read in this blog post )
To please farmers of Punjab consisting mostly Jat Sikhs and Muslims, and help consolidate their land possession, British colonialists enacted The Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900 that allowed perpetual rights of land to landowners of above two communities. Now farm land could not be owned by other classes. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 was next move to recognize Sikh sect as separate monotheist religion. Much like the Pope of Vatican controlling Christianity sect across whole world, this Sikh sect was now under control of SGPC-Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak committee (supreme management committee). British ensured through enactment of this act, every Sikh who was a Hindu and Sikh at the same time, was no more Hindu. Control of land as most valuable resource in agricultural economy of those times with control of Gurudwaras as political power centers, ensured that alienation of affluent Sikhs from Indic roots was only a matter of time.
First unintended effect of above concentration of economic and political power was that condition of poor, mainly dalit and artisan classes among Sikhs, deteriorated over time. They became pariah in power centers being controlled by rich Jat Sikhs. In excellent Indian Express article on subject, author Nadini Rathi writes “Deras or sects are as old as the Sikh faith itself. While their followers come from every caste, they are mainly dominated by Dalits and other backward classes. Modern Sikhism, which promised to get rid of untouchability, failed to provide that social equality in practice.” She further explains “Not only have the landless Dalit Sikhs been dependent on big landowning Jat farmers for farming employment, they were also treated unequally in the Jat Gurdwaras. The resulting vacuum was occupied by more traditional offshoots and by anti-Sikh deras, who provided support to these marginalised communities”. Rich Jat Sikhs despise Deras as these Deras challenge their monopoly position in socio-economic milieu of Punjab.
Second unintended effect of concentration of economic and political power among Jat Sikhs was that poor and landless sikh now became the best fodder for evangelists to lure them to Christianity through inducements and miracles. A twitter handle @noconversion has exposed these mass scale conversion activities in Punjab. Youtube channel Ankur Narula Ministries claiming to be the biggest and fastest growing church in north India provides further glimpse into it. In yet another scholarly article, author Arvinadan Neelkandan tracks underlying reasons of evangelisation of dalit Sikhs of Punjab.
So in aggregate, Punjabi affluent Jat Sikh’s alienation comes from sense of supremacist identity found in every monotheistic sect. Periodic call for Khalistan is part of this superamism. Alienation of peasant class of Sikhs would happen due to rise of Christianity in Punjab.
Again, if Guru Govid Singh ji could access a time machine to be in Gurudwara of Shri Patna Saheb on 26th January 2021, other thoughts must have crossed his mind about proclamation to end Guru as spiritually focused person parampara (tradition).
