In your very popular Debate on the “Slow death of Sikhism”, Sister K.K. Sidhu (DV Dec.16, 2000 p.8: “Did Dalit Sikhs give up efforts to rescue Sikhism?”) has expressed her serious worry over the Chandigarh seminar on “Casteism in Sikhism” organised by Sardar Gurtej Singh, IAS, Prof. Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon and retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Kuldip Singh, and other top Dalit intellectuals on Nov.4, 2000. The seminar had poor representation from Dalits and SC/ BC Sikhs.
Sister Sidhu has mainly pinpointed my absence from that seminar which was organised to discuss the social position of Dalits and Dalit Sikhs in the Sikh society. The seminar was addressed by our Editor, V.T. Rajshekar.
She was right in criticising the absence of Dalit Sikhs. I felt sorry for my absence. Dr. Sidhu says:
We went to Chandigarh to find out how the eminent Sikh intellectuals at the seminar would react to the two-year-long DV Debate on “Slow death of Sikhism” and concludes: “But at the end of the two-day seminar we had to revise our opinion”,
Why did she have to revise her opinion? Because she says:
Sikhism is not facing slow death. It is actually dead.
She is very much nearer to the prevailing truth. When she is right in her conclusion, why should she worry about my absence?
Dalit Sikhs lose faith: She is right in saying that the subject of the seminar, “Caste in Sikhism”, was of paramount importance. Why then the Dalit Sikhs were not represented at the seminar? Why? Because the Dalit Sikhs have lost faith in the upper caste Sikhs. Justice Kuldip Singh presided over the seminar on the Dalit Sikh problem. He was also the president of World Sikh Council. But his famous judgment on reservations to SC/BC was a big disappointment. His judgment went against the interests of the entire Dalit community.
Being a Sikh, a great religion committed to the human rights of the oppressed, this eminent judge should not have given a judgment to please the Brahmins. One-fourth of the Indian population was deeply disturbed by his pro-Brahmin verdict.
He is said to be a staunch Sikh and follower of Guru Nanak who left his caste supremacy, condemned the Brahmin and his brahminism and became a real friend of Dalit. He declared four Dalits — Bhai Mardana (a Maraasi), Bhai Lalo (a carpenter), Bhai Sheehan (a tailor) and Bhai Konda (OBC tribal Bheel) -—as his supreme companions. Guru Nanak praised Sant Namdev, Sant Kabir, Sant Ravidass and Sant Sain, all SC/BC Dalit saints. He sang their bani. He spread his revolution ail over India and abroad. That is why Nanak became Guru Nanak, and he was followed by other gurus who discarded their caste (Khatris) and merged with Dalits.
Such a follower of Guru Nanak stabbed the Dalits in the back by his infamous judgment. How could ‘ the Dalits come to listen to such people who stood for the supremacy of the super castes? What hope could we expect from such people so much divorced from the reality of life?
Sikh identity lost: Reservations are not a question of a just few jobs and promotions. It is an important weapon to fight the Brahminical Social Order and confer human rights on the deprived destitutes. Our Constitution also came from Sikh philosophy of our if saints and gurus.
But this famous Sikh judge of the Supreme Court, who claimed to be a devout Sikh, go against the spirit of the Constitution and thereby violated the dictates of the Sikh gurus?
If ever the Manusmriti comes to replace our Constitution in India, our upper caste Sikhs will be the first to implement it in letter and right spirit.
That is why our sister Sidhu, who too is a Jat Sikh and a noted medical doctor of Delhi, says:
Sikhism is not facing slow death. It is actually dead.
Shaven Sardarjis: She is quite right. Dalit/SC/BC Sikhs are rushing to the deras in lakhs to spread the message of Sikhism, but our upper caste Sikhs are supporting Hindu nazi forces like RSS, Shiv Sena, Rashtria Sikh Sangat etc. The children of these Sikhs have shaved their hair and lost their Sikh identity.
I request the eminent Sikh organisers of the Chandigarh seminar to hold their next seminar at Ludhiana and approach the Dalits with all sincerity and humility. I shall take up the responsibility of mobilising the entire Dalit Sikh intellectuals of the state. Editor V.T. Rajshekar should be also present.
Dalit entry to gurdwara banned: Sister Sidhu is disappointed that even Dalit Sikhs have left the responsibility of saving the sinking Sikhism.
Since the last 20 years we have been carrying on a campaign against casteism in Sikhism. Even today our Dalit Sikh women of Majhbi and Chamar castes in rural areas of Punjab, comprising half the population of Punjab, cannot enter in the langars (common kitchen in gurdwaras) to cook the common food. They are not allowed to touch the food. Is it not untouchability? Racism? Casteism?
Many Dalits Sikhs, who are highly educated, well placed, are not accepted as equals in the Sikh society. Even intellectuals among Sikhs rarely come or speak against casteism in the total Sikh society, we can count “only a few hundred Sikhs observing Sikhism in letter and spirit.
Sister Sidhu speaks the truth when she says that the sun has not only set on the Dalit world but also on ‘Sikhism.
