Case Study 3

Case study: Sikhism and religious diversity

he problem of authenticity and religious diversity exists within every religion but TI have chosen to examine Sikhism as it is relatively small and historically young, and yet generally regarded as one of the major world traditions. We have already seen that the founding fi gure, Guru Nanak, was an iconoclast espousing inner experience of God and personal transformation over and above religious externals. Although the nine human teachers (Gurus) who followed Nanak introduced various externals of religion such as sacred sites, texts, pilgrimages and bathing tanks, their poetry refl ects the continuation of Nanak’s essential teachings. However, the last human Guru, Gobind Singh, lived a radically different lifestyle from Guru Nanak, who was cast in the traditional form of an Indian holy man and depicted as such in Sikh iconography. Guru Gobind Singh was a warrior prince who ruled over the hearts of his disciples and functioned as the temporal ruler of the Sikh people. On his death Guru Gobind Singh declared that there would be no more human gurus in Sikhism, but that the community would be guided henceforth by the collection of sacred writing containing the poems of the gurus and various sants and Sufi s whose teachings refl ected the Sikh masters. This collection, known as the Guru Granth Sahib, remains the focal point of Sikh veneration and ritual practice to this day. Its authenticity is established through the line of succession from the human gurus declared by their last representative, and its contents contain the ‘authentic’ words of the God-inspired. In addition to ending the lineage of human gurus, Gobind Singh changed the face of Sikhism in one more dramatic way. According to traditional Sikh sources, the tenth Guru initiated the Khalsa brotherhood on the fi rst day of Vaisakhi at Anandpur in 1699. On the festival of Vaisakhi it was usual for Sikhs to gather together with their Guru and celebrate. On this occasion, tradition states that Guru Gobind Singh stood before his followers with a drawn sword in his hand and announced, ‘I want a Sikh who can offer his head to me, here and now. My sword is thirsting for the head of one who had learnt the lesson of surrender to me.’ It is stated that the Guru repeated this three times until a Sikh named Daya Ram of the Khatri caste came forward and offered his head in sacrifi ce to the Guru. The Khalsa myth affi rms that Guru Gobind Singh took Daya Ram into a tent or enclosure where a goat was beheaded. The Guru then returned to the crowd with his sword covered in blood and demanded another human sacrifi ce. Many of the participants fl ed in terror believing the Guru to have gone mad, but four more Sikhs of different castes obeyed their Guru’s request. Each time a goat was slaughtered and the procedure repeated. Finally, the Guru introduced to the crowd the fi ve obedient Sikhs armed with swords, dressed in long loose yellow shirts and blue turbans. He named them the panjpyares (fi ve dear ones). These fi ve were initiated into the new order known as Khalsa by the Guru and his wife. The initiation took place by creating amrit (nectar) by stirring water and sugar with a double-edged steel dagger. The amrit was given to the fi ve disciples, who in turn were requested to initiate the Guru himself. Guru Gobind Singh then introduced the crowd to the Khalsa and explained the requirement to wear fi ve outer symbols of Sikh identity, popularly known as the fi ve Ks. He also renamed male initiates Singh (lion) and female initiates Kaur (princess). Gopal Singh

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cites traditional Sikh sources that claim that 80,000 Sikhs joined the new order within two weeks of its foundation. The Khalsa movement came to embody obedience to the instructions of the Guru, and therefore the ultimate and only form of Sikh orthodoxy. During the 1980s, for various political, religious and social reasons, some Sikhs became involved in a struggle to create their own independent state of Khalistan, culminating in a bloody massacre at the most sacred site of Sikhism in Amritsar and a virtual state of civil war with the Indian government. The creation of the Khalsa was therefore a unique way to provide a formal structure in order to unite the community both religiously and socially, and create this Sikh corporate identity. There are two important reasons for the creation of the Khalsa, which both relate to the idea of a separate Sikh state. According to McLeod these are: 1 Guru Gobind Singh provided his followers with a militant and highly visible identity, essential if they were to withstand imminent trials arising from the conﬂ ict with the Mughals. 2 The Guru was determined to have a united following, therefore the control of the masands needed to be dismantled, restoring political, ﬁ nancial and religious commitment to the Guru himself. (McLeod, 1995)