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Nationalist Historians on Sikh History

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Nationalist Historians on Sikh History NATIONALIST HISTORIANS ON SIKH HISTORY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SUPERVISOR SUBMITTED BY Dr. SUKHDIAL SINGH HARSIMRANJEET KAUR Professor Punjab Historical Studies DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY PUNJABI UNIVERSITY,PATIALA 2010 CONTENTS Introduction 1-30 Chapter-1 A Study of Gokal Chand Narang’s 31-67 Transformation of Sikhism Chapter-II Sita Ram Kohli and his Works 68-102 Chapter-III Historical Study of Indubhusan Banerjee’s 103-139 Evolution of The Khalsa Chapter-IV N.K. Sinha’s Interpretation of Sikh History 140-173 Chapter-V A.C. Banerjee's Interpretation of Sikh 174-215 History Conclusion 216-231 Glossary 232-248 Bibliography 249-296 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My indebtedness to my supervisor Dr. Sukhdial SinghSingh, Professor, Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala for his seasoned and generous help as well as keen interest in my work is too deep for words. He has been a source of constant inspiration and motivation in the completion of this work. He watched my progress over the years and very graciously spared time for discussing my problems for months together and meticulously went through all my drafts with his habitual thoroughness. He also graciously allowed me the use of his personal library. I am and would always remain beholden to him for his very kindly and scholarly comments and suggestions during the course of the writing of my Ph.D. thesis. I am equally indebted to Dr. Sukhninder Kaur Dhillon, Professor and Head of Department of History, Punjabi University, Patiala who advised me to work with Dr. Sukhdial Singh and for his usual courtesy and ungrudging help that she extended to me from time to time. I am also grateful to Dr. Jaspal Kaur, professor and formerly Head of the same Department and Dr. Kulbir Singh Dhillon, Professor of History and Dean Students, Punjabi University, Patiala whose encouragement persuaded me to undertake this study. They guided me with patience and kindness giving me liberty to pursue my own ideas. I am very thankful to my teachers: Dr. Kulwinder Singh Bajwa, Dr. Balwinderjit Kaur Bhatti, Readers and Dr. Daljit Singh, Lecturer, Department of Punjab Historical Studies; Dr. Mohammad Idris & Mr. Jasandeep Singh Sandhu, Lecturers, Department of History, for their valuable suggestions and their time to time help. I am greatly indebted to my father S. Parkash Singh Mour and my Mother Sardarni Parmjeet Kaur, I also acknowledge the encouragement and support provided to me by my younger Brothers Simranjeet Singh, Amanpreet Singh and my Sisters Harpreet Kaur & Sandeep Kaur. I highly appreciate the co-operation, generous help and good wishes provided by my husband Varinderjit Singh Gill, my father- in- law S. Nirmal Singh Gill and Mother-in-Law Sardarni Bhupinder Kaur Gill for his time to time help. I extend my thanks to the Library Staff of Punjabi University Patiala and Mrs. Mehar Kaur of the Departmental Library, Punjab Historical Studies and Sun Computer Centre for their commendable co-operation. Above all, it is God the 'Almightily' with grace, I have moved through this venture. Harsimranjeet Kaur DECLARATION I Harsimranjeet Kaur hereby affirm that the work in this thesis is exclusively my own and there are no collaborations. It does not contain any work for which a Degree/Diploma has been awarded by any University/Institution. Date......... Harsimranjeet Kaur Supervisor Dr. Sukhdial Singh Professor Punjab Historical Studies Punjabi University, Patiala CERTIFICATE This is to certify that this thesis "Nationalist Historians on Sikh History" embodies the work carried out by Harsimranjeet Kaur herself under my supervision and that it is worthy of consideration for the award of Ph.D. Degree. Supervisor Dr. Sukhdial Singh Professor Punjab Historical Studies Punjabi University, Patiala Abstracts Nationalist Historiography means that the historical writings produced or reproduced by the Indian historians highlight the Indian history from a national point of view. The national point of view represents the national culture and tradition. Every nation has its own culture and traditions and every nation wants to spread it. It can only be possible thought the literature. History is a part and parcel of literature, therefore, what history is written by a nation that represents its culture and traditions. That is called the nationalist historiography. The early decades to the twentieth century were dominated by an upsurge of religious nationalism. In Punjab Gokul Chand Narang was powerfully influenced by this nationalism of the period. He was the first historian of Sikh history who wrote a regular history of the Sikhs in 1912 under the title of Transformation of Sikhism. The second historian was principal Sita Ram Kohli who wrote history of Maharaja Ranjit Singh from the national point of view. Similarly, the historians like Indubhusan Banerjee, N.K. Sinha and A.C. Banerjee also wrote Sikh history from the national view point. These historians interpret Sikh history as the freedom movement for India. According to these historians, Sikh movement brought renaissance among the Indians and as a result of this renaissance they waged a war against the Mughal rule. The Sikhs were the first people who uprooted the Mughal Empire in the Punjab and established their rule. This was the national upsurge. These historians applauded the Sikh achievements in the field of politics. The thesis is centred on this point only. As a result of the efforts of all these nationalist historians, the Sikh history achieved an honourable place in Indian history. The achievements of the Sikh movement were regarded as the best Sikh contribution to the Indian nation. The Sikhs were regarded as warrior community of India and the Punjab is regarded as the sword arm of India. The Key Words in the Thesis National Historians, Historiography, Revolutionary, Reformer, National movement, Sikhism, Creation of the Khalsa, National view point, Sectarian view point, Misl, Gurmata, Punjab Kingdom etc. INTRODUCTION Historical facts are uniformally similar for everyone but their interpretation varies. Very few historians' interpretation agrees with each other's. Every historian has his own point of view. It keeps on changing with the passage of time. In fact, the past is interpreted in the light of the present and it is a continuing process. This is particularly correct about the Sikh history. There is not so much diversity of opinion in the interpretation of any other nation's history as it is in the case of Sikh history. Each of the historians who has written on Sikh history has his own distinct point of view. The main reason for this diversity of opinion about Sikh history is because of Sikh religion's origin in the form of a revolution and its progress as a counterforce to the contemporary established order. The established order consisted of the political entity in power, clerics of Islam, Muslim clergy, Brahminical order and its offshoots such as the yogis and the Naths . The Indian society was a hybrid product of all these influences. Sikh religion's achievements were incredible, so incredible indeed that they attracted the attention of almost every intellectual of the world. That is why every school of thought has commented upon Sikh religion and history. This also explains the diversity of opinion in the interpretation of Sikh history. Till date, interpretation of Sikh history has not attained a state of finality. 1 Different schools of historians have failed to arrive at a consensus in their interpretation of Sikh history. Since the main concern in this thesis is the nationalist interpretation of Sikh history, I shall be elaborating this point of view primarily. Sikh religion came into existence due to the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev. Since the milieu in which Guru Nanak preached belonged predominantly to the Hindus and the Muslims, we find majority of references in his teachings refering to these two communities. While Muslims belonged to the ruling class, the Hindus were politically the subjects of that ruling class. Despite this, the Hindus were in a majority and their religion and society were centuries older than the Islamic society. As a result, the Hindu society had more weaknesses, though Muslim society too had its fair share of shortcomings. These shortcomings were inherent in religious, social and political spheres of society. Of these, the social sphere suffered from the maximum inadequacies. It is because of this reason that there are comparatively more references to the social drawbacks in the Hindu society in the teachings of Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak's message and teachings are present in his divine verses. These divine verses are included in Adi Sri Guru Granth Sahib . His message is universal rather than being directed towards any one community. An analysis of the entire body of his 2 divine verses and their cumulative message will reveal that Guru Nanak is critical of Brahmins (priestly class) as well as kshtriyas (warrior class). But he also emphasizes that even Brahmins and kshtriyas can be worthy of emulation if they inculcate and adopt good human values and virtues 1. Likewise, Guru Nanak has criticised as well as appreciated the Hindu scriptures. These have been appreciated because they contain profound human values. But they have been criticised because of their faulty exposition and application of those virtues 2. Hindu rituals have been denounced but even these can be accepted if the spirit behind these rituals is properly understood and cultivated. But Brahminism has made these rituals so complicated that these have become too cumbersome to be practised. Hence these have become absurd and meaningless. Existence of Hindu gods and goddesses have been recognised but their Brahminical conception has been found fault with. Guru Nanak simply wanted to show that they were not superior to God, but were his creation.
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