Khushwant Singh And His Continuing Distortion Of Sikhism

[Guest amar_jkp]

http://www.sikhspectrum.com/052007/khushwant.htm

[Jangal Da]

Leave him alone - poor chap, he is now demented and must be at least 150y old!

Personally I like him - he's funny Singh. Distorted view on Sikhi may come from his Bhappa origins - so nothing surprising.

[mandeepraina]

this creature is not a bad guy i guess i have heard him saying and arguing with one of a hindu activist long time back thank god atleast he knows he is a sikh ................he had a hard talk vid a guy from a BJP i guess who was literally barking that all sikhs are hindus before gurujis converted all of them to sikhs and even muslims are hindus too before gazni changes their religion and guess what he Mr khushwant Said...

he said mr hindu you got something wrong in there in your religions that peoples from Hinduism changes their way to find a real god outside your beliefs and he also said that at once one can say that Hindus are converted to Muslims forcefully where as talking about Sikhs its u ppls who wish to be Sikh to fight against Aurangzeb cruelties if it doesn't exits then the Hindus in north India wouldn't be there..........

He is a brave man i must say atleast he got guts to express his feelings.........................

I dont know what other think about mr singh but well he is far better then those sikhs who are making mess of us

[jassa]

Leave him alone - poor chap, he is now demented and must be at least 150y old!

Personally I like him - he's funny Singh. Distorted view on Sikhi may come from his Bhappa origins - so nothing surprising.

huh ???

[Jangal Da]

I meant "bhappa" as in the original meaning of the word - let me clarify:

Those Sikhs who generally came from west of the river Jhelum (Sind Sagar doab, Potwar, Hazara, NWFP). Many of these were Hindu tradesmen who converted to Sikhism during the days of Sher-i-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Sikhs were in power, and in Musalman dominated areas their reasons for conversion was partly due to gaining status and power as one would expect when becoming a member of the ruling people. Many at the time still stuck to Hindu rituals and practices, although outwardly appearing Sikhs.

Imagine one day in some isolated village in the Thal desert, you are a Hindu baniya - for generations being slightly fearful of the locals who are Muslims, whilst you scrape a living. Suddenly you join the Khalsa. The next thing a farman from the Khalsa garrison at Rawalpindi makes you the headman of the village and surrounding other villages - and to help you collect the taxes, send a dozen Khalsa cavalrymen to ensure compliance from the locals.......These people jumped on the bandwaggon, so to speak, and that is why many were not looked upon in the same light as the traditional hardcore of the Sikh population from central Punjab - most who had converted generations back in the time of Dasmesh pita or soon after.

By Independance many of these families were thus fairly prosperous and had amassed wealth that the locals were very jealous of. Unfortunately this manifested by them bearing the brunt of the violence during the Partition. Being in relatively isolated groups and lacking militancy, they fared very badly, unlike the Jat Sikhs in the central Punjab east of the Chenab, who moved out of Pakistan with military precision and gave a fitting bashing to any who dared attack them. Many of the Jat Sikhs settled in the Indian Punjab - either in villages they had links with or evacuated properties. Many of the Bhappe headed staright for Delhi and to their credit prosperd as buisness people.

Whatever the original reasons for the Bhappes' conversion, it tells you nothing about the convictions of their beliefs and ways now. As far as I know most are kesdhari and true to Sikhi. Nowadays most Jat Sikhs use the term 'Bhappa' to mean any other non Jat Sikh in a derogitory way. As a Jat myself, I purely meant it in a tongue-in-cheek way, as I know that Khushi ji is a Bhappa in the original sense of the word.

Khushwant Singh himself has been an ardent defender of Sikhi in the past and I reckon that these comments of 'his' have been misinterpreted. Like I said it must be his advanced age (at least 1 and a half centuries :D ) and hence dementia setting in, if he truly said such things. However Hindu sympathies may be due to the influence of his mother and dadi, both of whom were Hindus. Overall I like the guy and demented or not - he is a better Sikh than I.

[mandeepraina]

Well i certainly think that's bhapaas are still lot better than jatt Sikhs at least bhappas don't cut their beards and hairs very often.........which is the first thing a Sikh must have well rest all like to be a puran Sikh or a gursikh comes later but to be look like Sikh is a first step to be a sikh.

I am not a bhappa i must say but as i live here in Delhi i know many of them(bhappas) and they eat and drinks a lot but they are true to their god and cant listen anything rubbish about Sikhism ........yes they are a bit selfish as you mentioned above they got a business brain they dont believe nybdy and we must not believe them coz v cant say what they gonna do at what time whereas my jatt friends laughs our when we talk about Sikhism..........

so certainly bhappas got an edge over jatt communities.....

jatts are rather aggresive whereas bhappas are a bit brainy creatures

that's a difference

lolzzzzzz i donno what make me write all these lines but i thinks that's my personnel experience

[SunSingh]

A few perhaps little known things about him:

-i have read that he is a nastik, not a Sikh. I have read that he has admitted this, which explains his twisted view of Sikhi. His views on Sikhi are quite messed up, but no more so than those of any other atheist.

-he keeps saroop out of respect for sikh community, says it makes him feel closer to community.

-was good friends with indira gandhi.

-very much against sant jarnail singh ji & kharkoos

-was instrumental in helping set up the citizen's justice committee after the 84 pogroms. it ws the idea of HS Phoolka, notable Sikh attorney who has advocated for Sikh victims of 84 for over 20 years (for free), but without Khushwant's big name the committee may not have attracted other big names, such as retired judges etc.

[Jangal Da]

Haa haa! I love our mixture of communities and stereotypes in Sikhi:

Jat

Bhappa

Tarkan (Desi or E. African)

Chamar

Khatri

Bhaiya

Gora

and many more...........

Note I put Jat at the top (hee hee ha ha )....Others in no particular order!

Seriously though, on a different note, if you dread the never ending flight from Delhi to the UK/US etc, then get one of Khushi's books - a number one author indeed - has to be one of the top ranking writers of the generation.

[mandeepraina]

lolzzzzz yeah jatts are on top

they are d one who are ahead of all others to put Sikhism on back seat and they are doing it with the same speed in which Indian economy is booming..............they cut their beards hairs they drinks a lot they are full of ego they sings like idiots they are not true to their partners what else u need ........................hmmm

[Guru_Da_Chella]

I meant "bhappa" as in the original meaning of the word - let me clarify:

I do know many khatris were sikhs of Guru Jis because of respect of being same caste.

Also I guess khalsa fauj would revive a kshatriya's warrior tradition.

Well i certainly think that's bhapaas are still lot better than jatt Sikhs at least bhappas don't cut their beards and hairs very often.........which is the first thing a Sikh must have well rest all like to be a puran Sikh or a gursikh comes later but to be look like Sikh is a first step to be a sikh.

I am not a bhappa i must say but as i live here in Delhi i know many of them(bhappas) and they eat and drinks a lot but they are true to their god and cant listen anything rubbish about Sikhism ........yes they are a bit selfish as you mentioned above they got a business brain they dont believe nybdy and we must not believe them coz v cant say what they gonna do at what time whereas my jatt friends laughs our when we talk about Sikhism..........

so certainly bhappas got an edge over jatt communities.....

jatts are rather aggresive whereas bhappas are a bit brainy creatures

that's a difference

lolzzzzzz i donno what make me write all these lines but i thinks that's my personnel experience

Well in UK you get many people who can keep beard and truban but behave characterlessly, but at the same time you can find people who have haircut but behave with izzat and respect.

As a jatt, I like my aggressiveness :D

I do know that some khatri sikhs, especially from Guru jis lineage, have kept sikh tradition very pure and traditional to Guru jis times. But then there are also those who have been corrupted by the SGPC's sikhi, but many jatts are corrupted by this lol.

Also I don;t find many bhappey that cultural, well actually many shaireyay (indian City folk) in general.

ALso, isn't it all these bhapas that the joker singhs in bollywood movies are based on? Also why do some bhapay wear patka with beard? They can't tie turban?