Sirdar Kapur Singh Jee

[simmal tree]

On This Day

1973 :

Sirdar Kapur Singh received the honor, "National Professor of Sikhism" from the Akal Takht Sahib.

[simmal tree]

Some books by Sirdar Kapur Singh:

1) Politics and the Sikh Religion

2) Sikhism: The Ocumenical Religion

3) Parasaraprasna

and wayyyyy more... which i don't know about..

I've only read #2 and parts of #3

awesome books..

[Guest SaintSoldier]

One of the first Sikhs to stand up against the injustices commited by the government after 47

Sant Ji & Sardar Kapur Singh

[simmal tree]

Sirdar Kapur Singh established the ideology behind the Anandpur Sahib resolution

A lot of the things that Sant Baba Jarnail Singh jee Khalsa Bhinderanwale was fighting for -- those were things that Sirdar Kapur Singh jee had written about and demanded in his books

Here's a description of his life from sikh-history.com

Sirdar Kapur Singh was a civilian, parliamentarian and intellectual. He was master of many-sided learning Besides Sikh theology, he was vastly learned in philosophy,11istory and literature. He was born into a farming family, at the village Chakk in Ludhiana district on 2 March 1909. His father's name was Didar Singh. Sirdar Kapur Singh received his Master's degree, first class first, at the prestigious Government College, Lahore, after which he went to Cambridge to take his Tripos in Moral Sciences. He was a distinguished linguist and had mastered several of the languages of the east and the west Besides English with extraordinary subtlety and finesse, he had facility in Persian and Arabic as well as in Sanskrit.

In addition to these, he claimed easy acquaintance with such discrete fields as astrology, architecture and space science In spite of his knowledge covering many disparate areas, Sirdar Kapur Singh's principal focus was Sikh literature and theology. He was a stickler for accuracy of fact and presentation. He stood up four square to any misrepresentation or falsification of any shade of Sikh thought and belief. He was most vigilant and unbending in this respect.

He was selected into the Indian Civil

Service and served in various administrative posts in the cadre in 1947, he was appointed deputy commissioner of Kangra. He was particularly irked by the growing narrow politics of the government biased against the Sikhs. What incensed him most was a circular letter dated 10 October 1947, issued by the state governor, Chandu Lal Trivedi, warning district authorities in the Punjab against what was described as the criminal tendencies of the Sikh people. Kapur Singh filed a strong protest against this utterly wild accusation. He therefore invited the governor's wrath, Charges Were brought against him which led to his dismissal from the service.

Sirdar Kapur Singh became an ardent supporter of the Akali demand for a Punjai speaking state. After a brief stint as Professor of Sikhism under the authority of the Akal Takht, he joined active politics in 1962, he was to the lower house of Indian Parliament and a member of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha (State legislative Assembly) in 1969. He was forthright in speech and an unrelenthlg critic of govcrnment's policies where they crossed the path of the Sikhs. As a Sikh ideologue he was the moving spirit behind the Anandpur Sahib resolution adopted by the Shiromani Akali Dal in 197S, which like several other of his pronouncements became a crucial enunciation of modern Sikh political formulla and policy. A very stirring Sikh document of the modern period was the Presidential address given at Hari Singh Nalva conference convened at Ludhiana on 14 July, it Although it was nowhere specified, all important Sikh political or intrinsically scholarly documents of this period bear the imprint of Kapur Singh's penmanship in sonorous phrase, the conference resolution said." This Conference in commemoration of General Hari Singh Nalwa of historical fame reminds all concerned that the Sikh people are makers of history and are conscious of their political destiny in a free India. This Conference recalls that the Sikh people agreed to merge in a common Indian nationality on th

e explicit understanding of being accorded a constilutional status of co-sharers in the community, which solemn understanding now stands cynically repudiated by the present rulers of India Further, the Sikh people have been systematically reduced to a sub-political status in their homeland, the Punjab, and to an insignificant position in their motherland, India. The Sikhs are in a position to establish before an impartial international tribunal, uninfluenced by the present Indian rulers, that the law, the judicial process, and the executive action of the State of India is consistently and heavily weighted against the Sikhs and is administered with unbandaged eyes against Sikh citizens. This Conference, therefore, resolves, after careful thought, that there is left no alternative for the Sikhs in the interest of self-preservation but to frame their political demand for securing a self-determined political status within the Republic of Union of India. " The author's name is not mentioned here, but it is clearly the handiwork of Sirdar Kapur Singh The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's publication at the time of the Nirankari attack on the Sikhs is described thus

THEY MASSACRE SIKHS

A White Paper by Sikh Religious Parliament

(Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee)

Sirdar Kapur Singh, besides being an extraordinarily learned man, was a prolific writer in addition to his Parasarprasna, in English, which ranks as a classic on Sikh philosophy, his other works includeHashish (Punjabi poems), Saptassrang (Punjabi biographies), Bahu Vistar (Punjabi essays), Pundrik (Punjabi essays on culture and religion), Mansur-al-Hallaj (monograph on a Sufi saint), Sachi Sakhi (memoirs), Sacred Writings of the Sikhs (a UNESCO publication), Me Judice (English miscellany), Sikhism for Modern Man , Contributions of Guru Nanak, The hour of Sword,Guru Arjun and His Sukhmani.

Sirdar Kapur Singh died after a protracted illness at his village home in Jagraon in ludhiana district on 13 Augllst 1986.

[Deep Singh]

Parasaraprasna is AWESOME!

I got it when i went to Amritsar last time...from the bookshop near Darbar Sahib.

It is about a Hindu Pandit named Sri Parasara who is asking/has asked Bhai Sahib questions about Khalsa Panth and Sikh ideology etc. And in this book Sirdar Kapur Singh Ji has given the answars in the form of articles, and named it 'Parasaraprasna' ie Parasara-Prasna (prasna is question(s) in Hindi). When i get time, i will digitalise it and send it to SREC (i believe) since they had lots of other Gurmat e-books.

I also located Saachi Saakhi (Punjabi) that is kind of a self-biography by Bhai Sahib, but haven't had the time to read it. It is also about the progress of Anandpur Sahib resolution and when he was in Indian parliament demanding rights for Sikhs and some history about those events.

He has also written about 'Guru Arjan Dev and His Sukhmani', 'Sikhism for modern man' and 'Some insights into Sikhism'. Also these are available from Singh Brothers Dealers, Amritsar.

He is also the architect behind modern Sikh policital philosophy and in the struggle for Khalistan.