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Subverting A Popular Movement: How The Sarbat Khalsa Was Hijacked By Radical Sikh Bodies

By AMANDEEP SANDHU | 11 November 2015
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On November 10, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader, Simranjit Singh Mann, and United Akali Dal President Mohkam Singh, called a Sarbat Khalsa (a plenary meeting of the Sikh community) to discuss the issues of sacrilege and change in institutional leadership of the Sikhs.

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Despite the Punjab government’s efforts to discourage people from assembling for the Sarbat Khalsa, a plenary meeting of the Khalsa—the collective body of the Sikhs—held on 10 November 2015 near Tarn Taran, Amritsar, the crowds were overwhelming. Although the police had been stopping private vehicles and buses, attendees had walked and reached the site the night before. The meeting had been called by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader, Simranjit Singh Mann, and United Akali Dal President Mohkam Singh, to discuss the issues of sacrilege and change in institutional leadership of the Sikhs. In response, the Punjab government had cited various reasons in an attempt to make the meeting appear illegitimate: that it had not been convened through the Akal Takht—the highest seat of power for the Khalsa, that it was not being held at the Akal Takht, and that it did not have the approval of the Panj Piyare, the five chosen granthis, or priests, from the community, and so on.

Contrary to the government’s understanding however, Sikhism provides for a set of checks and balances by which the community can call a meeting and decide to revoke its institutionalised leadership. Such a plenary meet is called a Sarbat Khalsa. The government’s final ploy to discourage attendance was to remind the public of the fact that the organisers are radical Sikhs—the “hardliners.” In fact, the stage for the Sarbat Khalsa was fairly bereft of the symbolism that hardliners are accused of employing, usually invoking Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale or Khalistan. The speeches, too, were mostly moderate. It was towards the culmination of the Sarbat Khalsa, when the Gurmatas, or resolutions, were passed, that everything changed, and the organisers and the Khalsa plenary itself fell directly into the very propaganda that had been built around them.

The use of the term “hardliners” has its cause in recent history: while the first Sarbat Khalsa was called by Guru Gobind Singh, later, in the eighteenth century, the process became a way through which the Sikh community took decisions and organised itself. In the nineteenth century, in an attempt to allow his progeny to succeed to the throne unhindered, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh empire, ended the practice of calling Sarbat Khalsas. In the twentieth century, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandak Committee (SGPC), an elected apex body of the Sikhs, came to be considered the voice of the Khalsa. In 1986, in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, a Sarbat Khalsa was expressly convened for the first time in over two centuries, during which the decision not to accept the Akal Takht built by the government of India was taken. The decision was to build an Akal Takht through kar sewa, or community participation in service of the religion. In the wake of the separatist movement, the Sarbat Khalsa also decided to struggle for Sikh self-rule. While the former was a matter of the community’s self-respect and dignity, the Indian state and Punjab government see the latter as a provocation for the separatist demand for Khalistan.

The images of Bhindranwale, Major General Shabeg Singh, an Indian army officer who later joined Bhindranwale at the Golden Temple, and was killed during Operation Bluestar; Amrik Singh Sodhi, a mentee of Bhindranwale; and others appeared on gates to the venue and on boards and walls of the tent for this Sarbat Khalsa. Representatives from around a hundred Sikh organizations, many from around the world, spoke on the stage. Only one woman, also belonging to a Sikh right-wing outfit, addressed the congregation. The discourse mostly enumerated how the community and Punjab has been laid waste by the current political powers and how they have hijacked the Sikh institutions. Many speakers emphasised the idea of sacrifice that underlines Punjab’s narrative. Once in a while, references to Bhindranwale, to Khalistan, and to the 1984 pogrom did come up, but the organisers did not restrain them. After all, these are all an inalienable part of Punjab’s bruised experience and popular imagination, and can elicit emotional responses from time to time.

At the end of the meeting, a set of resolutions drafted by the radicals was read out. A Gurmata, the resolution passed by the assent of the Sarbat Khalsa, is considered to be “sanctified by the Gurus.” Once passed with jaikaras—chants or calls—of “Jo bole so nihal, sat sri akal” from the entire congregation, they become binding on the entire Sikh community.

In this case, though the resolution was a radical statement, no discussion transpired. The call, which roughly translates to “Blessed are those who say god is supreme,” is common to Sikh gatherings and is used to express a wide variety of public emotions. Instead, the call was used to garner the assent of the Khalsa: once the jaikara was made, no dissent, no alternative point of view was possible.

The resolution, for one, summarily dismissed the current Jathedars—high priests—and nominated to the seat of the Akal Takht, Jagtar Singh Hawara. Hawara, currently lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi, is one of the accused in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995. It is highly doubtful that the interests the radicals have served by this nomination are those of the Khalsa. In the late 1990s, Ranjit Singh, accused of killing Nirankari leader Gurbachan Singh, was also nominated as the Jathedar of Akal Takht. That was how the Indian government was forced to release him from jail. By nominating Hawara as Jathedar of Akal Takht, it appears that the radicals are once again trying the same tactics in an attempt to undermine the laws of the nation in the name of the Sikh community.

The proceedings of the 2015 Sarbat Khalsa put into contention the very method by which the resolutions were passed. A tweet by one of the organisers says they had reached the resolutions by the time the Sarbat Khalsa convened. The same organiser also posted a scanned copy of an English version of the resolution, stating that, “Blank spaces were for names, TBA [To Be Announced].”

Whether the meet was just a show of numbers by those who are anyway bound, by custom and tradition, to return a jaikara, is unclear. In effect, the Sarbat Khalsa was a khap panchayat, only with greater numbers. If there were deliberations, they were private and behind the scenes. What was forced on the public were the Gurmatas, expected to be affirmed with the jaikaras. There was no mention of which points the community needs to deliberate and decide upon before the next Sarbat Khalsa on Baisakhi in 2016, which, the resolution states, is when they will be finalised. From all that transpired, it was clear that the radicals believed that the Gurmatas are binding and final, and that the Sikh community must now support them.

If that be the case, what then is the definition of Sikh self-rule, or the use of invoking the 1986 Sarbat Khalsa, in a state which belongs to a larger nation that is constitutionally bound to uphold the law? Bunching together the corrupt government of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the Indian state, which has never responded to the 1984 violence, and fighting against both in the name of religion, is to manipulate the Sikh grievances and support.

Since all the proceedings were in Punjabi, towards the end, one of the organisers, a “videshi Sikh”—who lives abroad and hence knows English—read out the summary in English. (My transcript of the summary has been reproduced at the end of the piece.)

The reason for the English summary, given in an aside on stage and captured by the microphone, was that the resolutions can reach the Sikhs around the world. However, the need should not just be that the Sikhs around the world listen to the resolutions, but that the radicals make sense of their aspirational nationhood in a way that the world can understand. Around a third of 30 million Sikhs in the world, myself included, live outside Punjab. That the Sikhs have suffered and not found justice is widely accepted, but an ordinary Sikh, both inside Punjab and outside, does not want to go back to the decade of the 1980s or the mayhem of 1947 Partition of India. The organisers of the Sarbat Khalsa, who seek to constitute a global Sikh parliament, are in fact, ghettoised in their ideology. They are busy patting each other’s backs and are not focusing on how and what to communicate of their intentions to the world at large.

What such resolutions do—which now will be bandied in the name of religion with community support—is add fuel to the fire that has already erupted in Punjab over the last month. The reason peace has prevailed until now in spite of extreme provocation—since pages of the Ramayan, the Gita and the Holy Quran were found—is that there has been no “other” to this battle of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. The Congress has already started to blame the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the Shiv Sena issued advertisements to stop Sikhs from participating in the Sarbat Khalsa.

The fear for the sanity of Punjab is genuine, and I do not know what to derive from the resolutions as they put me squarely back into the dilemma: am I first a Sikh, and then an Indian, or vice versa, or only one of the two? The radicals who organized the Sarbat Khalsa may not be able to answer me but it remains to be seen if the nation state will find ways of clearly addressing the Sikh grievances so that the hardliners in the community do not tilt the Sikh discourse to their advantage.

Below is the summary of the resolutions with a part of the introduction as it was presented on stage, transcribed by the author:

Sarbat Khalsa’s purpose is to strengthen all the Sikh institutions and traditions. We realise there are limitations and we shall work towards diverse and greater participation next time. Infused with the fragrance of Gurbani, the mystical body of Sarbat Khalsa met today with unconditional allegiance to the Guru Granth Sahib an infinite source of wisdom for all. In spirit of consensus based decision making, capturing the political will of the Sikh nation, Sarbat Khalsa invokes the leadership of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Guru Khalsa Panth and resolves to the following resolutions:

The Sarbat Khalsa,

  1. Absolves the three current Jathedars from their duties: Giani Gurbachan Singh, Giani Mal Singh, Giani Gurmukh Singh and Giani Iqbal Singh. It appoints the following interim Jathedars until Baisakhi 2016. Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara at Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Bhai Amrik Singh Ajnala at Sri Kesgarh Sahib, Bhai Baljit Singh Daduwal at Sri Damdama Sahib.
  2. Reaffirms that Sri Akal Takht Sahib is Guru gifted sovereign Sikh institution which must become fully independent again. A draft committee is to be constituted comprising of Sikhs both from the homeland and the Diaspora by 30 November 2015 to report on Akal Takht Sahib’s system which includes Sarbat Khalsa and Jathedar’s governance and process. Plan is to be adopted by Baisakhi 2016 when the next Sarbat Khalsa is to be held.
  3. Declares Kanwar Pal Singh Gill and Kuldeep Singh Brar ‘tankhaiya’ – chastised – for anti-Sikh genocidal campaigns and summons them at Akal Takht Sahib to present themselves by 30 November, 2015.
  4. Finds Prakash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Avtar Singh Makkad guilty of undermining and misusing the Sikh institutions of Panj Pyare (Fives Chosen ones) and Akal Takht Sahib. Nullifies Prakash Singh Badal’s Faqr-E-Qaum and Panth Ratan titles and Avtar Singh Makkad’s Shiromani Sevak Awards.
  5. Sarbat Khalsa creates the World Sikh Parliament to represent the global Sikhs under the aegis of Akal Takht Sahib. A draft committee is to be constituted comprising Sikhs both from the homeland and the Diaspora by 30 November 2015 to report on structure and governance planned to be adopted by Baisakhi 2016.
  1. Calls on Sikhs to safeguard sanctity of Guru Granth Sahib and aptly deliver justice in accordance with the Khalsa traditions to those disrespecting the eternal Guru.
  2. Sarbat Khalsa recognises the Sikh political prisoners as the Sikh nation’s assets and holds the state responsible for the resultant consequences due to Jathedar Surat Singh’s struggles. It demands political prisoners of any movement in India such as Sikhs, Naxalites, Kashmiris, and Nagas to be released unconditionally now.
  3. Sarbat Khalsa revives the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee’s democratic representative system to manage the internal Sikh affairs which have been suspended by the state over the years.
  4. Orders all Sikhs to fully refrain from all internal divisive doctrinal debates until the sovereignty of Akal Takht Sahib is fully restored.
  1. Recognizes the Sikh nation must establish a unifying independent Sikh calendar.
  2. Aspires for Vatican like status for Harmandar Sahib complex to ensure every Sikh’s birthright to visit and deliberate at the Akal Takht Sahib.
  1. Reaffirms the resolution adopted by the Sarbat Khalsa on 26 January 1986.
  2. Embraces the disenfranchised human beings to be treated with dignity and respect and appeals to stop the construction of caste based Gurdwaras and cremation grounds.

All Sikhs and Sikh institutions are to implement the aforesaid resolutions in both letter and spirit.

http://www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/sarbat-khalsa-hijacked-by-radical-sikh-bodies

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The massive success of the Sarbat Khalsa which has shaken the establishment both in Punjab and India is bound to bring out all sorts of negative opinion whose only aim is to keep the Sikhs in India in their present state of slavery. This is the aim of the writer of the article.

Whether the meet was just a show of numbers by those who are anyway bound, by custom and tradition, to return a jaikara, is unclear. In effect, the Sarbat Khalsa was a khap panchayat, only with greater numbers. If there were deliberations, they were private and behind the scenes. What was forced on the public were the Gurmatas, expected to be affirmed with the jaikaras. There was no mention of which points the community needs to deliberate and decide upon before the next Sarbat Khalsa on Baisakhi in 2016, which, the resolution states, is when they will be finalised. From all that transpired, it was clear that the radicals believed that the Gurmatas are binding and final, and that the Sikh community must now support them.

This writer obviously has no understanding of democracy. Does any parliament ask the opinion of each and every citizen before their representatives vote on a particular piece of legislation? The fact is by attending the Sarbat Khalsa the Sikhs has already expressed their confidence in the leadership of the organisers of the event. It may have been possible to deliberate on the resolutions but is there anyone among the organisers who would have opposed any of the resolutions? In fact the Sarbat Khalsa went beyond democracy because the participants were able to vote their approval for the resolutions something which never happens in any democracy. To compare the Sarbat Khalsa to a Khap Panchayat shows the bias of the writer. If that is the case then the Indian parliament is less than a Khap panchayat because there is a lesser level of individual citizen participation than there is in a Khap Panchayat. I think what irks the article writer is that the event was so peaceful. He and his masters would have loved nothing more than seeing Sikhs arguing, Kirpans being drawn and dastars being knocked off. He could then have written a piece about how the Sarbat Khalsa was just a show by militants which erupted in violence. The TV stations would then have shown the footage of the violence just as they constantly did of the footage of the June scuffles at Harmandir Sahib and the Sikh movement for freedom would have been set back another decade.

If that be the case, what then is the definition of Sikh self-rule, or the use of invoking the 1986 Sarbat Khalsa, in a state which belongs to a larger nation that is constitutionally bound to uphold the law? Bunching together the corrupt government of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the Indian state, which has never responded to the 1984 violence, and fighting against both in the name of religion, is to manipulate the Sikh grievances and support.

The writer displays his extreme ignorance in trying to separate the Badal regime from the Indian government. They are not separate entities but two closely interlinked power structures. It has to be noted that the Indian government before the Badal brand of Akalis took power in 1997 never allowed an Akali Dal government to complete it's full term in office. Has has completed two full terms before his present term because it suits the Indian government whether it the Congress or BJP in power a corrupt government like Badal's in power as long as he clamps down on Sikh aspirations for freedom. The last line of the above quote shows where the thought pattern of the writer is at fault, he has no problem with Badal (mis)using religion for his own ends but if the Sikhs then use their religion institutions such as Sarbat Khalsa to fight Badal's misuse then that is a problem for the writer.

The reason for the English summary, given in an aside on stage and captured by the microphone, was that the resolutions can reach the Sikhs around the world. However, the need should not just be that the Sikhs around the world listen to the resolutions, but that the radicals make sense of their aspirational nationhood in a way that the world can understand.

The Sikhs are now a global religion then is right that the voice of the Sarbat Khalsa be also heard in the main global language.

Around a third of 30 million Sikhs in the world, myself included, live outside Punjab. That the Sikhs have suffered and not found justice is widely accepted, but an ordinary Sikh, both inside Punjab and outside, does not want to go back to the decade of the 1980s or the mayhem of 1947 Partition of India. The organisers of the Sarbat Khalsa, who seek to constitute a global Sikh parliament, are in fact, ghettoised in their ideology. They are busy patting each other’s backs and are not focusing on how and what to communicate of their intentions to the world at large.

This is a comment that will be increasing used by the opponents of the Sikhs and their Sikh quislings, that any attempt to achieve freedom for the Sikhs will result in the Sikhs suffering the same violence as the 1980s and the partition. This will be used to scare Sikhs into accepting their second class status in India and stifle any attempt at betterment of the Sikhs from that status. If we accept this, then in essence we accept that the state violence used by India in the 1980s has worked and that India is not a state in existence for a mere 68 years that is liable to territorial adjustment but a state whose integrity is set in stone and eternal and anyone who challenges this can justifiably expect a violent response even if he himself is non-violent. The organisers have not ghettoised anything, they have given a long and violently suppressed expression of Sikh freedom a new lease of life.

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Miri Piri Foundation

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=448352208683606&substory_index=0&id=426401160878711

" Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh!

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Miri Piri Foundation hereby openly state their support for the Sarbat Khalsa 2015 and in accordance with the will of the Khalsa, we accept all resolutions endorsed by the Sarbat khalsa.

1) We formally recognise the Sarbat Khalsa 2015 as the largest gathering of FREE Sikhs of the International Sikh diaspora.

2) We recognise and welcome the new Jathedars selected at the Sarbat Khalsa 2015

3) We strongly condemn the interference in the Sikh religious establishments and affairs, by the Local, Punjab State Government and Central Government of India.

Sikhs should be FREE to run their own establishments from ANY hinderece from state/central Government Authorities.

4) We object to the arrests of the newly-selected Jathedars & other Sikhs involved in organising Sarbat Khalsa 2015 and request for their release.

We appeal for Unity to be maintained and remind all, that another Sarbat Khalsa has been called for, in April 2016.

Kind regards,

Miri Piri Foundation

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh! "

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This is excellent work from the Miri Piri Foundation! Time for Gurdwaray in the UK and around the world to step up as well.

Agreed on everyone having issues with the specifics, but it's change, something we've all been crying out for and also, if we get involved and back it, then we have an opportunity to further refine the process during the Vaisakhi Sarbat Khalsa.

Please see statement from Scotland, all Gurdwaray have united, huge respect to them for doing so. Let's get onto our local Gurdwaray and ask them to follow with statements. How can anyone be a Jathedar or leader if no one recognises him? The more people we have standing up to the Indian sponsored machine, the better.

Whilst some of us are not lucky enough to be able to go to India and to help our brothers and sisters in need directly, we can use the tools that we have been given, social media for example, to distribute this widely and to encourage and embolden ours to follow suit.

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Press Release from Scottish Gurdwara Council 13.11.15.pdf

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