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Hear,
the War-drums Reverberate in the Skies Sikh all over the world celebrated
Holla Mohalla, which brings along a message from our spiritual
father, Guru Gobind Singh, that Sikhs must learn to use armaments
and demonstrate the knowledge of war strategies, so that they
may always be able to defend themselves. Holla Mohalla, a festival
distinct from the Hindu festival Holi, was first celebrated
under the supervision of Guru Gobind Singh in the year 1680.
Armed Sikhs on foot and on horseback would play war games on
this occasion at Anandpur. Guru Sahib supervised this occasion
and provided the participants with training. At the end, the
Guru gave saropaas to the winning teams. According to the Sikh scholar, Bhai
Kahn Singh Nabha, "It is a pity that Sikhs no longer regard
mastery of weapons their religious duty; they consider it to
be the job of paid soldiers. It is the commandment of Guru Gobind
Singh that every Sikh should be a soldier and should master
the art of weaponry." I leave you with an essay that I
wrote to highlight this concern. I would be appreciative of
your comments. Hear,
the War-drums Reverberate in the Skies The future of Sikhism
can be delineated by the fatidic utterance of the Tenth and
the last Sikh Prophet, Guru Gobind Singh: "The Khalsa Shall
become the supreme decision-maker in human affairs. And all
effective opposition shall cease. Those in the opposition camp
shall eventually come round to the right way after many frustrations,
and they shall realize that stability and progress can only
thus be assured." [1] Those who believe
in the aforementioned revelation have acknowledged a reality,
which shows its color through the curtains of faith. The realization
of this truth aggrandizes when one sees a Sikh knighted as a
Singh or a Kaur of the Tenth Nanak. Tens of thousands of North
Americans and Europeans have embraced Sikhism by taking the
Baptism of the Double-edged Sword, demonstrating decidedly that
Sikhism is an universal religion. They promulgate with their
five Kakars that they are distinct, and represent the blessed
nation of Nanak, who embarked on a journey of Truth five centuries
ago. The Sikhs of the
Diaspora face many formidable challenges. The most important
one is adhering to the injunction of Guru Gobind Singh that
a Sikh must remain distinct in appearance and conduct. The five
Kakars are the gifts of the Guru to his Sikhs. The meaning of
these gifts is different to each one of us. The symbolic value
of the five Kakars is directly proportional to a Sikh's level
of spirituality. Why did the "Rider of the Blue Horse"
make these five articles a part of our uniform is a question
without an easy answer. Everyone seems to have their own interpretation;
every erudite Sikh theologian in the past three centuries has
attempted to read the mind of Guru Gobind Singh. These efforts
are futile, for these articles have no definite meaning; being
beyond explanation, they bewitch us with their inspiring and
intrinsic potency. How they help us grow spiritually as Sikhs,
and what psychological impact they have on our conscious and
unconscious minds, thus, altering our personalities, cannot
be ascertained without first adopting them, as prescribed by
the Sikh Rehat Maryada.[2] The practice of the Rehat Maryada
becomes a key, which opens up a treasure-chest full of Guru's
Grace, in which lies the ineffable explanation to the five Kakars.
These articles of
faith have played a vital role in the Sikh past. Those of us
looking for inspiration to adopt them can remember "the
Singhs of both the sexes, who courted martyrdom in the cause
of Religion and underwent unspeakable tortures and sufferings
of being dismembered alive, scalped alive . . . but never wavered
in their faith and remained steadfast in mind and spirit in
the cause of Sikhism to that last hair on their body and to
their last breath . . ." [3] We can remember martyrs like
Bhai Mani Singh, who chose to have their limbs cut into small
pieces to save their hair. Isn't the road we travel easier than
that travelled by Bhai Taru Singh, whose scalp, intact with
his hair, was scrapped off by Zakaria Khan's men because he
refused to part from his distinct identity? It was this distinct
identity that transformed sparrows into hawks. These gifts of
Guru Gobind Singh, combined with Waheguru's infinite Grace,
had such a psychological effect that it caused a handful of
Sikhs, who have always been less that two percent of the population
of the Indian subcontinent, to become victorious against Mughal
and Afghan forces, while majority of the population, Hindus,
remained slaves. The Guru's declaration, "If I, Gobind
Singh, deserves my name, a single Sikh will confront one hundred
and twenty-five thousand," [4] could not be challenged.
A small number of Sikhs, with limited resources, were able to
establish a sovereign nation because they unconditionally followed
all Commandments of the Guru. A question was posed
by Dr. Pashura Singh during a history workshop at a Sikh youth
conference, man jeete jagjit, that I attended in Detroit, Michigan
in May 1996: "Would Khalsa have come into existence if
Guru Tegh Bahadur had not been martyred?" There are many
questions implicit within the one that was posed. One of them
is whether Guru Nanak's perspective on the use of force is akin
to that of Guru Gobind Singh's? The Khalsa of Guru Gobind Singh
was inevitable; it emerged from the vision of the First Nanak.
"Guru Nanak had clearly perceived, as Thrasymachus is seen
to have held in the Republic of Plato, that violence may, some
time, succeed on the sole ground that it is violent enough,
and thus, violence may win for its practitioners all the powers
and glories of the world. Guru Nanak, therefore, taught that
although it was evil to practice violence for gaining power
for its own sake, it was also evil to let violence prevail through
passiveness of its victim, and Guru Nanak, therefore, enjoined
that before violence becomes successful enough to clothe itself
in trappings of morality, it should be resisted and defeated,
destroyed or contained by all good people, by violence, if necessary."
[5] Guru Hargobind,
the Sixth Nanak, implemented these ideas, transforming his Sikhs
into harbingers of Justice, who paid allegiance only to the
Laws of Akal Purakh. One cannot always fight oppression or become
sovereign politically without physical strength. The eleven
year old Guru announced: "If you want to earn my blessing,
do physical exercise, relish the game of fencing, acquire skill
in horse-riding, and go to the woods for hunting." [6]
He commanded his Sikhs: "Now is the time to stem the tide
of aggression. Take up the arms and show your mettle. Cowardice
and lack of courage are the sins which can hardly be forgiven
to an individual or a nation. Hold the sword of defence in your
hands so that the sword of oppression may reign no more."
[7] The brahmgyanis of Guru Arjun, now not only possessed the
Name of God on their lips but also a resplendent sword in their
hands. Guru Hari Rai, the
Seventh Nanak, was instructed by Guru Hargobind, to maintain
a Sikh army of a minimum of two thousand and two hundred well-trained
and well-equipped horsemen.[8] It was Guru Tegh Bahadur, the
Ninth Nanak, who issued the famous hukamnama, which confirmed
the Sikh ideal of sovereignty. The Guru asked all Sikhs "not
to salute a Mughal government official and never invite him
to sit on the head-side of a cot." [9] Sikhs defied the
Mughal authority and in many instances they boldly accepted
martyrdom while enduring unspeakable tortures. Sikhs were undergoing
a slow process of evolution. The Tenth Nanak further shaped
the Sikhs, giving them a new identity, the five Kakars, and
completely transformed them. Of these five Kakars, the unshorn
hair was to be the most important: [10] "Guru Gobind Singh
laid down the ordinance, `do not shave or shingle,' as a testament
of love of God and His beauty, and `ever remain allies of Goodness
and Virtue, and the Khalsa shall remain free and sovereign on
earth, forever and forever.'" [11] The Sikhs became courageous
tigers, who vowed to eradicate evil from the face of this earth.
The Guru infused in them a spirit that was unmatched by anyone's
in the history of humankind. One could recognize a Sikh of the
Guru from afar; and the same holds even today. Reviving our lost
Sikh values is a challenge that we face during our journey into
the future. There is no simple panacea; we must add pesticides
to the existing trees and plant new ones in a soil impregnated
with Gurmat. We must start by rejuvenating the lost principles
and wait patiently for a rich harvest. If we are successful,
we will yield a nation that accentuates the saint-soldier, sant
sipahi, ideal of Guru Gobind Singh's Khalsa. It is unfortunate
that we do not have any sant-sipahi role-models around us; they
have become fables of the past. How many Sikhs does one encounter
who know how to wield the sword -- handle weapons of the modern
age -- which is one of the requirements of Khalsahood? Then
how do we expect to fight against tyranny? We must learn from
the mistakes of our kindred, who have lost a multitude of battles
in Punjab because they no longer practice what their Gurus taught.
Sikhism forbids suicide, and fighting without preparation is
nothing less than suicide. Inculcating the sant-sipahi ideal
in the present and future generations is a challenge we must
undertake, so that our fates do not resemble that of the six
million Jews who perished in the concentration camps of Hitler,
[12] or hundreds of thousands of Sikhs who have "disappeared"
since the 1984 sacrilege of the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple)
and thirty-seven other Gurdwaras, by the Indian Army, thanks
to the Machiavellian minds of the leaders of "the world's
largest democracy." There is an urgent
need for Sikh institutions that would teach Gurbani and chivalry
along with other courses that are currently prescribed in schools.
Sant-Sipahi schools should be established in the East and the
West, so the young members of the Sikh society may always lead
fearless lives, extirpating evil, cultivating freedom and becoming
an invaluable resource to their society. Instead of spending
our money on covering the domes of our Gurdwaras with gold,
we should spend it on institutionalizing Sikhism. The Roman
Catholics in America run their own schools, teaching their youth
the principles of Christianity. Sikhs also have opened similar
schools in India, England and Canada, but they are far from
inculcating the Khalsa ideals because they fail to emphasize
the importance of martial training. Martial training is not
just a requirement of Khalsahood, but also a necessity in today's
world. In the Western world,
many put forth asinine claims that one has nothing to fear when
governments such as the United States are protecting their political
rights. Not too long ago, on March 21, 1942, under the instructions
[13] of President Roosevelt, 112,000 Japanese-Americans, two-third
of them citizens born in the United States, were placed in concentration
camps in the United States interior till 1945. Many Japanese
lost valuable land holdings on the West Coast and the civil
liberties of these American Citizens were denied. Their only
crime was that their roots were Japanese. These acts were totally
unconstitutional. Even though Congress and the President are
given broad powers in a time of War, when such laws are applied
to all Americans it is one thing. However, laws that discriminate
against a select group of people, especially when those people
are Natural born U. S. citizens, are blatantly unconstitutional.
It should be noted that no similar laws were ever passed against
German-Americans or Italian-Americans. This melancholy saga
transpired during the Second World War. What if history were
to repeat itself, and the next time you or I were one of the
victims? What if there were no hope of surviving? We could either
die like cowards or die fighting with dignity. [21] The aforementioned
discrimination of a select few is not an aberration in American
history; there are numerous examples. In 1832, the Cherokee
Indians were removed from their land and their rights were suppressed,
in spite of a Supreme Court ruling in their favor. [14] Sovereignty
of a particular race or an individual can be in jeopardy even
in nations such as the United States; there's little need to
dwell into what's possible in "democracies" such as
India. Sant-Sipahi establishments
will give us an ability to mass-produce tiaar bartiaar, geared-up,
Singhs and Kaurs, who might otherwise have an uncertain future
as Sikhs. These young men and women would have intellects as
sharp as a razor's edge and martial training matching that of
the United States Navy Seals. After such rigorous training,
these young Sikhs can advance to colleges and universities,
as they traditionally would, however, with one difference--they
would be a true representation of the Khalsa of Guru Gobind
Singh. These Sikhs would become doctors, lawyers, engineers
and granthis, but at the same time they would be protectors
of humanity and uplifters of the downtrodden. When they strike
the ranks of the enemy, they would be victorious, much like
the forces of Hari Singh Nalwa. They would also spread the message
of Truth, one preached by the Ten Nanaks. Such a Sikh, in the
words of Principal Satbir Singh, is a lighthouse that shows
the way to thousands of ships. Sikhism holds political
sovereignty in high esteem. A prominent Sikh historian, Rattan
Singh Bhangu, gives the essential characteristics of the Sikhs:
"The Khalsa is never a satellite to another power. They
are either fully sovereign or in a state of war and rebellion.
A subservient coexistence they never accept. To be fully sovereign
and autonomous is their first and last demand." [15] These
words have a striking similarity to the message given by Guru
Hargobind, five days before he passed away, to his fourteen
year old successor, Guru Hari Rai: ". . . do not hesitate
to fight relentlessly for your religious and political freedom."
[16] Guru Gobind Singh delivers a similar message: "The
political power and the State rest on armaments, and without
political sovereignty, the good way of life cannot securely
prevail in society." [17] The Guru wanted his Sikhs to
preserve their dignity by self-preparedness: "A person
not free to bear arms in self-defence, and one unable to proclaim
his or her free sovereign status with unshorn hair, is like
a miserable sheep, inviting all and sundry to catch it by the
ears and lead it to the nearest slaughter-house." [18]
The Guru proclaims, emphatically, the importance of martial
training: "They who loosen their grip on the hilt of the
sword, may have to receive the sharp edge of the sword on their
soft boneless necks." [19] Face it, if the
over six million [12] non-violent, non-resisting European Jews
were acquainted with the aforesaid wisdom, the casualties might
have been in smaller proportions. It is, therefore, not without
reason that Guru Gobind Singh commanded his Sikhs to obtain
these special characteristics that enable humans to exist in
today's world, a world which allows only the fit to survive.
The Khalsa is to practice religious discipline, maintaining
his or her honor by power of weapons, thus, preserving peace
in this world: "All the virtues of heart and the excellences
of mind: These are the natural qualities of the Khalsa. This
is to be a new and unique type of person, who bears arms and
constantly lives in the presence of God; who strives and fights
against evil with his gaze rivetted to the stars. Such is the
goal to achieve which the Khalsa has been ordained. And lo,
it is a well-armed and well-integrated person." [20] Guru Gobind Singh's
Khalsa, who by the above definations must be a sovereign entity,
has become a slave. This is confirmed each month with the various
reports of Amnesty International and other human rights organizations
such as Movement Against State Repression (Chandigarh). Unless
we reclaim the title of sant-sipahi, the genocide of the Sikhs
shall continue incessantly. We must devise a system so all future
Sikhs are martially trained from an early age, so they may protect
themselves or die fighting with dignity. [21] Guru Gobind Singh's
declaration to the Mughal emperor Auragzeb summarizes the Sikh
stand on use of force: "When all peaceful methods fail,
the sword becomes a lawful imperative for a religious person
for settling conflicts." [22] Lest we forget, this statement
must always act as a reminder to use armaments when we fail
to establish peace by means other than the sword. In order to
effectively use arms, we must educate ourselves, which can only
be possible with the establishment of sant-sipahi institutions
throughout Punjab and abroad. We must not fight a physical war
until we are carnally prepared and are certain of our victory.
This was the common sense that guided the Sikhs during the times
of the first ten Gurus and also during the Sikh Raj. We must
unite and fortify for that day when we will be able to procure
the prerogative of equal rights for the entire human race. While
becoming good soldiers, we must not ignore the development of
the spiritual dimension of our personalities. We need to evolve
back into the spiritual tigers that Guru Gobind Singh created.
Each day our brothers and sisters are ruthlessly being tortured
and killed in Punjab, and we do nothing. The Indian policemen
continue to rape our mothers and sisters, and we do nothing.
Thousands of innocent Sikhs rot in the squalid Indian prisions
without a trial, and we do nothing. Why do we continue to practice
callousness and cowardice? O Sikhs of Guru Nanak--Guru Gobind
Singh! Bhagat Kabir is urging you to awaken from your frivolous
sleep and fulfill the mission of the Guru:
Hear, the war-drums
reverberate in the skies. Notes and References:
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