Sikh-Hindu Conundrum – An Introduction

While addressing the crowd, mainly the Punjabi-Sikhs, gathered to protest against the farm laws, Ex-Cricketer and actor Yograj could not hide his contempt for Hindus and ended up denigrating them as historically pusillanimous folks whose women were sold for cents during Abdali’s invasion and it was ‘Punjabis’ who saved them.

It is not uncommon to find such low-opinion for Hindus amongst Sikhs whether it is regarding the Hindu civilization as a whole, let alone Hindu-rituals or karmakanda, while an average Hindu mind not only zealously strives to preserve the Hindu-Sikh amity but also bestows Sikhs with the epithet of being ‘sword-arm’ of Hindus. A common understanding of Sikhs about their religion viz a viz Hindus can be summed up as

‘Sikhism is an independent religion. It does not have roots in any other religion or ideology. Like Hinduism, it is not a mere ritualistic way of life. It has no superiority of any special caste, class, country, colour or gender’¹

In the above definition, the first statement emphasizes on ‘independence’ of Sikhism, but ‘independent’ from whom? the obvious answer is Hinduism. The second statement emphasizes that Sikhs have no roots or connection with any other ‘religion’. Here, ‘any other religion’ insinuates Hinduism. The third statement, rather than pointing over its uniqueness, water down Hinduism as ‘mere ritualistic way of life’ and the fourth statement alludes that Sikhs are devoid of caste, class, colour or gender inequality, of course, unlike Hinduism. One need not be a psychologist, to smell insecurity among the Sikh proponents for their identity that they fear being considered as a subset by the Hindus. Hence, rather than emphasising on who they are, they expound ‘Hum Hindu Nahi’², ( We are not Hindus).

Such insecurities primarily emerge because the Guru Granth Sahib, which is also known as the Adi-Granth, the most important text of the Sikhs, has many anecdotes from Hindu Mythology and verses of Hindu Sadhus. Again, there are too many common symbols, theological concepts or lexicon among Sikhs and Hindus, that the fear of being perceived as a sect of Hinduism, amongst Sikhs is not unfounded, the fear gets exacerbated as Hinduism is a kaleidoscope of several sects, scriptures and belief system. It would not be harmed, anyway, if Sikhism is added to it.

Contradiction becomes apparent in the interpretation of verses or mythological anecdotes which appear in both Hindus and Sikh texts. Hindus interpret it in the light of their traditional epistemology and Sikhs in their own.

One such verse which appears in the Adi-Granth is ‘shhadd man hari bimukhan ko s(a)ng’, which can be translated as ‘Oh Mind !! do not even associate with those who have turned their back on Hari’. This verse is taken from “SurSagar’, a medieval composition of well known ‘bhakt-kavi’ Surdas (1483-1573), who sang praises of Sri Krishna. His Guru was Vallabha-Acharya, founder of ‘pushti’ sect of Vaishnavism. So, it can be said with certainty that Hari in the above verse, is undoubtedly Krishna, the Hindu God.

But in the explanation of prominent website sikhiwiki.org, Surdas here means ‘O! My Mind (Attention), don’t follow the people, don’t follow such religions, don’t follow such ways which have turned their back to lord’. Further, it states ‘So Leave the Company of Darkness and Have a company with the Light, the people who can teach you Gurmat.

Gurmat, here refers to, ‘basic theological structure, doctrine and tenets derived from the teachings of Guru Nanak and his nine successors, it refers to the whole Sikh way of life both in its individual and social expressions evolved over the centuries’.

From the above explanation, we can deduce that Surdas, a Vaishnava bhakti saint, must have well understood and assimilated the Gurumat in the Sikh context and since he was Hindu, so technically there must be no difference between the philosophies of Sikhism and Hinduism or ‘pushti sect’ of Vaishnavism as far as this particular verse is concerned. But the popular Sikh asserts its ‘independence’ from Hinduism.

This is one of many examples through which one can see the inherent dichotomy in the prevalent Sikh narrative. Therefore there is not only a dire need for a dispassionate analogical analysis of the philosophies of Sikhism and Hinduism but also the underlying socio-political-economic conditions during which separate identity of Sikhs got constructed, hence through this series of articles we aspire to detangle the conundrum of narrative woven around the Sikh-Hindu identities.

References

1. (http://www.sikhmarg.com/english/The-Sikhs.html)
2. ‘Hum Hindu Nahin’ was one of the first elaborate book written by Kahn singh Nabha.