The Sikh Minority and the Partition of the Punjab 1920-1947

Chhanda Chatterjee

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429656156
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

Guru Nanak had gifted the Sikhs with an ideology. Guru Angad had given them the Gurmukhi script. Guru Arjan Dev coalesced the hymns authored or collected by the Gurus and made them a people of the book. Guru Govind Rai created the Khalsa identity with its five symbols (Panj Kakke). Maharaja Ranjit Singh's conquests gave them the pride of race. British insistence on recruiting only keshdhari Sikhs encouraged the Khalsa to assert their distinct identity. The trend accelerated since the revolt of 1857, when John Lawrence reversed the initial successes of the rebels with the recovery of Delhi with forces from the Punjab. Sikhs were co-opted by the British with the clever broadcast of the Guru Tegh Bahadur myth that the Sikhs would be able to avenge the martyrdom of the Guru in Delhi with the help of a white race. Since then the Sikhs formed the backbone of the British Indian army and all their political influence flowed out of this military connection.
The unexpected Congress concession of weightage to the Muslims in the Lucknow Pact of 1916 awakened the Sikhs to the necessity of the defence of Khalsa interests. Their vociferations compelled the British to concede a 19 per cent weightage for the Sikhs in the Montagu-Chelmsford Act of 1919. Gandhi appreciated the indispensable nature of Sikh support for the success of the British military machine. His attempt to subsume the Akali movement under the umbrella of the Non-Cooperation movement in the 1920s against the British and again his attempt to win over the Sikhs for his Civil Disobedience movement during the Lahore Congress in 1929 reflected this shrewd political sense. Sikhs continued to wrench concessions both from the British and the Congress as long as the Pax Britannica had any chance of survival. But as the negotiations for decolonization quickened after the end of the Second World War, the magic of Sikh arms could no longer work miracles for their slender numbers. While British statesmen from Cripps to Attlee – all burnt gallons of midnight oil thinking of an acceptable settlement of the Hindu-Muslim impasse, no one paid much attention to the pathetic quest of Sikh leaders since 1940 to work out an acceptable formula for readjusting the borders of the Punjab to accommodate the birthplace of the Gurus or the canal colonies, worked through long years of Sikh toil.

This book traces the history of Sikhs in India, from the formation of a distinct Sikh identity, to their struggle for political representation in the pre-indedenpence era and their quest for an independent state.

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Chapter 1
The Crystallization of a Distinct Sikh Identity in the Nineteenth Century

THE SIKH FAITH had its origins in the ideas and preachings of Guru Nanak (1469–1539) but its main contours took some time to get defined. As Guru Nanak was born in a Hindu Khatri family the confusion persisted whether Sikhism was just a sect of Hinduism or it was an independent religion. Shri Guru Granth Sahib was equally respected by both Hindus and Sikhs. Many Hindus and Muslims respected Sikhism without leaving their original faith. There was a popular saying that Guru Nanak was ‘the Guru of the Hindus and Pir for the Musalmans’.

Nanak Shah Fakir, Hindooyon ke Guru Mussalmanon ke Pir

Guru Nanak must have been influenced by the contemporary trend of questioning the multiplicity of God and worshipping of images under the influence of the contact with monotheistic Islam. Such interrogations of the traditional faith had started with the long line of Nath Yogis of whom Gorakhnath had been the most important. The practice of Yoga with its emphasis on intense concentration of the senses as a means of achieving union with the creator of this world could be traced to Buddhist philosophic conventions. Defiance of the authority of the Brahmins had also started with the Buddhists. Ramanand and Kabir in Banaras, Chaitanya in Bengal and Ballavacharya in the south had also subscribed to the same trend. But Guru Nanak definitely charted out a completely new path by shunning the anthropomorphism of Kabir and Chaitanya. He also pointed to a new horizon when he showed the way to piety without giving up the duties of a householder (raj me jog) and condemned living on charity. Guru Nanak’s launching of the langar or community kitchen, probably on the lines of the Sufis of Pak Pattan, frequented by him, certainly marked the first step towards the abolition of caste and social hierarchy. Even the mighty Emperor Akbar had to sit and share his meals with all before he could have an audience with Guru Amar Das (1479–1574), the third Guru in the line of Nanak, in Goindwal. However, Guru Nanak never made a conscious effort to define a distinct set of civil institutions for the Sikhs or prepare a separate code of civil or criminal laws. He merely registered his lack of faith in the prevalent philosophic systems and invoked the Lord as the one, the sole, the timeless being.

Guru Nanak’s successor Guru Angad had started the very important practice of committing all of Nanak’s sayings into written form. Kabir had already started the practice of preaching in the vernacular dialect and set the trend for freeing religious teaching from the fetters of a language like Sanskrit or Arabic which were unintelligible to the common people. The monopoly of the Brahmin or the Maulavi of sacred knowledge was thus broken. Guru Angad used the script of western Punjab, the lehndi Punjabi for this. This script later began to be popularly called Gurmukhi, or the words coming from the mouth of the Guru. It later became the core of Sikh identity as Sikhs began to clinch the issue of writing Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script as distinct from Punjabi in the Devanagari script for the Hindus and Punjabi in the Urdu/Arabic script for the Muslims.

The number of the Guru’s adherents swelled to such large proportions by the time of the fifth Guru Arjan that he had to suffer martyrdom in the hands of the Emperor Jehangir.

In Goindwal, which is on the river Beas, a Hindu named Arjan used to live in the garb of a spiritual master and mystic guide, under the influence of which he had induced a large number of simple-minded Hindus and even some ignorant and silly Muslims, to become attached to his ways and customs. He had the drum of his spiritual leadership and sainthood loudly beaten. They called him Guru. From all sides and directions ignorant ones and dervish-garbworshippers inclined towards him and reposed full faith in him. For three or four generations they (he and his precursors) had kept this business brisk. For a long time the thought kept coming to me of either putting an end to this shop of falsehood or to bring him into the fold of the people of Islam.¹

Shireen Moosvi has translated the relevant passages in the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri to show how Emperor Jahangir grew suspicious of the use of the word ‘Sachcha Padshah’ for Guru Arjan by his followers or ‘sis’. The way he singled out the Guru’s followers from other Hindus pointed out unmistakably that the Guru’s adherents were beginning to acquire a new identity for themselves.

This sense of identity got a further boost when the Guru succeeded in compiling the Adi Granth out of the several versions or birs existing in Kartarpur, Goindwal and some other places. Gurinder Singh Mann has written convincingly about the growing of this sacred scripture.² This became another important milestone in the growing identity of the Sikhs as they now became ‘the people of the book’ which was very important in the Islamic atmosphere of north-west Punjab which attached so much importance to having the scripture in a written form (ahl-i-kitab).

Another important step in the evolution of Sikh identity was the investiture of the Sikhs by Guru Gobind Singh with a Khalsa identity during the Vaisakhi of 1699. Words had been sent to the Guru’s followers to come unshaven and with uncut hair to the annual gathering at the Guru’s residence at Anandpur Sahib. The Guru demanded the sacrifice of the head of five volunteers from this assembly and five men representing five castes – one Brahmin, one Khatri and three Shudras – followed each other. The Guru disappeared within a tent with them one by one and the sound of something heavy rolling on the ground could be heard five times in succession and streams of blood could be seen flowing out of the tent to the consternation of the large assembly. But when the curtain was lifted on the tent, the five volunteers were seen seated with the heads of five goats in front of them. These five who had been ready to give up their heads at the call of the Guru were called the Panj Piyare, the men who had endeared themselves to the Guru because of their courage. The names of these five – Daya Ram, Dharam Das, Mohkam Chand, Sahib Chand and Himmat Rai – are repeated in the ardas at the end of every prayer. The Guru then stirred the water of a bowl with a double-edged sword and mixed up some sugar crystals brought by Mata Jito who accidentally came that way. The presence of Mata Jito was considered to be a good omen, which promised the proliferation of the numbers of the Guru’s followers.³ The potion was called amrit and the Guru sprinkled some of it on the Panj Piyare and made them drink some. They were made the Guru ka Khalsa or directly under the tutelage of the Guru. The corruption which had crept up in the masand system introduced by Guru Amar Das to collect the contributions of the expanding number of Sikhs spread over many places, was thereby brought to an end. The masands had started calling themselves the Guru and appropriated all the offerings of the Guru’s followers for themselves. Some of them had even started moneylending and trading operations from these funds and had been exploiting the poor peasants in the name of the Guru.⁴ The baptismal ceremony or khande ki pahul initiating the baptised to the Khalsa implied that ‘all those who were not directly linked with him were not Sikhs either’.⁵ This was also expected to put an end to the pretensions of all dissenters like the Dhirmalees, Minas and Ram Raiyas⁶ The Guru declared that the entrants to the new order were henceforth to regard themselves as absolutely equal (manas ki jat sab ek hi pahchanbo). They were to have the common title ‘Singh’ indicating that they should be as brave as lions. The Guru required them to be kritnash and forget all their former professional affiliations, determining their place in the social hierarchy; to be kul nash or have no family ties; to be dharm nash or free of their former creeds; and to be karm nash or liberated from all rituals except those of their new faith.⁷ These five baptized persons were assumed to have acquired extraordinary holy powers. As the Guru is believed to have declared:

Panchon me nit bartat main hun Panch milan so piran pir

(When the five meet they are the holiest of the holy)⁸

These holy five then administered amrit to the Guru himself, making Gobind Rai a ‘Singh’. The Singhs were expected to abide by the Khalsa Rahit Nama or the rules of the Khalsa. This would require them to wear the panj kakke (five Ks) – kesh (unshorn hair), kanghi (a comb to keep it clean), kachh (knee length breeches denoting military preparedness), karha (a steel bracelet) and a kirpan or sword. They were to shun tobacco and meat if the animal’s blood had been spilt before its death, and intimate contact with Muslim women.

The adoption of this sort of a military code has been interpreted by experts like McLeod as an intrusion of Jat military ideals in the social system of the Sikhs.⁹ The emphasis on physical fitness had not been new. Khushwant Singh has written about Guru Angad’s exhortation to his followers to the Sikhs to take part in physical exercises.¹⁰ Irfan Habib has written about the influx of a large number of Jats among during the days of Guru Arjan chiefly as a means of social upliftment. Irfan Habib has established through his researches into the contemporary local literature that Jats started entering India in scores through the Sindh and Multan route between the seventh and the eleventh centuries in search of fodder for their cattle. They had initially been nomadic graziers. The rich soil of Punjab induced them to invest some of their capital acquired through the sale of cattle products in creating facilities of irrigation and settle down as agriculturists.¹¹ However, they found it difficult to find a place of honour in the hierarchical social system of the Hindus. Guru Nanak’s liberal ideals allowed them to penetrate the social system on a footing of equality. While the Gurus admitted them into the ranks of their ‘sis’ or disciples they too began to influence the congregation with their military values. Faced with the agrarian exactions of the Rajput potentates employed by the Mughals, they rallied around the Gurus even for their temporal concerns.¹² Guru Arjan’s martyrdom in the hands of Mughal officials prompted Guru Hargobind to gird up his loins with two swords (piri and miri) and train up the Sikhs as a militant community. Yet another martyrdom in the family pushed the Sikhs even further into militancy. Guru Gobind’s creation of the Khalsa was a culmination of this process going on for several centuries. P.H.M. van den Dungen has attributed the growth of the Sikh ideology to the egalitarian influence of Islam on the spiritual thinking of this border province. It was this influence which made it possible for the Jats ‘to obliterate the traditional status claims of the Rajputs’ in the central plains.¹³

But this was not accepted by all Sikhs and many continued as sahajdharis instead of embracing the panj kakke as enjoined upon by the tenth Guru. The abolition of caste had also not been to the liking of higher castes like the Brahmins and the Khatris and many of them continued with their old ways. Many called themselves Sikhs but when it came to interdining or intermarriage, they continued to cling to their earlier customs.¹⁴ Even keshadharis would not agree to let the mazhabis (dalit Sikhs) share food in a langar. There were also severe restrictions regarding entry into certain Gurdwaras. The Darbar Sahib of Amritsar was closed to them. There were many such instances of Mazhabi Sikhs being discriminated against.¹⁵ Nor was the Khalsa able to get rid of the superstitions and prejudices handed down to them by their Hindu ancestors like beliefs in astrologers, charms and amulets. The Guru Granth Sahib was worshipped by them with as much cere...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. The Crystallization of a Distinct Sikh Identity in the Nineteenth Century
• 2. Sikh Struggle for Political Representation
• 3. The Sikhs and the Mainstream Indian Leadership, 1927–1937
• 4. Sikhs Come Out of the Orbit of the Congress
• 5. Sikh Quest for Security: From Azad Punjab to Khalistan
• 6. Groping in the Dark
• 7. The Punjab Elections of 1945–1946 and its Aftermath
• 8. The Failure to Secure Sikhistan
• 9. Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index