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mtgondal · #2 Saturday, May 26, 2007

Mixing religion with politics By Kuldip Nayar

LETTER FROM NEW DELHI

THE Sikhs are a brave and courageous community but easily excitable. Transparent as their community is, it does not nourish a grievance. It ventilates it whenever and wherever it feels hurt. But it is too emotional.

What has happened in Punjab in India over the last few days reflects the same trait of pouring one’s heart out and getting square with those who hurt the community. Its anger is like a flood which breaks all the banks and even the dykes.

Take the case of Dera Sacha Sauda, a monastery of sorts, where thousands of people, particularly those belonging to low castes, throng to in order to meditate or listen to its chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who purposely named himself so to convey the message of pluralism. Yet he donned robes like those of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th guru of the Sikhs, and even imitated him in distributing ‘amrit’ — one can call it ‘sherbet-i-hayat’ (syrup of life).

In fact, he went beyond that by inserting an advertisement to publicise his reception where he was shown in flowing robes with a plume pinned on his turban like Guru Gobind Singh. This instigated a large number of Sikhs. Several thousands came out on the streets with unsheathed swords and there was a clash in which state buses and some buildings were set on fire. There was vandalism and destruction.

No doubt, the Dera chief is to blame for the violence. But the Punjab government sat back and did nothing for the first two days. Is it because the Dera chief had issued an edict to his followers during the recent state election to vote for the Congress? His behaviour, particularly the advertisement, has given life to militants and hardliners who had been lying low for the last decade or so. They took law and order into their own hands and the Akali Dal-led government became a mute spectator.

The Akal Takht came into action. It is the highest spiritual and temporal seat of the Sikhs and acts like the government and issues ultimatums. Had the state government taken timely action against those who went about unchecked, particularly in the countryside, things would not have reached the pass they did. While the state was in the throes of one of its worst crises, the government waited for word to come from the political affairs committee of the party.

The Dera chief could have doused the fire if he had gone to the public to say that he never meant to present himself as Guru Gobind Singh. The Dera later issued a press release to express regret. But it was too little, too late. An apology would have been in order.

I do not know why the Dera chief was adamant on not issuing an apology. The Pope did it when he realised that some of his words had hurt the Muslims. We, living in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, should never have any hesitation in saying “sorry”, especially when we find that we have, wittingly or unwittingly, hurt some people.

What has disconcerted me is the role of the Akal Takht. It supplanted the state government. Calling a bandh (strike) was none of its business. This is the job of political parties. The Akalis should have done it if they had felt the need. Bandh is a political term, not a religious one. India, particularly Punjab, has suffered in the past because the Akal Takht has mixed religion with politics. It has been once again found doing that. Ordering the closure of deras is the government’s job, not that of the Akal Takht. These are not religious issues.

The Sikh faith in ‘miri’ and ‘piri’ is interpreted wrongly in today’s context, and politics is mixed with religion. When Guru Hargobind Sahib, in adumbrating the concept, rationalised the joining of politics with religion, his purpose was to instil the sentiments of social service among his followers. He wanted the Sikhs to pay attention to the lowest in the land.

No doubt, the Sikhs are far ahead in this field as compared to other communities. Still, their contribution is not in proportion to the wealth at their command. Why can’t the community channel money to productive avenues so as to absorb the lakhs of unemployed Sikhs who are prone to drugs? One cause for the last militancy in Punjab was the unemployment of Sikh youth.

The situation has not improved. I do not understand why every time there is trouble in Punjab, some elements collect in London to raise the demand for Khalistan, a separate state. This happened last week as well. And, as usual, two Muslim MPs of Pakistani origin were there to denounce India.

Pakistan has its own troubles and they emanate from the same malady: mixing religion with politics. Take the case of Lal Masjid in Islamabad which has become a centre of fundamentalists trying to dictate to the Pakistan government.

The Sikhs, by and large, have come to accept provincial autonomy like the rest of the Indians. But the problem with the Sikh community is that it tends to mix religion with politics. It is not opposed to secularism but it overemphasises the religious identity. Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh religion, preached pluralism and put together the sayings of Hindu, Muslim and other saints in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book.

It is pluralism the Sikhs should be pursuing and upholding, not religious jingoism. When they get carried away by passions, as has been seen again and again, they exhibit a trait which only impairs the community’s image.

I wonder if the Dera Sacha Sauda incident is the beginning of the era of the Giani Zail Singh type of politics. Then the Congress found the extremist Bhindranwale and lionised him to fight against the Akalis. Things went beyond control and the result was disastrous. The army attacked the Golden Temple where Bhindranwale had tried to build a state within a state and Sikh guards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

This retaliation led to another fiendish kind of reprisal: the killing of innocent Sikhs in broad daylight, 3,000 in Delhi alone. What is called the Sikh problem got more aggravated. The elevation of Manmohan Singh as prime minister has solved it to a large extent and that Mrs Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi, has brought this about has made all the difference.

The tendency all over the world is to mix religion with politics. Turkey is a brave exception where people marched through the streets to show their support for secularism. I wish such a thing could happen in what was once the Indian subcontinent, now divided into three nations, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The region’s forte is pluralism.

The writer is a leading columnist based in New Delhi.