S

Sabad

▶Kirtan (Sikhism)▶ Shabad (Word), Sikhism

Sabada

▶ Shabad (Word), Sikhism

Sabd

▶ Shabad (Word), Sikhism

Sabda

▶ Shabad (Word), Sikhism

Saint

▶Ramdas (Guru)

# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017A.-P.S. Mandair (ed.), Sikhism, Encyclopedia of Indian Relighttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0846-1

Samskara

▶ Samskara (Sikhism)

Samskara (Sikhism)

Gurnam Kaur BalSri Guru Granth Sahib Studies Department,Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, IndiaDepartment of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies ofPunjabi University, Brampton, ON, Canada

Synonyms

Anna prasanam; Annaprashana; Ashta samskara;Karnavedha; Samskara; Sankhara; Sanskara;Shodasha samskara; Snana

Definition

Samskara is from the Sanskrit sansakara.Samskara is a rite of passage, or the ceremoniesthat mark important events in a person’s life.These ceremonies are related with events likemarriage, baptism, the birth of the child, death,etc. Every religion and world culture has suchceremonies. The literal meaning of the wordsamskara is to purify, refine, supplement, or

ions,

380 Samskara (Sikhism)

brighten the inner conscience of the person.Samskaras are performed to inculcate humanvalues, as though planting the seeds of thesevalues at key moments throughout a person’slife; these ceremonies allow for the transformationof someone’s personality so that he can fulfill hisduties (dharma) towards his family and society.

Introduction

Just as every religion or culture has prescribed itsown ceremonies to be performed by its followers,Sikhism, too, prescribes various ceremoniesrelated with different events in a Sikh’s life;these ceremonies may be found in the bani ofthe Sri Guru Granth Sahib as well as in the sayingsof the Gurus. In modern times, the ShiromaniGurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is themain governing body of Sikh institutions andpreaching of Sikhism; in order to preservethe teachings of the Gurus as told in bani,hukamnamas, and rehatnamas, the SGPC – withthe help of Sikh scholars – prepared the SikhRehat Maryada, or code of conduct, for the Sikhcommunity to follow both in daily life and specialoccasions. Some examples follow.

Ceremonies (Samskaras) Related withBirth and Naming of the Child

According to the Sikh Rehat Maryada, as soon asa mother becomes capable of moving about andbathing after the birth of the child, the family andrelatives go to a Gurdwara with karhah prashad(sacred pudding) or get karhah prashad made inthe Gurdwara. The family must recite in the holypresence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib hymns that areexpressive of joy and thankfulness, such as “TheAlmighty Lord has granted support” [1] and, “TheTrue Lord has sent this gift.” [2] After concludingthe reading of the holy Guru Granth Sahib, thehukam (command) is taken from the GranthSahib. A name starting with the first letter of theShabad of the hukam is proposed by the granthi(man in attendance of Guru Granth Sahib); afterits acceptance by the congregation, the granthi

announces the name. A boy’s name containsthe suffix “Singh” and a girl’s name contains thesuffix “Kaur.” After the announcement of thename, the Anand Sahib (the composition of thirdGuru in Raag Ramkali) is recited, the Ardas isoffered in appropriate terms expressing joy overthe naming ceremony, and the karhah prashad isdistributed. [3] In the Rehat Maryada, the cere-monies are the same for the birth of either a boy ora girl.

The Rehat Maryada also explains that nosuperstition is allowed related to the birth ofa child. For instance, one must not subscribe tosuperstition regarding the pollution of food andwater in consequence of birth, for the holy writstates that “Birth and death are by His ordinance;coming and going is by His will. All food andwater are, in principle, clean, for these life-sustaining substances are provided by Him.” [4]

Amrit Sanskar (Ceremony of Khande diPahul)

Amrit sanskar is the most important and uniqueevent in the life of a Sikh. With this sanskar, onegets converted from the ordinary Sikh communityinto the Khalsa, a combination of spirituality andworldliness. It was first performed on the panjpiyare (five beloved ones) by the tenth GuruGobind Singh on Vaisakhi of 1699; after theGuru got amrit from the panj piyare, he becameGobind Singh instead of Gobind Rai. This isdescribed in the Rehat Maryada as follows:

The ceremony of Khande di Pahul (amritsanskar) should be held at an exclusive placeaway from common human traffic. At the placewhere the ceremony is administered, the holyGuru Granth Sahib is installed and ceremoniallyopened. Six amritdhari committed Sikhs – eithermen or women – are present there, having takena bath and washed their hair; one of these Sikhsattends to the Guru Granth Sahib, and the otherfive administer the Khande di Pahul.

The beloved ones (panj piyare) who administerthe Khande di Pahul should not include disabledpersons, such as a person who is blind or blind inone eye, lame, has a broken or disabled limb, or

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a chronic disease. These persons should also notinclude anyone who has committed a breach ofSikh discipline and principles: all of them shouldbe committed amritdhari Sikhs with appealingpersonalities.

Any man or woman of any country, religion, orcaste who embraces Sikhism and solemnly under-takes to abide by its principles is entitled toKhande di Pahul (amrit).

The person to be amritdhari should not be ofvery young age; he or she should have attaineda plausible degree of maturity; he or she must havetaken bath, washed his/her hair, and must wear allfive Ks: kesh (unshorn hair), kirpan (sword),kacchera (prescribed shorts), kangha (combtucked into the hair), and kara (steel bracelet).He/she must not have any other token of faith onhis/her person. He/she must not have his/her headbare or wearing a cap. He/she must not be wearingany ornaments piercing through any part of thebody. The person to be amritdhari stands respect-fully with folded hands facing Guru Granth.

One from amongst the five beloved onesadministering the Khande di Pahul explains theprinciples of the Sikh religion to the person seek-ing to be amritdhari. He should conclude hisexposition of the principles of Sikh religion withthe query: “Do you accept these willingly?”

On an affirmative response from the seeker ofKhande di Pahul, one from amongst the fivebeloved ones performs the Ardas for the prepara-tion of Khande di Pahul and takes the holy hukam(command). The five beloved ones come close tothe bowl for preparing the Khande di Pahul. Thebowl is of pure steel and should be placed ona clean steel ring or other clean support. Cleanwater and sugar puffs are put in the bowl, and thefive beloved ones sit around it in bir posture (birassan) and recite the following scriptural compo-sitions: Japji, Jaap, the ten Sawayyas (commenc-ing with sarawag sudh), the Benti Chaupai (from“hamri karo hath de racha” to “dusht dokh te lehobachai”), and Anand Sahib. One of the fivebeloved ones who recites the scripture holds theedge of the bowl with his left hand and keepsstirring the water with a khanda (double-edgedsword) held in his right hand, doing so with fullconcentration. The rest of the beloved ones grip

the edge of the bowl with both hands, concentrat-ing their full attention on the Khande di Pahul.After the conclusion of the recitation, one fromamongst the beloved ones performs the Ardas.

Only that person seeking amrit who has partic-ipated in the entire ceremony of amrit sanskar canbe considered amritdhari.

After the Ardas in which the tenth Guru, GuruGobind Singh Sahib, is remembered, every personseeking to be amritdhari sits in bir assan,putting his/her right hand on the cupped lefthand and is made to drink the amrit five times,as the beloved one who pours the mix into hiscupped hand exclaims: “Say, Waheguru ji kaKhalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh! (The Khalsa is ofthe Wondrous Destroyer of darkness; victory, too,is His!).” After imbibing the amrit, the newlyamritdhari person repeats “Waheguru ji kaKhalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh.” Then five handfulsof amrit are sprinkled into the eyes of the personbecoming amritdhari and another five into his hair.Each such sprinkling is accompanied by the chant“Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji ki Fateh,”recited first by one of the five beloved ones andthen repeated by the person getting amrit. What-ever amrit is left over after the administration of theKhande di Pahul (amrit) to all individual seekers issipped by all amritdharis together.

After this, the five beloved ones communicatethe name of Waheguru to all who have beenadministered the Khande di Pahul, after whichthey recite to them the Mul Mantar and makethem repeat it aloud: Ik aunkar satnam kartapurakh nirbhau nirwair akal murat ajunisaibhang gur parsad.

From now on for the amritdhari, Guru GobindSingh is the Father, Mata Sahib Kaur is the motherof the Amritdhari, and his residence is AnandpurSahib.

Anand Sanskar (Sikh Wedding andConventions)

Anand Sanskar, [5] usually called Anand Karj, isa very important event in the life of any Sikh manor woman, as the Sikh Gurus considered the fam-ily life more important than asceticism for the

382 Samskara (Sikhism)

spiritual realization of the self. According to theSikh code of conduct, caste and descent shouldnot be considered when entering wedlock, a Sikhman or woman shouldmarry another Sikh, and thewedding ceremony should be solemnized byAnand marriage rites. Child marriage is taboo forSikhs. Marriage may or may not be preceded byengagement ceremony, but if an engagement cere-mony is held, it should be held in a congregationalgathering in the presence of the GuruGranth Sahib;after offering Ardas, a kirpan, a steel kara, andsome sweets may be given to the groom.

Consulting a horoscope for determining anauspicious day or otherwise fixing a day isa sacrilege. Any day suitable to the both partiesby mutual consultation should be fixed. Otherrites, like putting on floral or gilded face orna-ments, decorative headgear, or a red thread bandround the wrist, worshipping ancestors, recitingcouplets, performing havans, installing vedi, etc.,are all sacrilegious as these rites are associatedwith Hindu marriage.

The marriage party should be as small as thegirl’s people desire. The two parties greet eachother singing sacred hymns and with the Sikhsalutation Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji kiFateh. The Anand ceremony is performed ina congregational gathering in the presence of theGuru Granth Sahib. The girl and boy are made tosit facing the Guru Granth Sahib. After solicitingthe congregation’s permission, the master of themarriage ceremony (who may be a man or awoman) bids the boy and girl and their parents orguardians to stand and offer Ardas for the com-mencement of the Anand marriage ceremony. Theofficiant then apprises the boy and the girl of theduties and obligations of conjugal life according tothe Guru’s teachings. He/She initially gives to thetwo an exposition of their mutual obligations astold in the bani of the Guru Granth Sahib.

The boy and girl bow before the Guru GranthSahib to demonstrate their acceptance of theseinstructions. Thereafter, the girl’s father or guard-ian principal relation makes the girl grasp one endof the sash which the boy is wearing overhis shoulders. The person in attendance of theGuru Granth Sahib recites the matrimonial cir-cumambulation stanzas, or lavan (composed by

the Fourth Nanak Guru RamDas in the SuhiRag).[6] After the conclusion of each of the stanzas, theboy, followed by the girl holding the end of thesash, goes round the Guru Granth Sahib while theraagis or the congregation sing out the recitedstanza. The boy and the girl, after every circum-ambulation, bow before the Guru Granth Sahib.Because there are four circumambulation stanzasin the concerned hymn, the proceeding will com-prise four circumambulations. After these arecomplete, the boy and the girl bow before GuruGranth Sahib and sit at the appointed place and theraagi or appointed person recites the first fivestanzas and the last stanza of Anand Sahib. [7]Thereafter the Ardas is performed and the karhahprashad is distributed.

If the girl’s parents visit their daughter, theycan eat meal there. Abstaining from eating is asuperstition and Sikhism does not believe insuperstitions. Widow remarriage of the girl is nota taboo in Sikhism.

Antam Sanskar (Funeral Ceremonies)

According to the Sikh code of conduct, the bodyof the dying or dead person is not removed fromthe cot and neither is any lamp lit or any other suchceremony performed which is contrary to theteachings of the Guru. Taking death as God’swill, no family member or relatives should grieve,cry, or indulge in breast beating. Bani, or simplythe phrase Waheguru, should be recited.

The body should be cremated no matter the ageof the deceased. However, where arrangements forcremation cannot be made, the body can beimmersed in flowing water or disposed of in anyothermanner. There should not be any considerationof the time of cremation, whether it is day or night.

The dead body is bathed and clothed in cleanclothes; the Sikh symbols – kangha, kacchera,kara, and kirpan – should not be removed. Afterputting the body on a plank, Ardas is performed.On the way to the cremation ground, bani isrecited. After placing the dead body on the pyre,Ardas is offered again for consigning the body tothe fire; then the son or any other relative sets fire tothe bier, and other people continue singing

Sant Sipahi 383

shabads. When the pyre is fully aflame, the KirtanSohila (night scriptural prayer) is recited and Ardasoffered. Upon returning from the cremationgrounds, a reading of Guru Granth Sahib is com-menced at home or at a nearby Gurdwara, and afterreciting six stanzas of Anand Sahib, Ardas isoffered and karhah prashad is distributed. Thereading of Guru Granth Sahib should be completedon the tenth day after the death; if it is not possibleto do so on the tenth day, some other day may beappointed for the conclusion of the reading. Ifpossible, the reading should be done by the familymembers of the deceased. No funeral ceremonyremains to be performed after the tenth day.

When the pyre is burnt out, the whole bulk ofthe ashes, including the burnt bones, should begathered up and immersed in flowing water orburied at that very place and the ground leveled.Raising a monument to the memory of thedeceased at the place where his/her dead body iscremated is a taboo.

References

1. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.5, p. 6282. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.5, p. 3963. Sikh Reht Maryada, Hosted by SGPC, Amritsar4. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.1, p. 4725. Sikh Reht Maryada, Hosted by SGPC, Amritsar6. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.4, pp. 773–7747. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M.3, p. 917

S

Sanity

▶Logic (Sikhism)

Sankhara

▶ Samskara (Sikhism)

Sanskara

▶ Samskara (Sikhism)

Sant Sipahi

Randeep HothiDepartment of Asian Languages and Cultures,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Definition

Saint-Soldier

Main Text

Sant Sipahi is the ideal Sikh, one who has thequalities of sainthood as well as martial prowessand discipline. [1] The word Sant, roughly trans-lating to Saint, is an honorific for gifted preceptorsthat guide the Sikh community. However, thenotion of a Sant cannot be confined to apoliticalpersons. Examples such as Sant Jarnail SinghBhindranwale demonstrate that Sikh’s under-standings of what it is to be a Sant allows for themilitary and political. The term dual term SantSipahi can be understood as the conjunction oftwo concepts, or rather that notions of Sant ornotions of Sipahi are already implicated in oneanother. The exemplary Sant Sipahi figure inSikhism is the Khalsa. [1–3]

The Sant Sipahi unity arises over the span ofSikh tradition. One is the idea of Miri Piri, intro-duced by Guru Hargobind. Miri and Piri are thenames of two swords worn by Guru HargobindSingh, referring to temporal and spiritual sover-eignty, respectively. The introduction of Miri Pirimarked a time when Sikhs first began to exercisemartial organization and warfare. [4] This isalso marked by the erection of the Akal Takhtadjacent to the Harmandir Sahib. The Akal Takhtgurudwara, constructed under the purview of GuruHargobind, signifies the supreme temporal author-ity possessed by the Guru. [5]

Another parallel notion is Deg Teg Fateh, anexpression notoriously difficult to translate,roughly meaning “victory to the cauldron andsword,” which seems to have been in circulationfrom the time of Guru Gobind Singh and onwards.

384 Sant(s)

Deg refers to the large iron cookware used insustaining the tradition of langar. The unity ofthe Deg and Teg, alluded to in the Dasam Granth,but most explicitly mentioned in the Ardas, com-bines notions of charity with that of martial exer-cise. [1, 4, 6]

Sant Sipahi is one of the many “opposing yetconjoined” concepts. [7] The Guru Granth Sahibunifies the Sant and Sipahi: [8]

In the realm of grace spiritual power is supreme,nothing else avails. Brave and strong warriors inwhom the Lord’s spirit lives dwell there, those whoare blended with him by singing his praises. Theirbeauty is beyond description, the Lord lives in theirhearts. They do not die and are not deceived.

The Congregations of the blessed live there too.They dwell in bliss with the True One in their hearts(AG [8]).

For another case, consider the compositionattributed to Bhagat Kabir found in the GuruGranth Sahib: [9]

The battle-drum beats in the sky of the mind; aim istaken, and the wound is inflicted. The spiritual war-riors enter the field of battle; now is the time to fight!He alone is known as a spiritual hero, who fights indefense of religion. He may be cut apart, piece bypiece, but he never leaves the field of battle.

The paradoxical Sant Sipahi, therefore, sig-nifies a paradoxical concept. However, there islittle theoretical study of how this conjunctionplays itself out in contemporary Sikh politics.

Cross-References

▶Khalsa▶ Sant(s)▶ Sikhism▶Violence (and Nonviolence), Sikhism

References

1. McLeod WH (1995) Historical dictionary of Sikhism.Scarecrow, Lanham

2. Cynthia MK (1996) Why Sikhs fight. Anthropologicalcontributions to conflict resolution. University ofGeorgia, Athens, pp 11–30

3. Nesbitt E (2000) Religión and the body. In: SarahCoakley (ed) Cambridge University Press

4. Owen ColeW, Sambhi PS (1990) A popular dictionaryof Sikhism. Curzon, London

5. Daljeet S (1998) Essentials of Sikhism. SinghBrothers, Amritsar

6. McLeod WH (2003) Sikhs of the Khalsa: a history ofthe Khalsa Rahit. Oxford University Press, New Delhi

7. Pettigrew J. Songs of the Sikh resistance movement8. Owen Cole W, Sambhi PS (1995) The Sikhs: their

religious beliefs and practices. Sussex Academic,Brighton

9. Siṃha T (1977) The turban and the sword of the Sikhs.Sikh Missionary Society, Gravesend

10. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WhgDL6SwGeQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA310&dq=sant+sipahi&ots=BNGE77JyXC&sig=xdYviL0ohMYIADI8f4Kqz_JIoq0#v=onepage&q=sipahi&f=false

11. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=521m3YG-N38C&oi=fnd&pg=PA11&dq=sant+sipahi&ots=NxjG7XPiGj&sig=JzAZGRFtUTfDRl0dFUtfA0EA3aQ#v=onepage&q=sant%20sipahi&f=false

12. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bk-rDk_OyvwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA289&dq=sant+sipahi&ots=cqGdD5d9hH&sig=glRNKMTSEq_K2hIkWnM8ypIg76I#v=onepage&q=sant%20sipahi&f=false

13. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17448720903408307

14. http://www.jstor.org/pss/83437915. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1744872

7.2011.56161116. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/150275

70.2011.562026

Sant(s)

Susan PrillDepartment of Religious Studies, Juniata College,Huntingdon, PA, USA

Synonyms

Bhagats; Nirgun Bhakti

Definition

Derived from the Sanskrit root sat (Truth), Sant isused in North Indian languages to denote a devoteeor saintly person. In modern usage, it most oftenrefers to poet-saints from North and Central Indiawho conceived of the Divine as nirguna (abstractor formless).

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S

Sants and Sant Teachings

The Maharashtrian Sant movement (fl. thirteenthto eighteenth centuries) and the Northern Santtradition (fl. fifteenth to seventeenth centuries)are understood as subgroups of the bhakti (devo-tion) movement. The term is also applied to mod-ern charismatic leaders in Sikhism. The word Santis often translated as “Saint,” but the two wordsare not etymologically related.

The Sants are associated most strongly withtheir praises sung to a formless divinity. Thisform of devotion is known as nirguna bhakti(devotion to something without qualities). Theidea of a formless divinity can be traced to theconcept of Brahman in the Upanishads, and thisidea may also have been reinforced in some areasby Islam. Unlike saguna bhakti (devotion tosomething with qualities), which often refers tothe physical form of a deity, nirguna bhaktiattempts to form a personal relationship with animpersonal God. Many Sants correlate this ideawith an assertion that the various names of Godproposed by Hindu and Muslim traditions ulti-mately refer to the same concept. The most widelyused name for this divinity in most Sant literatureis Ram (not understood to be the same as theHindu hero-god of the same name), and otherVaishnava (Vishnu-worshipping) names likeHari are also commonly employed. Some of theearliest Sants, such as the Maharashtrian saintNamdev, also composed saguna Vaishnavahymns, but the later Sants, like Kabir, were exclu-sively nirguna in outlook.

The strongest historical influence on Santteachings as they developed was undoubtedlyVaishnava bhakti. The bhakti movement origi-nated in southern India in the seventh century,and by the thirteenth century there were a numberof bhakti poets in Maharashtra. From Maharash-tra, bhakti moved north into Hindi-speaking areas.Bhakti poems appear to have been spread byitinerant musicians far beyond the regions inwhich they were initially composed. Severalideals of the bhakti movement found their wayinto the compositions of the Sants, includinga rejection of Brahmanical ritual in favor ofa personal devotion, the ideal of viraha or longing

in separation, and the use of romantic/sexualimagery to portray the relationship between dev-otee and divinity. Many Vaishnava compendia ofthe lives of saints include Sants in them, but it isimportant to note that Sants did not considerthemselves to be part of conventional VaishnavaHinduism. [1]

Additionally, the Nath Yogi movement associ-ated with Gorakhnath/Gorakshanatha appears tohave been a strong influence on some Sants, espe-cially the North Indian Sant Kabir. [18] The Yogicconcepts of a subtle body and of an “unstrucksound” which might be heard during meditationfind their way into a number of Sant compositions.Yogic influence is also found inMaharashtrian Santpoetry, and the Maharashtrian hagiographical tradi-tion asserts ties to a number of prominent Yogis.

Sufi poetry in India often bears a strong resem-blance to Hindu bhakti poetry and literary tropesin each seem to have influenced the other. Someaspects of Sufi thinking certainly impacted Sants,especially in the North. ([5], pp. 202–203) Inaddition, the Muslim emphasis on one formlessGod may very well have reinforced indigenoussources for nirguna conceptions of the divine.

In addition to nirguna bhakti, one of the typicalqualities of Sant poetry is a rejection of caste hier-archy and external representations of religiosity [9,pp. 20-21]. This often takes the form of an equatingof certain aspects of Hindu and Muslim practice,with the assertion that both are futile. An illustrativepoem by Kabir reads in part “If caste was what theCreator had in mind,/why wasn’t anyone born/withSiva’s three-lined sign?/. . .If you’re a Muslim,/from a Muslim woman born,/why weren’t you cir-cumcised inside?”. (KG pad 182) ([6], p. 54)

Hymns such as these have led to a commonpopular understanding of the Sants as socialreformers. The poems of Kabir, Namdev, andRaidas are thus frequently cited by low caste and“untouchable” groups and by politicians andothers who want to reduce interreligious tensions.

A History of the Sants

As mentioned above, there are two main“schools” of Sant poetry – one in Maharashtra,

386 Sant(s)

and the other in the north of India, centered inwhat is now Uttar Pradesh, but stretching intoPunjab and Rajasthan [16, p. 22]. The former isprimarily Vaishnava in outlook, with some nirguninfluences, while the latter is more exclusive in itsnirgun outlook. The Maharashtrian Sant Namdevis said to have travelled to the north as far as thePunjab and thus serves as a putative link betweenMaharashtrian and Northern Sant schools.

The Maharashtrian Sant movement appears tohave grown out of Vaishnava devotionalism. TheMaharashtrian Sants are today associated with theVarkari movement, a Vaishnava cult centered onVitthal, a regional manifestation of Krishna/Vishnu. Maharashtrian Sant compositions oftenblur lines between Shaiva and Vaishnavadevotionalism and in some cases show clear influ-ence from Nath Yogi thinking. [17] ProminentMaharashtrian Sants include the thirteenth orfourteenth century saints Jnanadev and Namdev,together with the latter’s maidservant Janabai, andthe sixteenth to seventeenth century saintsTukaram and Eknath, as well as Tukaram’s femaledisciple Bahinabai. [13]

Northern Sants are sometimes said to tracea lineage to the fourteenth century Vaishnavasaint Ramanand. Ramanand was a Brahmin,though, and this “lineage” may partially be anattempt to legitimize religious compositions bylow caste and “untouchable” saints like Kabirand Raidas/Ravidas [7, pp. 43-4, 14, p. 5]. It isquite common to find lists of Sant precursors inthe compositions of Northern Sants, and this hashelped to shape the idea that they form a cohesivegroup. This group includes Kabir (a weaver),Raidas (a leather-worker), Pipa (King ofGagaraunagadh), Sen (a barber) and the Rajas-thani Sant Dhanna.

Additionally, Dadu Dayal (c. 1544–1604) wasa Sant who was geographically centered in what isnow Rajasthan. The Dadu Panth sect which grewfrom his teachings anthologized the compositionsof several Sants, including Kabir, Raidas, andNamdev. [12] This corpus has been the focus ofmuch research by Winand Callewaert. [3,4]

Guru Nanak (1469–1539), first Guru of theSikh religion, composed hymns which havemuch in common with Sant ideology. He is not

generally listed as a Sant, but some of his compo-sitions are found in anthologies of Sant writingfrom outside of the Sikh tradition. [2] As the Sikhholy text, the Guru Granth Sahib, was compiledin the early seventeenth century, it included thoseprecursors of Guru Nanak who were understoodto be consistent with his teachings. These precur-sors are referred to as bhagat, a regional variationon the term bhakta, or practitioner of bhakti.Many of the better-known Sants are included inthis list. The bhagats included in the Guru GranthSahib are Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, Sheikh Farid,Sadhna, Surdas, Sain, Jaidev, Trilochan, Dhanna,Parmanand, Pipa, Beni, Bhikhan, and Ramanand.Although most of these are Sants, some are asso-ciated with other traditions. Most notably, SheikhFarid was a Sufi Muslim. [15]

Sources for Sant Compositionsand Hagiography

The compositions of the various Sants, first trans-mitted orally, have been committed to writing insectarian anthologies, beginning in the sixteenthcentury. It should also be mentioned that promi-nent Sants such as Kabir and Raidas also havea strong oral tradition today, and many composi-tions which are associated in the popular imagi-nation with these Sants may not be traceable to theearliest manuscript collections [10, pp. 205-223].This is complicated somewhat by the Indian tra-dition of honoring a saintly figure by composinghymns in his/her name. A poem attributed toNamdev might thus have been composed in thenineteenth century.

The main historical manuscript traditions forNorthern Sants are (1) the Guru Granth Sahib,with the relevant compositions being antholo-gized by 1604; (2) Rajasthani manuscripts asso-ciated with the Dadu Panth, most notably thePanc-Vani and the Sarvangis of Gopaldas andRajab; and (3) The Bijak of Kabir, associatedwith the Kabir Panth. There are a number ofhagiographical texts as well, including the six-teenth century Paracai of Anantadas andNabhadas’ Bhaktamal (probably early seven-teenth century).

Sapna 387

Sources for Maharashtrian Santism includea number of texts attributed to Jnanadev, mostsignificantly the Amritanubhava and the lengthycommentary on the Bhagavad Gita known as theJnanesvari. Most of the Maharashtrian Santscomposed devotional hymns known as abhangas,and these are found both in the oral tradition andin a number of manuscripts. In addition, there area number of hagiographical texts, most signifi-cantly the Bhakta Vijaya and Bhakti Lilamrit ofMahipati (eighteenth century).

Sants in Modern Sikhism

Finally, it should be noted that the term Sant iscommonly used in the modern Sikh tradition torefer to contemporary charismatic leaders. Thismodern usage has little, if any, overlap with theusage described above. Sikh Sants may have any-where from a handful to many thousands of fol-lowers and operate as charismatic religiousteachers, much like modern Hindu gurus. SomeSikh Sants do offer messages of social reform thatoverlap with messages found in the compositionsof Ravidas or Kabir, but these are not central toSikh Santhood. [11]

Cross-References

▶Bhakti (bhagti)▶Kabir▶Namdev▶Ravidas (Raidas)

S

References

1. Barthwal PD (1936) The Nirguna school of Hindipoetry: an exposition of medieval Santa mysticism.Indian Book Shop, Benares

2. Callewaert WM (2006) Padas of Guru Nanak in Rajas-thani manuscripts. In: Horstmann M (ed) Bhakti incurrent research. Manohar, New Delhi

3. Callewaert WM, Friedlander PG (1992) The life andworks of Raidas. Manohar, New Delhi

4. Callewaert WM, Lath M (1989) The Hindi Padavali ofNamdev: a critical edition of Namdev’s Hindi songswith translation and annotation. Motilal Banarsidass,New Delhi

5. Gold D (1987) The Lord as guru: Hindi Sants in NorthIndian tradition. Oxford University Press, New York

6. Hawley JS (2005) Three Bhakti voices: Mirabai,Surdas, and Kabir in their times and ours. OxfordUniversity Press, New Delhi

7. Hawley JS, Juergensmeyer M (1988) Songs of thesaints of India. Oxford University Press, New York

8. Hess L, Singh S (2002) The Bijak of Kabir. OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford

9. Lorenzen DN (1995) The historical vicissitudes on theBhakti religion. In: Lorenzen DN (ed) Bhakti religionin North India: community identity and politicalaction. SUNY Press, Albany

10. Lorenzen DN (1996) Praises to a formless God:Nirguni texts from north India. Sri Satguru Publica-tions, New Delhi

11. McLeod WH (1987) The meaning of ‘Sant’ in Sikhusage. In: Schomer K, McLeod WH (eds) The Sants:studies in a devotional tradition of India, Berkeley Reli-gious Studies series. Motilal Banarsidass, Berkeley

12. Orr WG (1947) A sixteenth-century Indian mystic.Lutterworth Press, London

13. Ranade RD (1933) Mysticism in Maharashtra: Indianmysticism. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi. Reprinted 1982

14. Schomer K (1987) Introduction: the Sant tradition inperspective. In: Schomer K, McLeod WH (eds) TheSants: studies in a devotional tradition of India, Berke-ley Religious Studies series. Motilal Banarsidass,Berkeley

15. Singh P (2003) The bhagats of the Guru Granth Sahib:Sikh self-definition and the bhagat bani. Oxford Uni-versity Press, New Delhi

16. Vaudeville C (1987) Sant Mat: Santism as the universalpath to sanctity. In: Schomer K, McLeodWH (eds) TheSants: studies in a devotional tradition of India, Berke-ley Religious Studies series. Motilal Banarsidass,Berkeley

17. Vaudeville C (1987) The Shaiva-Vaishnava synthesisin Maharashtrian Santism. In: Schomer K, McLeodWH (eds) The Sants: studies in a devotional traditionof India, Berkeley Religious Studies series. MotilalBanarsidass, Berkeley

18. Vaudeville C (1993) A weaver named Kabir: selectedverses with a detailed biographical and historical intro-duction. Oxford University Press, New Delhi

Sants

▶ SECTS (Sikhism)

Sapna

▶Dreams (Sikhism)

388 Savant

Savant

▶Ramdas (Guru)

Scripture (Sikhism)

Pashaura SinghDepartment of Religious Studies,University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

Synonyms

Guru Granth Sahib

Definition

The notion of sacred scripture in Sikhism.

Scripture as Guru

The study of the Sikh scripture is quite useful inunderstanding the general notion of “scripture” asa cross-cultural phenomenon. In fact, the study ofa text as scripture is not only concerned with itstextual problems, the reconstruction of its history,the formation of the canon, and its contextualmeaning but also with its ongoing role in thecumulative tradition of a religious community,both as a normative source of authority and asa prodigious living force. ([2], p. 659) Perceivedfrom this angle, the reception of the Sikh scriptureas Guru by the Sikh community is highly signif-icant. The tenth and last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh(1666–1708), terminated the line of personalGurus before he passed away in 1708 andinstalled the Adi Granth as “the eternal Guru forthe Sikhs,” making it the source of spiritual ben-efits and the central focus of Sikh worship. Thus,the Guru Granth Sahib became a perennial sourceof divine guidance for Sikhs, and as a mark ofrespect for its revered status, they never open itwithout first ceremonially waving over it a chauri

(“whisk”) made of yak hair or man-made fiberfixed in a silver metal and attached to a woodenhandle.

In his seminal work on the comparative under-standing of the phenomenon of “scripture,”Wilfred Cantwell Smith has proposed a radicalthesis that no text is a scripture in itself.People – a given community – make a text intoscripture by treating it in a certain way. Accord-ingly, scripture is a human activity. ([3], p. 18)That is, scripture becomes scripture only when itis filtered through the collective consciousnessand experience of a people. In this sense, a scrip-ture is a relational concept: it points to a relation-ship of power between a text and a community.A scripture is not only set apart from other texts bya community because of its richness or semanticdensity, but because it is inextricably embedded inritual and daily life. As such, a living relationshipwith a scripture is not merely to read it, nor even tounderstand its verbal meaning, but to appropriate,to interiorize, to practice its precepts, and to striveto realize its truth.

The daily routine of a devout Sikh begins withthe practice of meditation on the divine name.This occurs during the “ambrosial hours”(amritvela) in the morning, immediately after ris-ing and bathing. The meditation is followed by therecitation of five liturgical prayers, which includeGuru Nanak’s Japji (“recitation”). Similarly, a col-lection of hymns, Sodar Rahiras (“Supplication atThat Door”), is prescribed for the evening prayers,and the Kirtan Sohila (“Song of Praise”) is recitedbefore retiring for the night. These prayers arelearnt by heart in childhood, and later on, they arerecited as part of daily routine from memory. Ina gurdwara, the main focus is on the Guru GranthSahib, installed ceremoniously every morning.Worship consists mainly of the singing of scripturalpassages set to music, with the accompaniment ofinstruments. Professional and amateur ragis (Sikhmusicians) lead the congregation in devotionalsinging. Indeed, the singing of hymns (kirtan) ina congregational setting is the heart of the Sikhdevotional experience. Through such kirtan, thedevotees attune themselves to vibrate in harmonywith the divine word, which has the power totransform and unify their consciousness.

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The most significant point in the Sikh experi-ence of accepting the Adi Granth as living Gurumay be seen in the practice of “taking the Guru’sWord” (vak laina). The procedure functions ina liturgical fashion of opening the scripture atrandom. During the process, the first hymn at thetop of the left-hand page (or when a hymn beginson the preceding page as is usually the case,one turns back to its actual beginning) is readaloud as the proclamation of the Guru’s Vak (“say-ing”) for that particular moment or situation inlife. It is then appropriated by the audiencethrough “hearing.” In the case of individual earlymorning prayers, the whole family gathers inthe presence of the Guru Granth Sahib to receivethe divine command that serves as an order ofthe day. This Vak becomes the inspiration forpersonal meditation throughout the day. Again,during evening prayers, one takes the Vak to con-clude the day with its particular joys and sorrows.Similarly in the corporate setting, the wholecongregation receives the Vak as a divine com-mand at the conclusion of different ceremonies.([1], p. 272)

Basically, scriptural traditions perform theirtexts in ritual activities. In the Sikh tradition,for instance, lifecycle rituals are inseparablyconnected to the text of the scripture. The perfor-mance of ritual is indeed the performance of text.That is, the central feature of the key lifecyclerituals is always the Guru Granth Sahib. Whena child is to be named, the family takes the baby tothe gurdwara and offers karah prashad (sweetporridge), sanctified food made of flour, sugar,butter, and water and prepared in a large irondish. After offering thanks and prayers throughArdas (petition), the Guru Granth Sahib is openedat random, and a name is chosen beginning withthe same letter as the first composition on the left-hand page. Thus, the process of seeking guidancefrom the sacred word functions to provide the firstletter of the chosen name. The underlying princi-ple is that the child derives his or her identity fromthe Guru’s word and begins life as a Sikh. Toa boy’s name, the common surname Singh (lion)is added, and to a girl’s name, Kaur (princess) isadded at the end of the chosen name. In addition,the infant is administered sweetened water that is

stirred with a sword, and the first five stanzas ofGuru Nanak’s Japji are recited.

A Sikh wedding, according to the Anand(bliss) rite, takes place in the presence of theGuru Granth Sahib, and the performance of theactual marriage requires the couple to circumam-bulate the sacred scripture four times to take fourvows. Before the bridegroom and the bridemake each round, they listen to a verse of the“wedding hymn” by the fourth Guru, Ram Das(1534–1581), being read by a scriptural reader.Then, they bow before the Guru Granth Sahiband get up to make the round while the profes-sional musicians sing the same verse with thecongregation. During the process of their clock-wise movement around the scripture four times,they take the following four vows: (1) to lead anaction-oriented life based on righteousness and tonever shun obligations of family and society,(2) to maintain a bond of reverence and dignitybetween them, (3) to keep enthusiasm for life alivein the face of adverse circumstances and to remaindetached from worldly attachments, and (4) to cul-tivate a “balanced approach” in life, avoiding allextremes. The pattern of circumambulation in theAnand marriage ceremony is the reactualization ofthe primordial movement of life in which there isno beginning and no end. In fact, the memory offour marital vows internalizes the Sikh tradition’sgoal for the couple to lead a blissful life.

The key initiation ceremony (Amrit Sanskar)for a Sikh must take place in the presence of theGuru Granth Sahib. There is no fixed age forinitiation, which may be done at any time theperson is willing to accept the Khalsa discipline.Five Khalsa Sikhs, representing the collectivity ofthe original Cherished Five (Panj Pyare), conductthe ceremony. Each recites from memory one ofthe five liturgical prayers while stirring the sweet-ened water (amrit) with a double-edged sword.The novice then drinks the amrit five times sothat his body is purified from the influence offive vices, and five times the amrit is sprinkledon his eyes to transform his outlook toward life.Finally, the amrit is poured on his head five timesto sanctify his hair so that he will preserve hisnatural form and listen to the voice of conscience.Throughout the procedure, the Sikh being

390 Scripture (Sikhism)

initiated formally takes the oath each time byrepeating the following declaration: Vahiguru JiKa Khalsa! Vahiguru Ji Ki Fateh! (“Khalsabelongs to the Wonderful Lord! Victory belongsto theWonderful Lord!”). Thus, a person becomesa Khalsa Sikh through the transforming power ofthe sacred word. At the conclusion of the cere-mony, a Vak is read aloud, and karah prashad isdistributed.

At the time of death, both in the period preced-ing the cremation and in the post-cremation rites,hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib are sung. Inaddition, a reading of the entire scripture takesplace at home or in a gurdwara. At the conclusionof the reading within 10 days, a bhog (“comple-tion”) ceremony takes place when the finalprayers are offered in the memory of the deceased.

Here, it will be instructive to closely look at thedaily installation of the Guru Granth Sahib earlyin the morning at the Darbar Sahib (Golden Tem-ple) at Amritsar. This is a truly fascinating activitythat can be viewed from the live broadcast by ETCChannel Punjabi on Zee TV through Dish Net-work. The sacred volume is carried in a goldenpalanquin (palaki) in a procession from the AkalTakht (“Throne of the Timeless One”) to theGolden Temple, beginning with the beat ofa large drum, nagara, and occasionally blowingof a narsinga (a huge horn-like brass instrument)to invoke the sacred symbols of power. Thousandsof chanting Sikhs participate in this early morningservice, some greeting the scriptural Guru withaffectionate reverence by showering flower petalson it, while others jostling for opportunities to carrythe heavy palanquin but often eager to encouragethe visitors to take a turn inwhat is called palki sevaor palanquin service. The high point of this devo-tional activity comes when the scripture is majesti-cally installed on a lectern (manji sahib) undera canopy inside the sanctum sanctorum of theGolden Temple to the accompaniment of the reci-tation of “Panegyrics of the Bards” (bhattan desavayye) by a group of Sikhs, and it is then openedat random by the granthi (reader) to proclaim theGuru’s Word that is received by the audience as thedivine command for the day. Each one of the Sikhdevotees derives from the same hymn a messagesuitable to one’s level and degree of understanding.

The sacred sound of scriptural words is highlyesteemed in the Sikh tradition. The vocalizing ofSikh scriptures is thought to have transformativepower only when enunciated exactly in the way ofthe Sikh Gurus, which is achieved through devo-tional singing. The distinctive aesthetic, oral expe-rience of Sikh scriptures includes recitation,devotional singing, and oral exegesis. There isthus a rich tradition of oral/aural experience ofSikh scripture. Each individual Sikh tries tounderstand the meaning of life in the light ofone’s daily experience of immersing oneself ingurbani (inspired utterances of the Guru). Indeed,Sikhs firmly believe that the eternal Guru isdisclosed in the performance of a memorized text.

In sum, the Sikh scripture implicitly challengesanalytic dichotomies that rigidly oppose oral andwritten texts, or sound and meaning, or that whichforesees an inevitable evolutionary movementbetween them. The Guru Granth Sahib is founda-tional to the most important Sikh doctrines, rit-uals, and social and ethical positions. It thusprovides the authoritative basis of Sikh traditionsthat might otherwise seem incomprehensible, oreven groundless. To be in the sheer presence of theGuru Granth Sahib makes the Sikhs feel that theyare on sacred ground. As the ultimate Guru, theSikh scripture is understood to perform the cohe-sive role of community preservation.

Cross-References

▶Authority (Sikhism)▶Gurbani Kirtan▶Guru Granth Sahib▶Ritual (Sikhism)▶The Adi Granth

References

1. Singh P (2000) The Guru Granth Sahib: canon, mean-ing and authority. Oxford University Press, New Delhi

2. Singh P (2008) Scripture as guru in the Sikh tradition.Relig Compass 2(4):659–673

3. Smith WC (1993) What is scripture? A comparativeapproach. Fortress Press, Minneapolis

SECTS (Sikhism) 391

Seasons

▶Calendar (Nanakshahi), Sikhism

SECTS (Sikhism)

Opinderjit Kaur TakharDepartment of Religious Studies, University ofWolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

Synonyms

Bhagats; Divisions; Groups; Sants

Definition

Divisions and factions based on differenceswithin a religious group.

S

Diversity among Sikhs

Analogous to all major world faiths, Sikhism isnot monolithic. The diversity in beliefs and prac-tices amongst “Sikhs” raises much heated debateamongst those who are reluctant to accept that thePanth (the global Sikh community) is far fromhomogenous. This very often divides Sikh con-sensus over the divisions so evidently presentwithin the Panth. Immediately, then one isconfronted with the task of defining what is main-stream, and what is a sect. There are a number ofissues associated with utilizing the term ‘ortho-dox’ within the Sikh context. Strictly speaking,this term becomes invalid in light of Sikh teach-ings. Nevertheless, it is used, albeit inappropri-ately, in popular discourse amongst Sikhs whenreferring to initiated and uninitiated members ofthe Panth. Guru Nanak, strictly speaking, veryoften spoke out against the positions of supremacyand orthodoxy assumed by the priestly classes inthe socio-milieu of the fifteenth century. He vehe-mently criticized the position of the brahmins (the

priests) within Indian society (Adi Granth verse747). In emphasizing the concept of immanencewhich entailed that all human beings are equal, itis highly likely therefore that Guru Nanak wouldobject to levels of conformity in which theordained assumed top position. This is indeedrelatively clear when one bears in mind that Sikh-ism lacks a priesthood. Each individual has equalaccess to the Divine. However, over time, it isThis Sikhs who have taken initiation into theKhalsa and have become amritdhari who havecome to assume positions of authority within thePanth. [1] This led to a the discourse surroundingSikh identity is one that has been topical fordecades. One issue is whether uninitiated fol-lowers of Sikh teachings should be defined asSikh at all in light of their reluctance to becominginitiated members of the Khalsa. Sikhs who cuttheir hair (sahajdharis) would object to beinglabelled as a sect. Then there are those Sikhswho, although keeping the outward form of theKhalsa (particularly the uncut hair, the kesdharis),do not take initiation into the Khalsa. [2] Thekesdharis who are not amritdhari representa majority in the Panth. Are they a sect?

Despite Guru Nanak’s refusal to wear a symbolthat signified his spiritual rebirth, the wearing ofsymbols associated with the Khalsa is the yard-stick by which the Tat Khalsa defined the ‘true’Sikh in the late nineteenth century. [3] Sikhs whodeviate from the “norm” such as continuing theline of human Gurus, denying Guru status to theAdi Granth, are regarded as sects, but Sikhs nev-ertheless. The Namdharis are a prime examplehere due to their continuation of the line ofhuman Gurus from Guru Gobind Singh to thepresent day. However, their stringent obedienceof the Khalsa form cannot be overlooked. On theother hand, there are sects such as the westernSikh converts who identify with the Sikh Dharmaof the Western Hemisphere. These non-PunjabiSikhs would strongly expostulate being labelledas a sect. They are stringent Khalsa observers anddo not continue the line of human Gurus. In whichcase, they appear less heretic in praxis than theNamdharis, for example. Is it the emphasis onkundalini yoga or is it their non-Punjabi ethnicitythat brings their Sikh identity into question?

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The teachings of the Radha Soami Sants aim toencourage peaceful living through meditation.The following claims to be available to people ofall faiths without any notion of being labelleda sect. Does this mean then that one can bea Sikh, a Hindu, or a Muslim and merely followthe advice of these Santswithout any implicationsupon their religious identity? Another sect whichclaims to be a “mission” in order to bring peoplecloser to the formless Divine that is imminentwithin all is the Nirankaris. Guru Nanak empha-sized interiorized religion by meditation on theName of God. This would imply that followingthe teachings of Guru Nanak, without taking ini-tiation into the Khalsa, is again a deviation fromwhat has become labelled as ‘proper Sikhi’.A number of sects have arisen purposely in orderto blatantly stress their distinction from the Panth.Although issues of caste discrimination haveentailed that such sects as the Ravidassias andValmikis are currently actively seeking to severlinks with any association with a Sikh identity, it isnot so clear-cut when addressing the kesdhariswithin both communities. The whole issue ofSikh identity is much debated amongst Sikhsand non-Sikhs. It is difficult to cite one definitionthat would encompass all Sikhs. [1] This wouldindeed suggest that when addressing diversitywithin the Panth, it is more appropriate to discussmany different sampradayas, variations of Sikhbelief and practice. After all, this would morereadily accommodate the many Sants, Babas,and Gurus who have their disparate followings.This would also alleviate, maybe, the derogatoryconnotations of being labelled as a “sect” ofSikhism.

Namdharis

The Namdharis, also known as the Kukas (fromthe term kuk to shriek), are indeed regarded asa sect within the Panth, but “Sikh” nevertheless.[1] The term Namdhari is translated as “one whohas the Name of God imbued in the heart.” Thus,the Namdharis place great importance on the prac-tice of naam simran (meditation on the Name ofGod). However, it is the continuation of human

Gurus, to the line of human succession from GuruGobind Singh, which brings the Sikh identity ofthe Namdharis into question. The Namdharisreject the traditional Sikh belief that Guru GobindSingh proclaimed the Adi Granth as the GuruGranth Sahib prior to his death in 1708 B.C.E.[4] They adamantly affirm that Guru GobindSingh lived his later life, from 1708 B.C.E. untilhis death in 1812 B.C.E., as Ajapal Singh. [5]Importantly, however, the Namdharis are strin-gent Khalsa observers and are recognizable bytheir white horizontally tied turbans. The majorityof Namdharis do not wear the kirpan (the sword/dagger which is one of the five symbols ofthe Khalsa). Namdharis mold their differencefrom the Panth by consciously promoting theirtraditionalist continuation of Sikh practices.Hence, their justification for continuing the lineof human Gurus (and thus consequently refusingto give Guru status to the Adi Granth) is to followconvention from the period of Guru Arjan whereboth human Guru and scripturally contained spir-itual teachings guided the Panth. Hence, theNamdhari Gurus are the human successors ofGuru Gobind Singh. The tradition of humanGurus continues to the present day with SatguruJagjit Singh as the present leader of the Namdharisworldwide.

According to the Namdharis, Guru GobindSingh acted out his death at Nanded in order todeceit his enemies into believing he was no longeran influence on the continually growing SikhPanth. [6] He also changed his name to AjapalSingh. Although this appears somewhat out ofcharacter for Guru Gobind Singh who proclaimedthe bravery of the Sant Sipahi (Saint-Soldier) ofthe Khalsa, it is nonetheless inexorably an impor-tant marker in the origins of the distinct nature ofthe Namdhari community. Prior to this death in1812 B.C.E., Kukas believe that Ajapal Singhchose an arora, Balak Singh as his successor. [7]Balak Singh promoted simplicity and naamsimran at a time when the Panth was less thanstringently yielding to the non-ritualistic philoso-phy of the Sikh Gurus. Guru Balak Singh wassucceeded by the most famous of all NamdhariGurus, Ram Singh, who became the twelfthhuman Sikh Guru. [8] Namdharis believe that

SECTS (Sikhism) 393

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Guru Ram Singh is the reincarnation of GuruGobind Singh himself. Ram Singh revived thePanth by creating the Sant Khalsa on 12 April1857. Led by Guru Ram Singh, the Namdharis arepassionately acknowledged by the Panth, asa whole, for their sincere contribution towardstheir peaceful struggle for India’s independence.[9] Bhaini Sahib in Ludhiana district which wasthe birthplace of Guru Ram Singh remains theheadquarters of the Namdhari community.

The humble origins and subsequent develop-ment of the Namdhari community appealed to thepoorer Punjabis of the nineteenth century. RamSingh’s struggle for political as well as spiritualfreedom further endorsed the strict principles ofKhalsa observance, more specifically the princi-ples of the Sant Khalsa created in 1857 at BhainiSahib. [10] Ram Singh emphasized the impor-tance of truthful living through a hardworking,simple, and nonviolent lifestyle. Kukas believethat prior to the creation of the Sant Khalsa in1857, initiation into the Khalsa was not openlyavailable to females. Thus, according to theNamdharis, it was after 1857 that masses ofwomen became initiated into the Namdhari wayof life. The Rahit (code of living) of the SantKhalsa differs in a number of ways to that of theSikh Rahit Maryada authorized by the ShiromaniGurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). TheNamdhari Rahit requires all Kukas to wear a whitemala (rosary beads) with 108 knots. [11] Since thewearing of the kirpan had been banned by theBritish government, Namdharis to the presentday wear a lathi (small axe) instead. Further dis-tinctions from the Panth were made through thehoisting of a white triangular nishan sahib of theKukas.

Guru Ram Singh’s struggle for Indian indepen-dence mounted into a strict surveillance of himby the British. In March 1872, he was exiled toprison in Rangoon, Burma. Through prison, theNamdharis maintain that Ram Singh sent outsecret hukamnamas (daily orders) to his fol-lowers. According to government records, GuruRam Singh passed away in prison on 29 Novem-ber 1885 due to a serious bout of diarrhea. [1] TheNamdharis however refuse to believe this. Theymaintain that Namdhari prophecies (sakhis)

allude to the belief that Guru Ram Singh willlive until the age of 250. Ram Singh’s brotherGuru Hari Singh thus became the deputy Guru,looking after the gaddi until Guru Ram Singhreturns from exile to be amongst his followers.He was in turn succeeded by his son, Guru PartapSingh. At present, the gaddi at Bhaini Sahib isoccupied by Satguru Jagjit Singh, one of the sonsof Guru Partap Singh.

A distinctive ritual amongst the Namdharis isthat of havan (the fire ceremony). In keeping withtradition, the havan is performed before all majorcelebrations. It replaces the function of the akhandpath (continuous 48 h reading of theGuru GranthSahib) practiced by Sikhs generally. Namdhariweddings also take place by the couple takingtheir four lavan around the havan and not theAdi Granth.

The darshan of Satguru Jagjit Singh, the deh-dhari (living human Guru), is considered an act ofgreat merit for the Namdharis. Although his per-manent residence remains at Bhaini Sahib, heregularly travels to the Namdhari Sangat acrossthe globe. It is his picture, when not present inperson, that takes the position that the GuruGranth Sahib would in Gurdwaras of the generalPanth. Namdhari places of worship are referred toas a dharamsala. Hence, it is the overt and blatantrejection of the Adi Granth as Guru, and subse-quently the continuation of human successors ofGuru Gobind Singh, that causes the Namdharis tobe viewed as heretics by a substantial number ofSikhs.

Nirankaris

Another sect that formed as a result of endeavorsto rescue the Panth from the temptations of theeconomic glories under Maharaja Ranjit Singh’srule was that of the Nirankari movement of the1850s. The movement was started by a contem-porary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Baba Dayal(1783–1855). Dayal was perplexed by the Hindurituals that had crept into the Panth, in particularthe extent of idol worshipping. Thus, he empha-sized the nirguna, or rather the nirankar aspect ofthe Divine. This was a teaching central to the

394 SECTS (Sikhism)

religious philosophy of Guru Nanak and thesucceeding Gurus. [12] Dayal endeavored to pro-mote the ideals of nirankar through his emphasison the practice of nam simran, meditation on theName (rather than the form) of God. Hence, thefollowing was given the name “Nirankaris”through its formation at Rawalpindi in 1851.

In a similar fashion to the efforts of Guru RamSingh of the Namdhari tradition, Dayal alsoemphasized simplicity in the lives of the Sikhs.Far too much lavish pompousness had occupiedboth the Sikh’s social and religious engagements.Brahmins were being consulted for daily rituals,and many Sikhs had lost the essence of GuruNanak’s emphasis that he placed on movingaway from ritual-based religion. [13] BabaDayal emphasized Guru Nanak’s teachings aboutthe immanence of God and thus promoted that allbeings were equal, regardless of caste, gender, orcreed. [14] The life of the householder as opposedto the renouncer of worldly attachments was theideal according to the Nirankaris. Hence, theemphasis was placed on Baba Dayal’s “mission”rather than the establishment of a new sect or faith.

The Nirankaris are renowned for the standard-ization of Sikh life cycle rites by ensuring that theGuru Granth Sahib was used as the focus. BabaDayal, although emphasizing interiorized religionto the nirankar, placed no insistence on adoptingthe Khalsa form. Similar to the majority of hisfollowers, he too was a sahajdhari Sikh. Thus,the Asali Nirankaris, the “true” Nirankaris (sincethey too faced a number of schisms over time), areoften labelled as a Nanak-Panth since it is theteachings of Guru Nanak that are emphasizedwithout reference to the insistence on the Khalsaby Guru Gobind Singh. So should the Nirankarisbe discussed as a Sikh sect on the basis that they donot enforce the Khalsa form as the ideal? On whatlines do they deviate, if any, from the ‘mainstream’Panth (and, indeed, if such a distinction is appli-cable)? Importantly, during the Singh Sabhareforms, the Nirankaris were numbered amongstthe Sanatan Sikhs as opposed to the Tat Khalsa.A point of defiance however is probably attributedto the fact that Nirankaris, although acknowledg-ing the ten Sikh Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib,also lay importance on the tradition of furthering

the continuation of Gurus from Baba Dayal.A unique practice that takes place amongst theNirankaris is bowing to each other’s feet and refer-ring to the other as “Maha Pursh,” thus furtherstrengtheningDayal’s emphasis on the immanenceof the Divine in all human beings. According toBaba Dayal, “Nirankar is God and one whorealises Him is a Nirankari.”

Radha Soami Satsang

A movement that raises further questions in termsof its Sikh orientation is that of the Radha SoamiSatsang. Moreover, it perplexes scholars and thelay person alike as to what extent it can beregarded as a sect within Sikhism. This is partlydue to the lack of overt references to Sikh teach-ings in the teachings of the Radha Soami Sants.Indeed, the movement is frequently referred to asa “guidance” towards realizing one’s true naturethrough retaining current religious affiliation. TheRadha Soami movement is also referred to asthe Sant Mat: “the teachings/path of the Sants.”The movement attaches great importance to veg-etarianism and an alcohol-free lifestyle. It lays noemphasis on becoming amritdhari. Thus, formany Khalsa Sikhs, the Radha Soamis are viewedas a non-Sikh following. However, many of itseloquent Sikh following, particularly those asso-ciated with the Beas Satsang, would reject suchnotions. For such Sikhs, the Radha Soami Sants,through the emphasis on meditation, providea spiritual and yogic element in order to fullyappreciate the teachings of the Sikh Gurus.

The origins of the Radha Soami sect areapprehended to Swami Shiv Dayal Singh fromAgra who was regarded by his followers as a“true and perfect” Sant. According to the RadhaSoamis, Dayal was following the same Sant Matas that which attracted Guru Nanak’s attention. Isthis suggesting therefore that Dayal is put on a parwith Guru Nanak? The Sangat was established inAgra in 1861 with a majority of non-Sikh fol-lowers. The term “Radha” in this case refers tothe collective soul, and “Soami” is a reference tothe spiritual Master. Hence, the Radha Soamiteachings, the Sant Mat, aim at guiding individual

SECTS (Sikhism) 395

souls towards a higher consciousness. [15] AfterShiv Dayal’s death, the movement resulted inmany schisms across India, each with its ownleader or Master. One such following was that ofShiv Dayal’s widow, Radha. It is the Satsang atBeas through Baba Jaimal’s following that con-tinues to attract the highest number of Sikhs. TheSatsang at Beas is also one of the most popularRadha Soami Deras globally.

The Radha Soami Masters insist that theirs isnot a new path, not a new sect. Simply, it isportrayed as the essence of the path that wasrevealed to great Sants as Kabir, Tulsi, and GuruNanak. [16] The Radha Soami Satsang makes itvery clear that humanMasters are vital in order forthe masses to understand the Sant Mat. [17] TheRadha Soami Masters, guide followers to benefitfrom Surat Shabd Yoga; this is “the practice ofmerging the soul in the divine current of theSupreme Being’s melody and power”. [18]Radha Soamis believe that their Masters are notconfined to any religion, neither do they intend onstarting new ones. TheMasters give them a path toGod realization without asking them to adopta new religion. Thus, whether they can beregarded as a Sikh sect will continue to raisedebate.

S

Ravidassias

The very existence of zat (the Punjabi term forcaste)-based sects or followings in the Panth givesrise to many debates about the presence of casteamongst the Sikhs. The following of GuruRavidass highlights a number of pertinent issuesin terms of whether the egalitarian principles ofSikh teachings are followed in actual practice bythe Sikhs. [1] The promise of equality, based onthe egalitarian hermeneutics of the teachingsof the Sikh Gurus, resulted in many of thelower castes becoming Sikhs. [19] One suchmass conversion was by the former chamars, theleatherworkers. The term Dalit is preferred bythe lower castes to truly represent their plight asthe “crushed and oppressed.” Currently, there ismuch dispute in terms of both religious and polit-ical identity amongst the followers of Guru

Ravidass. There may also be confusion as towhy they are discussed as a sect amongst theSikhs. According to the followers of Ravidass,their Guru was also from the chamar zat. [20]This is further supported by the inclusionof Ravidass’s bani in the Bhagat Bani. The useof terminology is particularly important whendiscussing the following of Guru Ravidass. Gen-erally the term Ravidassi indicates one who,although a Sikh, follows the teachings of GuruRavidass in particular. For these Sikhs, Ravidassis more than a Bhagat; he is Guru. The termRavidassia (officially proclaimed in January2010) however is more political and adamantlyendeavors to sever links from the Panth. Impor-tantly, whichever term is employed, the spiritualemphasis tends to be on the forty-one hymns ofGuru Ravidass (referred to as Bhagat by the Panthgenerally) presented within the Bhagat Bani of theGuru Granth Sahib. The events of 2009 in Viennahowever, in which Sant Ramananda from theRavidassia community was murdered, has raisedimportant dialogues as to whether the GuruGranth Sahib should be removed from Ravidassiaplaces of worship and be replaced by AmritbaniSri Guru Ravidass. [21] This would thus furtheralienate the place of worship from being referredto as a Gurdwara. Although importantly, themajority of Ravidassia places of worship arereferred to as Sabhas.

It is the percentage of kesdharis amongst theRavidassias who raise important considerations asto the extent of sectarian allegiance based on zat.Due to referring to Ravidass as Guru, he is explic-itly put on a par with the ten human Gurus, to theextent that at times, he surpasses authority to beregarded as the Guru. This indeed is the causeof much tension and controversy amongstRavidassias and Sikhs of other zats. [22] Increas-ingly, there is much political activity amongstRavidassias to proclaim themselves as non-Sikhs,as a distinct religion with its caste Guru and hisscripture, the Amritbani Sri Guru Ravidass. Thereare a number of practices amongst the Ravidassiasthat cause them to be seen as deviants by the Panth.[1] The constitutions of the various Sabhasmake itclear that the religious focus of the community is toadhere to the principles emphasized through the

396 SECTS (Sikhism)

life and works of Guru Ravidass. There is noinsistence to observe the Sikh Rehat characterizesthe Ravidassia community.

Valmikis

Another Punjabi zat-based following whichmerits discussion is that of the Valmikis, alsoreferred to as the Balmikis. Similar to the positionof allegiance as amongst the Ravidassias, mem-bers of this community also may object to beingreferred to as Sikhs at all. Nevertheless, again, it isthe significant percentage of kesdharis amongstthe Valmikis who warrant a mention. [1] Follow-ing the historical event of Guru Tegh Bahadur’ssevered head being brought to the child Gobind bya Rangretia (a low caste), Gobind spoke the words“Rangretia Guru Ki Bete’ the Rangretias are thechildren of my Lord”. [23] According to tradition,a large scale of lower castes, specifically thechuhras (traditionally sweepers), became Sikhs.However, they were referred to as the AdivasiMazhabi Sikhs, thus suggesting that the stigmaof untouchability remained even after entering theapparently egalitarian Panth. [24] According toValmikis, many of whom have Sikh connections,the promise of equality was not adhered to ona practical level by the non-Dalit Sikhs.

Valmikis take the alleged author of the Hinduepic the Ramayana as their zat Guru in anendeavor to raise their social and religious posi-tion within Indian society at large. This howeverhas raised much controversy from high casteHindus who refuse to accept that Valmiki wasfrom the chuhra zat or that alternatively it is theversion of the Ramayana by Tulsidas that isauthentic. [25] There are a number of featurespracticed amongst the wider Valmiki communitythat function to distinguish them from the generalPanth. These distinctions are particularly signifi-cant to the Valmikis who are kesdhari/amritdharior those who proclaim both a Sikh and Valmikiidentity. For example, very rarely are Valmikiplaces of worship referred to as Gurdwaras,although a number house the Guru GranthSahib. [1] On the whole however the majority ofValmiki Sabhas tend to house a Punjabi version of

the Ramayana; some also house the Yoga Vasisthawhich is a philosophical work attributed also tothe sage Valmiki. [26] Valmikis refer to their Guruas Jagat Guru Valmik Maharaj “the Guru of theUniverse.” He is very often held higher than theSikh Gurus. In a concerted effort to differentiatethemselves from the Panth, the Valmiki commu-nity utilizes the symbol of the bow and arrowrather than the Khanda. [1] Seldom are the Sikhfestivals or gurpurbs marked, except in commu-nities where there is a significant number ofkesdharis/amritdharis. Political pressure cur-rently is very much towards one identity of thecommunity as followers of Guru Valmiki – notSikhs, not Hindus. However, in actual practice,the situation is far from unanimous.

Sikh Dharma of theWestern Hemisphere

The sects or particular followings discussed so farhave all been Punjabi in terms of ethnicity. How-ever, increasingly there is an influx of non-Punjabis, referred to as gora Sikhs, to the Panth.Many non-Punjabi Sikhs would strongly object totheir being collectively labelled to as a sect.Although membership of the Khalsa Panth isbecoming increasingly attractive for non-Pun-jabis, it is particularly those non-Punjabi Sikhswho have been influenced by Harbhajan SinghKhalsa (1929–2004), also referred to as YogiBhajan, who are the focus of this section. [27]The specifically yogic branch of Bhajan’s teach-ings is referred to as the 3HO sect “the Healthy,Happy, Holy Organization”. [1] At times, how-ever, both terms for the organizations are usedinterchangeably, although the 3HO does not nec-essarily have a Sikh following. Sikhs of the SikhDharma of the Western Hemisphere are stringentfollowers of theKhalsa form (the bana); both menand women wear the white turban. On convertingto Sikhism, the non-Punjabis adopt traditionalSikh names with Khalsa as their surname. It isparticularly in the United States of America thatthe Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere ismost prominent. [28]

It was as a teacher of kundalini yoga from 1968in America that Bhajan began attracting

SECTS (Sikhism) 397

S

Americans to his classes. This resulted in theofficial formation of the 3HO in 1969. Gradually,a number of his students began to express aninterest in Sikhism. In 1971 Bhajan took a groupof 84 of his yoga students to Harmandir Sahib,Amritsar. The Sikh Dharma Brotherhood was offi-cially registered in 1973. Bhajan emphasized thatthose students who were serious about followingthe Sikh way of life should become amritdharis.In terms of observance to the Khalsa, the non-Punjabi Sikhs, in this respect, most certainly fulfillthe aspirations of the Tat Khalsa. Unlike theNamdharis, the Sikh Dharma of the WesternHemisphere attributes Guru status to the GuruGranth Sahib, and Bhajan is not put on a parwith the ten Sikh Gurus. However, it is theemphasis on kundalini yoga [29] that very oftencauses tension between Punjabi and non-PunjabiSikhs, particularly those influenced by Bhajan.[30] There have been a number of heated inci-dences where Punjabi Sikhs have been accused ofbeing “lapsed” towards the ideals promotedthrough Sikhi. [31] Other practices such aswhite tantra have also perplexed many PunjabiSikhs. [29]

There are many additional “sects” to thosementioned here within Sikhism. Some such asthe Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha [1] displayresentment to any suggestion that they are a sectwithin the Panth. This group has a strong traditionof following the teachings of Sants who areunique to the group. The Sants are put on a levelof great importance but are not (in theory at least)put on a par with the ten human Gurus. Neverthe-less, those who show an affinity to the GuruNanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha are stringent Khalsaobservers and attribute ‘appropriate‘ status to theGuru Granth Sahib. In this respect then, is it morefitting to talk of sampradayas rather than sectsamongst Sikhs? Furthermore, in the case of theincreasingly popular conversion to Sikhism bynon-Punjabis, is ethnicity a relevant criterion bywhich to assess Sikh identity? It would seem thatbeing Punjabi and amritdharj and stringently fol-lowing the code of conduct in the Sikh RehatMaryada (sanctioned by the SGPC) are what con-stitutes the Tat Khalsa's ideology of a Sikhidentity.

Cross-References

▶Authority (Sikhism)▶Caste (Sikhism)▶Guru Granth Sahib▶Nanak (Guru)

References

1. Takhar OK (2005) Sikh identity: an exploration ofgroups among Sikhs. Ashgate, Aldershot

2. McLeod WH (1989) Who is a Sikh? Clarendon,Oxford

3. Singh T (1922) The Gurdwara reform movement andthe Sikh awakening. Shiromani Gurdwara ParbandhakCommittee, Amritsar

4. McLeod WH (1973) The Kukas: a millenarian sectof the Punjab. In: Wood GA, O’Connor PS (eds)W. P. Morrell: a tribute. University of Otago Press,Dunedin

5. Ahluwalia MM (1965) Kukas: the freedom fighters ofthe Punjab. Allied Publishers, New Delhi

6. Macauliffe MA (1990 rp of 1909) The Sikh religion:vol 5. Low Price Publications, Delhi

7. Namdhari DS (1977) Gursikhi Vichardhara. NamdhariVidhiak Jatha, Ludhiana

8. Singh N (1966) Enlighteners. Namdhari SahitPrakashan, Sri Jiwan Nager

9. Singh N, Singh K (1989) Rebels against the Britishrule: guru Ram Singh and the Kuka Sikhs. AtlanticPublishers and Distributors, New Delhi

10. Bali Y, Bali K (1995) Warriors in white. Har-AnandPublications, New Delhi

11. Bajwa FS (1965) Kuka movement. MotilalBanarsidass, Delhi

12. Singh J (1989 2nd edn, first published 1983) Thereligious philosophy of Guru Nanak. National BookShop, Delhi

13. Oberoi H (1994) The construction of religious bound-aries. Oxford University Press, Delhi

14. Lal K (1980) Religion, Gian and the mission. SantNirankari Mandal, Delhi

15. Dubin HE (2004) Living meditation. Radha SoamiSatsang Beas, Amritsar

16. Khanna KL (1973 3rd edn of 1963) The Radha Soamispiritual science: a brief outline for sincere truthseekers. Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Amritsar

17. Singh C (1975) The Tenets of Sant Mat, produced bythe Radha Soami Satsang Beas, UK

18. Puri, Lekh Raj (2007 7th edn of 1965) Radha Soamiteachings. Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Beas

19. Takhar, Opinderjit Kaur (2011) Egalitarian hermeneu-tics from the Bani of Guru Nanak: his attitudestowards caste and females. Understanding Sikhism:The Research Journal 12(1&2)

398 Sense

20. Raidas Ji Ki Bani aur Jivan Charitra, no authorcited (1908) Belvedere Steam Printing Works,Allahabad

21. Takhar OK (2011) The transmission of tradition andself representation amongst the Valmikis, Ravidasisand namdharis in Britain. In: Jacobsen K, Myrvold K(eds) Sikhs in Europe: migration, identity andtranslocal practices. Ashgate, Aldershot

22. Takhar OK (2011) We are not Sikhs or Hindus: issuesof identity among the Valmikis and Ravidasias inBritain. In: Singh P (ed) Sikhism in global context.Oxford University Press, New Delhi

23. Ashok SS (1980) Mazhabi Sikhan da Itihas. JaspalPrinting Press, Amritsar

24. McLeod WH (1976) The evolution of the Sikh com-munity. Clarendon, Oxford

25. Leslie J (2003) Authority and meaning in Indian reli-gions: Hinduism and the case of Valmiki. Ashgate,Aldershot

26. Atreya BL (1966) The Yogavasistha and its philoso-phy. Darshana Printers, Moradabad

27. Khalsa SK (1995) The history of the Sikh dharma ofthe western hemisphere. Sikh Dharma Publications,New Mexico

28. Dusenbery VA (1990) On the moral sensitivities ofSikhs in North America. In: Lynch OM (ed) Divinepassions: the social construction of emotion in India.University of California Press, Berkeley

29. Khalsa SPK (1996) Kundalini yoga: the flow of eternalpower. Time Capsule Books, Los Angeles

30. Dusenbery VA (1988) Punjabi Sikhs and Gora Sikhs:conflicting assertions of Sikh identity in NorthAmerica. In: O’Connell JT et al (eds) Sikh historyand religion in the twentieth century. Manohar, NewDelhi

31. Kaur P (1973) Rejoinder. Sikh Rev 21:52–56

Sense

▶Logic (Sikhism)

Sensory Experience

▶Aesthetics (Sikhism)

Seva

▶Bhagti (Bhakti), Sikhism

Seva (Service), Sikhism

Harjeet Singh GrewalDepartment of Asian Languages and Cultures,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Definition

An injunction to serve humanity and creation asan integral aspect of worship, Seva is a componentof gurmat or the teachings of the Sikh Gurus. ForSikhs, this means devoting oneself to a life inservice to humanity through physical, intellectual,or material means.

Seva

Broadly speaking, in South Asia, the word sevaliterally means to serve or to honor through wor-ship. [3] In terms of society, this takes on theconnotation of ritualized worship to the gods asthe exclusive domain of the priestly class. [2, 3] Italso comes to mean service to man, vis-à-vis theupper castes are served by members of the lowercaste. However, the underlying exclusivity andprestige given to those in the upper echelons ofsociety through both of the above connotationswas seen by the Sikh Gurus as antithetical to theegalitarian and universalistic ethos inherent inthe act of creation. Therefore, while using thecommonly held association with seva, the SikhGurus developed an ethical and universal notionof seva that was linked to devotion throughspending one’s life in service to humanity andcreation. [1]

Seva in the Sikh tradition is seen as a necessarycomponent in the attempt relinquish the dominanceof ego consciousness upon one’s self. [1, 3] Along-side the regular litany of prayers, nitnem, and thelistening to hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib,kirtan, seva is one of the essential aspects to Sikhdevotion. As the Sikh tradition espouses a radicalde-emphasis of mechanisms of differentiation thatcreate antagonistic rifts between the illusory notionof distinctly absolute categories, seva is a means

Shabad (Word), Sikhism 399

S

to intentionally invert the limits of caste conscious-ness by subsuming service to the creator and ser-vice to man (by implication, creation) through thenotion that unwilled or selfless action is at onceservice to both due to the Oneness of creation andcreator. [1] This perspective focuses upon what isshared and singular in order to motivate actionfrom disciples. From such a perspective the verynotion of worship takes on an aspect of creativeaction and decries any attempt to place horizons orlimits upon creative beings.

Derived from the assumption that there isa fundamental overlap or touching between crea-tion and the creator, seva is an important practiceon the way to becoming intimate with the one thatyou serve. It acts a way of attaining Onenessthrough ones human embodiment by total engage-ment in voluntary actions that are at their source notself-serving. There are three essential aspects toseva: (1) embodied physical acts (tan); (2) mentalor intellectual striving (man); (3) acts that derivefrom selflessly giving of material wealth (dhan).Sevamust incorporate these three components andbe directed at those who are in need – it bearsmentioning that this is not merely meant to indicatea material poverty, or being poor, but a state ofneediness is one in which the human is wantonlyfixated upon the desires of their ego. Thus, seva tothose in need bears an aspect of working to dis-lodge the dominance of the ego for others throughgiving vis-à-vis tan, man, and dhan. [2, 3] Whilemodern proponents of Sikhism tend to emphasizethe value of embodied or physical acts in order tocreate an opposition to the system of exclusivitycontained with the caste prescribed notions of ser-vice within Hinduism, such distinctions createa paradox in the universal assumptions fromwhich Sikh seva arises but also risk the creationof an alternate parallel system of exclusivity basedupon the penultimate nature of physical acts ofseva. [1] Given the pluralistic nature of Sikh ethicsand morality, it seems that these three aspects ofseva were distinguished in order to connote that ifseva begins with the eclipsing of an ego-centeredworldview then the concomitant enacting of tan,man, and dhan can signal the efficaciousness ofthis programme to the disciple as well as theirpeers.

Cross-References

▶Kirtan▶Nitnem▶ Sanskara

References

1. Mandair A (2013) Sikhism: a guide for the perplexed.Bloomsbury, London

2. Nabha KS (1999) Gurshabad Ratnakar Mahankosh.Punjabi Bhasha Vibhag, Chandigarh

3. Singh H (1998) Seva. In: Encyclopedia of Sikhism.Punjabi University, Patiala

Shabad (Word), Sikhism

Arvind-Pal Singh MandairDepartment of Asian Languages and Cultures,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Synonyms

Sabad; Sabada; Sabd; Sabda; Shabada; Word

Definition

Shabad literally means the Word. It is also thedoctrine of scripture or Word as Guru(shabadguru). In Sikh thought it is a vehiclewhich allows us to cross the ocean of existence,the ups and downs of this world that we inhabit,attain sovereign experience, and become sover-eign beings.

The Word of the Sikh Gurus

The term shabad is based on sound or tone thatfounds sacred words. [1–3] Shabad has been usedin the Vedas, the Upanisads, the Nyaya andVaisesika systems of thought, and lastly by gram-marians such as Panini. In common parlanceSikhs use shabad to refer to the hymns or phrases

400 Shabad Kirtan

contained within the Guru Granth Sahib. Shabadis not to be misconstrued with everyday linguisticutterances. [5] The Guru Granth Sahib uses verbsuch as to speak (bolna) or to state (akhana) whenreferring to common speech. As used by the SikhGurus, shabad is a word or utterance that movesthrough an individual who is not ego centered.[2, 3] These utterances are integral to a form ofpoetic consciousness which the gurus enshrinedwithin the Guru Granth Sahib. As such, shabad isthe word that liberates and enables the shedding ofan ego-centric mode of existence. Therefore,shabad is a form of knowledge that gives directexperience and knowledge of truth. [4] It is forthese reasons that it is often paired with truth orteacher to make the composite terms satguru andshabadguru which are both of common occur-rence in the Guru Granth Sahib. Shabadmanifestsonly when the ego erases its own traces but thiserasure occurs without annihilating itself. [4, 8, 9]This self-erasure is another name for the lovebetween self and other that enables them to beOne even in separation. Thus, the pure experienceof Oneness entails a radical reorientation of con-sciousness which constitutes what is normallyunderstood as liberation. [5] Thus the liberatingreorientation of consciousness that the Sikh Gurusare looking for must happen primarily at the levelof language or Word (shabad), such that one’sordinary relationship to language, which is basedon self-naming where the “I” is attached to aprimary identification to its own image andname, is transformed by its attunement to shabad.[4, 6]

Another variation on shabad is the termanhadshabad or anhadnad (lit. the “unspokenWord” or “unstruck Sound”) inherited by theSikh Gurus from the Siddhas and Naths, theexpert practitioners of Hatha Yoga. According toNath usage anhadshabad refers to the “EternalSound” that is heard at the climax of the HathaYoga process. In the context of the Sikh Gurus theterm refers to words or a form of language that isnot tainted by traces of ego. [6] When speech iscommon and overruled by the ego, communica-tion between ego-centered individuals occursthrough the usage of words meant to label things.[6] As anhadshabad, the Word itself speaks or

resounds without being spoken. This sounds likea tautology but actually indicates a mode of com-munication in which ego no longer controls nei-ther the production of words, nor indeed theprocess of making words into things. [6]Removed from the grasp of ego, words arisefrom what is an otherwise internalized mode ofspeech that occurs between conscious (ego) andunconscious (nonego) mind. As such, theanhadshabad is neither ego nor is it nonego andtherefore it avoids the dualistic separation of mindinto active and nonactive principles.The unspoken Word arises when the mind speakswith itself. [4] This is the basis for a departurefrom the standards of everyday social realitywhere speech is communicative in that it makessense to everybody. Devoid of dualistic ideas ofmind, the Word acts as spontaneous expressionsof wonder (vismad); just as creation simply hap-pens without asking why, so the unspoken Wordarises without connection to intention, desire, orwill. [5, 7, 8]

References

1. Cole OW (1990) A popular dictionary of Sikhism.Curzon, London

2. Kohli SS (1992) A conceptual encyclopedia of GuruGranth Sahib. Manohar, Delhi

3. Kohli SS (1996) Dictionary of Guru Granth Sahib.Singh Brothers, Amritsar

4. Mandair A (2005) Teachings of the Gurus: Selectionsfrom Sikh Scripture. London, Routledge

5. Mandair A (2009) Religion and the specter of the west:Sikhism, India, postcoloniality, and the politics of trans-lation. Columbia University, New York

6. Mandair A (2013) Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed.London, Bloomsbury

7. Nabha KS (1999) Gurshabad Ratnakar Mahankosh.Punjabi Bhasha Vibhag, Chandigarh

8. Singh J (1983) The religious philosophy of GuruNanak. Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi

9. Singh H (1998) “Shabad” in encyclopedia of Sikhism.Punjabi University, Patiala

Shabad Kirtan

▶Music (Sikh Popular and Religious)

Sikh Studies 401

Shabada

▶ Shabad (Word), Sikhism

Shahadat

▶Martyrdom (Sikhism)

Shaheed

▶Martyrdom (Sikhism)

Shahidi

▶Martyrdom (Sikhism)

Shiromani Gurdwara ParbandhakCommittee (SGPC)

▶Gurdwara Reform Movement

S

Shodasha Samskara

▶ Samskara (Sikhism)

Shortcoming

▶Vice(s), Sikhism

Sikh

▶Nanak (Guru)

Sikh Homeland

▶Khalistan

Sikh Musicology

▶Kirtan (Sikhism)

Sikh Nationalism

▶Blue Star (Operation)▶Khalistan

Sikh Sovereignty

▶ Sikhs and Empire

Sikh Studies

Harjeet Singh GrewalDepartment of Asian Languages and Cultures,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Definition

A scholarly field of study and growing body ofknowledge with a central focus upon the Sikhcommunity, its history, and religious culture,Sikhism.

Sikh Studies: (Post)Coloniality andNationalism in an Emergent Field

The roots of this field of scholarly enquiry, or study,whose primary focus is the relationship betweenSikh people and their religion begins in the middleof the twentieth century with the partition of the

402 Sikh Studies

South Asian subcontinent into Pakistan and India.While a body of literature concerning the Sikhpeople and their religion had been developing inEuropean languages such as English, French, andGerman, since the eighteenth century the institu-tional apparatus for studying Sikhs was not avail-able at this early stage. It is just shortly after 1947that a substantial interest in the Sikh peopleemerges as a peculiarly global phenomenon dueto the alignment of a constellation of issuesaround ethnonationalism and institution building,communal and state violence, changes in globalimmigration policies, and anxieties associatedwith displacement or dispersion. Not only toworks continue to be published in the Europeanlanguages but a plethora of studies emerge regard-ing Guru Nanak and the Sikhs in Hindi, Urdu, andespecially Punjabi. While the field has been tradi-tionally dominated by historical and philologicaltextual study, there were early and initial foraysinto philosophy and ethics as well. However, thelarger motives of these early scholarly works func-tioned largely to assert the uniqueness of Sikhs asa separate world religion. [3] More contemporaryscholarship certainly continues to explore thesevital avenues of research, but the field has expandedto incorporate the disciplinary perspectives ofanthropology, sociology, and political sciences. Inmany ways, Sikh Studies carries on the work ofattempting tomap or categorize the Sikhs of Punjabupon the cultural tapestry of diversity which arisesfrom the subcontinent, and yet, as many westernscholars will admit, it persists in being a groupwhich confounds categorical schema at everyturn. An emerging turn in Sikh Studies scholarshipis the incorporation of critical modes of thinking,theory, philosophy, and antiphilosophy which usescentral Sikh texts, culture, and history to engageand actualize Sikh thinking to force an encounterwith its hegemonic other. [1, 4] This entry describesthe almost concomitant development of the field inthe Indian province of Punjab and western univer-sities in order to maintain that the very idea of SikhStudies is haunted by the premise of negotiationand dialogue between (post)colonial geopolitics.As such it is heavily involved in practices of regu-lating people through biopower – or the applicationof political power on aspects of human life while

always already incorporating scholarship whichresponds and resists such pressures. The sectionwill end by discussing recent developments men-tioned above that attempt to articulate strategies ofavoiding the polemics which arise from the projectof religion-making through Sikh Studies.

Tony Ballantyne’s work, Between Colonial-ism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations inan Imperial World (2006), recognizes the produc-tive “crossroads”where diaspora and colonialismmet in a productive, destabilizing, and dangerouscross-cultural engagement. [1] The movement ofpeople was integral to the colonial system andenabled Sikhs to emerge as a mobile andupwardly affluent population. Furthermore,these two phenomena were integral to the emer-gence of modern notions of Sikh identity in aprocess of challenge and engagement that oftenled to unintended consequences. In a different butrelated manner Harjot Oberoi’s study, The Con-struction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Iden-tity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (1994),examines the pivotal role that an emergentnationalism played in the rearticulation of bound-aries in altering notions of community, self, andknowledge during colonialism. [5] One of theoften unrecognized consequences of these trendswas the development of a body of knowledge onSikhs as a unique nation and religion. The fur-therance of this burgeoning knowledge founda home in Sikh attempts to find new institutionsfor knowledge production in the aftermathof partition. Up until this point in time, Sikhscenters of knowledge had developed alongsidedharamsalas and gurdwaras or as independentorders of learning, taksals, maths, and deras andas mobile itinerant groups of Khalsa Sikhs,jathas, that roamed the countryside. However,partition had necessitated that the Punjab Univer-sity, Lahore (established in 1882), also bedivided; the Indian portion would find a homein the new provincial capital of Chandigarhwhere construction of the campus began in 1956.

The reestablishment of the 1882 Punjab Uni-versity at Chandigarh complimented the alreadyextant Khalsa College, Amritsar, which had beenestablished in 1892 through the support of mem-bers of the Singh Sabha movement and in

Sikh Studies 403

conjunction with the colonial government. AsKhalsa College was created largely through thedonation of wealthy Sikh families its principalmandate was to provide a modern higher educa-tion to Sikhs in Punjab. After the communal ten-sions which precipitated the violent partition ofPunjab, it appears that this mandate would befurthered not only through the establishment ofPunjab University, Chandigarh, but shortly there-after with the creation of Punjabi University, Pati-ala (1962), and Guru Nanak Dev University,Amritsar (1969). These universities producedseminal Sikh scholars such as Fauja Singh,Ganda Singh, Kirpal Singh, Piar Singh,Gurbachan Singh Talib, Tara Singh, Jodh Singh,J.S. Grewal, and Rattan Singh Jaggi. There isa spate of scholarly output surrounding thepencentenary celebrations of Guru Nanak’s birth,and a substantial body of work has been producedsince that time. The summa of this body of schol-arly literature continues to assert the uniqueness ofthe Sikh religion in the colonial pattern of histori-ography while simultaneously breaking with thecolonial pattern by necessarily having to drawupon developing ideas of Indian philosophy,ethics, politics, and culture when engaginga broader national audience.

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Sikh Studies in the West: Migration andViolence

While the establishment of Sikh Studies in Punjabwas quite rapid and strongly associated withinvestment in a developing national system ofhigher education modeled upon the Western uni-versity, the journey toward attaining internationalrecognition for academic Sikh Studies has notbeen easy and is continuing to unfold. As Sikhsmigrated and settled in different parts of theworld, their traditions and way of life attractedthe interest of scholars, journalists, and other edu-cators from the host countries. Based on earlysettlement patterns, these host countries weremainly Britain, Canada, and the United States.Initially very little information was available tothe general public in the host countries. However,as a result of cultural pressures including concerns

for maintaining the continuity of their tradition,engaging and interacting with the majoritarianpublic sphere, and fiduciary challenges to theassimilative drives of their respective multicul-tural societies, there is a respectable body ofknowledge about Sikhs in many world religiontextbooks and religious studies programs today.Not only is this the case, but there is a distinctand flourishing scholarly field of Sikh Studieswithin the university sector, a growing numberof scholars who wish to study Sikhs and Sikhism,and an increasing number of university chairsdevoted to Sikh Studies. Many of these changescan be ascribed to Sikh interests in establishingthemselves in a diasporic context working along-side a group of motivated and interested membersof the majoritarian sphere.

The establishment of an international body ofscholarship was punctuated by moments of vio-lence including Sikh altercation with the Indianstate in the 1980s and 1990s, the Air India bomb-ing, the attacks on Sikhs after 9/11, and the recentOak Creek shooting at the Sikh temple of Wis-consin. Events such as these define the terms ofthe dialogue occurring in academia, but also in thepopular media. The emergence of Sikh studieswithin the humanities and social sciences can beusefully seen through several phases of develop-ment. The first phase can be traced to the conflu-ence of two disciplines: area studies and religiousstudies. Both these disciplines coincide withWestern interests in the Cold War era and becamecentral to organizing the study of non-Westerncultures in the university system. The first gener-ation of scholars were attracted to the study ofSikhs and the Punjab region for various reasons.They includedW. H. McLeod, N. G. Barrier, MarkJurgensmeyer, and Christopher Shackle, all ofwhom can be regarded as pioneers of modernWestern Sikh studies, and most of these scholarshad individuals had sustained engagement withtheir counterparts at recently established universi-ties in Punjab. An important early event was the1976 international conference on Sikhism orga-nized by Jurgensmeyer at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, which laid the basis forfuture university–community collaborations. [2]W.H. McLeod suggested the establishment of

404 Sikh Studies

Sikh Chairs at universities in North America dur-ing a talk given during the 1979 inaugural cele-brations for the Guru Nanak Center on Baisakhiday. [6] Thus, just over a decade after Sikh Studiesestablished itself in the university system ofIndian Punjab, calls were being made internation-ally for similar advances. It bears mentioning thata less studied aspect of this burgeoning interestwas occurring through groups of scholars inplaces such as Aligarh Muslim University whobegan translating major works of Guru Nanakinto Urdu. Such calls can be understood to beassociated with the changes in immigration poli-cies which occurred in all three host countriesthroughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Both Sikh communities and their hosts werebeginning to understand the realities of migratingto new geographies, and individuals with a keensense of foresight decided that one avenue worthyof pursuit was to establish a presence in the NorthAmerican university system. Not only was this animportant way to help the majoritarian commu-nity engage with Sikhs, it was also a way for Sikhsto be active in the negotiation of their continuallyincreasing presence in new locales. Concernsabout integration, assimilation, accommodation,as well as preservation, reformation, and revitali-zation led to the second major phase of Sikhstudies in which the intellectual growth of thefield was matched by an impressive expansion offunding resources from the community. The Sikhcommunity in Canada was quick to mobilizearound the suggestion of creating a universitychair in Sikh Studies. Pashaura Singh describeshow work began enthusiastically in 1980 by theSikh Society of Calgary and was transferred to theFederation of Sikh Societies of Canada at the AllCanada Sikh Convention at Calgary in 1981.Shortly thereafter, negotiations were started withthe University of British Columbia to house thechair, and by 1985 the formal agreement wassigned creating the “Program of Punjabi andSikh Studies”. [6] However, this fortuitousachievement was marred by the events surround-ing the attack on the Golden Temple by the IndianArmy, the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her

Sikh bodyguards, and mass pogroms that claimednumerous Sikh lives in Delhi during 1984. Inci-dentally, the same event promulgated the creationof the second chair in Sikh Studies at the Univer-sity of Michigan, Ann Arbor. This incident, muchlike 9/11 and Oak Creek more recently, served tohighlight the dearth of knowledge about the Sikhcommunity. The University of Michigan wasamongst pioneering institutions that developed acurriculum about Sikhs. An endowment fund wasestablished by the University of Michigan in con-junction with the Sikh Studies Association ofMichigan on 23 July 1986. [6]

This fortuitous combination of funding andnew scholarship was not only colored by thepolitical crisis in Punjab during the 1980s, ratherit quickly became overshadowed by the crisis.Emotions were heightened in areas of Sikh con-centration such as Vancouver, South Hall, Coven-try, and the Bay Area in California which led tomass protests against the Indian government andthe country’s Hindu majority. As communal ten-sions were heightened during this period Westerngovernments became concerned with Sikhs froma security standpoint. The amicable scholarly pro-cess of engaging in questions concerning the cul-ture of the Sikh tradition was overrun bycircumspection regarding Sikh diasporas asyoung Sikh men, many born and raised outsideof Punjab, were returning to defend their peopleand tradition from a perceived threat. Thus, duringthis period heightened awareness of the traditionof Sikh martyrdom came to the forefront as Sikhsdeployed this heritage for political affectation andscholars quickly turned to consider questionsabout militancy, fundamentalism, and violenceas inimical to the acculturation of Sikhs in secularmulticultural societies. Some Sikh communityleaders and intellectuals responded to this crisisby turning toward the university as a analyticalinstitution that could assist in balancing the nega-tive media imagery about Sikhs at the time. Col-lectively there was a flurry of conferencesthroughout North America which ultimately ledto the creation of the further chairs and programsin Sikh studies due to concerns like those

Sikh Studies 405

expressed at the University of Michigan. Pro-grams were initiated at prestigious centers suchas the University of Toronto and Columbia Uni-versity while University of California, SantaBarbara, also established its own chair. The resultsof these attempts were mixed, but with theincreased emotional fervor and perception ofthreat to their existence some within diasporicSikh communities would soon reexamine theplausibility of all of these programs under intensescrutiny. There also arose a strategy of sustainedattack from sectors of the Sikh communitythrough local community newspapers and thePunjab media [4, 6] – at times it was the verypeople who had proactively sought to establishthe research chairs in the first place, but this scru-tiny was also applied by people in the communitywho became politicized due to events in Punjab.The Columbia and Toronto programs were closed,but the ones at Michigan and UBC survived.

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Old Paths and New Trajectories

The decade spanning the late 1980s to the late1990s was a bewildering one for scholars in SikhStudies. Despite the fact that many of them werebreaking new ground by questioning receivedcanons of scripture and history, or opening upSikh Studies to new avenues of inquiry such asfeminism, political ethnography, etc., they foundthemselves trapped within the competing rhetoricof Sikh ethnonationalism and anti-Sikh sentimentgenerated by the Indian and secular Westernmedia. [4, 6] By the year 2000, as the politicallandscape of Punjab and the Sikh diaspora calmeddown, there was a renewed optimism about thefuture of Sikh studies, and major American uni-versities once again began attracting funds fromSikh donors. As the situation stands, in 2013 thereare now nine functional chairs of Sikh studies inNorth America with the possibility of two more inthe near future. Moreover there is a large andgrowing network of Sikh studies scholars and anacademic journal devoted solely to Sikh studies,Sikh Formations. Thus, while it may have

appeared to some that Sikh Studies as a field wasthreatened by extinction due to the Punjab crisisthe scholars persevered in academic interests andgrew the programs by taking on graduate students.This has helped facilitate an ever-increasing bodyof scholarly literature on the Sikhs. The studentsof universities such as University of BritishColumbia, University of Michigan, UC SantaBarbara, UC Riverside, and Hofstra Universitybenefit from learning about an important globalculture and tradition whose members they arelikely to encounter but also learn about the vectorsof learning and conceptualization the Sikh tradi-tion has employed through its short history toinstill a strong ethical attitude against injusticebut toward hospitable plurality, egalitarianism,and societal upliftment. The Sikh Chairs engagewith the local communities and often assist ininstilling a critical balanced continuation of Sikhheritage for those who are born in the tradition.Many times, their classrooms function as neutralspaces to ask questions which would not bepossible in other settings such as the home orGurdwara such as textual meaning, religious prac-tice, identity, aspects of the culture, etc. – fornonheritage students a similar neutrality is createdto posit questions that may be inappropriate inmore casual everyday interactions with Sikhs.Thus, they are acting as vital avenues forexchange and engagement which assists inaddressing some of the concerns they were ini-tially established to approach. The Sikh Chairs areenabled to focus their research agendas uponissues relating to Sikhs as a global community.They have continued to address important histor-ical questions relating to Punjab and the subcon-tinent in relation to Sikhs, but in conjunction withother scholars with an interest in the Sikh com-munity many have engaged in pioneering workstudying the cultural history and sociologicalissues unique to Sikh diaspora. They have alsoconducted anthropological studies and exploredliterary analysis in order to broaden the scope ofthe literature on the Sikh people. A recent anddeveloping interest is media and music whichpromises to produce more important work.

406 Sikh Studies

While a number of seminal studies have beenproduced in this manner, much of this scholarshiptends to employ Western anthropocentric modelsof scholarship which tend to objectify Sikhs asmere datum in epistemological analyses – this hasbeen the cause of tension toward such scholarsfrom both Sikhs in the diaspora as well as byscholars in Punjab. This has led to the emergenceof an apologetic which seeks to create two paral-lel streams of scholarship – a “critical” body ofscholarship located outside Punjab and a “tradi-tional” body of scholarship which emerges fromwithin the region. However, it is significant tonote that since 2000 there has been a tangibleshift in the nature of Sikh studies discourse. Theshift came when a new generation of scholarsbegan to expose the deeply problematic natureof the opposition between University and Commu-nity, or critical and traditional, in order to show thatthe conventional dominant methodologies used bythe generation of scholars groomed by W. H.Mcleod were simply reflections of the secular ide-ology of public versus private spheres, politicsversus religion, critical versus devotional scholar-ship, etc., that demanded the privatization of theSikh subjective position or lived-experience, on thegrounds that it was “religious” and therefore inher-ently sectarian. [4] Although it has its roots in thesame intense scrutiny visited upon Sikh Chairs inthe critical decade between the 1980s and 1990s,scholars of the so-called McLeod group bandedtogether in defence of academic freedom, objectiv-ity, and the centrality of secular critical methodol-ogies to Sikh studies, which they believed wasunder threat from what they perceived as “funda-mentalist elements” of the Sikh community whodid not understand the rules of the public sphere.This division is problematic and unproductive forseveral reasons.

Needless to say, this apologetic reappropriatescolonial divisions of labor where nativescatalogued data making it available and pliablefor colonial administrators who could then orga-nize, interpret, and theorize based upon what wasaccumulated. It circumscribes and insulates Sikhtraditions of knowledge production with the effect

of constraining their sphere of applicability. Theapologetic also minimizes the role of professionalSikh scholars working outside of Punjab by forc-ing the impossible choice of upholding a perspec-tive amenable to the “critical” camp – this choiceis forced because of the necessity to defend thevery idea of academic freedom, and in this way itmirrors pressures put on minorities to morebroadly defend societal rights and liberties in theface of religious fundamentalism. Lastly, thisbinary is a categorical mistake predicated uponreducing the necessity to engage with questionsraised by scholars in Punjab about scholarshipproduced outside the region. As such, this falsedivision attempts to separate scholars by a meth-odological difference relating to approach andrigor, but any serious reading of the studies byscholars from Punjab reveals no great dissimilar-ity in either approach or rigor. It affects a refusalto dialogue, a refusal of dialogue and therebydiminishes the ability to produce rigorous stud-ies by stifling criticality, scrutiny, and analyticaljudiciousness as well as preventing productivedebate among varying perspectives to the effectof minimizing the ability to impact larger fieldsof study. Thus the shift in Sikh studies is cen-tered upon the adoption of a paradoxical stand-point that is able, on the one hand, to harnessthe potential of postsecular critical theory toarticulate a subjective Sikh position and Sikhmodes of reasoning, while on the other hand itcontests the cultural bias inherent within West-ern theory. [3]

Important development continues in areas suchas pedagogy, language training, manuscript loca-tion and preservation, as well as translation ofimportant Sikh texts and creation of referencematerials. [6] Recent scholarship has adopted adoubly critical toward both religious and secularperspectives in order to attempt to break withearly paradigms which treat Sikh Studies as alocus for unidirectional dialogue and discoursesof biopower. Through this perspective, Sikhs havethe potential to become significant and activeagents in knowledge production as opposed tobeing mere objects of knowledge. This is an

Sikhi 407

important breakthrough as it gives Sikhs the abil-ity to align with similarly interested contingentswho are actively contesting the intellectualframework of the public sphere and therefore thepolitical systems of their host country for thepositive end of pursuing an amenable multi-cultural plurality. It does so by enabling thesegroups to claim the public sphere as their ownrather than being in a position of alienation orestrangement by the appearance of foreignness.This perspective attempts to deal with the livedexperience of the Sikhs as an interconnected andintegrated community deeply impacted by thetrend of globalization.

S

Cross-References

▶Diaspora (and Globalization)▶Ethics (Sikhism)▶Migration, Sikh▶Orientalism (Sikhism)▶ Sikhi▶ Sikhism

References

1. Ballantyne T (2006) Between colonialism and Dias-pora: Sikh cultural formations in an imperial world.Duke University Press, Durham

2. Juergensmeyer M (1979) The forgotten tradition: Sikh-ism in the study of world religions. In: JuergensmeyerM, Gerald Barrier N (eds) Sikh studies comparativeperspectives on a changing tradition. Berkeley Reli-gious Studies Series & Graduate Theological Union,Berkeley, pp 13–23

3. Mandair A (2009) Religion and the specter of the west:Sikhism, India, postcoloniality, and the politics of trans-lation. Columbia University Press, New York

4. Mandair A (2013) Sikhism: a guide for the perplexed.Bloomsbury, London

5. Oberoi H (1994) The construction of religious bound-aries: culture, identity, and diversity in the Sikh tradi-tion. Chicago University Press, Chicago

6. Singh P (2014) New directions in Sikh studies. In:Singh P, Fenech LE (eds) The Oxford handbook ofSikh studies. Oxford University Press, Oxford,pp 625–643

Sikh Theology

▶Orientalism (Sikhism)

Sikhi

Arvind-Pal Singh MandairDepartment of Asian Languages and Cultures,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Definition

A term used by Sikhs to describe their path oflearning as a lived experience.

Sikhi: The Path Toward Learning

Sikhs at the most general level are disciples ofa line of ten embodied Gurus and a communitywho currently vest all worldly and spiritualauthority in their scripture, the Guru GranthSahib. While much of the formative moments inthe development of Sikh thought can be traced tothe Punjab region of North India (lit. land of thefive rivers), today Sikhs live in almost every cor-ner of the world and are active members of thesocieties which they call home. The term Sikhismis a Western word coined not by Sikhs but by theBritish in the nineteenth century at the height ofcolonialism. [3] In this sense it is like the wordsHinduism, Buddhism, Jainism which also are notindigenous to the Indian lexicon. However, it hasbeen important in the history of Western engage-ment with Sikhs for two main reasons: (1) throughthe discourse on the History of Religions, it pro-vided a framework wherein to codify and delimitSikhs thereby assisting in creating a body ofknowledge through which colonialism could forc-ibly rule Sikhs and (2) it provided the groundsupon which Sikhs engage in a dialogue with colo-nial administrators and later with fellow citizens

408 Sikhi

in liberal democracies in order to gain for them-selves rights and freedoms associated with thepractice of religion. [3] Despite this continueduse of such strategies, Sikhs have concomitantlydeveloped a parallel notion of themselves byusing the term Sikhi which, like the word Sikh,is derived from the Punjabi verb sikhna, to learn,and also has roots in the tradition through com-posite terms like gursikhi used by Sikhhermeneutes. [1, 2] Unlike Sikhism, the wordSikhi does not denote an object or thing. Ratherit has a temporal connotation and refers to a pathof learning as a lived experience. It does notfunction in contradistinction or opposition to theterm Sikhism, but more importantly Sikhi offersanother point of reference, or mode of engage-ment, which is to some degree aloof to the rationaldelimitations of the History of Religions dis-course. This alternative provides vantage forengaging with some of the core principles taughtby the Sikh Gurus precisely because it unsettlesthe objectification which arises through the termSikhism while simultaneously unsettling the sta-ble notion of a Sikh subject as the bulwark for theemplotment of Sikhs within the History of Reli-gions discourse. [3]

Sikhs undertake a path of self-perfection underthe guidance of a spiritual master called Guru (tobe distinguished from the lower case “guru”which is traditionally used in India to refer toany respected teacher). For Sikhs, the ten spiritualmasters each played a role in articulating Sikhi asa path through their teachings. These teachings arein the form of poetic compositions embodied inthe Sikh scripture known as the Guru GranthSahib. The Guru Granth Sahib is today consideredthe sole Guru of Sikhs as it contains verses whichdemarcate the path of Sikhi for those who medi-tate upon its contents and engage in active meansof learning at Sikh centers. The community asa whole is known as the Panth, which is derivedfrom the Sanskrit pthmeaning path. However, theword Panth slowly evolved to refer to the com-munity of Sikhs as a political body as opposed tothe devotional or religious path articulated in theGuru Granth Sahib. However, the entirety of theSikh project is beyond such binary oppositions

and can be more at home in the notion of Sikhi.[3–5]

The importance of the term Sikhi is that, whenused to develop a posttheistic understanding ofSikh experience it enables one to avoid the dual-ities such as secularism and religion. It alsodecenters the Western fetishizing of Sikhs and ananthropocentric category beholden to a cultural/religious epistemology objectified as Sikhismusing the category of World Religion. Such con-structions effectively evade crucial aspects of theSikh tradition, such as its complete involvementin the material world and its politics, as well as theclose connection between its devotional mysti-cism and the question of violence in order to putforth constructions which exist within the dis-course a priori of the inclusion of Sikhism in thebody of World Religions. This set of pre-existingquestions arise from an intellectual crisis occur-ring in the Christian tradition which relate tonotions of authority, institutional formations.Therefore, Sikhi is a term used to demarcatea separate and developing field of critical thoughtwhich cannot be completely circumscribed by thediscourse of World Religions for Sikhism and is,in many ways, resistant to that category. [3–5]

Cross-References

▶Akali Dal▶ Sikh Studies▶ Sikhism▶ Singh Sabha/Reform Movements

References

1. Fenech L (2013) The Sikh Zafarnamah of Guru GobindSingh: a discursive blade in the heart of the Mughalempire. Oxford University Press, New York

2. Juergensmeyer M (2014) Global Sikhism. In: TheOxford handbook of Sikh studies. Oxford UniversityPress, New York

3. Mandair A (2013) Sikhism: a guide for the perplexed.Bloomsbury, London

4. Padam PS (1997) Guru Ghar: Sikhi siddhanta barewicara caraca. Singh Brothers, Amritsar

5. Singh K (1932) Amar Khalsa Athwa Sikhi sidak decamatkara. Phulwari Pustak, Bhandara

Sikhism 409

Sikhism

Arvind-Pal Singh MandairDepartment of Asian Languages and Cultures,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Definition

Representation of the Sikh tradition as a “worldreligion” and as a nation. Sikhism includesconstructing a set of religious tenets or laws andpositing it as a form of South Asian or Indianmonotheism. This representation is centered uponan objectal understanding of a Sikh subject whichwas produced alongside the notion of the Sikhtradition as a “world religion” and as a nation.The amalgam of this pivotal transformative mod-ern process is reflected in the term Sikhism.

S

Sikhism: The Religion of the Sikhs

During the early twentieth century leading Sikhscholars helped to construct a modern self-representation of the Sikh tradition as a“world-religion” and as a nation (qaum). Thiswas done by facilitating the translation of indige-nous terms such as Sikhi, Sikh dharam, gurmat,and Panth as Sikhism. It is this peculiarly modernself-representation that tends to be reproduced inmost contemporary accounts as Sikhism. In doingso, the Sikh tradition appears to be a neat packagethat includes all the prerequisites of a world reli-gion, a distinct ethnic group, and nation. Theseinclude the following: (i) a distinct theology ordoctrine whose core is ethical monotheism; (ii)a distinct set of beliefs and practices; (iii)a historical founder (Nanak); (iv) historical placesof worship and pilgrimage (gurdwaras); (v)a community with well-defined boundaries (theKhalsa); (vi) a distinctly Sikh worldview. [3, 4,10, 11] As indicated above, this neat repackagingof an internally fluid path (Sikhi) into a seeminglyfixed and immutable entity (Sikhism asa “religion” among the other religions of the

world) which can be reproduced seamlesslythrough a number of different media. This enablesSikhs and Sikhism to be easily identifiable,although the mechanism of this identificationdepends on the creation of a superficial relationto Christianity which provides the essential typefor “religion” in general, and for other “religions”of the world. [4, 6]

Once packaged as a “religion” or an essentially“religious” community, Sikhs and Sikhism aremade familiar to our modern sensibilities. Theyno longer appear to be perplexing particularly tooutsiders, for the simple reason that everyone isfamiliar with what religion is. Moreover, thisseemingly benign moniker for the Sikh traditioncan circulate broadly both within the Sikhcommunity and throughout other groups ofsocieties with which Sikhs interact as a naturalunproblematic representation of Sikhs. This isbecause Sikhs become reducible to a religioustype (monotheism), an ethnic type (Indian),a geographical location (India) and a historicalperiod (fifteenth century) through the category ofSikhism. [3, 4, 7–10] The unproblematic circula-tion and political deployment of Sikhism tovouchsafe rights and privileges of citizenship isa clear indication that Sikhs and Sikhism havesettled into a comfortable position within theAnglophone consciousness but have also co-opted this very same consciousness as a mode ofrepresentation and thought. [1, 2, 5] At a certainlevel this kind of representation is by no meansunhelpful, especially as it provides quick anduncomplicated answers to basic questions like“What is Sikhism?” or “Who is a Sikh?” How-ever, if one seeks to inquire beyond such questionor even more deeply into these very questions oneimmediately faces the fragility of such basicanswers. This can become an issue in matters ofthe public sphere or the judiciary in democraticnation and unintentionally lead to hindrance orconfusion for several reasons. First, it character-izes Sikhs and Sikhism as defined objects witha truth value that corresponds unproblematicallyto the lived experience of Sikhs. The apparenttruth value of such definitions renders them diffi-cult to contest and be redefined within the Sikh

410 Sikhs Abroad

community, partly because Sikhs themselves haveinternalized them as truth statements that appearto correspond to the way they live. As seemingtruth statements they elide the fact that “Sikhism”is not an indigenous term but a colonial construct.[4] While indigenous terms sikhi, gursikhi,gurmat, or dharam are extensively used by Sikhswho speak Punjabi, bilingual Sikhs, and monolin-gual English speaker as an internal way of self-reference, it is when Sikhs engage in the publicsphere that the dominance of Sikhism is revealed.When engaging in the public sphere it is Sikhismthat takes precedence thereby forcing the identifi-cation with the category “religion”. [3, 4, 11]There is now overwhelming evidence to showthat this process of “religion-making” that is thetransformation of an action-oriented Sikhi intoa rigid object Sikhism, occurred during the colo-nial period through a process of interculturalmimesis between Sikh and European scholars dis-guised as natural translation. Through the termSikhism, Sikhs are presented as an essentiallyreligious type whose lived experience is essen-tially a private individual form of devotional prac-tice. In doing so, they are distanced from theexercise of public power which belongs to the“political” types (emperors, administrators, poli-ticians, colonial rulers, etc.) and can only enter thepublic sphere through a dominant process oftranslation which has always already takenplace. [3, 4]�

Cross-References

▶Arjan (Guru)▶Meditation (Sikhism)▶Relics (Sikhism)▶ Sikh Studies▶ Sikhi▶ Symbols (Sikhism)

�A earlier version of this entry had appeared in Arvind-PalSingh Mandair (2013), Sikhism: A Guide for the Per-plexed. London, Bloomsbury.

References

1. Cole O (2004) Understanding Sikhism. Dunedin Aca-demic, Edinburgh

2. Jakobsh D (2012) Sikhism. University of HawaiiPress, Honolulu

3. Mandair A (2009) Religion and the specter of the west:Sikhism, India, postcoloniality and the politics oftranslation. Columbia University, New York

4. Mandair A (2013) Sikhism: a guide for the perplexed.Bloomsbury, London

5. McLeodWH (1997) Sikhism. Penguin Books, London6. Oberoi H (1994) The construction of religious bound-

aries: culture, identity, and diversity in the Sikh tradi-tion. Chicago University Press, Chicago

7. Shan HS (1974) Scholarly study of Sikhism. PunjabUniversity, Chandigarh

8. Singh F (1969) Sikhism. Punjabi University, Patiala9. Singh K (1996) Current thoughts on Sikhism. Institute

of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh10. Singh K, Singh D (1997) Sikhism, its philosophy and

history. Institute of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh11. van der Linden B (2008) Moral languages of Punjab:

the Singh Sabha, Arya Samaj, and Ahmadiyahs.Manohar Publishers, New Delhi

Sikhs Abroad

▶Diaspora (and Globalization)

Sikhs and Empire

Anne MurphyDepartment of Asian Studies, UBC Asian Centre,University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC,Canada

Synonyms

Imperial power and Sikh tradition; Mughal/Sikhrelations; Sikh sovereignty; Sikhs in the BritishEmpire

Definition

Overview of the imperial contexts of Sikhtradition.

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The Historical Development of Sikhismin Imperial Contexts

The Sikh tradition has taken shape within severalmajor imperial formations. These imperial con-texts do not only provide the broad historicalbackground for the development of the tradition;they have directly shaped in significant ways itshistorical development. They also provideimportant conceptual and ideological underpin-nings for the imagination of the community inrelation to the state, and in relation to the realmsof the political and the religious, organizationalcategories of the social world that developed indynamic ways with reference to imperial stateformation.

The historical influences of empire are multi-fold. Imperial forces impinge overtly, for exam-ple, on the development of the tradition with thekilling of the fifth and ninth Gurus at Mughalhands, the role of Mughal as well as sub-imperial,local polities in the demise of the tenth Guru’scenter at Anandpur, and the subsequent politicalchaos in Punjab in the eighteenth century asMughal power disintegrated and power coalescedin the hands of Sikh and other forces. The Sikhengagement with empire took a new course withthe establishment of an independent imperial for-mation under a Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, at Lahorein 1799, and with the complex interaction of theSikhs with the British Raj. Such imperial contextsshaped the Sikh community also in more subtleways, such as in the ways in which sovereigntyand property were conceived in the Mughal andimmediate post-Mughal period, and how suchconceptions were transformed – and, with them,Sikh understandings of the same – under Britishrule. An account of Sikhs and empire mustaccount for these more subtle forms of influencealongside more direct forms.

The Mughal State and the Developmentof Sikh Tradition

Guru Nanak commented directly on the early for-mation of theMughal Empire –which provided thecontext for the shaping of the Sikh tradition under

the Gurus – with his dismay at the violence asso-ciated with the conquest of North India by Babur,the founder of the Mughal Empire:

Khurāsān khasmānā kīā hiṅdustān ḍarāiāBabur has conquered Khurasan, and has now terri-fied Hindustan . . ..ratan vigāṛi vigoe kuttīṅ muiā sār na kāīThe dogs have spoiled and laid waste to the jewel[of the land] and no one has word of the dead. (AdiGranth, p. 360)

Of course, the Mughals were preceded by otherimperial state formations, the Delhi-based Sultan-ates, which also shaped Guru Nanak’s life; heworked in themodhīkhānā or storehouse of DaulatKhan Lodhi, an administrator for the state duringthe period of the Lodhi sultanate. Many literatePunjabis, particularly of the Khatri caste (asNanak was), found employment with the imperialadministration in Punjab under the Lodhis as wellas under the Mughals. Persian in particular was animportant asset in the period for those seekingemployment, as Persian had been an importantlanguage of state in the region for centuries.Muzaffar Alam has indeed shown that Persiantraditions were well established in literary andadministrative terms in the region by the eleventhcentury, when Lahore was known as “LittleGhazna,” a reference to the Punjab’s connectionto political centers to the west. ([2], p. 133) AfterBabur conquered parts of North and NortheasternIndia, he died in 1530. His son NasiruddinHumayuan added further territory to his father’sdominion before being ousted by Sher Shah Suriin 1540. Humayuan took refuge in the PersianSafavid court before returning to North India toreassert control over what he and his father hadconquered, in 1555. After his death a year later,Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, his son, succeededhim, to rule until 1605.

The period of the first five Gurus was pro-foundly shaped by the ways the Mughal Empiredeveloped under the guiding hand of EmperorAkbar. As is well known, Akbar was eclectic inhis cultural and religious interests, and activelyengaged in dialogue with a range of thinkers andpractitioners in his formulation of his own reli-gious vision, dīn-i-illāhi. The Akbar period pro-vided a relatively safe and stable period of growth

412 Sikhs and Empire

for the Sikh community, through the Guruships ofthe third, fourth, and fifth Gurus. The dynamicreligious environment of Punjab with its multiplecommunities in dialogue and contact deeplyinfluenced the emerging Sikh tradition, and thepursuit of a generally tolerant and open approachto multiple religious communities and ideologiesby the state encouraged an environment of collab-oration, dialogue, and adaptation.

The imperial state impinged more directly onthe historical development of the Sikh tradition inthe post-Akbar period, with tragic results. GuruArjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur’s deaths at thehands of imperial forces – Guru Arjan’s at thebeginning of the reign of the emperor Jahangir,who succeeded Akbar, and Guru Tegh Bahadur’sin the time of Aurangzeb, the grandson ofJahangir – demonstrate the dramatic ways thatthe state attempted to control and curtail the grow-ing community. Both examples demonstrate alsothe prominence of the Sikh community in theperiod and the possible challenge to the state orsovereign authority that the Guru’s influencecould constitute. Control over the Sikh commu-nity thus came to be perceived as a political neces-sity for imperial forces as the stature of thecommunity grew. This adversarial relationshipwith Mughal imperial forces is indeed the maincontributing force toward the development of theideology of mīrī-pīrī , or the pairing of temporaland religious power in the person and leadershipof the Guru, a formulation of authority generallyattributed to the sixth Guru, Hargobind.

Power and Sovereignty in the MughalContext

The concepts ofmīrī and pīrī and allied ideas andpractices reflect the complexity of political andreligious articulations in this period. Lou Fenechhas brilliantly shown the diverse ways in whichthe Mughal imperial courtly idiom was mobilizedin Sikh contexts to articulate power and authority.[6] This was in keeping with other Mughal periodcultural practices, which articulated religious andsocial power in diverse environments through theimperial idiom of the darbār or court and the

material practices associated with it, such askhil’at, the ritualized gift exchange between supe-rior and inferior, suzerain and vassal, and teacherand student. [10] The mobilization of imperialpageantry and cultural forms was an importantpart of Sikh self-imagination in the seventeenthand eighteenth centuries; as Robin Reinhart hasargued, it fundamentally informed the formationof the Dasam Granth, the text most centrally asso-ciated with the tenth Guru’s darbār. [21] It wasnot exclusive to the Sikh tradition, however, nor tothe articulation of sovereignty; social and reli-gious elites of the period, in general terms, iteratedposition, authority, and power through the impe-rial idiom. Khil’at, for example, was an importantsocial practice associated with rank and loyaltywithin Sufi or Islamic mystical circles. The impe-rial metaphor, therefore, expressed a diverse rangeof not always political forms of power. Con-versely, exchanges in the state setting are impos-sible to designate as simply “non-religious,” asrevealed by Sudipta Sen’s work on the construc-tion of history in Indo-Persianate contexts inNorth India. Interaction with the emperor wasengaged in religious modes, particularly but notexclusively in relation to the emperor Akbar,adding a particular importance to the remember-ing of interactions with the emperor within histor-ical accounts, such that “the memory of imperialassociation added transcendental significance tothe past, particularly among a heterogeneousnobility which was not necessarily bound by thesame religious sensibility”. ([23], p. 250) Thecourt could mirror the world of the religious, asargued by Nicholas Dirks, who found pūjā orworship to act as the “the root political metaphor”in South Indian state formation: “On the one hand,ritual was a pervasive political fact; on the other,politics was permeated by ritual forms”. ([6], p. 47first quote, 129s) This does not mean that all poli-tics were religious: “the deity was not so much theparadigmatic sovereign as worship was the para-digmatic exchange”. ([6], p. 289) Similarly, in theSufi context, Nile Green has shown the deeplyentwined nature of the idioms of the politicalcourt and religious court in the Deccan. Thus,“sufi and political texts did not so much borrowfrom one another’s distinct spheres, but were rather

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both part of a wider literary and cultural ecumene inwhich kings and saints shared centre-stagetogether”. ([11], p. 28) Such a use of the languageand symbolism of kingship did not mean Sufi textsdid not critique secular power, but that they “oftenshared the symbolic and linguistic vocabulariesthrough which their power was expressed”. ([11],p. 38)

The imperial imaginary thus was manifest indiverse cultural and religious settings in theMughal period, and drew deeply upon and wasdeeply entwined in religious idioms. Such mobi-lizations of imperial representations of authorityinvite consideration of their political status: werethose who mobilized such representations con-tenders for political authority on par with theimperial darbār or court, or was the use of thisbroad vocabulary of authority peripherally or onlypartially politically marked?More specifically, forour purposes, and simply put: does the centralplace of the idiom of the court in the ideas andpractices of the Sikh Gurus reveal a pre-colonialprehistory of a later idea of Sikh sovereignty? Thisquestion is not so easily answered. The notion ofsovereignty was articulated differently in themobilization of the darbār ideology in the pre-colonial period in comparison with colonial andpost-colonial notions of sovereignty, when thenation-state comes the fore. The suzerain–vassalmodel of the Mughal state provides for a model ofdistributed sovereignty whereby elites and rulersentered into complex hierarchical relations withthe state, while retaining aspects of sovereigncontrol on the local level. Sovereignty itself inthe pre-colonial period, in short, does not map toits modern national form and was not alwaysexclusive. It is no surprise, then, to see that aspectsof real political and economic control were real-ized by religious centers, such as Sufi khānqāhand Vaishnava institutions in Punjab and else-where. This can be seen across Mughal perioddomains: the history of the Vallabha sampradāyas Shandip Saha has described it in his recentwork provides a compelling parallel (and alsocounter) example from the same period as thedevelopment of the Sikh Gurus’ court. Sahanotes that “the successful growth of the Pustimarg. . . lay in its willingness to integrate itself firmly

within the structure of both Muslim and Hinduregimes”. ([22], pp. 312–313) The leaders of theseven houses designated for the male descendentsof Vittalnath, the successor of the founder of thesampradāy, Vallabhacharya, were known asmahārājas and achieved not only wealth but alsoeven temporal control of extensive lands under thepatronage of royalty in Rajasthan. In 1672, indeed,the descendants of Vitthalnath’s eldest son weregranted a small autonomous kingdom withinMewar, ([22], pp. 304–305) such that, accordingto E. Richardson, “the goswamis exerted total con-trol over commerce, local industry, and taxation.Nathdwara operated as a veritable vatican, levyingfees on pilgrims who entered its gates, assessing allgoods produced in the market place, and control-ling the services instituted for the maintenance ofthe god”. ([20], p. ix)

The Mughal imperial context for the develop-ment of the Sikh tradition as a community and asa set of institutions and ideas, therefore, enabledparticipation in a complex network of distributedsovereign relations. Such relations had evolvedover time, as Subrahmanyam argues, as an“evolving tool-box of contemporary statecraft,from which a set of institutions were improvisedand partly innovated” in the time of Akbar, whenthe Mughal system reached mature development,drawing on prior precedents and continuing tochange after Akbar’s time. ([26], p. 301) AsSubrahmanyam notes, portrayals of the Mughalstate range from those that portray a “MughalJuggernaut, the medieval road-roller that reducedthe sub-continent into an institutional flatland” tothose that emphasize local control delegated froma loosely configured center. ([26], p. 321) It is notin the scope of this article to decide this question,but it is enough to consider how within a flexibleand evolving Mughal state formation processlocal power centers could be configured in differ-ent ways in relation to Mughal power, such as issuggested by the Vallabhite community example.This would be only more so the case fora community with antagonistic relations withMughal authority, as became the case with theSikhs. The tenth and final embodied humanGuru, Guru Gobind Singh, therefore could beimagined as a sovereign leader within this larger

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world. This sovereignty was primarily centered atthe city of Anandpur, rather than a larger politicalentity equivalent to the much broader contours ofthe Sikh community, as is clear in Sainapati’s GurSobha (1711). [17] At the same time, this sover-eignty must be understood to work within a largersystem of distributed political relations that attimes emphasized centralization and at othertimes fostered the distribution of power in localcenters, within, at the periphery of, and outsidea larger imperial network. This is reflected in theentreaty of Guru Gobind Singh in his Zafarnāmahfor justice from the Mughal emperor in terms thatappeal to a shared moral and cultural universe. Indoing so, it does not fully repudiate the overarch-ing ideological underpinnings of Mughal rule,even as it challenges it. ([7], p. 212; [8], p. 96)At the same time, as Fenech’s recent study of theZafarnāmah has shown, the Guru also rejecteda conventional sovereign–vassal relationshipwith the Mughal state; an argument is made herefor an independent status within the prevailingpolitical order. The possibility that such a positionwas akin to that given to other religious commu-nities persists, as Fenech’s reference to the“divine” aspects of the Guru’s court make clear.([8], pp. 82–84, 95–96)

The remembrance of the Guru period and thestatus of sovereignty, however, were to developfurther with political developments in the eigh-teenth century that brought the Sikhs into directpolitical power. In texts of this later period, asser-tion of the political sovereignty of Sikh-led king-doms prevails and is seen in direct relation to theintrinsic message of the Gurus. New understand-ings of sovereignty were then introduced with theonset of colonial rule, leading to a national idiomthat now is accepted as normative.

The Post-Mughal Period and the PoliticalAscendance of Sikh Leaders

Centralized Mughal power declined in the eigh-teenth century such that Mughal authoritypersisted in sometimes solely ideological termsthrough to the nineteenth century. This contextinitiated a series of political changes in the Punjab

that allowed the ascendance of Sikh and otherforces, as Purnima Dhavan’s work shows. [5]Even before the end of the rule of the MughalEmperor Aurangzeb in 1707, centralized imperialMughal power had began to fracture at the periph-eries, and successor groups began to vie forpower. [1, 16] Many of the successor states thatarose over the century however continued to payallegiance to the Mughal emperor and/or contin-ued many aspects of Mughal administration andculture, even when independent. The rise of Sikh-led states in Punjab in the later part of the eigh-teenth century, culminating with a large centralizedstate under Maharaja Ranjit Singh based at Lahoreand strong smaller states in the eastern and south-ern part of Punjab (the so-called Phulkian states ofPatiala, Kapurthala, and others, descended froma common ancestor Phul), reflects the Punjabiman-ifestation of this larger process. [25] BandaBahadur, a follower of the tenth Guru, is creditedwith leading the first rebellions across Punjab in theearly eighteenth century; by mid-century, Sikh andother leaders were in broad conflict with imperialand sub-imperial forces. When Banda Bahadur’sforces were finally captured in 1715, their publicparade was described by Mirza Muhammad inheroic terms: “There was no sign of humility andsubmission on their faces. Rather most of them,riding on the camels’ backs, kept singing and recit-ing melodious verses”. ([13], pp. 140–141)

Political disorder became acute in Punjab, aseffective centralized Mughal imperial powerdisintegrated and multiple, both local and moredistant challengers with imperial ambitions cameto the fore. Nadir Shah’s invasion in 1539 andthe Sikhs’ attack on his retreating army reflectthis broader contest for power. The chhoṭāghallūghārā of 1746, instituted by aMughal func-tionary, Lakhpat Rai, in revenge for his brother’sdeath at the hands of Sikh forces, reflects thislarger political conflict and the rise of Sikh leadersas political contenders within it. Ahmad ShahAbdali’s rise to power and accession of NadirShah’s territories brought western parts of Punjabunder his imperial control by 1757, when theMughal emperor had ceded the province ofLahore together with Multan, Kashmir, and thesarkār of Sirhind. TheMarathas set their sights on

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Punjab as well; they were defeated by Abdali atPanipat in 1761. Punjab did not remain restful,however, in the hands of Abdali, and conflict withSikh and other organized militias continued, lead-ing to the vaḍḍā ghallūghārā or “great carnage,”when thousands of Singhs were killed in battlenear present-day Ludhiana. Yet, amidst this tur-moil and violence, Sikhs rose among a range ofcontenders to find a place within the shiftingpower formations of the mid-eighteenth century.

By 1765 a coin was struck in Lahore by theSikh leaders of lineage-based misals or militias,reiterating the claim to sovereignty made earlier inthis way by Banda Singh Bahadur. This sovereignpresence would culminate in the establishment ofthe kingdom of Lahore under Ranjit Singh of theSukerchakia misal, through military conquest andalliance building with other misals, in 1799. [15](Coins, indeed, were struck throughout the end ofthe eighteenth century, as a central symbol ofsovereignty ([12], p. 173 and n. 36).) The achieve-ment of imperial ambitions under Ranjit Singh forsome represents an exemplary Sikh form of sov-ereignty; for others, his rule was not informedenough by Sikh interests. Indeed, it is a commonmisnomer to call the Lahore state a “Sikh state.”While the idea of the Khalsa did inform the ideo-logical underpinnings of the Lahore State, thepolity never featured a Sikh majority population,and fundamental aspects of Ranjit Singh’s rule,such as policies toward the support of non-Sikhreligious establishments, deny a simple equationof Sikh interests and the state. ([18], Ch. 5) Atthe same time, as Dhavan has shown, Khalsacommunitarian ideologies challenged imperialaspirations in general terms. [5] Overall thismoment represented the reversal of the fate ofthe Sikh community within prior imperial forma-tions and the growth of a strong sense of the powerof members of the community to determine itspolitical place.

The British Raj and the ComplexFormations of Tradition

The coming of British rule in Punjab in 1849,10 years after the death of Maharaja Ranjit

Singh and a tumultuous decade in which hisheirs competed for control, brought yet anotherimperial context for the Sikh community. The EastIndia Company’s attempts to define the Sikhs inpolitical as well as religious terms began in theearly decades of the nineteenth century, whenBritish political agents sought to understand Sikh-ism in the context of comprehending the politicalformations of Ranjit Singh’s Lahore state. [3, 4]British imperial interests later came to depend onthe maintenance of Punjabi and Sikh dominance inthe army. Whereas before 1857 – which sawa broad rebellion explicitly aimed at Indian inde-pendence, called the “mutiny” bycolonial sources–the Bengal army was dominated by higher-casterecruits from eastern India, the participation ofPunjabis in the protracted battle to re-establishBritish control in the subcontinent at that timehelped secure them a significant place in the mili-tary machinery of empire. Between May andDecember of 1857, approximately 34,000 Punjabisjoined the British forces, including some whohad been demobilized by the East India Companygovernment previously. ([3], p. 64; [27], p. 46)

As Tan Tai Yong notes, “although British rhe-toric at that time spoke of the Punjabis’ ‘splendidand noble response to the call of duty’, there wereno illusions that the Punjabis had responded to theBritish call out of a sense of loyalty ”. ([27], p. 47)Practical self-interest, particularly for Sikhs whohad lost much in the transition from Ranjit Singh’srule to that of the British, bound them to imperialinterests. As this relationship further developed,the British positioned themselves as patrons of theSikh community and of the Sikh religion, in thatthey encouraged particular definitions of beingSikh and enforced these definitions among theSikh members of the British Indian armed forces.[9] At the same time, such enforcement alsoencouraged a narrowing in the definition of whowas a Sikh, which promoted a sense that the Sikhcommunity was in decline otherwise; this tooserved imperial interests, in that imperial patron-age seemed all the more necessary.

Later, communal organization among Sikhstook place in a broader imperial context withinwhich religious identity was instituted as a coregoverning principle of British imperial India,

416 Sikhs and Empire

through the designation of representative institu-tions designed to accommodate religious commu-nities as fundamental social categories. [14] It is inthis context that one must place the efforts oforganizations like the Singh Sabhas, or “SinghOrganizations.” The Singh Sabha movement wasthe site of the articulation of multiple visions ofwhat it meant to be Sikh in the period. Competingvisions arose among branches of these organiza-tions into what Harjot Oberoi has identified asa conflict between a Tat Khalsa and a “SanatanSikh” perspective on the Sikh tradition. The latter,he argues, was open to an “enchanted universe” inwhich multiplicity and hybridity were the norm;the former was invested in articulating a boundeddefinition of being Sikh that denied commonality,in particular, with Hinduism. In this way, an“older, pluralist paradigm of Sikh faith wasdisplaced forever by a highly uniform Sikhidentity, the one we know today as modern Sikh-ism”. ([19], p. 25) Yet, in ways, this is an over-statement. There were limits on Tat Khalsareformers, who sought to reconfigure and sharpenthe definition of who was a Sikh, and diversitycontinued. Tony Ballantyne thus argues that thehistory of the migration of Punjabis in the sameperiod, and the production of alternative visionsof being Sikh in that context, cannot allow claimsof victory for any one definition of being Sikh, asmultiple identities were articulated and acted outduring this time of reform and consolidation.The success of reform in rural areas was alsolimited. ([3], pp. 166–167 and Ch. 2) Prior plural-ist visions of the definition of Sikhness thusremained. At the same time, the reformers them-selves were diverse in their approaches.

The imperial context for these developmentsamong Sikhs was formative. It allowed forincreased communication and mobility, which inturn promoted awareness of the diversity of prac-tices among and within religious communities. Insome cases, this led to efforts toward homogeni-zation. British imperial administrative innova-tions that depended upon religious identity as anorganizing principle – such as the census andnascent representational governmental structures–also had a direct impact on the discourse of reli-gious identity. At the same time, some of the

earliest formulations of an Indian nationalistvision emerged in diaspora, because of the com-mon experience of racism felt there among SouthAsians. The gadar or revolutionary movementtook shape on the west coast of the U.S.A andCanada, providing a vision of a secular, freeIndia – and it was pursued primarily but notexclusively by Sikh migrants to these regions.Sikhs later continued to be active both in supportof imperial governance – particularly as a power-ful part of the army – and among nationalists. Thelanguage of the nation also came to directly influ-ence Sikh communitarian formations, and it wasin this context that there developed the imagina-tion of a new kind of sovereignty, different fromthat which characterized the pre-colonial period,where the nineteenth-century ideology of thenation-state was mapped to the articulation ofa Sikh quam or community/nation.

Imperial Metaphors

The question of empire may in some senses seemmoot today, in the wake of the achievement ofindependence in South Asia in 1947 and the devel-opment of new dominant international politicalplayers in the years since then. The experience of“American empire,” however, has been andremains very real, earlier in relation to the SovietBloc, for example, or more recently in the hege-mony ofmulti-national corporate interests since theSoviet dissolution. Many of the most importanttransnational movements active today – many ofthem religious – themselves are formed by suchimperial idioms. The imagination of a transnationalcommunity linked across time and space by inter-ests of belief and practice in some ways mirrorssuch imperial ideologies – particularly those withagonistic relationships to the state, as is visible inthe operations of transnational corporations. Inother ways, such social formations run diametri-cally opposed to the imperial idiom, providing analternative imagination of community and belong-ing that challenges a homogenized corporate/impe-rial vision and also cannot be mapped easily ontoa single territorial entity. [24] The political contextfor any community is fundamental to the formation

Sikhs in the British Empire 417

of that community; it provides the conditions ofpossibility for it and the languages and experiencesthat can be expressed through it. In the Sikh case,South Asian and British imperial formations haveprofoundly shaped the tradition; at the same time, itsurpasses them, toward new visions of communityand subjectivity that are not contained in (and evensubvert, for example in the case of egalitarianKhalsa-centric social formations) an imperialidiom.

Cross-References

▶Colonialism▶Dalip Singh, Maharaja▶Maharajah Ranjit Singh▶Modernity (Sikhism)▶ Punjab

S

References

1. Alam M (1986) The crisis of Empire in Mughal NorthIndia: Awadh and the Punjab, 1707–1748. OxfordUniversity Press, Delhi

2. Alam M (2003) The culture and politics of Persian inprecolonial Hindustan. In: Pollock S (ed) Literarycultures in history: reconstructions from South Asia.Oxford University Press, New Delhi/New York

3. Ballantyne T (2006) Between colonialism and Dias-pora: Sikh cultural formations in an imperial world.Duke University Press, Durham/London

4. Dhavan P (2011) Redemptive pasts and imperiledfutures: the writing of a Sikh history. In: AnneMurphy(ed) Time, history and the religious imaginary in SouthAsia. Routledge, London/New York

5. Dhavan P (2011) When sparrows became hawks: themaking of the Sikh warrior tradition, 1699–1799.Oxford University Press, New York

6. Dirks NB (1987) The hollow crown: ethnohistory ofan Indian Kingdom. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge/New York

7. Fenech L (2008) The Darbar of the Sikh gurus: thecourt of god in the world of men. Oxford UniversityPress, New Delhi

8. Fenech L (2012) The Sikh Zafar-nāmah of guruGobind Singh: a discursive blade in the heart of theMughal Empire. Oxford University Press, New York

9. Fox R (1985) Lions of the Punjab: culture in themaking. University of California Press, Berkeley

10. Gordon S (ed) (2003) Robes of honour: khil’at in pre-colonial and colonial India. Oxford University Press,New Delhi

11. Green N (2006) Indian Sufism since the seventeenthcentury: saints, books and empires in the MuslimDeccan. Routledge, London/New York

12. Grewal JS, Bal SS (1967) Guru Gobind Singh:a biographical study. Panjab University, PublicationsBureau, Chandigarh

13. Grewal JS, Habib I (2001) Sikh history from Persiansources (trans: Irfan Habib). Tulika and Indian HistoryCongress, New Delhi

14. Jones K (1981) Religious identity and the Indian cen-sus. In: Barrier NG (ed) The census in British India:new perspectives. Manohar, New Delhi

15. Major A (1996) Return to Empire: Punjab under theSikhs and British in the mid – nineteenth century.Sterling Publishers, New Delhi

16. Marshall P (2003) Introduction. In: Marshall P (ed)The eighteenth century in Indian history: evolution orrevolution? Oxford University Press, New Delhi

17. Murphy A (2007) History in the Sikh past. Hist Theory46(2):345–365

18. Murphy A (2012) The materiality of the past: historyand representation in Sikh tradition. Oxford UniversityPress, New York

19. Oberoi H (1994) The construction of religious bound-aries: culture, identity, and diversity in the Sikh tradi-tion. Oxford University Press, Delhi

20. Richardson EA (1979) Mughal and Rajput patronageof the bhakti sect of the Maharajas, the VallabhaSampradaya, 1640–1760 A.D. PhD dissertation, Uni-versity of Arizona, Arizona

21. Rinehart R (2011) Debating the Dasam Granth.Oxford University Press, New York

22. Saha S (2007) The movement of Bhakti along a North-West axis: tracing the history of the Pustimarg betweenthe sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Int J HinduStud 11(3):299–318

23. Sen S (1999) Imperial orders of the past: the semanticsof history and time in the medieval Indo-Persianateculture of North India. In: Ali D (ed) Invoking the past:the uses of history in South Asia. Oxford UniversityPress, New Delhi, pp 231–257

24. Shani G (2008) Sikh nationalism and identity ina global age. Routledge, London

25. Singh B (1993) A history of the Sikh Misals. Publica-tion Bureau, Punjabi University, Patiala

26. Subrahmanyam S (1992) The Mughal state – structureor process? Reflections on recent western historiogra-phy. Indian Econ Soc Hist Rev 29(3):291–321

27. Yong TT (2005) The Garrison state: the military, gov-ernment and society in Colonial Punjab, 1849–1947.Sage, New Delhi

Sikhs in the British Empire

▶ Sikhs and Empire

418 Simran

Simran

▶Meditation (Sikhism)

Sin

▶Vice(s), Sikhism

Singh Sabha

▶Orientalism (Sikhism)▶Vir Singh (Bhai)

Singh Sabha/Reform Movements

Arvind-Pal Singh MandairDepartment of Asian Languages and Cultures,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Definition

A socioreligious reform movement led by promi-nent Sikhs during the colonial period under Brit-ish rule.

The Singh Sabha Movement

The progression of colonial rule in Punjab afterthe region’s annexation by the British in 1849 ledto a prolonged engagement between British mili-tary and political administrators and influentialmembers of Punjab major socioreligious groupsincluding the Sikhs. While there were a myriad ofexperiences and interactions, the proselytizingactivities of Christian missionaries alongside thetacit, but at times open, support by the British

colonial machine is one which led to a largedegree of anxiety across the broad swath ofPunjab’s cultural map. [2, 5, 6] This anxietyaround proselytization had already created indig-enous responses in other regions through mecha-nisms of reform. The onus of these reformmovements was to purify what suddenly seemedto be an unmanageable amalgam of beliefs. Onesuch movement was the Arya Samaj which wasfounded by Swami Dayanand during the last quar-ter of the nineteenth century and promoted a formof monotheism situated in a reading of the Vedas,the ideals of asceticism, caste and correct ritualconduct amongst a majoritarian politicoreligiousgroup which was rapidly coming to the fore underthe sign of Hinduism. In Punjab, the Singh Sabhamovement was as much a response to the failedattempt at working alongside Arya Samaj sup-porters as it was a response to a political crisiswhich arose out of the British annexation. [6, 7]

Initially, Dayanand was welcomed by someSikhs who found his monotheistic and anticastestance appealing. But this admiration was shortlived as Dayanand made harsh and disparagingcomments about Guru Nanak. Sikhs soon realizedthat Dayanand and the organization he had createdin Punjab, the Arya Samaj, was an even greaterthreat to them than Christianity, as it was partof a massive and rising Hindu consciousnessthroughout India which tended to regard Sikhsand Sikhi as a minor sect of Hinduism. Feelingthreatened, Sikh leaders convened meetings inAmritsar to oppose Dayanand’s influence. Thesemeetings culminated in the founding of a bodycalled the Sri Guru Singh Sabha in 1873. Thisassociation marks the beginning of the mostimportant voluntary body in Sikh history, a bodythat evolved into a movement whose success waspremised on an engagement with the British stateand with modernity per se. It is through the agencyof this modernizing movement, the Singh Sabha,that the path of Sikhi originated by the SikhGurus, also known as the Sikh Panth, was furtherconcretized into a “religion” that came to beknown as Sikhism. [1, 3, 4, 6, 7]

Singh Sabha/Reform Movements 419

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The first Singh Sabha, the Sri Guru SinghSabha, was founded in 1873 in Amritsar asa response to several different problems whichfaced the Sikhs at the time. The Amritsar SinghSabha was set up and backed by conservativeSikhs belonging to the Khatri caste, many ofwhom were descendants of the early Sikh Gurus.They included men such as Baba Khem SinghBedi, a direct descendent of Guru Nanak, ThakarSingh Sandhanwalia, Avtar Singh Vahiria andGiani Gian Singh, a noted Sikh scholar of thetime. The conservatism of this Amritsar-basedgroup stemmed from the fact that they saw theSikh Panth as one among the myriad streamsconstituting sanatana dharma, the so-called eter-nal tradition that identifies its source of authorityas the Veda. These self-styled “Sanatan Sikhs”can be traced to those groups that refused to takeKhalsa initiation on the grounds that the khande-ka-pahul ceremony polluted their ritual bound-aries and threatened their caste status which theyregarded as primary. Though they resented thedemocratic tendency within the Khalsa groups,they continued to coexist within the broaderSikh Panth even as they remained aloof from themainstream Khalsa practices. Never relinquishingtheir claim to be natural leaders of the Panth, theyregained their social prominence in the eighteenthand nineteenth centuries by taking over the maingurdwaras and other institutions vacated by theKhalsa Sikhs in their fight for survival against theMughal state in the eighteenth century. Doctrin-ally, the “Sanatan Sikhs” considered Guru Nanakto be an incarnation or avatar of the Hindu deityVishnu and thereby aligned Sikh traditions withthe Brahmanical social structure and caste ideol-ogy. Thus, the predominant concern of the con-servative “Sanatan Sikhs” was to protect the kindof social framework in which they had been nur-tured. However, their understanding of the Sikhtradition would become increasingly problematicas it furthered the attempts by members ofthe Arya Samaj to continue to claim that Sikhswere a minor subsect of larger Hinduism. In thisway, the ideology supported by the sanatan

members quickly came into conflict with politicalexigencies of the day. [3, 4, 6]

The conservative ideology of the AmritsarSingh Sabha invited stiff opposition within thePanth. This came primarily from Sikhs who hadstrongly upheld the core Khalsa ideals and hadbenefitted from Western education and employ-ment in such a way that they were in a position tochallenge the traditionalist elites represented byKhem Singh Bedi, Avtar Singh Vahiria, andThakur Singh Sandhanwalia. They styled them-selves as Tat Khalsa, or advocates of the authenticKhalsa ideals after the Tat Khalsa of the eigh-teenth century. These Tat Khalsa Sikhs, led bymen such as Gurmukh Singh, Harsha SinghArora, Jawahir Singh, and Giani Ditt Singhbecame increasingly vocal in their oppositionto the “Sanatan Sikhs” and formed anotherbranch of the Singh Sabha in Lahore in 1879.[1, 3, 4, 6, 7]

Following the lead of the Lahore Singh Sabha,many other Sabhas were formed throughoutPunjab. By 1899, there were Singh Sabhas inevery town and in many villages. Each of theseassociations modelled themselves either on theLahore or Amritsar model. However, the LahoreSingh Sabha proved to be far more successful thanits rival, to the extent that the term “Singh Sabha”eventually became synonymous with the Lahoregroup which was the dominant force in the mod-ernization of the Sikh tradition. By the beginning ofthe twentieth century, the two bodies eventuallymerged into one, the Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD),partly due to the need for greater political coordi-nation in the face of a more powerful commonadversary, namely, the Arya Samaj as the mainrepresentative of political Hinduism in Punjab. [4,6, 7] Indeed the nature of the Singh Sabha’s activ-ities and the character of its modernizing zealcannot be properly understood without acknowl-edging that it was primarily, if not entirely,a response to the transformation of the term“Hindu” from its original connotation as non-Muslim inhabitants of India, to the master signifierof a specifically religious identity embodied by the

420 Singh Sabha/Reform Movements

entity “Hinduism.”What made this transformationthreatening for the Sikhs was that it providedHindus with a form of identification not only atthe provincial level (where they alreadyoutnumbered Sikhs) but at the pan-continentallevel, effectively making India synonymous with“Hindu” and “Hinduism”. [3]

Accordingly the Singh Sabha’s main activitiesfocused on reviving an authentic Sikh conscious-ness on the Tat Khalsa model. Much of theiractivity took place over a period of about50 years between the 1870s and 1920s. In theearly phase between the 1870s and late 1890sthe collective energies of some of the key reform-ist figures (such as Gurmukh Singh, Giani DittSingh, Mohan Singh Vaid, Bhagat LakhshmanSingh, Giani Hazara Singh, Kahn SinghNabha, and Bhai Vir Singh) were focused on:(i) redefining popular rituals and practices anddistinguishing “Sikh” from “Hindu” or Muslimpractices and redefining an authentic Sikh praxisbased on the Khalsa initiation and codes of con-duct and (ii) setting up schools and colleges intowns and villages. Through the creative use ofprint media including tract publications and news-papers such as Gurmukhi Akhbar (Punjabi) andThe Khalsa (English), these new leaders of theSingh Sabha were able to evolve a general con-sensus about the authentic nature of Sikh identity.They all agreed that the source of authentic Sikhiwas the early Sikh tradition, specifically theperiod of the Sikh Gurus and immediately after.This tradition was embodied in authoritative Sikhliteratures such as the Adi Granth, the composi-tions of Guru Gobind Singh (in the DasamGranth), the works of Bhai Gurdas, selectedjanamsakhis, the Gurbilas literature, and theRahitnamas. Practices deemed un-Sikh includedthe worship of idols, the worship of superstitiouscults such as Sakhi Sarvar, Gugga Pir and Hindudeities, their incarnations, marriage ceremoniesconducted according to Vedic rites and officiatedby a Brahmin. Authentic Sikh practice meantreceiving Khalsa initiation, the adoption of the5 K’s and the names “Singh” or “Kaur.” More

importantly, Sikh rites of birth, death, and espe-cially marriage came to acquire great importance.Sikh parents were encouraged to send their chil-dren to Khalsa schools where the teaching ofPunjabi and Gurmukhi was compulsory. [3, 6, 7]

Having been educated in Anglo-Vernacularmission schools, the Singh Sabha reformers wereaware, however, that the success of such an exten-sive program of social reform depended on theirability to create a systematic corpus of literaturethat could provide doctrinal and historical ele-ments necessary to persuade an increasingly liter-ate Sikh populace. Central to this endeavour wasthe ability to interpret the meaning of Sikh scrip-ture. True, there already existed a tradition ofscriptural exegesis. [6, 8] However, a great dealof this material had been influenced by Brahman-ical philosophy that helped to sustain the conser-vative culture of the “Sanatan Sikhs.” TheNirmala and Udasi schools had risen to promi-nence primarily because of the Khalsa’s preoccu-pation with the quest for political power in thelast decades of the eighteenth and early nineteenthcenturies. Udasi and Nirmala scholars were rou-tinely patronized by Sanatan Sikhs, the Sikhnobility or were employed as granthis atGurdwaras. From the Singh Sabha perspective,the Udasis and Nirmalas interpretated Sikhscripture from within a Brahmanic frameworkmaking it easy for the Arya Samajis to claimSikhi as a reformed Hindu sect. Thus, the effortsto renew the understanding of Sikh scripture andto recapture the original spirit of the Sikh Gurus’teaching became a cornerstone of their mission.This effort was conceived as a long-term projectwhose outcome would be the publication ofa detailed series of commentaries on Sikh scrip-ture. [3, 6]

Although the Singh Sabha scholars wrote andpublished mainly in their native Punjabi language,there were some important collaborations withBritish Indologists that led to publications inEnglish. The most important of these was thesix-volume study of Sikh history and scriptureby Max Arthur Macauliffe published in 1909 by

�Earlier versions of this entry have appeared in Arvind-PalSingh Mandair (2009). Religion and the Specter of theWest. NewYork: Columbia and Arvind-Pal SinghMandair(2013). Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed. London:Bloomsbury.

Singh Sabha/Reform Movements 421

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the Clarendon Press. Unlike Trumpp, Macauliffeopted to disperse translated hymns from Sikhscripture within traditional narratives of the livesof the Sikh Gurus. Working closely with KahnSingh Nabha and other Sikh gianis in the 1890s,Macauliffe’s expressed aim was to controvertTrumpp’s main charge that Sikhi was a mere pan-theism and to reinstall it within the history ofreligions as an indigenous monotheism of India.But as Macauliffe himself admitted, even thoughhis narrative faithfully mirrored the views of hisSikh reformist collaborators, the conceptual ter-minology of his critique of Trumppwas ultimatelyconditioned by the very schema used by his prede-cessor. No one, wrote Macauliffe, “has succeededin logically dissociating theism from pantheism,”thereby suggesting that the moment when Sikhscripture is translated into a European language,must coexist in a terrain where all talk of religionor of God is automatically routed through catego-ries of (Christian) philosophical theology. Thus, theonly difference between Macauliffe and Trumpp’stranslations was the position that each attributed toSikhism in the evolution of religions, which forMacauliffe was a fully-fledged theism, and forTrumpp a pantheism or amoral atheism.Macauliffe’s translation helped the reformists tosatisfy their desire – denied by Trumpp – to provea sufficiently exalted idea of God in the Sikh scrip-tures. For reformist intellectuals, ultimate fulfill-ment of this desire could only be attained byproving that such an idea of God already existedwithin their own scripture and in its native lan-guage. [3, 6, 8]

By the middle of the twentieth century, Sikhintellectuals had begun to produce theologicalmaterial which took works such as ThomasAquinas’ Summa Theologica as a model. Thesenew exegetical works packaged the essence ofSikh thought (gurmat) into a creedal form that:(i) provided in native Punjabi a very succinctaccess to a schema that could be reproducedwith equal facility by Sikhs writing in Punjabi orEnglish; (ii) by doing so it armed Sikh publicists,literary figures and preachers with an accessible

creed that could be rapidly deployed to combatother creeds (Hindu, Muslim, Christian); and (iii)it provided a way for later generations of Sikhscholars, especially those writing in English, tomaterialize a “Sikh world view,” and on the basisof this “world view” to locate itself within thediscourse of “world religions.” Indeed, it wouldbe safe to suggest that this corpus of reformistpublications was instrumental in transforming anamorphous Sikhi into the more concrete,boundarified entity that we today call Sikhism.[3–6, 8] Once this partly imagined, partly realentity Sikhism had come into view, it was possibleto reformulate a Sikh code of ethics and conduct.However, this document was not ratified by theSikh community until 1951 when the official SikhCode of Conduct or Sikh Rahitmaryada waspublished. With the publication and ratificationof the Sikh Rahitmaryada, the Sikhs finally hada document that spelled out its core “Beliefs andPractices” and outlined its “world-view.” Itrepresented the culmination of almost sevendecades of work by Singh Sabha scholars. Themonumental intellectual achievements of SinghSabha period are essential to understanding Sikh-ism, the formation which the modern Sikh tradi-tion takes in the twentieth century, partly becauseit used the bimodality of translation to speakthe language of the discourse of “religion” atonce to the British colonial rulers as well as tothe Sikh masses.�

Cross-References

▶Khalsa▶ Sikhi▶ Sikhism

422 Singh Sabhas

References

1. Ashok SS (1974) Panjab dian Lahiran. Punjabi Univer-sity, Patiala

2. Fox R (1985) Lions of the Punjab: culture in themaking. University of California Press, Berkeley

3. Mandair A (2009) Religion and the specter of the west:Sikhism, India, postcoloniality, and the politics of trans-lation. Columbia University, New York

4. Mandair A (2013) Sikhism a guide for the perplexed.Bloomsbury, London

5. Mir F (2010) The social space of language: vernacularculture in British colonial Punjab. University ofCalifornia Press, Berkeley

6. Oberoi H (1993) The construction of religious bound-aries: culture, identity, and diversity in the Sikhtradition. Chicago University Press, Chicago

7. Singh G (1973) The Singh Sabha and other socio-religious reform movements in the Punjab. PunjabiUniversity, Patiala

8. Van der Linden B (2008) Moral languages from colo-nial Punjab: the Singh Sabha, the Arya Samaj, and theAhmadiyyas. Manohar, Delhi

Singh Sabhas

▶Orientalism (Sikhism)

Snana

▶ Samskara (Sikhism)

Sri Akal Takht Sahib

▶Blue Star (Operation)

Sri Darbar Sahib

▶Blue Star (Operation)

Sri Harmandir Sahib

▶Blue Star (Operation)

Supna

▶Dreams (Sikhism)

Syllogism

▶Logic (Sikhism)

Symbols

▶ Symbols (Sikhism)

Symbols (Sikhism)

Jasjit SinghDepartment of Theology and Religious Studies,University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

Synonyms

Sikhism; Symbols

Definition

The importance of symbols in the Sikh tradition.

Main Text

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, theterm “symbol” has its roots in the Greek sumbolonmeaning mark or token and the Latin symbolummeaning sign, creed, or religious belief. Indeed,the Latin symbolum was originally used by Chris-tians to denote the Apostle’s creed (SymbolumApostolorum), a statement used to distinguishChristians from non-Christians. While symbolsare now used to describe a wide variety of objectsincluding fashion labels, company logos, and

Symbols (Sikhism) 423

mathematical concepts, the origin of the term“symbol” as a marker of distinction between reli-gious groups continues to be relevant today. Thisdiscussion will firstly focus on how symbols areused in the Sikh identity to distinguish Sikhs fromother groups, before moving on to examine howsymbols are used in Sikh iconography.

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Symbols and Sikh Identity

No matter what their family background or per-sonal level of religious adherence, Sikhs of allages learn that they were given their externalidentity on the harvest festival day of Vaisakhi in1699 by the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.([1], p. 51) According to Sikh tradition on thisoccasion, the Guru gathered his Sikhs togetherand asked for five volunteers who would be will-ing to give their lives for their faith. The Guru theninitiated these five into the Khalsa or the “com-munity of the pure” by bestowing them withAmrit, the “nectar of immortality,” which is pre-pared by stirring sweets into water while recitingfive compositions from Sikh scripture. These fiveinitiates became known as the Panj Pyare, or “fivebeloved ones,” and were instructed by the Guru toadopt five outwardly symbols known as the fiveKs, because the Punjabi name for each itembegins with the letter “K”:

• Kesh (uncut hair)• Kangha (comb)• Kachcha (cotton breeches)• Kirpan (sword)• Kara (steel or iron wristband)

These five symbols are now gifted to any Sikhwho undergoes initiation and joins the Khalsa,with those doing so becoming known asAmritdhari or “those who have taken Amrit”Sikhs. Although all five symbols are of equalimportance, it is the Kesh or uncut hair which isoften regarded as the main symbol of the Sikhfaith ([2], p. 39) given that many noninitiatedSikhs also keep the long hair and turban and areknown as Kesdhari or “those who keep hair”Sikhs. Although both Kesdhari and Amritdhari

Sikhs may have the same external appearance,the distinction is that Amritdhari Sikhs havemade a conscious decision to undergo initiationand have been specifically instructed to wear allfive Ks at all times.

Amritdhari Sikhs are instructed to keep theirhair uncut and tidy using the Kangha, or smallwooden comb. As with all symbols, the meaningwhich a symbol is given depends very much onthe particular social context in which the symbolevolved. Consequently, the way in which Sikhsmanage their hair must be understood in the con-text of hair symbolism in seventeenth-centuryPunjab. The long hair, controlled by the Kangha,and tied in a topknot represents discipline andholiness and is distinct from the shaven head ofthe Hindu, the cut hair of the Muslim, and theuncontrolled hair of the yogi. ([3], p. 27) Thisidea of “disciplined holiness” runs through all ofthe five Ks with the Kachcha, a loose-fittingboxer-short-styled garment representing theimportance of living a faithful householder’s lifeand of always being ready for engagement on thebattlefield, whether this be an actual battlefield inseventeenth-century Punjab or a metaphoricalinternal battle with one’s vices. Many scholarsargue that this garment was developed in responseto the dhoti, a piece of clothing worn by thegeneral populous which took the form of a longpiece of cloth usually wrapped around thewearer’s body which was uncontrolled and notsuited for horse riding. ([1], p. 53)

Sikhs often describe theKara or iron wristbandwhich is worn on the right or left arm dependingon the laterality of the individual as a “handcuff tothe Guru” which acts as a reminder to the wearerto ensure that all deeds performed are deeds whichthe Guru would approve of. Some scholars notethat the Kara may have originated as protectionfor the sword arm, as well as being a weapon initself. Nevertheless, for many Sikhs the Kara’scircular shape also acts as a reminder of the infin-ity of the Divine and reminds the wearer to behumble, given that the Kara is usually made ofiron or steel, metals not usually viewed as beingostentatious. Indeed, although the Kara is oftendescribed as a bangle, it is important to note that itis not a piece of jewelry, a fact used in a legal case

Symbols (Sikhism), Fig. 1 The Ik Onkar symbol

424 Symbols (Sikhism)

in the UK [4] in which a school lost its casebanning a Sikh girl from wearing her Kara toschool.

Although the martial aspects of the Kirpan, thesword, are obvious, this symbol is often describedas being a reminder to Khalsa Sikhs to always beprepared to fight against oppression and for therights of the poor and weak. The word Kirpan isoften explained as having derived from the Pun-jabi word Kirpa, meaning gift, highlighting thatthe Kirpan is to only be used as a gift and neverimposed. Sikhs living in the Diaspora have regu-larly had to fight for the right to wear the Kirpanand have spent time and resources to educate non-Sikhs that it is only Amritdhari Sikhs who areallowed to wear the Kirpan.

It is clear therefore that the five Ks would havedistinguished early Amritdhari Sikhs from the restof society in which they lived. Indeed, Sikh tradi-tion notes the development of these symbols in thecontext of the martyrdom of the ninth Sikh Guru,Guru Tegh Bahadur. The tenth Guru, GuruGobind Singh, noted that few Sikhs had beenbrave enough to come forward and claim thehead and body of his father and therefore soughtto ensure that Sikhs would always stand out ina crowd consequently providing them witha distinct identity through the five Ks.

Although the five Ks are an important part ofthe Sikh identity, the fact that estimates regardingthe number of Amritdharis in the Sikh populationrange at around 15 % ([5], p. xxviii) has meantthat many more Sikhs wear the turban than thefive Ks. Consequently given its historical status inIndian society as a marker of respect, it is theturban which has become most linked withSikhs. Although the turban has traditionally beenviewed as being mandatory for Sikh men, andoptional for Sikh women, some Sikh groups arechallenging this status by prescribing the turban asmandatory for both genders. For the AkhandKirtani Jatha, the Keski (a small turban) ispresented as being one of the five Ks in place oftheKeshwhich they also maintain. Similarly, Sikhwomen belonging to the “Sikh Dharma of theWestern Hemisphere” sport white turbans liketheir male counterparts, and those who followthe code of conduct prescribed by Damdami

Taksal are also instructed that the Guru’s com-mand is for both men and women to wear turbans.([6], p. 212)

The fact that Sikhs sport these external sym-bols has meant that wherever they settle in largenumbers, they soon begin to assert for the right towear these symbols, usually beginning withrequests to wear the turban and then moving onto the Kara and Kirpan. The success with whichSikhs manage to negotiate the wearing of thesesymbols is dependent on a number of factorsincluding the relationship between religion andthe state as demonstrated in the case of the UKwhere there has been a historical relationshipbetween the Sikhs and the British through thecolonial encounter. As Sikhs continue to settleall over the world, this struggle to wear thesesymbols will continue, being as they are, themainstays of the Sikh identity.

Sikh Iconography

In terms of iconography, two symbols above allothers are regularly used in Sikh worship andpractice, the Ik Onkar symbol and the Khandasymbol. Both are found in Sikh Gurdwaras andhomes and are regularly used on clothing, books,and other memorabilia related to Sikhism.

Ik OnkarSee Fig. 1

The “Ik Onkar” symbol appears at the verystart of the Guru Granth Sahib and is part of theMool Mantar or “root statement” of the Sikhs.Although Ik Onkar is often translated as “Thereis one God,” many translators are beginning to

Symbols (Sikhism) 425

challenge this Semitic understanding of monothe-ism as belief in one God in favor of Guru Nanak’sidea of a universal oneness of creation. ([1], p. 23)

The Ik Onkar symbol itself is made up of twoparts, the number one, or Ik in Punjabi ( ), andthe symbol Onkar ( ) which represents theultimate reality. Using the number one empha-sizes the completeness of Onkar and that Onkaris single, unique, and absolute. This emphasis ononeness must again be considered in context ofthe presentation of the predominant tradition ofHinduism as a polytheistic tradition further dem-onstrating the use of symbols to differentiate onetradition against another.

The KhandaSee Fig. 2

The roots of the other regularly used symbol ofSikhism, the Khanda, are not as clear as those ofIk Onkar. What is known, however, is that thissymbol constitutes two swords, a quoit anda central double-edged sword, also known asa Khanda. Today, the Khanda is a key symbol ofSikhism and is found on the Nishan Sahib, thebright orange flag which is flown outside mostSikh Gurdwaras.

The four constituent parts of the Khanda eachhave their own meaning, contributing to the widermeaning of the Khanda symbol. The two curved

Symbols (Sikhism), Fig. 2 The Khanda symbol

swords symbolize the concept of Miri/Piria concept introduced by the sixth Guru of theSikhs, Guru Hargobind. Guru Hargobind used towear two swords symbolizing spiritual authority(Piri) and temporal authority (Miri) emphasizingthe importance of personal and societal responsi-bility. The central quoit, like theKara, symbolizesthe oneness of the Divine as does the Khanda, thecentral double-edged sword, which is also usedto stir the water when preparing Amrit for the Sikhinitiation ceremony.

Conclusion

It is clear that symbols play an important rolewithin Sikhism both at an individual level andalso for adherents to the faith as a whole. As hasbeen demonstrated, it is important to understandthe context in which symbols developed in orderto fully understand their evolution, with both thesymbols in the Sikh identity and those compris-ing Sikh iconography having developed in thecontext of the practices of the main other tradi-tions of the time, Hinduism and Islam. In thisregard the importance of understanding symbolscannot be underestimated as it is the symbols ofa religious tradition which are often used as themain markers of distinction between themselvesand others.

S

Cross-References

▶Amritdhari▶Hargobind (Guru)

References

1. Nesbitt E (2005) Sikhism: a very short introduction.Oxford University Press, Oxford

2. Singh G (2000) Importance of hair and turban. In:Singh M (ed) Sikh forms and symbols. Manohar,New Delhi, pp 39–44

3. Olivelle P (1998) Hair and society: social significanceof hair in south Asian traditions. In: Hiltebeitel A,Miller BD (eds) Hair: its power and meaning inAsian cultures. SUNY Press, New York, pp 11–49

426 Synthesis

4. Lipsett Anthea (2008) Sikh schoolgirl wins banglecourt case. Guardian, Tuesday 29 July 2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jul/29/schools.religion. Accessed 27 May 2011

5. McLeod WH (2009) The A to Z of Sikhism. Scare-crow Press, Lanham

6. Singh J (2010) Head first: young British Sikhs, hair,and the turban. J Contemp Relig 25(2):203–220

7. Hiltebeitel A, Miller BD (eds) (1998) Hair: its powerandmeaning in Asian cultures. SUNYPress, NewYork

8. Singh H (ed) (1996) The encyclopaedia of Sikhism,vol 2. Punjabi University, Patiala

9. Mohinder S (2000) Sikh forms and symbols. Manohar,Delhi

10. Peter S (2005) Symbol and symbolism. In: JonesL (ed) Encyclopedia of religions, 2nd edn. Macmillan,New York

Synthesis

▶Logic (Sikhism)