A Window To Perceptive Journalism

Why Are Scriptures Burning
 In The Land Of The Gurus?

S P Singh

The Adi Granth is like the holy water of the Ganga. Everybody man or woman, rich and poor, high and low, Brahman or Shudra, white and black people can have a dip without any restriction. The Ganga water washes dirt, cools body and refreshes mind. Similarly, the Adi Granth purifies heart stimulates mind and animates soul. (R)epository of many languages…the Adi Granth is indeed the greatest work of Panjabi literature.

-- Hari Ram Gupta, Author of the five-volume seminal work History of the Sikhs

Why, then has Punjab been witnessing incidents of burning of Guru Granth Sahib, every now and then? And though earlier, most such incidents were found to be the handiwork of some miscreants, the latest has led to a feeling of rage across the board as those responsible are said to be followers of a living "Guru".

Sikhism, per se not only does not recognise the concept of a living Guru but abhors the practice vehemently. The recent spate of protests across Punjab following the incident involving  followers of one such self-proclaimed Guru, Baba Pyara Singh Bhaniarawale, who torched a volume of sacred Sikh text Guru Granth Sahib, denotes the community's strong opinion against the living guru's concept but points out at the same time the direction that parametres of popular religiousity have taken in recent times.

The Sikh sacred text the Guru Granth Sahib, is so named as it implies a confession of faith in the scripture as Guru. "As the manifest body of the Guru it carries the same status and authority as did the ten Gurus from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh and has become the symbol of ultimate sanctity for the Sikh community," says Pashaura Singh, assistant professor of Sikh Studies at the University of Michigan in his latest work "The Guru Granth Sahib: Canon, Meaning and Authority".

Obviously, then, it is easy to understand the sense of rage felt by Sikhs all over Punjab at the burning of a volume of Guru Granth Sahib by followers of Baba Bhaniarewale in Morinda last week. The burning of the Sikh canon of course was in reaction to an earlier incident in Ludhiana wherein some Sikhs had forcibly taken possession of a voluminous granth penned by the Baba and had burnt it in front of a gurdwara in a posh area.

What do incidents like these signify?

Occurring in the same year when the country is set to observe the 400 years of parkash utsav (installation) of Guru Granth Sahib, the query has foxed many a religious leaders and sociologists.

Baba Bhaniarawale, born a Sikh, was excommunicated from the Sikhism fold by the Akal Takht sometime back, but had retorted saying it was meaningless since he was not a Sikh. When his followers, a large numbers of whom are Sikhs, started encountering the problem of being refused a bir of Guru Granth Sahib for akhand path (non-stop ritualistic recitation), and brought the problem before Baba last year, he took the simplest way out: write his own parallel granth.

Thus was written the controversial 2704-page Amarbani Bhavsagar Granth. Complete with pictures of many a political leader and senior officials greeting the Baba, the granth is largely a harangue about Baba's divine powers. It is not very different from the stuff that Baba narrates at the gatherings in Ropar and Ludhiana, two main places where he has considerable following.

"I was here last night, but then I was also near Jagraon where there was a big fire and I had to douse it out lest any harm comes to my follower. Another day, while I was present here before you, I was actually trying to save a buffalo from falling into a ditch. That's how I received these bruises," Baba told a gathering, at Dhamiana village in Ropar where his dera is located a couple of years ago.  His sermon hasn't changed much in substance since those days.

So when Akal Takht jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti gave a call to the Sikhs not to have any ties with the Baba and thus formalised a formal schism between his followers and the Sikh community,  obviously parallels were drawn between the development and the community's earlier experience vis-à-vis the Nirankaris in the late seventies and the early eighties.

The Nirankari Guru, Baba Gurbachan Singh, had also authored and backed compositions like Yug Purush and Avtar bani which had raised the hackles of radical Sikhs at that time, and evetually led to a clash between Sikhs and Nirankaris on the Biasakhi Day of 1978 and later to assassination of Baba Gurbachan Singh himself.

Some time earlier, there were suddenly voices raised against the Namdhari sect which does not recognise Guru Granth Sahib as a Guru. Community leaders have often been voicing opposition against sects like Radha Soami, headquartered in Beas near Amritsar but well-entrenched in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, of the basis that they propagate the concept of a living Guru and thus misrepresent the Sikh scriptures. Radha Soami sect followers draw heavily of Sikh scriptures, and also rever Guru Granth Sahib.

"The problem arises due to the fact that Sikh scholars and preachers have failed over the decades to reach the common people. As always in transitional societies, people needed someone or something tangible to take their problems to, and thus was created the social space for one or the other self-styled guru to establish his hold," said Surinder Jodhka, a sociologist from Panjab University who has done considerable field work in the state. 

He said unlike what putitan Sikh scholars or the SGPC shenanigans would like to believe, the scene of popular religiousity in Punjab has witnessed the profusion of many a 'holy' men coming up as babas or gurus and commanding a committed following."Naturally, the established Sikh religious establishment sees it as a threat, and a threat it very much is," he said, adding however that since any escalation of the problem does not suit the political interests of the ruling allaince of Akalis and BJP, the state apparatus would be able to control it soon.

But then such troubles should be seen as symptoms of a larger malaise and not the disease itself. Jodhka said if dera of Baba Vadbhag Singh or that of Sacha Sauda Baba Virsa Singh in Sirsa were drawing large followings, there are lessons therein for SGPC and the Sikh scholars and priests to learn.

"Obviously, people are not connecting with the bureaucratised way of gurdwaras' functioning and the role of the SGPC. The SGPC style of exclusivist Sikh religious practices is also only working to the advantage of self-proclaimed Babas as living gurus," said a senior Sikh religious affairs expert who did not wish to be quoted.

Jodhka said though not much field work has been done so far to explore the notions and trends in popular religiousity in Punjab, it would be interesting to note that whatever body of work available points to significant success of local holy men. "Apparently they provide some type of psychological counselling which people in transition societies need. Also thrown in is some social reform mumbo-jumbo coupled with faith-healing practices and a lingo of miracles, all of course tempered with a good selling technique."

And as long as followers are buying, such gurus will be there. But will the SGPC and the Sikh scholars learn their lessons and analyse why gullible masses flock to these gurus or will they simply mouth demands for arrest of one such Baba?■

October, 2001

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