Who would like to see Unity in Sikhs? Could we have a show of hands?
And who would like to see Equality in Sikhs? Again could we have a show of hands?
Thank you.
It’s obvious that we all want unity in Sikhs.
It seems that we all say that we like to have equality in Sikhs but seriously do we really care or care enough to do something about it? Aren’t we blinded to the fact that without equality there is no unity?
Working towards caste free Sikh society.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
My name is Jagjeet Singh
Thanks for being here for the conference regarding this extremely important and burning issue of caste division in our Sikh society.
If we were to be true to the teachings of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the concept of Panj Pyara bestowed by Sri Guru Govind Singh Ji on the day of Vasakhi in 1699, this divisive cancerous caste system is directly contradictory to that, and a direct, challenge to Guru Ji.
Guruji’s demand for five Heads wasn’t some kind of drama or an excuse to look different with a long beard and to wear 5ks. It was to infuse equality in Sikhs – the followers of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s faith that started 230 years prior to the Vasakhi of 1699.
It was the equality that Guru Ji could not compromise when the rich so called higher caste kings aka Pahardi Rajas wanted special concessions to maintain their status quo. At least those Rajas were honest enough to put their pre conditions to the Amritpan and Guru Ji would not accept any of those pre conditions.
Where as we accepted the Amritpan but weren’t honest enough to follow the principles. And when we got back home the first thing we compromised was the equality – the whole purpose on which the Amritpan of Panj Pyara in 1699 was based. As it goes against the cliché we kept the bath water but threw the baby out.
Very quickly we became familiar with the Bana (the outer appearance) but we could not grasp the Bani – the philosophy – behind the symbolic beheading and then rebirth of Panj Pyara in 1699. It was the completion of the new beginning. The house of universal Sikh faith was already mapped out by Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and completed by other Gurus and the Amritpan of Panj Pyara in 1699 were the final touch to choose the type of people to live in the house of Sikh faith. Only if we had understood what Guru Ji intended, we would not be crying out as we are for unity and strength, it would have happened by itself.
I am sorry to say that, to this day, our forefathers have let us down on equality - the most fundamental aspect of Sikhism, by practising caste system; we in turn are passing on the castes to our children. And so it will carry on.
The funny thing is that according to the traditional Hindu belief, of the four main divisions, of Brahmins the highest, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the lowest Shudras, the ninety nine percent of the Sikhs belong to the lowest division. Guru Ji wanted us to rise above all that to become the beacon, to the whole, humanity. Basically we let Guru Ji down, big time; in turn we let ourselves down. We broke Guru Ji’s trust.
It’s no good denying that the caste divisions don’t exist in Sikhs. It’s no good kidding ourselves that castes are not divisive and problematic. It’s no good coating these castes with sugary names and reasons such as tradition, culture, heritage, race, identity, clan, brotherhood, lineage, our forefathers’ surnames, trade or work names or we only use castes for marriages purpose etc. If it sounds, looks and kicks like a donkey, don’t kid yourself, it is a donkey not something else.
For example can you imagine this scenario in the present time that some one working for the Post Office may get called postman or postie by name but in this day and age, no one in their right mind would say that this person belongs to the postman or postie caste and from now their children and grand children would be known as postmen or posties and their children would only marry with children from other posties. Doesn’t this sound so silly, something that we Sikhs have been practising all along? Why just stop there; the teachers’ kids can only marry with other teachers’ kids. The cleaners’ kids can only marry into cleaners’ kids. The doctors’ kids may only marry other doctors’ kids. The list can go on.
The marriage is, the attractive, powerful force which unites the communities and it has direct consequence for the well being of society in all aspects – be it social, economical, political, and spiritual; where as we are using this attractive, powerful force as a repelling force to exclude each other with in the Sikhs themselves. In some cases a disturbing trend is emerging, where some families would rather give preference to non-Sikhs over Sikhs from other castes if their sons and daughters are unable to find a suitable partner with in their own caste. Reluctantly when, we do agree to have intercaste marriages, which bring its own problems and give credence to castes in Sikhs; we still remain lumbered with castes.
While, we are persisting with this nonsense of divisive and segregating caste ridden baggage, we have the cheek to talk about Panth unity. It’s a shameful, state of affair. Caste discrimination is akin to racism. Never mind the caste discrimination even the terms caste or intercaste shouldn’t exist in Sikhs, period. The moment we start talking about lower castes and higher castes in Sikhs, the plot is lost, you might as well pack up your bags and go home and forget about sikhi. This way of mistreating fellow human beings is considered so odious that the caste discrimination law is being considered by Westminster
When are we going to learn to follow the teachings of our Gurus? Why are we even talking about Panth unity, when we don’t have equality, the most fundamental aspect of guru’s teachings and the building block for any unity?
This self delusion has been going on for, far too long and it has been extremely damaging to the Sikh religion. Now, some communities are even accusing the Sikh Gurus of embracing and practising casteism. Are we going to sit back and accept that? The answer will be yes if we carry on the way we are and don’t bring about changes to ourselves, but the answer should be no. We have to take a step back to the basics and to the purpose of Vasakhi of 1699.
The four pillars for Gursikhs, not just for Gursikhs but for the whole humanity based on Sri Guru Grnath Sahib Ji are Equality, Humility, Seva (selfless service) and Simran (meditation). Think of it, if we don’t have equality, we don’t have humility, if we don’t have the first two, according to the Gurbani, our seva and simran are just a façade.
We have to wake up to undo the wrong doings before everything is lost. It’s time for a, renovation, clean sweep, clean start; no amount of covering up the cracks will do, no amount of white wash will do. It has to be a clean restart. We have to go back to 1699 when the Panj Pyara were first blessed by Guru Ji with new life, a new name and a new identity. They were equal then.
Unfortunately, our historians, researchers and our preachers did not take too long to unravel their pasts and previous castes of Panj Pyara. The whole purpose of Amritpan was lost. They are not equal now. The Sikhs never understood or practiced equality. The Sikhs never got beyond Langar and Pangat and the name Singh for namesake. Sikhs have even managed to build Gurudwaras on caste lines. It was the golden opportunity missed in the history of Sikhs to have equality among the people of India
Those who have seen the film Matrix would know that, this is our Matrix. We all are entangled in this web of matrix known as caste, a world of false pretence. We all need to get out of our comfort zones and put aside our personal gains and narrow mindedness for the greater goodness of Sikh society. As our Guru Jis did before, the time has come once again for us to challenge the non - gurmat conventions. We have to change back to the basics of 1699 for a better future. Otherwise without change, don’t expect any change.
What we are proposing now and demanding is a Caste Free Sikh Society to be established for the sole purpose of eradicating castes in Sikhs. It will be non political and non partisan. The idea of caste free Sikh society would only appeal to those people who genuinely care about Sikh unity, and are passionate and visionary enough to see the greater role that Sikhism can play in the world. And how are we going to do this?
Once again based on the principle of 1699 we need five Heads and many more, (before you start dialling 999 on your mobiles), this time with Guru Ji’s grace we just need five Surnames (not five heads) and many more, to be replaced with words from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and other relevant Gurmat Scripts, and some people may like to have just Singh or Kaur as their surname, that is fine too, as long as it is their official surname. This radical idea is not new; this is going back to 1699 when we were given a new name and a new identity by Guru Ji.
Since the surnames have become the cursors for castes, there will be no surnames to link up with castes and if asked which caste you belong to, the answer would be I belong to the caste free Sikh Society. I am Gursikh, not a jaati Sikh. Either you are a caste free Sikh according to the Gurbani and Amritpan or you are something else with caste. The choice is yours. When the five hundred years of Gurbani and three hundred years of Amritpan could not make us see sense in the virtue of equality and humility, no amount of education is going to make any difference to our egos. No wonder why droves of people are drifting away from Sikhism to other Sects and Dhedhari gurus and then we have the cheek to blame outside forces. Some people even say that not many people are going to follow the practical path of equality, and then those people shouldn’t complain and expect everyone to follow their agendas. We need to put our house in order first before start complaining about other peoples’ houses. Let us rearrange ourselves from bottom up so that we can follow the law of nature and have a horse pulling the cart, not the other way around.
How can some people say that change of name is not practical? When the women can demonstrate this every day by giving up their father’s surname in order to have union of husband and wife, why can’t we do this to create unity and oneness in Sikhs and follow the Guru Ji’s path of equality? I’ll let you in, on a secret! Apparently some Sikh preachers, the leaders and the people in public positions have been using pseudo names or just Singh or Kaur for their own self interest, in public and on stages, so that they can get support and money from everyone but they also keep their surnames and castes when dealing in private. Where as with the members of the caste free Sikh society, their private and public dealings would be caste free? The members would not reveal to anyone or announce to the world their caste or surname as if, it never existed. Read the Rahetnamas, that was what, Guru Ji wanted us to do.
The membership of the caste free Sikh society is open to any Sikh; in fact it is open to any one in the world provided they meet the following conditions:
1) Believe in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, as the one and the only supreme Guru.
2) Believe in Panj Pyara of 1699 and the only means of baptism of Sikhs through Panj Pyara.
3) Follow Gurmat (Guru’s Teachings).
4) Change of Surname by Change of Name Deed Poll.
5) Singh/Kaur has to be either middle name with gurmat surname as described above or as an official surname.
This is how our commitment will be judged on this mission. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. We’ll be requesting every Gurudwaras to have Change of Name Deed Poll in place before any Amritpan and have an acceptance of Change of Name by Deed Poll as one of the conditions to the Sikh seeking Amrit.
As it has been said above, the membership of caste free Sikh society is open to all – be it Amritdhari or Sahejdhari; otherwise we are in danger of excluding and enraging millions of Sikhs around the world. The job of caste free Sikh society would be to unite the Sikhs rather than further fragment the Sikhs.
We are not going to wait for any leader to emerge; we are going to take the lead ourselves.
If you would like to see, equality in Sikhs, which would lead to the unity in Sikhs; once again could we have show of hands in support?
Thank you
Any questions please?
What we had before was a task group organising, working towards caste free Sikh society conference, with some people who are fully committed to the cause and the idea, whereas the others are playing a supportive role. We want everyone in here to be a part of this in one way or the other.
What we want now is the first five people and many more in here to come forward and be counted, give your name and a commitment so that together we can move this mission forward. Have courage and Sri Guru Govind Singh Ji will give us strength to succeed in this mission. The mission is to have a caste free Sikh society where equality is the norm for all not exception.
Thanks to everyone for making this conference possible.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.
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