No community like the Sikhs

Farmers slated to hold a panchayat in Delhi next week will largely comprise the Sikhs who baffle with their relentless quest to bend the governmentrsquos will unmindful of the price they might have to pay In the previous yearlong struggle as many as 700 protesting farmers died They stand up not only for their interests but also for othersmdashwhen Article 370 was abrogated largescale protests broke out in Punjab with participants holding placards that declared ldquoOur pain is shared our enemy is sharedrdquoFour months later the Sikhs of Punjab took to the streets again to protest and empathise with Muslims over the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 They need not have as the Act is beneficial to Sikh citizens of the neighbouring countries Last year anger at the plight of Kuki women in Manipur was expressed widely in Punjab Wish more Sikhs were in other states than areIn contrast to the trend of appropriating mosques Punjab has seen according to its Waqf Board 429 new mosques built and old ones repaired in the last two years Among all states Punjab has the highest population of Dalitsmdash34 per centmdashyet after excluding the Northeast states it was the fifth lowest on the 2022 chart of cases filed under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocity Act Uttar Pradesh tops with 12287 cases Punjab clocked 112The 1984 antiSikh pogrom did not spawn retaliatory riots in Punjab To appreciate this recall how the death of kar sevaks in a train set afire triggered the 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat Yes Sikh militants killed Hindus in the 1980s and 1990s but they targeted Sikhs as well gunning down even Rajinder Kaur daughter of Master Tara Singh the proponent of Khalistan During those decades the State too lsquoencounteredrsquo Sikhs on the suspicion of being Khalistan supporters Farmers and communists took on the Khalistanis as Monday Blues narrated in the midday edition of January 18 2021The Partition riots seemingly contradict the idea of Sikh restraint But the riots in Punjab cannot be compared to those elsewhere in the country for the killings there were because of the tacit alliance between Master Tara Singh and the rulers of princely states They not only supplied the formerrsquos supporters with arms ammunition and vehicles but also deployed their own armies to exterminate Muslims says Bleeding Punjab Warns a 1947 report of Dhanwantri and P C Joshi both communistsldquoThe princes of these stateshellipwere finding that the popular movement for freedom and democracy washellipa threat to their autocracy and privilegesrdquo Dhanwantri and Joshi explain Their view academic Ian Copland endorses in The Master and The Maharajas Yet in 1947 Malerkotla was not attacked because its then Muslim nawab was believed to have opposed Aurangzebrsquos killing of Guru Gobind Singhrsquos two youngest sonsThe Sikhrsquos fearlessness sense of sacrifice and empathy can be traced to their cultural tradition Ponder over what Guru Nanak the founder of Sikhism said ldquoIf you want to play the game of lovethen step onto My Path with your head on the palm of your handhelliprdquo True love for the Divine requires the readiness to die It was thus that Guru Arjan Dev courted martyrdom rather than convert to Islam as Mughal emperor Jahangir demandedAcademic Navdeep Mandair defines martyrdom as a ldquosacrificial death for a socially just causerdquo It was indeed a just cause when Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was challenged by Guru Tegh Bahadur to convert him to Islam before compelling the Pandits of Kashmir to do so Before Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded he said ldquoThe truly enlightened onesAre those who neither incite fear in othersNor fear anyone themselvesrdquoThis can be the motto of our fraught times a motto subliminally guiding the Sikhsrsquo political conduct There exists the concept of Miri Piri the two swords Guru Hargobind would wear with Miri signifying the temporal power and Piri the spiritual power This Sikh tradition obligates the Sikhs to ldquoact politically and justly as an aspect of religious practicerdquo writes Mandair All the examples I have cited above meet the yardstick of Miri PiriGuru Gobind Singh whose four sons courted martyrdom evolved the concept of Ardas or special prayer in which a person takes the vow that she would complete hisher mission or die Ardas institutionalises the idea of sacrificial death for a just cause Here is a 20th century examplemdashin order to liberate the Nankana Sahib gurdwara from corrupt mahant Narain Das Bhai Lachhman Dharowali led a band of 130 volunteers in February 1921 there He was told that Das was waiting for him with 400 armed mercenaries Bhai Lachhman did not retreat for he had offered Ardas Unarmed he and his followers were mowed down The refusal of farmers to withdraw the 202021 movement without victory is linked to the idea underlying ArdasAmong my friends there are some who depressed over the politics of hate sweeping the Hindi heartland remark that to keep intact their sanity they should shift to Tamil Nadu or Kerala I tell them that Irsquod rather go to Punjab to live among the Sikhs for no community in India is like theirsThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper