Impact of Sikhism on Indian Society

Two factors helped the growth of nationalism in India; foundation of the Khalsa in the late seventeenth century and the influence of Western system of education introduced by the English during forties of nineteenth century. Both have their distinct contribution to the transformation of Indian society.

Sikhism released the soul of people from superstitions. Once the human mind becomes free it endeavours to break all shackles of social domination, political indiscrimination and economic exploitation. The new order in fact marked the growth of nationalism in India. For the first time people forgot their castes, felt a sense of brotherhood, realised their obligation towards society, repelled the external aggression and forged themselves into a disciplined society. Upto then who-so-ever had invaded India from north-west trampled this land easily, ransacked religious places, dishonoured women and humiliated her people. But after foundation of the Khalsa the tide turned its course. Not only the foreign aggression was beaten , but the Indians re-established their supremacy upto Peshawar. Sikh soldiers became proverbial for bravery and self-restraint. People in the Punjab enjoyed themselves religious equality, political stability and economic security under the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1799-1839) for the first time after centuries of foreign domination.

The growth of nationalism in Bengal took place under very peculiar and unexpected conditions. Macaulay introduced the English system of education in India to produce English-knowing cheap Indian clerks. But the Bengali young men, who got a chance to go to England for education, found themselves quite isolated on return. The English and Anglo-Indian communities did not like to mix with them for demonstrating their superiority. There own families were still so steeped into orthodoxy, that these young men taught according to liberal Western traditions, felt ill-at-ease in their own homes. Anglo-Bengali clubs were formed for assimilating the best both in the Eastern and Western cultures. These young men were fired with a zeal to develop their country to the Western levels. They played a creditable role in arousing national consciousness in India.

Education in English lacked one vital aspect with which Sikhism is blessed. The former produced people suitable for white-­collar jobs only who looked down upon manual work. Sikhism sanctifies labour. Guru Gobind Singh refused to accept water from the hands of a devotee who happened to be the only son of rich parents and had never an occasion to do any work because a host of servants kept hovering around him. The Guru said that he would not accept anything from a hand that had not served another. This small story with a big lesson explains as to why every Sikh is hardworking, adventurous and large-hearted. As the Bengali youngmen taught on Western lines did not learn the worth of manual work, the new awakening did not prove correspondingly beneficial for them. Their collective lot instead of getting bettered kept disrupting.

The comparative prosperity in Punjab is due to the healthy influence of Sikhism, which holds that work complements worship. Compared with the eastern provinces in India, Punjab suffers from many handicaps. It is quite deficient in mineral resources like coal and iron, which are essential for the growth of Industry. It is situated far from the sea, the nearness of which helps in expansion of trade. The monsoons almost get squeezed while they reach Punjab. All these natural and climatic factors had been quite adverse to the progress of agriculture and development of industry. But the love for work, instilled into people by Sikhism, has raised this once trampled and trodden province to quite a prosperous and virile state of India.

Natural calamities and political upheavals have failed to demoralise people of Punjab. No sear of the holocaust of partition is visible anywhere. Though more than four million people got uprooted in 1947 and a greater part of fertile lands fell to the share of West Pakistan, yet in a brief period of twenty years, Punjab again became the granary of India by 1966. No dislocated person took to begging. There is no field of national activity in which Punjab may not be in the vanguard.

It was people of Punjab who kept the head of India high during the Indo-Pak conflict of 1965. Every Punjabi child, woman and man proved true to the Sikh tradition:

“He who chooses the lover’s role
must also choose to walk through death” (Guru Arjan Dev)

When a Sikh prays, he does not seek blessings for himself alone, but entreats for the welfare of all. This lends him the magnanimity of mind and imparts him also universal outlook. This is the reason that Punjabis get acclimatized at all places and among all people. They suffer the least from the pernicious feelings like provincialism, regionalism and linguism. This tradition goes to a story associated with the birth of Gobind Rai. It is said that a Muslim saint, Sayad Bhikhan Shah, observed a strange celestial light when the Guru was born. He bowed and said:

‘God hath sent a new light on this earth’.

He followed the direction of light to see the holy face. He took two covered jars with him, one filled with milk and the other with water, arguing with himself that if the babe would touch the former, he would regard it as the partisan of Muslims and, if the latter, that of Hindus. But the babe to his surprise laid his hands on both. The Sayad exclaimed:

‘Blessed, blessed art thou, Oh master of both,
this country needed thee more than anyone else’.

Every Sikh heart throbs with this secular universality. Every Sikh child is brought up to the tradition of Bhai Kanihya, who was reported to Guru Gobind Singh as serving water to the fallen in the battle, irrespective of friend and foe. When the Guru asked him as to why he was offering water to the wounded of enemy even, he replied:

‘Since you have taught me to make no distinction
between man and man, I do not see amongst the wounded any but you’.

Sikh philosophy is secular as well as socialist. When it became a political force all the religions were extended an equal respect. The Guru preached:

‘Men are the same all over though
each has a different appearance’.

The secular life has been spiritualised under the impact of Sikhism. It gives the message of full life, enjoining upon the same person to be a saint, a scholar, a statesman, a merchant, a warrior, a tiller of soil, worker in a factory and along with the performer of menial duties.

The sanctity imparted to honest labour corroborates the socialist doctrine that he who does not work shall not eat. The injunction:

“He who only earns, but does not share,
he who only gathers joy but does not sacrifice,
he who runs after the transitory allurements of life,
but is not dedicated to God for ever and at all times,
cannot claim the Guru as his own”

both socialises and spiritualises the worldly life.

Guru Gobind Singh, son of a martyr, laid at the altar of the Supreme not himself, but all his sons, and who-so-ever called him his very own. Through supreme sacrifice, defying the call of blood; he raised bravery to new heights. Knowing fully well the hazards and risks of career in army, every Sikh family sends with pride its young into the armed forces, as it knows that no sacrifice is too big for the defence and honour of motherland. They believe in the prayer of thanks giving offered by Guru Gopind Singh, when his two elder sons, Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh fell fighting valiantly before his eyes: ‘Lord, I have surrendered to thee what was thine alone.’

These are some of the qualities of Sikhism, which made Pandit Madan Mohan Malavia observe that one member of each Hindu family must embrace Sikhism.