Chapter 2

 

Women in Sikh History

 

 

 

“Yet if women and men are inherently equal in Sikh tradition in terms of roles and status, why are they not given similar representation in the pages of Sikh history?”¹

 

 

Jakobsh has raised a valid and pertinent question, which requires an equally valid answer. To begin with, a historian must study the environment that shaped the history of Sikhs. The history of any people is the product of the influences of the environment. The following factors must be considered:

 

(1)   Sikhs are descendants of Hindus, Muslims and Sultani-Hindus, the latter being the predominant component.

 

(2) The Sikh movement developed in a very corrosive patriarchal culture, as a product of Hindu patriarchal values, super-imposed by Muslim patriarchal values.

 

(3) The impact of oppression of bigoted Muslim rulers coupled with equally oppressive and dehumanizing impact of the caste system on the Sikh movement. So it is not difficult to imagine what would have been the reaction of Indian society towards “open involvement of women in the Sikh movement.”

 

(4) Due to the notion of “woman as the family honor” and the heightened concern for their safety, women sought the safety of their homes or places where their menfolks were around.

 

(5) In the 500 years of Sikh history, there is less than 100 years of Sikh rule when the Sikhs did not face religious persecution. Even in India after 1947 the Hindu Government led by Jawaharlal Nehru declared Sikhs as Hindus in the Indian Constitution and imposed Hindu code on them. It is rather intriguing that McLeod, Oberoi and Jakobsh had made no mention of this fact in their writings on Sikhism. 

 

(6) If the Sikh Gurus thought that recording history was that important, they could have written it themselves or had it written by someone else, just as the compilation of AGGS by Guru Arjan who employed Bhai Gurdas as amanuensis! Further if they thought that additional manuals were needed as moral instructions for the Sikhs, they would have written those too. The authentic teachings of Gurus are enshrined in the AGGS, but other than their teachings (Gurmat) there is scant personal reference to them and their activities. However, there is a laudatory mention of Guru Angad’s wife, Mata (mother) Khivi for her excellent management of Langar (community kitchen) and dedicated service to the Sangat (Sikh congregation):

 

Hey Balvand, Khivi was a great lady who provided comfort to the congregation like a dense shady tree. She served sumptuous food in the Langar¾pudding made with butter that tasted like nectar. Like her husband (Guru Angad), who succeeded to the house of Guru Nanak as his successor, she too worked very hard with great dedication. Mata (mother) Khivi and her husband were praised for taking upon their shoulders the enormous responsibility of Guru Nanak’s mission.

AGGS, Balvand and Satta, p. 967.

 

Not withstanding the absence of their names in Sikh history, it is amply clear that Gurus’ mothers, wives, sisters and daughters were active participants in the Sikh movement. For example, Guru Hargobind and Guru Gobind Singh were very young when they assumed Guruship after the execution of their respective fathers by the Muslim rulers and Guru Har Krishan was a mere child of five when he took over as Guru after the death of his father. What was the major influence on these Gurus at that very critical period in Sikh history when the Sikh movement was under attack not only from the Muslin rulers, but more so from other dangerous foes, the schismatic groups and the defenders of the caste ideology? The answer, of course, is the influence of their mothers: Mata Ganga, Mata Gujri and Mata Krishan Kaur, respectively.

 

Further, it was Mata Sundri (Jito)--wife of Guru Gobind Singh--who guided the Sikh community through a very difficult period of external repression and internal divisions after her husband’s death -- about forty years (1708-1747 C.E.), longer than any of the nine Gurus subsequent to Guru Nanak.² Guru Amar Das’ daughter, Bibi Bhani, according to Sikh tradition, was the one who selected her groom herself, Guru Ram Das. She was very active in the affairs of the community during her father and her husband’s Guruship. Women headed some of the twenty-two manjis (dioceses) set up by Guru Amar Das. And what about those Sikh mothers, wives and sisters who sent their sons, husband and brothers to join the Khalsa forces when it meant sure death to become a Khalsa?³ And many who suffered innumerable hardships, and torture in jails and saw their own little ones being cut into pieces before their very own eyes by the enemy who wanted to frighten them to relinquish the budding faith and convert to Islam! The Sikhs remember those brave women of unsurpassed fortitude, collectively in the daily prayer:

 

 

And those women who remained steadfast in upholding their faith, while their children were cut into small pieces and made into necklaces to put around their necks.

Ardas (Sikh congregational prayer).

 

There were many women who fought side by side with men, against the Mughal armies and foreign invaders. Hundreds of women fighters were killed during the small and big Ghaloogharas (holocausts) in 1746 C.E. and 1762 C.E., respectively. It is true that not much is known about them like most of the men who laid down their lives fighting against the forces of tyranny: Mughal rule, foreign invaders and the proponents of caste ideology. It was not only the lonely “Mai Bhago,” many other Sikh women also joined the Khalsa ranks:

 

In the period of guerrilla warfare, Sikh women were imprisoned and subjected to hard labour, but they did not forsake their faith. Sada Kaur the wife of Gurbakhash Singh ruled the area, which was under the control of Kannahya Misal. She led her armies in battle and Ranjit Singh owed his success, in his initial struggle for supremacy against the rival Misals, in no small measure to her political acumen and military help. Ahmed Shah Batalvi has given more instances where women took a leading part in political and military activities of the Misals. Rani Rajinder Kaur was one of the most remarkable women of age. She possessed all the virtues which men pretend their own¾courage, perseverance and sagacity. Sahib Kaur was made the Chief Minister of Patiala in 1793. She refused to leave the battle when pressed by the Marathas near Ambala and with a drawn sword rallied troops to repulse the enemy.

 

Similarly, Aus Kaur was placed at the head of the administration of Patiala and she conducted the affairs of that state with conspicuous success. George Thomas writes in his memoirs ‘Instances indeed have not infrequently occurred in which they (Sikh women) had actually taken up arms to defend their habitation, from the desultory attacks of the enemy, and throughout the contest behaved themselves with an intrepidity of spirit, highly praiseworthy.’⁴

 

Reverend C. F. Andrews (1871-1940) was shocked by the atrocities committed on peaceful Sikh protesters by the British administrators and their henchmen when he visited Guru-ka-Bagh morcha site (Guru-Ka-Bagh is name of the place; morcha means agitation) in September 1922. He admired the Sikhs (Akalis) for their patient suffering without any sign of fear. He declared the peaceful Sikh struggle against the British as a “new lesson in moral warfare.”⁵ “Being fully aware of severest beating of Sikh volunteers, Sikh mothers, wives and sisters came forward with great enthusiasm to send off their loved ones to face the oppressors,” writes Ruchi Ram Sahni:

 

Many Sikh mothers, wives and sisters garlanded their sons, husbands and brothers and gave them a loving send-off to Jaito. A mother whose eldest son had fallen in the first Shahidi Jatha, garlanded her second son for the second Shahidi Jatha and said to him, “Dear son, fight the battle of your Panth and bless your mother with the heroic sacrifices.”⁶

 

What Jakobsh considers “Sikh history” is literature like janam-sakhis, Bansavlinama, Gurbilas Patshahi 6, Gurbilas Daswin Patshahi, Rahitnamas and Dasam Granth! This plethora of spurious literature was written by: schismatic groups, detractors and other opponents of Nanakian philosophy like the ascetic orders of Udasis and Nirmalas. There may have been some works by Sikhs that were interpolated later on! Why would any scholar undermine her/his own research by using this spurious information? Jakobsh needs to reflect upon this question!

 

 

 

 

References

 

1. Doris R. Jakobsh. Relocating Gender In Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning and Identity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 8.

2. Ibid., pp. 10-11.

3. Gokul C. Narang. Transformation Of Sikhism. New Delhi: New Book Society of India, 5th edition, 1960, p. 128: Ali-ud-Din, Ibrat Namah:

 

Mir Mannu asadi datari asi Mannu de soe,

            Jyon, jyon Mannu wadhada, gharin gharin asi hoe.

 

            We are the crop and Mannu the sickle,

            The more he cuts us,

            The more we grow,

             In every house and hamlet.

4. Jagjit Singh. The Sikh Revolution: A Perspective View. New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 4th reprint, 1998, pp. 134-35.

5. J. S. Grewal. The Sikhs Of The Punjab. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 161.

6. Ruchi R. Sahni. Struggle For Freedom In Sikh Shrines (Ganda Singh, Ed.). Amritsar: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Un-dated, p. 229.

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