Chapter 7

 

Questioning the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan & the Bravery of Sikhs

 

 

 

Walking in the footsteps of McLeod, Jakobsh plunges ahead and questions both Guru Arjan’s martyrdom and the bravery of Sikhs. While it is clear to me that her motives are to distort Sikhism at every opportunity she gets, she fails to explain the relevance of Guru Arjan’s martyrdom to her thesis. Without doubt she talks about “martyrdom” of which she has minimal understanding. Reading her book leaves me with little doubt that she has very minimal understanding of AGGS, Sikh history, Sikh traditions and the Punjabi folklore:

 

According to Sikh traditional sources, this culminated in Emperor Jahangir’s order to kill Guru Arjan in 1606 while he was in custody in Lahore. McLeod has questioned the element of martyrdom that has been attached to Arjan’s death, given its obscurity within the available sources. According to McLeod, all that is known for certain is that Guru Arjan died while imprisoned by the Mughals.¹

 

Does Jakobsh understand the meaning of “martyrdom” as enunciated in the AGGS? Does she know why the Mughals arrested Guru Arjan? Does she know what crime he was charged with? At least, she admits that the Mughals killed Guru Arjan. It is well-known that during the Muslim rule, non-Muslims who received capital punishment, were given the choice of escaping death by embracing Islam, which Guru Arjan spurned and he willingly died for his faith. So Guru Arjan died the death of a martyr because his example fits the simplest definition of a martyr: “anyone who dies for his/her faith.”

 

We know that from the very beginning, the Sikh movement was opposed to tyranny imposed by both the Hindu caste system and the Muslim rulers. Therefore, the concept of martyrdom is inherent in the Nanakian philosophy, as opposition to tyranny requires extreme sacrifices. Guru Nanak exhorted people to join his movement with a clear message that his path requires supreme sacrifice:

If you want to play the game of love (follow the righteous path) then follow me and be prepared to make supreme sacrifices. Once you step on this path, do not hesitate to offer your head.

AGGS, M, 1, p. 1412.

The above proclamation is central to the Sikh Movement¾the basis of Miri-Piri (temporal and spiritual sovereignty) and the evolution of the noble Khalsa Order. Only a moral person, a gurmukh, can be a mir-pir/Khalsa.

Guru Nanak denounced the oppression of bigoted Muslim rulers and their administrators in no uncertain terms and declared his allegiance only to God:

The rulers are like hungry lions and their officials as wild dogs, who harass and persecute the innocent subjects.

AGGS, M 1, p. 1288.

The man-eater (Muslim ruler) performs Namaz (Muslim prayer). The one who carves out the flesh for him wears the sacred thread around his neck (Khatri). The Brahman blows the conch in the Khatri’s house to sanctify his doings. The Brahman also shares the ill-gotten bread of the Khatri.

AGGS, M 1, p. 471.

There is no other king except the Almighty.

AGGS, M 1, p. 936.

There is one Throne and one King.

AGGS, M 1, p. 1188.

Guru Nanak also makes the distinction between physical death, which is inevitable and spiritual death, which is avoidable. One should not mourn physical death; rather one should mourn the spiritual death:

It is Hukam (Cosmic Law, Divine Law) which causes birth and death, or birth and death occur according to Hukam.

AGGS, M 1, p. 472.

Further it is Haumai that causes spiritual death. Haumai and its progeny of five drives/instincts: Kam (lust, sexual drive), Kroadh (anger), Lobh (covetousness, economic drive), Moh (attachment) and Ahankar (pride with arrogance) are responsible for the corruption of morals and the development of criminal behavior. Behind all human problems and sufferings¾from individual problems to bloody international conflicts is the invisible hand of Haumai and the five elements. That is why the Gurus warn us again and again not to yield to the pressure/temptations of Kam, Kroadh, Lobh, Moh and Ahankar. The Gurus advised us to live a life of restraint and modesty. One who fights against the deleterious influence of Haumai and the five passions and keeps them under control is a gurmukh, a real warrior, and a hero according to Nanakian philosophy. A gurmukh does not waiver from the path of righteousness as he/she has conquered the fear of physical death. Guru Nanak has elaborated on this theme in his hymns:

Even if I were to live under blood-sucking rulers, I will love and glorify God and would never get tired of doing so.

AGGS, M 1, p. 142.

In other words a gurmukh never deviates from the path of righteousness under any circumstances. Such a person is a true warrior and his/her death is celebrated:

Hey people! Do not regard death as bad if it is the death of “self”¾subdual of Haumain. It is justified to call a person a warrior/martyr who accepts such a death. Those are warriors/martyrs, who earn respect in the court of Truth.

AGGS, M 1, pp. 579-580.

Neither a gurmukh worries about death nor longs for worldly life.

AGGS, M 1, p. 20.

If one accepts dishonourable life then all efforts to subsist are inconsequential.

AGGS, M 1, p. 142.

Guru Nanak defied the restrictions that Muslim rulers imposed on the demoralized Hindus, and his successors echoed and amplified what Nanak had said earlier by calling for the establishment of just and benevolent rule:

First die to self (subdue Haumai), do not long for worldly life, treat all with utmost humility and, then follow me (righteous path).

AGGS, M 5, p. 1102.

What could these helpless kings do, whom could they harm? “O the Giver of comforts, please protect us all, as the world belongs to You,” prays Nanak.

AGGS, M 5, p. 1211.

 

“Whom the Guru puts on the path of righteousness becomes fearless,” says Nanak.

AGGS M 5, p. 211.

 

Not the slightest harm comes to those whom God protects.

AGGS, M 5, p. 218.

“Listen! O my mind,” says Nanak, “A wise person neither frightens anyone, nor is afraid of anyone.”

AGGS, M 9, p. 1427.

All are partners in God’s commonwealth and God does not look at anyone as a stranger.

AGGS, M 5, p. 97.

Enmity to none, nor we consider anyone stranger, getting along with all is our creed.

AGGS, M 5, p. 1299.

 

Now the Benevolent One has decreed that no one would be persecuted. All would live happily in peace under the Halemi Raj (rule of benevolence).

AGGS, M 5, p. 74.

After in-depth study of Guru Ram Das’ hymns, Professor Hans² makes a keen and remarkable observation when he says: “Thus, even in the times of Guru Ram Das the martyrdom of the Sikh Guru was in the air” and Professor Grewal³ elaborates on it further:

 

The Sikh Panth was a state within the Mughal empire at the death of Akbar, but a state that had its opponents and enemies whose presence was continuously felt by the successors of Guru Nanak. The enemies were becoming more numerous, and their intrigues were on the increase. … Akbar’s catholicity could protect the Gurus and their followers against open violence, but it could not obviate the nefarious designs of their enemies. … Within eight months of Akbar’s death in October 1605, Guru Arjan died the death of a martyr at the end of May 1606, tortured by the new emperor’s underlings at Lahore.³

It appears, while commenting on the bravery of “Mai Bhago” Jakobsh suffers from a bout of delusion:

“As a woman, it could only be upon the suppression of her sexuality, in her exchange of female for male attire that Mai Bhago could continue as an acceptable member of Guru’s retinue.”⁴

What an absurd and ludicrous statement! Don’t men and women in modern armed forces have similar uniforms? Do these women suppress their femininity or become lesser of women in Jakobsh’s estimation? What about women who wear trousers like men? Are they hiding/suppressing their femininity to survive in a male dominated world? In Mai Bhago’s time the attire of the Khalsa was the most practical military uniform, so how did she suppress her sexuality by wearing the Khalsa attire? Jakobsh! Does dress really determine a person’s sexuality?

Further, she says:

Another fascinating aspect of this incident is the understanding that Mai Bhago taunted the deserting males. As Louis Fenech has pointed out in his study of the taunt in Sikh tales of heroism and martyrdom, women’s taunt was often accompanied or replaced by the giving of a glass bangle to a male, churian paunian. The purpose of the bangle or taunt was to present that particular male as effeminate. According to Fenech (1996: 183):

In essence such displays demonstrate that male has been deprived of the force and vigour with which he is characteristically associated in Punjabi culture. He is in other words emasculated. … Within Punjabi culture referring to men as women, particularly by women, is a grave insult and is meant to persuade the male to demonstrate the contrary.⁵

Now, in which patriarchal culture are men not taunted as effeminate when they fail to perform their tasks? In the West, the taunt is “wear skirts” whereas in India it is “wear bangles.” But what “taunts” have to do with Sikh martyrdom or heroism? Sikhs inherited these taunts from their Hindu, Muslim and Sultani-Hindu ancestors. Furthermore, most Sikhs about whom Jakobsh and Fenech are talking were either first or second generation Sikhs, who were barely one percent of the Punjab population during the period of 1680s to 1780s. The other remarkable thing about them is that the overwhelming majority of them exited the Sudra or untouchable ranks. There is no evidence in Indian history that these taunts inspired either Hindus or Muslims to take up arms against the tyrannical Muslim rulers or the invaders from Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia or the dehumanizing caste system. Small bands of invaders from central Asia and Afghanistan carved out fiefdoms throughout the Indian landscape culminating in the Mughal Empire. And later, Europeans who came as traders colonized the Indian subcontinent and put up signs: ”Indians and dogs are not allowed.” It seems these taunts did not stir the virility of Indians? Only scholars like Fenech nurtured in the hare-brained environment of McLeodian “Western methodology of historical research” could dig up the “historical truth” that Sikh heroes and martyrs were inspired by “feminine taunts”! How irrational can one be!

 

 

References

 

1. Doris R. Jakobsh. Relocating Gender In Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning and Identity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 36.

2. Surjit Hans. A Reconstruction Of Sikh History From Sikh Literature. Jalandhar: ABS Publications, 1988, p. 111.

3. J. S. Grewal. The Sikh Of The Punjab. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 60-61.

4. Doris R. Jakobsh. Relocating Gender In Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning and Identity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 48-49.
5. Ibid., p. 49.     

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