Excommunication of Haryana Sikhs HSGMC is a political rather than a religious issue: Jasdev Singh Rai!!!! THE recent edicts by the Jathedar of Akal Takht excommunicating three Sikhs of Haryana have not met with much appreciation from Sikhs around the world. Most Sikh institutions respect the sovereignty and sanctity of Akal Takht. They refrain from outright criticism of decisions by the Jathedars. The current decision is causing concern and some are breaking their silence. In fact, there have been calls for the Jathedar to leave this most esteemed of Sikh positions and allow the Panth to select another Jathedar. Generally, Sikhs feel that the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) is a political rather than a religious issue. Whether it forms or not does not impact the wider Sikh community anymore than the Delhi Gurdwara Committee does. Sikh unity is neither strengthened nor weakened by the formation of new management bodies. It only affects the reach of the SGPC and its leadership. The SGPC is a regional body that has assumed greater powers and assumed greater importance than permitted by the Gurdwara Act 1925. What does affect the unity or disunity of the Sikhs is the conduct of the Jathedar and the method of anointment of a Jathedar. The Sikhs are united by Guru Granth Sahib, rehat maryada and the ability of the Akal Takht Jathedar to keep the diversity of Sikh opinions within one large family or the Panth. The views of Sikhs do not have to be the same. The principles they derive from, however, need to have similar foundations. For instance, the style of the turban can vary from a Damala to a Patiala Shahi Dastar. But the principle of maintaining unshorn hair and covering the head with a form of dastar is not contested. And there are many other basic principles that Akal Takhts Jathedar has to ensure are maintained within limits of the principles agreed by the Panth. What the Jathedar does not have is the powers equivalent of the Catholic Pope. The Sikhs do not believe that he is endowed with special divine powers over others nor do they accept that supreme authority of sovereignty is vested in the Jathedar. That privilege is of the wider Panth guided by Guru Granth Sahib, the principle of Guru Granth-Guru Panth and expressed through Akal Takht. It is this which seems to be amiss in the current process of operation at Akal Takht. The appointment of the Jathedar is not arrived at by consensus of the worldwide Panth. He is installed there by the SGPC despite the fact that it has no legal authority to do so. In fact, the SGPC compromises the secular Constitution of India by enthroning a Jathedar. It needs to be appreciated that the SGPC is a management committee instituted under an Act of Parliament and therefore a statutory body of the state, bound by both the powers and the limits of the secular state. Under Article 26, the state can interfere in the secular aspects of a religion such as management of finances, appointments of office holders etc. However, the state cannot appoint someone to interpret religion, make religious decisions and so on. More than the SGPC, it is the Indian state that has to answer the question: Why has one of its statutory bodies gone beyond the permissible remit granted by the Constitution? That the Sikhs have allowed the SGPC to appoint Jathedars without challenging its self-assumed role is another matter. The Gurdwara Act permits the SGPC to appoint the Head Granthi (minister) at Akal Takht but not the Jathedar, whose role in Sikhism is not as a minister or granthi. The issue at hand now is both about the way the Jathedar appears to be making decisions and the method of selecting the Jathedar. In any other institution with this extent of power, of being able to affect the very identity of a person, there is a due process necessitating a procedure through a series of steps. Even the President of India or the Chief Justice of India does not enjoy the arbitrary power that the Jathedar has assumed. The President cannot one morning decide without the advice of his/her Cabinet that someone is to be deprived of their citizenship and that the country is to divide or annex another one. There is a process. There are rules. There are advisers. There are legal requirements to be met. If the President dismisses all of these, it is unlikely that the President will remain in office for more than 24 hours. The Jathedar has to follow the principles laid down by the Gurus. The Jathedar has to justify his/her decisions to the Panth and those decisions need the widest support of the worldwide Sikh Panth. The SGPC is only one part of that Panth. There are Sikhs in other states of India and Sikhs across the world who have as much at stake as the SGPC and its immediate leadership in the office of the Jathedar. The edicts of Akal Takht affect Sikhs across the world. The SGPC at best represents the Sikhs in Punjab, not all of India, let alone the world. It is time that the process of decision-making at Akal Takht is institutionalised and a due process through a body of competent advisers is set up with the approval of worldwide Sikhs (not just SGPC). It is also time the process of selecting and enthroning a Jathedar was handed back to the worldwide Panth. An independent body selected across the world needs to take this in hand and call for a worldwide consensus on a figure. Then Akal Takhts Jathedar will command the respect of the entire Sikh community instead of having to shoot off threats of excommunications. It is ironic that the Sikhs were the first body of people in South Asia who had an institutionalised democratic process in the institution of Sarbat Khalsa, and the Sikhs are the ones who seemed to have permitted it to be abandoned. The principle of Sarbat Khalsa means consensus across the worldwide Sikh community through their representatives. It is a process that needs to be revived or these Jathedars imposed upon the Panth will cause further frictions within the community. The Sikhs can weather the setting up of a Haryana committee even if the Akali Dal may not, but they may not be able to remain united if decisions by the Jathedars are taken in secret and appear to be of arbitrary nature, giving suspicions of political bias. It is time the Government of India realised that one of its statutory bodies has exceeded the powers permissible under the Constitution. It is a violation of the Constitution. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to have an ethical government, this is one of the abuses of office that can be rectified by the current government. Let the Sikhs, not the SGPC, decide who the Jathedar should be and what process of decision-making should be instituted. — The writer was an adviser to a former Jathedar of Akal Takht, Director of the Sikh Human Rights Group and was on the UK Governments Faith Communities Consultative Council
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 10:07:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015