With the an­nual mark­ing of Guru Gob­ind Singh’s birth an­niver­sary in Jan­u­ary, a few Sikhs, swoop down on the com­mu­nity in per­son, through writ­ings and so­cial me­dia to cre­ate a fuss and com­mo­tion over dates, se­man­tic is­sues fol­lowed by name-call­ing and mud­sling­ing against those who do not toe “their line”.  Jagdeesh Singh calls for a mora­to­rium on these is­sues and urges the com­mu­nity to fo­cus on real mes­sage of the Gu­rus and com­mu­nity is­sues.

Step­ping back from the ar­gu­ments and con­tentions, just like with other is­sues like Raag-Mala, Dasam Granth, Panj Kakkaars, Mis­sion­ary ver­sus Tak­sali: I be­lieve any in­tel­li­gent and rea­son­able minded Sikh, can see that these are largely pon­tif­i­cat­ing, point­less and dis­trac­tionary dis­putes.

Al­most ar­ti­fi­cial, and sus­pi­ciously pro­jected into the Pan­jaabi-main­stream; whereas no at­ten­tion is be­ing paid to much more tan­gi­ble and deeper life-af­fect­ing is­sues like ris­ing sui­cides, brain drain and flight of youth from the Pun­jab. Deep in­roads by sus­pi­ciously in­tru­sive and con­ver­sion­ist Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies into the lives of poor Sikhs, en­trenched and en­dur­ing caste op­pres­sion, con­tin­u­ing fe­male abuse, al­co­hol and drugs cri­sis, men­tal health break-down and more.

“Fuss­ing over an ar­ray of dates, and other such se­man­tics, how­ever pas­sion­ate and seem­ingly well-mean­ing it may ap­pear to be; does not ac­tu­ally add any­thing to the much more crit­i­cal sub­jects of our cur­rent cri­sis as a state­less, dis-em­pow­ered peo­ple; riven with un­de­mo­c­ra­tic and fraud­u­lent prac­tices in our com­mu­nity and na­tion build­ing key in­sti­tu­tions.”

If only there was such pas­sion and en­ergy di­rected into these tan­gi­ble, day-to-day mat­ters! The dis­pro­por­tion­ate en­ergy spent on di­ver­sion­ary squab­bles, is a di­rect de­vi­a­tion from the much more im­por­tant and rel­e­vant ob­jec­tives of mean­ing­ful Sikh de­vel­op­ment and Sikh in­ter­nal de­mo­c­ra­tic re­form. Of cleans­ing out sys­temic cor­rup­tion and mal­prac­tices in our Gur­d­wara mis­gov­er­nance. Of lib­er­at­ing and re-es­tab­lish­ing Sikh in­sti­tu­tions on an in­de­pen­dent and eth­i­cal foot­ing. Of pro­mot­ing and pro­fil­ing Sikhs and Sikhism on an in­ter­na­tional level. Of ad­dress­ing lin­ger­ing un­just prac­tices of caste and fe­male dis­crim­i­na­tion among our com­mu­nity. And, not the least, the restora­tion of a se­cure sov­er­eign ter­ri­to­r­ial space for Sikhs and wider Pan­jaabis in the form of an in­de­pen­dent Pan­jaab state. 

Fuss­ing over an ar­ray of dates, and other such se­man­tics, how­ever pas­sion­ate and seem­ingly well-mean­ing it may ap­pear to be; does not ac­tu­ally add any­thing to the much more crit­i­cal sub­jects of our cur­rent cri­sis as a state­less, dis­em­pow­ered peo­ple; riven with un­de­mo­c­ra­tic and fraud­u­lent prac­tices in our com­mu­nity and na­tion build­ing key in­sti­tu­tions.

Our per­va­sive self-de­struc­tive caste di­vi­sions, our dis­con­nect with the Gu­rus value sys­tems and prac­tices of eth­i­cal gain­ful work –Kirt Ka­mai, car­ing and shar­ing –Vand ke Chakkna, and men­tal mo­ti­va­tion from the one com­pre­hen­sive source –Naam Japna :  are to­day our bane.

The pur­pose of ‘cel­e­brat­ing’ the birth­days of the Gu­rus or any key events in the lives of the Gu­rus, is much more than mo­men­tary ‘cel­e­bra­tions’ and in­stant ‘wor­ship’ by go­ing to the Gur­d­wara, bow­ing our heads and eat­ing lots of lux­u­ri­ous lan­gar food.

Key an­niver­saries and events in our glo­ri­ous and rich his­tory should be used to re­fresh our­selves in­di­vid­u­ally and col­lec­tively about our place in this earthly world, our cur­rent po­si­tion in the global power sys­tem, our role as in­di­vid­ual hu­mans, our ethics and du­ties as in­spired by the Gu­rus and our end­less past and pre­sent mar­tyrs –Sha­heeds.

Our in­ter­de­pen­dence as a peo­ple. Our fel­low­ship and com­mu­nity with each other. Our shared his­tory. Our cur­rent stand­ing in Pan­jaab and the wider world. Our in­ter­nal prob­lems and de­fects in our fam­ily lives. Our Gur­d­waras. Our state­less­ness and acute lack of recog­ni­tion on a global level. Our dire dis­con­nect with global me­dia and global out­reach.

Big minds and hearts think widely and glob­ally! Petty minds feed on pet­ti­ness and triv­i­al­ity.  Our his­tory bears tes­ti­mony to the fact that Sikhs have a big heart and great minds. We must use that buoy­ant strength and fo­cus to not al­low our­selves to be dis­tracted and dis­si­pated by those cre­at­ing con­fu­sion and spread­ing ha­tred on im­ma­te­r­ial is­sues.

The cen­tral dri­ving force of our very be­ing as a peo­ple is the core in­spi­ra­tion given to us by the Ten Gu­rus.  We are meant to be an eth­i­cal and in­spired na­tion, dri­ven by a core pur­pose in mak­ing the world within us and around us a bet­ter place. The Gu­rus brought to Pan­jaab an un­equaled, com­pre­hen­sive re­ju­ve­na­tion of our hu­man­ity.

This was based on eth­i­cal codes of thought and ac­tion; man­i­fest in our Das­taar –the ever vis­i­ble kingly tur­ban, our Kir­pan –the sword of jus­tice and pro­tec­tion, our vi­brant nat­ural shape and form, our pas­sion­ate strug­gles, our yearn­ing for hu­man rights and self-de­ter­mi­na­tion for us and all peo­ples alike -‘Sar­bat da bha­la’, our Gur­d­waras –cen­tres of ex­cel­lence for grass-root com­mu­nity in­ter­ac­tion and par­tic­i­pa­tion, our over-arch­ing and all-in­clu­sive Lan­gar sys­tem –an all em­brac­ing model of so­ci­etal car­ing and shar­ing;  our evoca­tive and pro­found straight-for­ward earthly Sikh phi­los­o­phy of life.

“It would be won­der­ful if we stop spend­ing such waste­ful ef­fort and en­ergy as we do on se­man­tics and ar­gu­ments.   Dur­ing this en­tire year of 2019, let us take the 550th an­niver­sary of the first true king, Guru Nanak, and com­mit to re-awak­en­ing, strength­en­ing and spread­ing the great joy and in­spi­ra­tion of Sikhi within our­selves and with fel­low hu­mankind through daily acts of Sikhi-in­spired kind­ness, equal­ity and jus­tice!”

To­day the Pan­jaabi soul, Pan­jaabi lan­guage, Pan­jaabi in­dige­nous cul­ture, Pan­jaabi iden­tity, Pan­jaabi peo­ple­hood fights and strug­gles for its rights, in­de­pen­dence and sov­er­eignty be­cause of the Sikhi sub­stance in­jected into its blood­stream by the Gu­rus. The Gu­rus em­braced our in­dige­nous Pan­jaabi qual­i­ties of com­mu­nity, courage, pas­sion, warmth and more, and forged us into a vi­brant na­tion of egal­i­tar­ian, saintly-brave­hearts –Sant Siphahi.  

So when we think about the an­niver­saries, birth­days, crit­i­cal defin­ing events in our phe­nom­e­nal his­tory; let us make them daily in­spi­ra­tions to pro­pel us into ac­tion, in what­ever form we can! Let’s not treat them as a by­gone past, to be left to writ­ten his­tory! Let’s feel and ap­ply the mean­ing and pur­pose of those oc­ca­sions into our pre­sent mov­ing lives, in­di­vid­u­ally and as a col­lec­tive peo­ple.

The Gu­rus em­braced our in­dige­nous Pan­jaabi qual­i­ties of com­mu­nity, courage, pas­sion, warmth and more, and forged us into a vi­brant na­tion of egal­i­tar­ian, saintly-brave­hearts -Sant Siphahi.  

The Pan­jaabi peo­ple gifted with Khaalsa qual­i­ties were never in­tended to be­come a mass of pas­sive wor­ship­pers in re­li­gious build­ings. They were to be a vi­brant, self-re­liant, mov­ing, chang­ing peo­ple; de­vel­op­ing their lives, coun­try and shar­ing their qual­i­ties with the world and em­brac­ing the good that the world had to given in re­turn. Let us be that great vi­sion that our Gu­rus had for us and from our con­tin­u­ous line of mar­tyrs –Sha­heeds, who have given their heart and soul to forge our road on­wards!

It would be won­der­ful if we stop spend­ing such waste­ful ef­fort and en­ergy as we do on se­man­tics and ar­gu­ments.   Dur­ing this en­tire year of 2019, let us take the 550th an­niver­sary of the first true king, Guru Nanak, and com­mit to re-awak­en­ing, strength­en­ing and spread­ing the great joy and in­spi­ra­tion of Sikhi within our­selves and with fel­low hu­mankind through daily acts of Sikhi-in­spired kind­ness, equal­ity and jus­tice! Let it be the bench­mark to be fol­lowed be­yond 2019 too. Let us equally look at the rot and de­fects that are pre­sent within, and seek to pro-ac­tively ad­dress those with joy­ful pas­sion and ur­gency!

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It is the best way to cel­e­brate the birth and life of both Guru Nanak and Guru Gob­ind Singh – the to­tal­ity of the Ten Gu­rus!