Sant And Sinner: An Evil Spawn Of Politics

Bhindranwale distorted Nanak’s teachings, Congress encouraged his violent ways

- Mark Tully

THIS year marks the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the man who founded the Sikh religion and is revered as the first of the ten most pious men who propagated the faith far and wide. For millions of Sikhs around the world, this momentous occasion is the time to celebrate, to pray and to revisit the teachings of Nanak in these tumultuous times. Why then, some might argue, on such an event should we go back to one of the darkest chapters of Sikh history— the Khalistan movement and the terrorism it spawned? The answer lies in the evil called terrorism itself; how a supposed man of religion, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, strayed from the teachings of Nanak and led a violent movement that heaped misery on the very people for whom he professed to have fought. The tale of Bhindranwale and Punjab also provides a context for other ‘wars’ being fought in the name of religion by a handful of people who twist their respective scriptures. And we hope that lessons will be learnt from Punjab, so that tragedies like Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the bloody riots that followed are not repeated.

As the then head of the centuries-old Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal, Bhindranwale was an influential figure who incited hatred rather than preaching love. He propagated the separateness of Sikhism rather than oneness of religions. He stressed the importance of the external elements of the religion and the ritualism that goes with fundamentalism, rather than Nanak’s stress on the inner self.