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Historiography and
Guru Nanak in History — Harjeet Singh Gill —
rofessor
W. H. McLeod, the most eminent of Western historians of the Sikhs,
thinks of Jagtar Singh Grewal as ‘the greatest historian of the
Sikhs’, is the opening statement of Professor Indu Banga, an equally
distinguished historian in her own right, in her paper in Five
Punjabi Centuries, 2000, p.11. While she appreciates McLeod’s
reference as a compliment, she has misgivings about its other
implications. The term ‘Sikh’ is both a specification and a
limitation, she feels, and she is absolutely right in her assessment in
the world of scholarship. I intend in this short paper, to address
myself to this problematic, and attempt to show that in the case of both
of these distinguished scholars, the inductive and the deductive
principles of research are simultaneously at work, and that while the
specific object of study is thoroughly examined, there is also, in the
very process of this dialectic, a certain going beyond, a certain
transcendence in the very discipline of history. Even though this
seminar is supposed to be more focused on Professor Grewal, I believe,
that a proper understanding of the contribution of the one cannot be
appreciated without the juxtaposition of the other. While they
concentrate on the study of a specific topic, they are, at the same
time, as historians, dialectically engaged with each other.
Great historians of the Sikhs: Hew McLeod
and Jagtar Singh Grewal. April 2001. Let
us begin with W. H. McLeod, for chronologically his work precedes that
of J. S Grewal. When Grewal, in the preface of his book, Guru Nanak in History, 1969, notes that ‘a study of Guru Nanak’s
work in terms of his response to his milieu is likely to be more
fruitful than a discussion of his teachings in terms of ‘parallels’
and ‘influences’, he is obviously referring to McLeod’s work.
Also, in his Lectures on History, Society and Culture of the Punjab,
2007, Grewal specifically comments upon McLeod’s work on the Janam
Sakhis with a note that ‘above all, a historical biography of Guru
Nanak would remain centered on the Guru more than on Nanak (p.161). McLeod’s
book, Guru Nanak and the Sikh
Religion, 1968, deals with two main topics: the life of Guru Nanak
and the teachings of Guru Nanak. These are two separate sections,
roughly equally divided. In the first section, the author attempts at a
detailed, rigorous analysis of the Janam Sakhis, for, as he himself
asserts, even though the Janam Sakhis are not historical documents,
there is nothing else of any historical credibility, and we have to sift
the history from the legend and the myth, saturated with miracles and
mysteries. First, he classifies the more reliable texts like War Bhai
Gurdas, Puratan and Meharban Sakhis. The less
reliable, but useful all the same, texts are Bala Sakhis and Gyan
Ratnavali or Mani Singh Janam Sakhi. He
presents each text in detail duly noting all the main events, anecdotes
and places visited. This is an extremely meticulous job where even the
smallest gesture is not ignored. Apparently there is no serious problem
in reconstructing the early life of Guru Nanak but when it comes to his
travels, there are considerable discrepancies. With
Meharban there are only two prolonged travels which seem to be more
coherent. The Puratan tradition mentions four in four cardinal
directions. The Bala Sakhis, even though they seem to have been
composed much later and have Bala as a strategic witness, derive their
extreme popularity from their language and anthropologically very rich
discourse. None of these texts is a coherent text, composed in pieces by
different authors at different times, yet each of them provides useful
material for historical reconstruction. After an extremely meticulous
study of each sakhi with the minutest possible detail of every event and
place with innumerable lists and charts, McLeod summarises his
conclusions in a page and a half. Unfortunately, his summary has had
very unpleasant reactions without realising that this short account is
preceded by one hundred and forty-five pages of discussion and cross
checking of every possible eventuality. As the Janam Sakhis are not
historical documents in any sense of the term, and as there are no
diaries or roznamchas kept of
his travels and encounters, the historian has to state what is certain,
what is probable, and finally, for the lack of any historical evidence,
only a conjecture that may or may not be true. If McLeod has raised
doubts about certain visits, it is not that Guru Nanak did or did not
visit that place, as McLeod has admitted several times in his book, it
is simply that the Janam Sakhis, the only texts available for this
purpose, do not provide enough reliable evidence. The insinuations and
accusations serve no purpose. One can differ with a scholar, no two
scholars ever agree on crucial issues any way, but to counter a
logically proposed thesis one has to present an equally rigorous,
reasoned argument. Unfortunately, this has not been the case so far. It
is interesting to note that in the very opening statement of the preface
to his book, McLeod wrote: For no one is the injunction to tread softly more relevant than
for the historian whose study carries him into regions beyond his own
society. Should his study extend to what other men hold sacred the
injunction becomes a compelling necessity. For this reason the westerner
who ventures upon a study of Sikh history must do so with caution and
almost inevitably with a measure of trepidation. In such a field the
risk of giving offence is only too obvious. I
congratulate Professor McLeod for the risk he took in spite of the
premonition of the offence, and devoted all his life to the most noble
cause of the study of Sikhism with all the integrity and diligence of a
brilliant scholar. As an outsider, as an objective historian, he
ventured into the most sensitive areas that an insider, a member of the
community, would not have perceived. No doubt his researches raised many
controversies and debates on inconvenient issues but that is the lot of
every serious and incisive historian. The conclusions are always
questionable but they can be rebutted only by a corresponding
dialectical analysis. The
second major section of this book, often ignored, deals with the
teachings of Guru Nanak. There is absolutely no problem for McLeod in
this domain. First of all, he takes for granted the authenticity of the
compositions of Guru Nanak as they appear in the Adi Granth duly
approved by the SGPC. Secondly, as well versed in systematic theology,
he could discern without any difficulty or detour the uniqueness of the
discourse of Guru Nanak, and in no uncertain terms, he stated that. From
this conclusion it follows that a common interpretation of the religion
of Guru Nanak must be rejected. It is not correct to interpret it as a
conscious effort to reconcile Hindu belief and Islam by means of a
synthesis of the two. The intention to reconcile was certainly there,
but not by the path of syncretism. Conventional Hindu belief and Islam
were not regarded as fundamentally right but as fundamentally wrong.
Neither Veda nor the Kateb know the mystery. The two were
to be rejected, not harmonised in a synthesis of their finer elements.
True religion lay beyond these two systems, accessible to all men of
spiritual perception whether Hindu or Muslim. It was the person who
spurned all that was external and who followed instead the interior
discipline of nâm simran who could be called a ‘true’ Hindu or a ‘true’
Muslim. Such a person had in fact transcended both. (p. 161). This
statement of Professor McLeod should be underscored with the strongest
possible emphasis, and those who dare to question his integrity and
scholarship need to do some homework. The scientific rigour and
extremely meticulous dialectical analysis that precedes this statement
must be studied with utmost sincerity. There is absolutely no question
of one or the other influence of a specific religious tradition or
dogma. If McLeod insists that Guru Nanak’s predominant dialectical
engagement was with the mainstream Hinduism and the Sant tradition, it
is certainly a statement of fact. I have recently interpreted the whole
of Nanak Bani and it is obvious that most of his compositions, the Japuji,
the Siddh Gosht and others in Rag Ramkali and Rag Maru are
derived from his very personal dialectical interactions with the yogis
and other Hindu sects. The metalanguage of these texts is Sadh Bhasha
but the discourse is unique and presents a very different paradigm. If
there is any definitive epistemological cut in the history of ideas of
the Indian subcontinent, it is operated upon this tradition. This does
not mean that there was no theological encounter with Islam or with
other religious undercurrents, but compared to his incessant references
to and confrontations with the Hindu tradition, the dialectical
engagement with Islam is of much lower order. This
book is divided into two sections. The first deals with what the
linguists call, the grammatical construct, the physical, empirical
reality so dear to the empiricist historians. The second concentrates on
epistemology and philosophy and is squarely situated in the
architectonics of conceptual construct. What
interests me most of course is his second book, Early Sikh Tradition, a
study of the Janam Sakhis, Oxford, 1980. The subtitle gives the
impression that it is a prolongation of the first thesis. In fact, it
presents a complete methodological and conceptual departure. The concern
here is primarily the becoming of the being of the Sakhis. How a given
Sakhi evolved from a supposed proto-anecdote in the oral tradition.
Since there are no first hand accounts of any witness, in spite of the
strategy of Bala tradition like the Heer of Damodar, and the only
reliable witness, Mardana, having died earlier, the earliest versions of
the narratives must have been recounted by the Guru himself. After his
demise it was necessary to use these narratives, legends, myths to
propagate his message, his discourse. In different places, in different
congregations, the Sakhis evolved, enlarged and interpreted as the
divine discourse was perceived by a given composer. Legends, myths,
miracles are the stuff that all religious discourses are made of. It
could not be any different in the case of these Janam Sakhis. In
the religious discourse, the real and the surreal, physics and
metaphysics, anthropology and cosmology are not only the two sides of
the same coin, they are thoroughly fused with each other in a way that
their conceptual separation is impossible. Take, for example, the case
of the most discussed and disputed anecdote of the moving of Mecca. I
believe that the problematic of its physical movement is irrelevant.
What matters is the signification of the discourse of this Sakhi that
demonstrates in no uncertain terms that God is everywhere, east, west,
north, south, all directions are sacred. The whole universe is the
creation of God, hence the artificial division into sacred and profane
does not make any sense. This is also the discourse of the Arti Sakhi
where the Guru talks about the cosmological Arti being performed by the
sun and the moon, the planets and the stars and the most wonderful
universe of earth and sky, the mountains, the seas, the rivers.
Obviously the best dramatic effect could be achieved by placing such
discourses in the most important religious places like Mecca and
Jagannath Puri. Unfortunately a number of empiricist historians have
emphasised the physical movement of Mecca and have even suggested very
seriously that Mecca had already been moved or displaced several times.
Of course there are innumerable legends of this movement and this
metamorphosis where the poet tells his beloved that she is his Mecca and
he need not follow the Hajis to Saudi Arabia. In other words, Mecca
exists where your love resides. How a heavily charged metaphor is
drenched of its power of evocation is shown by the translation of the
last line of Manto’s short story 'Tobha Tek Singh', stating, wahan
par para tha Toba Tek Singh. Instead of just rendering it as
‘there lay Tobha Tek Singh’, an eminent journalist translated it as
‘there lay the body of Bishan Singh of the village of Tobha Tek
Singh’. Throughout the narrative Manto had constituted Tobha Tek Singh
as a metaphor of absolute absurdity of the partition of the Indian
subcontinent into India and Pakistan and this last gesture of his
falling in no man’s land demonstrated this most obnoxious situation.
This grotesque absurdity is writ large in every encounter of the
Punjabis of both sides of the artificial frontier. Even after sixty
years, every Punjabi, Indian or Pakistani, seems to have been
metamorphosed into Tobha Tek Singh, fallen for ever in this extremely
absurd no man’s land. This eminent journalist has certainly very high
proficiency in both Urdu and English but he failed to comprehend the
subtlety of a very dense literary metaphor. Incidentally, the same
gentleman has translated a number of compositions of Gurbani, the
meta-text that is heavily charged with metaphors. One can easily imagine
the havoc his exercise must have caused to the intended discourse.
Fortunately, McLeod does not follow the trail he had set for himself in
his first exercise. In Early Sikh Tradition, in 1980, twelve years after
the first study, he follows an extremely rigorous methodology of
historical reconstruction of different episodes in every sakhi
tradition. This operation is highly complex, for none of the four texts
is a coherent discursive formation. In the same tradition, a given Sakhi
may present a highly developed form, having been evolved and interpreted
at numerous occasions, and another may preserve a fairly primitive form.
The texts present heterogenous manifest and immanent contours of the
Guru’s discourse as perceived over a considerable long period of
history by an admixture of very complex elements in the congregation
itself. Even when a given Sakhi is supposed to be only an interpretation
of a composition of the Guru, there are innumerable discerning patterns. With
a scientific rigour that is unparalleled in the annals of intertextual
analysis, McLeod has been able to arrive at the most plausible
reconstructions. Since he was, in this enterprise, not looking for
historically verifiable events or places, he could, with extreme
dexterity, present the historical evolution of each Sakhi. Armed with
unique historical methodology and theological insights, McLeod has
unfolded the progressive perceptions and anthropological and
cosmological interpolations. This book is the most significant
contribution not only to our understanding of early Sikh tradition, but
for me, it is primarily a very high mark in the development of the
discipline of historiography that goes far beyond the usual empiricist
fact finding exercises. Professor Grewal has referred to this historical
reconstruction as an exercise in ‘neutral gear’ (Grewal, 2007,
p.162). I wish there were more researches in such a neutral gear. The
gear of our scholars is set in advance, before even they have taken the
first step in scientific investigation. In the process, they lose all
objectivity and their efforts are generally unidirectional and
illogical. The
second major step in this narrative is of course Jagtar Singh Grewal. I
begin this section with an anecdote. In 2006, Professor Grewal gave a
series of lectures at Punjabi University, Patiala, as a Visiting
Professor where I happen to be present after an absence of twenty, and
not the legendary twelve years, at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi. In one of his lectures I was sitting as a sceptic and a
non-believer. With the few encounters I had had with some historians and
their writings wasting their time in search of the most ridiculous
details, I firmly believed that historians should not be allowed to
study religion. Professor Grewal’s lecture changed all that that
history was after all not such a bad discipline and in the hands of a
historian of the intellect and incision of Professor Grewal, one can
really transcend the usual boundaries of knowledge. After the lecture, I
was the new convert and when we came out of the seminar hall, I
suggested to the professor of history that it would be a good idea if a
student of history is asked to write a dissertation on the research
methodology of Professor Grewal. I did not then realise that one day I
will have to execute this very difficult task. Instead of deducing the
details of the life of Guru Nanak from the Janam Sakhis, as did W. H.
McLeod, Professor Grewal, in Guru
Nanak in History, 1969, as a master medievalist with felicity in
Persian language, the most important tool of the study of this period,
provides us with an extremely detailed account of the political, social
and religious conditions of the fifteenth century Punjab. The first
section, The Milieu, has four chapters: Politics, Society, Religion:
Islam, Religion: Hinduism. It is interesting to note that out of these
one hundred and forty pages, one hundred and three are devoted to the
Muslim influence and impact on Punjabi society. This section is the most
detailed, incisive and informative. One marvels at Grewal’s erudition
and the grasp of the subject. Whether we are presented with the
political administration, the participation of immigrant or local
Muslims or Hindus, nothing is left to conjecture. The
same is true of the presentation of the finest nuances of the various
Sufi genealogies, beliefs, dogmas, practices. Being a bit of a Sufi
himself, Professor Grewal takes us to the bye lanes of the most
mysterious, metaphysical undercurrents of the Sufi lore that had
definitely saturated the popular, anthropological structures of Indian
society, and the highly sophisticated philosophical schools of thought.
The chapter on Hinduism is also very properly structured. All the
schools and sects of classical Hinduism along with the yogis, sanyasis,
bairagis are discussed in detail. This section squarely situates the
political and the social, the physical and the metaphysical, the
anthropological and the cosmological atmosphere that Guru Nanak had to
react and respond. The chapter on Politics delineates the administrative
set up of the Lodis. This is the period of the Afghan empire, relatively
calm. The Indians seem to have accepted their fate. There is widespread
conversion of the lower classes to Islam. There is subjugation, there is
suppression, there is inducement. The Hindu Khatris do not become
Muslims but are learning Persian to get what ever lower level jobs are
offered by the Muslim rulers. We know that Nanak’s father,
brother-in-law and later Nanak himself were all civil servants at one
time or another. Hence, Guru Nanak had had a first hand experience of
Muslim rule and the Muslim religion in all its ramifications. Already
there were different Muslim sects, Ulamas and Mullahs of all types, and
of course, the Sufis with their divergences, their differences. There
were mosques but there were also darghas, there were also the Sufis,
saints, faqirs of Islam spreading the message of love and endearment and
converting the gullible masses to their faith. The political atmosphere
was relatively calm as Professor Grewal has emphasised but it was also
extremely suffocating for those who had to abandon their faith and
fraternity. Nothing was sacrosanct. The ancient Indian culture was fast
losing its bearings. There was no physical turmoil, no battles or armed
conflicts during this lull but the hearts and hearths of the traditional
Indian populace were boiling within. There were the excruciating pains
due to the terrible onslaught of the unarmed soldiers of Islam, duly
paid and encouraged by the powers to be, smothering the last vestiges of
the traditional cultural and spiritual heritage. At the advent of Guru
Nanak, the ideological air was toxic, highly poisoned by the extremely
aggressive propagandists of Islam with the solid backing of the powerful
rulers for whom the sword was the only symbol of power in this and the
other world. The
second chapter, Society, describes how different sections and different
socio-economic levels of Muslims and Hindus began to be integrated in a
larger whole that was India. With the annexation of Punjab by Mahmud,
Ilbari, Khalji, Tughluq, Sayyid and Afghan rulers there were, for nearly
five hundred years, new rulers, administrators, scholars, men of
letters. There was the Muslim governance and there was also
simultaneously a certain inquisitive scholarly interpretation of local
religions and customs. Persian was the official language of
jurisprudence and theological discourse but the Sufis, the main
propagandists of the Islamised creeds, mixed with the local populace,
learned their language, and produced a sizable literature in the
vernacular. Besides the ‘immigrants’, the conquerors and their
followers, their countrymen, there was a large number of newly converted
Muslims. These Hindus turned Muslims, and their tribesmen and women,
brought with them their local beliefs, customs and superstitions. To the
orthodox obviously they represented the heathens who were willing to be
reformed, yet it was not so easy to completely cleanse them of the
native, forbidden religious attitudes, to put them on the right path of
the puritanical doctrine. The fundamentalist Ulamas had obviously
forgotten that most of the orthodox traditions of Islam were simply
pre-Islamic Arabic tribal customs and conceptions. It was also very
significant as Grewal has aptly remarked (p.34) that ‘by and large the
immigrant Muslims were settled in cities and towns, the pockets of
Muslim population in the countryside were formed by the native born, the
converts. Amongst
these newly converts were a number of tribes. The Gakhkhars of the Sindh
Sagar Doab is a good example. Also, whatever may be the Islamic
doctrinal position, the Muslim society in the Punjab was well marked by
sectarian discourses as by racial differences. Even though the Sunnis
dominated, the number of the Shi’as was also not negligible. This
situation itself was a cause enough to heighten tensions in the moral
and philosophical code of the ruling class. The local habits and
attitudes and the Sufi acceptance of what was harâm for the orthodox
was another element of social disharmony. Added to this doctrinal
confusion was the luxurious living habits of the rulers. As Grewal puts
it, ‘the aqtâdars in the Punjab, as elsewhere in the Lodi Sultanate,
were the highest nobles and imitated, as far as they could, their royal
masters in pomp and grandeur…they all lived a life of luxury and
ostentation. The morals of the age permitted them indulgence not only in
wine and women but also in sodomy with male sweethearts…It may be
mentioned, incidentally that those who could not afford the luxuries of
the privileged class of the nobles could find consolation in the
association of public dancing girls and prostitutes, for the brothel was
almost a recognised institution. It may also not be out of place to note
that most of these prostitutes were the native slave girls forced to
serve the masters. ‘The
Hindu society in the rural Punjab was marked by a preponderance of the
jats, particularly in the upper Rechna, upper Bari and Bist Jullundar
doabs divided into numerous clans, they had their zamindars, chaudharies
and muqaddams; but the bulk of the jats consisted of ordinary
cultivators’ (p.53). Without absolutely rebelling against the ruling
class they seem to have resented oppression that is demonstrated in
their folklore. Compared to the gujjars they were slow in accepting
Islam. Most of them continued to adhere to popular Hinduism. ‘The
rajputs, the brahmans, the khatris and the jats formed no doubt the most
important social groups of the Hindu society. The rite of sati and
polygamy are well attested in this medieval period of the Punjab. Grewal
had earlier remarked that belief in miracles was shared by almost all
the Muslims of the time. In fact without miracles and mysteries no
religion can survive. This is why to understand the beliefs and
conceptual constructs of this period the Janam Sakhis of Bala tradition
are very significant, however unsatisfactory their historical accounts
may be. While it is true that Bala is never mentioned in earlier
accounts, and most important, not by Bhai Gurdas, secondly, how come, if
Bala was such a close companion of Guru Nanak, he simply disappeared
during the last years of Guru Nanak at Kartarpur. Only incidentally he
comes to know that a certain Angad had succeeded his Master, and
evidentaly, Guru Angad also had no idea of his companionship of the
Guru. Obviously, Bala as a witness is a narrative strategy like Damodar
of Heer but it has had tremendous success. There are innumerable
paintings of Bala and Mardana on the two sides of Guru Nanak. It serves
an excellent purpose of the discourse of the Guru having a Hindu and a
Muslim on each side. Whatever their historical veracity, the Bala janam
sakhis are extraordinary sociological documents. The texts give us
insights of how the Hindu-Sikh congregations of the
seventeenth-eighteenth centuries perceived Guru Nanak. For them the
greatness of their Guru depended upon his miracles. The chronological or
historical space and time were irrelevant. Baba Nanak and his companions
arrive at the mythical mount Sumer that is several times higher than
mount Everest. Its splendour is beyond all description. It is covered
with gold and silver with lakes full of diamonds. The yogis of all
periods and ages are lying there since centuries. Guru Nanak confronts
them and duly defeats them in philosophical discussions. Within
a wink of eye they reach the most inaccessible planets. When a companion
asks how many jojans or miles they have covered, the reply is that they
have already travelled millions of miles and several millions are still
left to reach the planet where a friend of the Guru, whom he knew
hundreds of births earlier, lives. One can easily imagine that compared
to these extraordinary feats, reaching Mecca and moving it was an
ordinary affair. The supremacy over Islam was well established with one
stroke. One
cannot take these miracles lightly. Instant displacement, healing the
sick, raising the dead are common miracles in all religions. They seem
to confer divinity on their gurus, sages, prophets. It is the surreal
that governs the real, the supernatural, the natural. All over the world
people go to darghas, temples, churches for miraculous cures. Very few
persons other than the intellectual elite meditate on the purity of a
given doctrine. In Catholic church even today no one can be declared a
saint without the testimony of a couple of miracles. Mother Theresa
could not be elevated to sainthood without her miracles of healing the
sick, after her death. Her service to the lepers was only a point of
departure. The
problem with historical research is that the miracles are not taken as
metaphors or conceptual constructions but as empirically real. The Sikh
scholars are bent on proving that the Mecca was actually physically
moved. The supposed shroud of Jesus has been subjected to DNA tests
several times to convince the sceptical. Professor Grewal has mentioned
the temples of Sitla Mata and others where Hindus and Muslims pray
together. There are several gods and goddesses whose main function is
the cure of specific diseases. In Brittany, in France, where my wife
comes from, every village has a saint who cures one or the other
disease. Every church in Europe has at least a couple of ‘relics’,
duly mounted in gold, directly related with the body or the cross of
Jesus. As far as the ‘relics’ of the saints are concerned, there is
absolutely no limit. The Bala Janam Sakhis are also important for
they are set in the rural atmosphere and provide enormous information
about the customs, conventions, miracles, superstitions, interpretations
of the real and the surreal which are thoroughly fused with each other.
No wonder, they were the most popular texts for centuries. The
third chapter on Islam gives detailed account of all forms of orthodox
Islamic traditions, followed by the predominant Sufis at more popular
level. It seems that both have coexisted forever. The dominant Sunnis
and the less dominant but very influential Shi’as were always there to
remind the errant the ‘true’ ways of Islamic tenets. What mattered
most was the Islamic jurisprudence that governed the ‘personal,
commercial, property, and sexual relations of Muslims to Muslims and of
Muslims to non-Muslims.’ Even though this body of laws was not always
strictly adhered to, the orthodox classes were reluctant to modify it to
suit the prevalent circumstances. This indeed has been and continues to
be the most important dilemma of the Muslims all over. These laws were
formulated in the ninth and tenth centuries but none had had the courage
to propose any change. There have been some attempts at reinterpretation
but that is all we have until now. The ultimate authority was of course
the Qur’an, followed by the sunna of the prophet, his sayings and his
practice. By the ninth century, critical collections of hadith,
embodying the sunna, had been prepared by al-Bukhari. This was the
standard text for the Sunnis in India and elsewhere in the Muslim world.
There were also the unorthodox Shi’as who believed in the twelve Imams
following the death of the prophet. Even though the Shi’as recognised
the authority of the Qur’an and the prophet, the dignity and the
authority of the Imam was much more sacred. Imam was an ‘infallible
and sinless being, possessing the Divine Light handed down from God to
Ali’. Then there were the Ismailis and the Qarmatians. ‘The laws of
the shri’at , according to Ismaili belief, were not meant for those
who possessed esoteric knowledge and the Qur’an itself had an ‘inner
meaning’. However, the most important forms of Muslim religious life
in the Punjab, as elsewhere by this time, were embodied in the beliefs
and the practices of the Sufis, the mystics of Islam, asserts Grewal.
This section is the most exhaustive with all the Sufi doctrines,
practices, variations
and the overall impact they had on all aspects of the fifteenth century
Punjab. Sufis were not orthodox Muslims yet they were equally, if not at
times, more respected by the Muslim rulers. After all the rulers are the
most superstitious people, they were scared of the miracles of the Sufi
sages. The Sufis believed in the mystical experience of the union with
God. As human soul and God share divine nature and attributes, through
knowledge and love, one can attain eternal life and be united with God.
Love is the primary attribute. ‘When the lover reaches the utmost
limits of love, then the shâhid (witness) and the mashâhid (witnessed)
become one, says Ain al-Quzzat Hamdani. In the Sufi hierarchy, the
importance given to the sheikh had very interesting implications. The
devotion to and faith in the sheikh, the pir, almost replaced the
pilgrimage to the holy Mecca. ‘The real Ka’ba was in the heart. This
identity of the Ka’ba with the Sufi sage gave rise to all the legends
where the Mecca is often displaced or moved from its holy precincts,
which some scholars have used as precedent of its movement before the
anecdote of the Mecca Janam Sakhi. The
chapter on Hinduism is brief but it takes care of all the fundamental
issues relevant to the present discussion. After elucidating the basic
six schools of Hinduism, Grewal deals with the three major sects:
Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shakism. As Shaivism is more dominant in the
medieval Punjab and Kashmir, its tenets are properly delineated. The
yogis of course and their various traditions are presented in
considerable detail. After all it is these yogis with whom Guru Nanak
had had more serious dialectical engagements. Apart from the Siddh
Gosht, there are innumerable compositions where the confrontation
with the different sects of the yogis and their practices is most
evident. These yogis, sanyasis, bairagis were very popular, for they
represented the anthropological and cosmological aspirations of the
common man. They were ascetics whose asceticism was by far the greatest
virtue and they performed miracles which were the hallmark of any
spiritual achievement of all sages, Hindu or Muslim. According to Grewal
the yogis welcomed the aspirants of lower classes and even women.
Obviously, the populace flocked to their ashrams. Moreover, they
believed that ‘the world is real, not illusory as it is for the
Vedanta. Yoga in its widest sense had old and respectable antecedents.
The gradual spread of yoga practices, regarded as an admirable way of
salvation, can be traced both in juridico-theological literature and the
didactic and religious portions of Mahabharta; (p.173). The
yogis’ knowledge of the herbs and medicinal plants gave them enormous
prestige for they used this knowledge both for physical and spiritual
cure. After Yoga, Grewal presents a detailed account of the bhakti
movement with its major exponents: Ramanuja, Chaitanya and Ramananda. This
leads us to the most crucial issue of the role of Kabir in this
tradition and what influence or correspondence it had or did not have
with the doctrine of Guru Nanak. To situate the debate in its broad
parameter, Grewal presents an exhaustive analysis of the distinctive
features of Kabir’s fusion of the Hindu-Muslim theological universe.
Kabir’s integrated conceptual construct includes yogic, bhakti and
sufi elements. As a number of scholars, both Indian and foreign, have
emphasised the influence of Kabir on Guru Nanak, this section acquires
considerable importance in Guru Nanak’s reponse to the prevalent
ideological cobweb. As
Grewal has duly noted (p.127), it was the much maligned W. H. McLeod who
was the first westerner historian who had most convincingly and
logically presented in Punjab History Conference, 1966, that whatever
may be the similarities in disparate features of their doctrines, Guru
Nanak’s overall theological discourse was an entirely different
conceptual construct. It was the same McLeod who, two years later, in
1968, in his doctoral thesis, asserted that for Guru Nanak the
scriptural discourses of both Islam and Hinduism were fundamentally
wrong. The
doctrinal confusion around the bhakti movement is also due to the
demographic structure of the Punjabi society. First of all, in spite of
the Islamic rule and its enormous political power, the privileged social
classes stuck to their religious practices. Grewal notes ‘the
entrenched orthodoxies of both Hinduism and Islam’ (p.62). The popular
masses were converted more easily but their conversion was very
deceptive. It was certainly not possible to eradicate the centuries old
anthropological beliefs and superstitions. Political dynasties can
change in a day but the cultural parameters leave traces both on the
outer manifestation of rites and rituals and the psyche of the people.
The extremely disparate and dispersed Hindus carried with them their old
mental constructs into whichever religious fold they found themselves.
Moreover, even though the Gurus were Khatris, very few Khatris ever
followed the new religion. This demographic imbalance has had very
serious consequences in the later Sikh polity and society. In the second
section, in the chapters on Guru Nanak’s response to all these issues,
the first deals with the Guru’s views on civic society and polity.
Grewal believes that while there is a condemnation of the unjust, the
corrupt and the immoral, the ideological register is moral and general
and not specific. The contemporary society, political or religious, is
thoroughly rotten. There is no difference between the Hindus and
Muslims. All are drenched in the most evil designs of the dark age. At
times, we get the impression that Guru Nanak is critical of a specific
ruler or a specific religion, but Grewal’s detailed analysis leads him
to believe that this is not the case. ‘Guru Nanak is totally
unconcerned about any constitutional question. If anything, he
wholeheartedly accepts the monarchical framework. He might condemn the
holders of various offices but not the offices themselves (p.166).
Secondly, ‘though he was keenly aware of the Muslim presence in the
Punjab and of Muslim domination in politics, there is little evidence to
suggest that he condemned the rulers as Muslims. His observations on
some of the contemporary events are more in the nature of general
judgment of the age, a sermon in morality, rather than a specific
condemnation of Babur or the Lodis (p.167). When it comes to Guru
Nanak’s response to contemporary society, Grewal is quite categoric in
stating that ‘Guru Nanak’s social comment is more often implicit
than explicit and almost always it has a context which strictly speaking
is not social (p.172). Guru Nanak’s social comment must be seen in
relation to his general ideas of human misery (p.174). In any case, here
there is no direct or indirect criticism of socio-economic realities as
they existed in Guru Nanak’s day (p.177). As far as the situation of
women is concerned, Grewal’s analysis of the Guru’s numerous verses
leads him to believe that ‘the image of the ideal wife that emerges
from these metaphors is not unconventional. Even if she is beautiful,
accomplished and well mannered, she is humble and modest before her
Lord. She is completely devoted to him and obeys his commands with
pleasure (p.193). As most of the poets of the bhakti and the sufi
tradition were men, they relished the images and metaphors of devotion
and fidelity. This was meant only for women. There was never any mention
of man also being a devoted and a faithful husband. In conclusion Grewal
insists that Guru Nanak’s criticism of contemporary society is, in a
certain sense, fundamental…Guru Nanak’s compositions may not prove a
radical departure from the existing order, but a radical departure would
be justified by his compositions (p.196). This is a logical statement
par excellence. I congratulate Professor Grewal for this incisive and
insightful proposition so beautifully enunciated. The dialectical
engagement with contemporary religion or religions was, of course, the
main preoccupation of Guru Nanak. A number of scholars have called him
either a reformer or the one who presented a synthesis of Islam and
Hiduism or Sufi and Bhakti devotional movement of the fifteenth and the
sixteenth centuries. While the scriptures of both religions are
mentioned with reverence, their overall discourse is never approved.
‘It is absolutely certain that from Guru Nanak’s point of view these
scriptures were totally irrelevant to salvation, asserts Grewal (p.205). Further,
‘Guru Nanak’s rejection of Hindu scriptures and deities is
intimately connected with his repudiation of traditional practices and
modes of worship (p.206). There is ‘no sympathy for the traditional
Hindu piety and the rites and observations associated with it (p.209).
Guru Nanak’s attitude towards contemporary Islam is very similar to
his attitude towards Hinduism. The Hindu and Muslim scriptures are often
equated by him (p.227). In his attitude towards contemporary religions,
Guru Nanak shows little appreciation for any of the established orders
of his times. He regards Mohammad and his religion as one of the
numerous manifestations of God’s creation. He refers to Brahma, Vishnu
and Shiva in ways which suggest that he accepted their existence as
real, but they appear as the creatures of God, deprived of all functions
and subject to mâyâ and to death (p.232). This
discussion can be illustrated by Guru Nanak’s two very significant
compositions; arbad narbad dhundukara and gagan me thâl. In the eighteenth century,
French philosophers used to explicate the prevalent inequalities and
injustices by positing a hypothetical zero state of society, followed by
progressive states of deterioration. This is how Rousseau derived and
described the social and political problems of eighteenth century
Europe. Three hundred years before this logical exercise, in the
fifteenth century, Guru Nanak juxtaposed cosmology against anthropology
and delineated a progressive deterioration in all spheres of social,
political and religious life of his countrymen, of humanity at large.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, it was all dark, all silence, a cosmic
immobility. There was no day, no night, no sun to set, to rise, no men,
no women, no castes, no creeds, no discriminations, no frivolous
disputes. The architectonic structure of this conceptual construct
presents a series of negative propositions to demonstrate the
progressive deterioration of social and spiritual life of humanity. All
that is, once upon a time, did not exist. The conceptual opposition of
this existence and non-existence, of being and nothingness, of absolute
void and extreme disturbance in the space charged with the sacred and
the profane, is an inevitable logical conclusion of historical
progression. And yet, the underlying discourse is manifest all over.
What is and what it has led to need not have been the way we have it
today. Progressively, Guru Nanak continues to present a proposition of
an event, a happening, an advent, a new movement, social, political or
religious and then draws the logical consequence it led to. In this long
composition, the Guru advances the most ruthless critique of all
religious and anthropological hypocrisy that was unfortunately the
hallmark of social life throughout the centuries. In the second
composition, gagan me thâl,
in the Arti, that the Guru juxtaposes to this chaotic state of
anthropology, there is the cosmic vision of universe, of nature, of
humanity enjoying the eternal bliss. The cosmic order is the natural
order, an order that elevates, that leads human beings to sublime
heights. The anthropological order is the order of false rituals, of
dresses and diets, of corrupt practices, of divisions and disputes, of
cruelty and misery. However, within this space of anthropology and
cosmology there is a dialectical interrelation. Within the
anthropological order there is the possibility of ethical conduct,
truth, love and grace. The metonymic, ritual behaviour can be replaced
by metaphorical sublimation. This conceptual construct of Guru Nanak
does not separate the human from the divine, anthropology from
cosmology. In fact, it presents a certain equilibrium, a certain harmony
of the two spaces. In the chapter on the Goal and the Path of Guru
Nanak, Grewal discusses in detail the basic concepts of the discourse of
Guru Nanak: Truth, Name, Shabad (hukam) the Divine Order. Grewal
explicates that the concepts of the truth, the Name, the Word and the
Divine Preceptor bear a basic identity in the compositions of Guru
Nanak. In its primary connotation, the Truth underlines the eternity
that belongs to God alone and comes into sharp relief in contrast with
His creation. The Word and its Name provide the means of knowing God and
God’s revelation; they are the proper objects of man’s contemplation
(p.243). What
distinguishes Guru Nanak’s bhakti from the religion of the Vaishnava
bhagats is not so much his emphasis on bhai as the fact that his bhâva is addressed directly to God Himself and not to any avatar.
This has serious implications. For example, the emphasis upon nâm
japnâ or nâm simarnâ (to repeat or to remember the Name) assumes an altogether
different complexion when the true import of the Name and the Word has
been grasped. It is not the repetition of the name Gobind or Hari which
is being recommended, asserts Grewal, what is being recommended is
meditation on the nature of God and His attributes. Consequently the
remembrance of God comes to embrace thought, word and deed. This
meditation on the nature and attributes of God is the core of Guru
Nanak’s religious discipline (p.261). To sum up, with the aid of
meditation on the revelation of God all around oneself and of dedicated
devotion exclusively to the One True Lord, man may progress on the path
of realising higher and higher truth. The accent is strongly upon ascent
to higher and higher levels of understanding and experience (p.281). To
conclude this short presentation, I believe that Hew McLeod and Jagtar
Singh Grewal have done a highly commendable job. Their interpretations
may not please all, to be human is to err, only the Guru is above all
blemish. In spite of the fact that their point of academic departure is
the same: the University of London and Anglo-Saxon empiricism but they
came with different intellectual and cultural backgrounds which to some
extent has inflected their approach to historical critique. Their
methodologies are different but not opposing. I consider them
complementary to each other. We do need to have some idea of the man,
Nanak, for every cosmology must have a sound base in anthropology
however unsatisfactory the results may be due to the paucity of
evidence, and we certainly need a logically coherent formulation of the
systematic theology of Guru Nanak. In both these aspects of historical
reconstruction of the discursive formations of the extremely disparate
Janam Sakhis and the dialectic of the epistemological construct, Hew
McLeod has reached the heights rarely attained by any scholar. Jagtar
Singh Grewal has looked at the whole problematic from another point of
view. After presenting an incisive and authentic account of polity,
society, religions, he concentrated on the Guru’s response to all
these very ticklish issues which have bothered the historians of
religion for centuries. The conceptualisation is of the highest
philosophical order, and both history and theology, physics and
metaphysics, anthropology and cosmology are juxtaposed in their intense
dialectical relationship. The topic of their researches, Guru Nanak in
History, is obviously of great significance. But what impresses me most
is their scholarship, their extremely incisive scientific investigation,
their methodological finesse. I am not a student of history, I cannot
vouch for the veracity of their conclusions. But I am a student per se.
I have spent a few years of my life in the study of the theories of
interpretation of an eminent French logician of the twelfth century,
Pierre Abélard, who believes that there is no direct correspondence
between the word and the object it is supposed to explicate. The word
leads to the idea, the idea to the thing, he said. Without the
intermediary universe of ideological or conceptual constructs, there is
no signification. To signify is to generate intellection, he asserts.
Words and facts do not signify anything by themselves, they have to be
interpreted in their respective conceptual universes. I admire science
and logic. In intertextual dialectic and in the highly complex domain of
conceptual reconstruction, McLeod and Grewal have attained semiological
crystallisations rarely witnessed in the annals of historical
scholarship. Hence, my salutations to these two noble sons of humanity.
I can well understand Professor Indu Banga’s misgivings, for to be the
greatest historian when there are hardly five of any mentionable
stature, is not much of a compliment. If I am permitted to rephrase her
opening sentence, I would state that both Hew McLeod and Jagtar Singh
Grewal are eminent historians who stand tall amongst the most eminent of
all nations and religions. Postscript Professor
McLeod reviewed my book Baba Nanak in International Journal of
Punjab Studies in 2003 and wrote: Baba Nanak, far from being cast in the style which one normally
associates with the ‘poetry’ of English translations of the Adi
Granth, is in fact an excellent piece of work…The style in which the
life and travels of Baba Nanak is recorded makes exceedingly pleasant
reading and those who wish to have the story well told as simple but
effective English poetry will find Gill’s work a delight. This
was quite a surprise for me, for earlier I had reviewed a book of McLeod
where I was not so nice, to say the least. In 2007 when Punjabi
University published my translations of Nanak Bani in two volumes, I
sent a copy to Professor McLeod mentioning that his review had inspired
and encouraged me to continue in that direction. I had had no personal
contact with professor McLeod, so my address was quite impersonal.
Incidentally I mentioned that I was reading his work on the Janam
Sakhis and I was struck by the extreme incision of his methodology.
During those days I was working on a paper on Lévi-Strauss and I wrote
to him that I will probably refer to his work in my study. This was the
beginning of the e-mail correspondence during the last months of his
life. I reproduce here the three more important e-mails. August
21, 2008 Dear
Harjeet Thank
you very much for the three volumes which have been duly delivered,
particularly volume 1 of Nanak Bani. I am very pleased that my words
have been reproduced on the back cover and I am particularly pleased to
have it autographed. And thank you also for the other two volumes. I have
been reflecting on what a pity it was that we never met during my eight
years in the Punjab and my frequent return visits there. There was one
occasion which I recollect when you were part of a group whom I met
during a visit to Patiala but that did not permit face to face
conversation. Apart from that there was I fear absolutely nothing. And
now alas I can no longer visit the Punjab. Health reasons mean that I
cannot venture outside New Zealand and so we are doomed not to meet
(unless of course you pay New Zealand a visit). But
there is at least e-mail. Best
wishes, Hew. Feb 14,
2009. Dear
Harjeet, Your
paper arrived this week and it came as a tremendous surprise. You had
prepared me to some extant by your earlier message but the paper really
floored me. Early Sikh Tradition is my favourite work but I never
imagined that it would receive the attention which you have given to it.
I am still recovering. Thank
you very very much for your treatment of it. Best
wishes, Hew. April
10, 2009. Dear
Harjeet, The
postman has this week delivered three translations by you and I am
grateful for them. Very very grateful. I feel that I should be giving
you something in return but nothing can I see. All I can give you are my
very sincere thanks. And then
there is the copy of your paper delivered at the Grewal conference in
Amritsar. For this too I am very glad to read it though there I feel
that I should enter an objection. The fellow McLeod whom you cover in
the opening pages certainly isn’t the marvelous creature that you make
him out to be. You should tone down what you write about him. He has you
know feet of clay. I can report however
that he did enjoy those comments. I wonder how they would have been
heard by those attending the conference. So once
again I must say how grateful I am, both for the three books and for the
copy of your GNDU paper. Best
wishes, Hew about
the author
Harjeet Singh Gill. Amritsar. 2010 Photo by Harbir Singh Mankoo Harjeet Singh Gill is an internationally
acclaimed linguist. At present, besides being a fellow at Indian
Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, he is a Professor Emeritus at
Jawaharlal Nehru University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev
University. Born in Amritsar in1935, Gill studied at Khalsa College, Amritsar;
Government College, Ludhiana, and Deccan College, Pune, (1956-58). After
MA and PhD in Linguistics [1962 under HA Gleason (Jr) from Hardford,
USA], and producing A Reference
Grammar of Punjabi (it resulted in the Linguistic
Atlas of Punjab), he started working with Andre Martinet in France.
Then, Punjabi University invited him to establish the Department of
Anthropological Linguistics in 1968. He developed a semiotic methodology
to analyse literary, cultural and sacred texts. He and his students
worked in areas as varied as structuralism, dialectology, language and
culture, folklore, arts and religion. UGC nominated him National
Professor of Linguistics (1986) and Punjabi University conferred
Honorary DLitt (1997) on him for his contribution to Punjabi language
and literature, culture and folklore. Apart from his Linguistic Atlas of
Punjab, Gill’s original works include three volumes of Structures of Signification, Semiotics
of Conceptual Structures, semiotic discourses (St Julien, Puran Bhagat, Heer Ranjha) and interpretative discourses
of Guru Nanak, Macchiwara, Heer
Ranjha and other legends of Punjab. He was the first Indian scholar
to be invited to contribute to Encyclopedia Britannica’s Encyclopedia
of Semiotics. Gill is known for his translations from French, English, and Punjabi. His
translation of Japuji of Guru
Nanak and Jaap Sahib of Guru
Gobind Singh into (1993) is a noted translation. He has also translated
Nanak Bani into English. • [Courtesy: South Asian Ensemble, Vol 3 No. 1 Winter 2011. editor.sae@gmail.com] |
