Let’s imbibe Guru’s message of harmony

Tahir Mahmood
Former Chairman, National Commission for Minorities

In recent weeks, the states of Punjab and Haryana have been in the headlines on account of the Assembly elections in the latter, the proposed stopping of river waters flowing into the neighbouring enemy country and the Kartarpur corridor being built to provide access to Indians to Sikh shrines in that country. Media debates on these matters make me think of the recent history of this beautiful region and the legal status of its inhabitants.  

‘Punjab’ is a Persian word meaning ‘five waters’, referring to the Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej rivers. With its lush green fields and holy places of Sikhs and Muslims, the territory was seen until 1947 as a jewel in the crown of the subcontinent. When the unfortunate partition of the subcontinent divided it into East and West Punjabs to form part of two separate nations, an Urdu poet had lamented, “Ab ye do-aab hai, she-aab hai, punj-aab nahin” (it is now two waters, three waters, not five waters). Poor Punjab suffered a second partition when a separate state of Haryana was carved out of it on November 1, 1966, on linguistic and cultural grounds. 

Since 1966, Punjab has been one of those few territories of India where the majority at the national level is in minority — the other such territories being the Muslim-dominated Lakshadweep and Jammu and Kashmir and the Christian-dominated Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. Predominant in Punjab, the Sikh religion is a monotheistic faith and a distinct religion, having its own identity, religious precepts, customs and traditions. Renowned Urdu poet and reformer Mohammad Iqbal has described its founder, Guru Nanak, as Mard-e-Kamil (divinely inspired being) who raised Sada-e-tauhid in the country in the mid-16th century.

The tenets of Sikh religion have been examined and explained in several judicial decisions. Regarding the holy scripture of the Sikhs, the Supreme Court once observed: “No doubt the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, is a sacred book, but it cannot be equated with the sacred books of other religions as the reverence of Guru Granth Sahib is based on different conceptual faith, belief and application in comparison to the other sacred books. It is the living and eternal Guru of the Sikhs” (SGPC vs SN Dass, 2000). 

In a case on the salient features of the Sikh shrines, the court observed, “The central object of worship in a gurdwara is Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the sine qua non for an institution being a Sikh gurdwara is that there should be established Guru Granth Sahib and worship of the same by congregation” (Pritam Dass vs SGPC, 1984). 

In independent India, the Sikh community has a distinct and respectable legal status. It is mentioned twice in the Constitution of India. Article 25 declares that wearing and carrying the holy kirpan is a fundamental right of the community. Its provision empowering the state to remove by law caste-based restrictions on entry to temples is specifically extended also to Sikh places of worship. This has led to a misbelief in the minds of some people that the Constitution treats the Sikh religion as a special form or variation of the majority religion of India. The impression is, however, totally baseless and erroneous, because of which a private member’s Bill moved in Parliament in 2011 for suitably amending Article 25 to dispel this impression was found unnecessary and hence, not taken up for debate. The misunderstanding in this regard is contradicted by the fact that the law of India specifically recognises the Sikhs as a minority community, different from the followers of the ancient Hindu religion.

As per government notifications issued under the Central and state Minorities Commission Acts, the Sikhs are recognised as a national-level minority. 

Article 29 of the Constitution which recognises the fundamental right of all sections of citizens to ‘conserve’ their distinct culture, language and script, therefore, fully applies to the Sikhs. 

So does Article 30 which empowers religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, listing such castes, had originally provided that no non-Hindu could be regarded as a Scheduled Caste. As a result of protests by Sikh leaders for several years, it was amended in 1956 to specifically mention the Sikhs as separate from the Hindus.

Coming to legislation, some state laws, titled as Hindu Religious Institutions Acts, or captioned with similar words, apply also to Sikh shrines. 

These laws, however, cannot be applied to the Sikh places of worship governed by any of the special laws meant to regulate the gurdwara managements. Among such special laws are the Gurdwara Act of 1925, in force in Punjab and Haryana, the Delhi Gurdwara Act, 1971, and the Nanded Gurdwara Act, 1956, enacted by the Maharashtra legislature. 

As regards family law, the Sikh community is governed by the four Hindu law Acts of 1955-56, and this also has misled some community leaders. Their impression, however, has no legs to stand on. These Acts do say that they will apply to all followers of the Hindu religion, including its variations and developments, but 

mentions in this context only the Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Veershaivas and Lingayats. 

In a separate provision, all these Acts say that they will also apply to Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.  A Sikh leader had filed in 2012 a petition in the Supreme Court seeking exclusion from the ambit of all these Acts.  The court admitted the case and sent notice to the government, but never took a decision. At the insistence of the community, the old Anand Marriage Act of 1909 — recognising the legal validity of the Sikh marriage ceremony called anand karaj— was amended in 2012 to give an option to the Sikhs to register their marriages either under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 or under the 1909 Act.

Guru Nanak is viewed by everybody in India with reverence and the nation is eagerly awaiting the celebration of his 550th birth anniversary. I had the privilege of visiting the location in Iraq where the great Guru is believed to have stayed en route to the holy city of Mecca. To return to the social harmony of the past, the country must act sincerely on his teachings on universal brotherhood.