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HOW THE SGPC MESSED IT UP?
Can A ‘Sehajdhari Sikh’ Continue To Shave?
Gurcharanjit Singh Lamba
 “A
person cannot claim to be a Sehajdhari Sikh by trimming/cutting
his/her hair, beard or eyebrows in any manner.” – SGPC Expert Panel
Report
“Can
a Sehajdhari Sikh continue to shave and cut his kesh for the
whole of his life?”
Going by the gurmat, rahit maryada, hukamnamas and SGPC’s own
gurmatas the answer is a clear ‘NO’. But wittingly or
unwittingly SGPC, the supreme body of the Sikhs, does not think so
and has declared ‘YES’. However much confusion has been created and
the real issue has been lost in the din.
The Panth is at
the crossroads now. It is also not the time for indulging in petty
politics and initiating blame game or hurling accusations. It is a
grim and grave situation requiring each and every well-meaning Sikh
to contribute his mite to set the things in right perspective.
Failure or indifference at this occasion will prove to be a blunder
for the Panth and Panthik institutions.
The all-powerful
apex body of the Sikhs, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, was
to answer this simple question “Whether or not a person who
cuts his hair and/or shaves his beard is a “Sehajdhari Sikh?”
It was an awfully simple poser. But this awfully simple
question became simply awful for them to answer.
A Sikh is a
Keshadhari by birth and has to keep and preserve the Kesh
for whole life. Any transgression on this count is a self inflicted
stigma earning for the transgressor the abominable label of a
patit or an apostate.
A Sahajdhari on
the other hand is a person who, though born in a non-Sikh family,
adopts the road to Sikhism. However the day he becomes a Sahajdhari
the first and foremost condition is that he is not to defile his
Kesh in any manner. Like when American Sikhs adopt Sikhism the
first thing they do is that they start keeping unshorn hair.
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“Whether or
not a person who cuts his hair and/or shaves his beard is a
“Sehajdhari Sikh?”
It was an awfully simple poser. But this awfully simple
question became simply awful for them to answer. |
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As such, though
both a Sikh and a Sehajdhari Sikh cannot defile
kesh or trim, the only difference between the two is that while
a Sikh has the kesh by birth, a Sehajdhari Sikh
comes from a non-Sikh family and has to grow keshas.
While the former is a Sikh by birth the latter is a Sikh by
volition. But trimming or shaving in both the cases is an
anathema. To put it simply, while a Sikh cannot shave, a
Sehajdhari Sikh cannot continue to shave. A Sehajdhari
Sikh is on his way to becoming a Sikh but a
Sikh cannot become a Sehajdhari Sikh. A Sikh
transgressing this diktat will become a Patit. A patit
or sirgumm has been defined by the SGPC as,
‘SIRGUMM’
- If a keshadhari whose birth and naming ceremony has been
solemnized in accordance with gurmat, and under the influence of
debauched company, discards the holy kesh he is, a ‘sirgumm’ (patit)
A Sikh has his
Kesh by birth whereas a Sahajdhari, though he earlier might
have had shorn Kesh, has to grow these to become
keshadhari. A Sahajdhari is to adopt Sikhism gradually but
cannot remain a Sahajdhari his whole life.
As a matter of
fact the difference between a Sikh and a Sahajdhari Sikh has been
well explained by Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, that a Sahajdhari does not
keep the rahit of kachhahra and kirpan. Thus
he is to grow and keep unshorn Kesh. A picture of Sahajdhari
is given in the Mahan Kosh, Encyclopaedia of Sikhism.
Languages Deptt. Punjab.
Sikh Rahit
Maryada makes no mention of the term Sehajdhari Sikh. Section
4. (Chapter X). (Article XVI)(i) of the Sikh Rahit Maryada,
which is applicable to all Sikhs (including Sahajdharis) makes
it mandatory to keep the Kesh of his children intact.
Living in
consonance with Guru’s Tenets……..A Sikh should, in no way, harbour
any antipathy to the hair of the head with which his child is born.
He should add the suffix “Singh” to the name of his son. A Sikh
should keep the hair of his sons and daughters intact.(p.24)
So much so that
Khushwant Singh, the renowned scholar who himself does not follow
rahit, writes truthfully about the importance of hair.
…………..It
proves that the sense of belonging to the Sikh community requires
both the belief in the teachings of the Adi Granth and the
observance of the Khalsa tradition initiated by Guru Gobind Singh; and that there is no such thing as a clean-shaven Sikh - he is
simply a Hindu believing in Sikhism.
(A History of the Sikhs – Khushwant Singh
p.305)
SGPC had the
occasion to discuss this issue many times in the past and had
conclusively decided it in the light of the Rahitnamas,
Hukamanamas, its own Gurmatas and numerous accounts by
Sikh scholars of repute. Enriched with such scholarly and
authentic backup there was not even an iota of confusion or
contradiction. But surprisingly the matter was allowed to linger on
for long and instead empty rhetoric has occupied the centre stage of
the issue. The Executive Ignoring the unanimous report of its own
Expert Panel, the SGPC came to the conclusion that “Once
Sehajdhari Sikh becomes a Keshadhari Sikh, then he can not cut, trim
or shave.” The SGPC by this has declared that till the
Sehajdhari Sikh becomes Keshadhari he can continue to
cut, trim and shave his kesh. And the Sehajdhari Sikh
can remain ‘clean shaven’ his whole life. This, needless to say, is
a patently dishonest reversal of the long-standing panthic
stance on this most vital issue. SGPC’s own resolution of 12 May, 1938,
reads,
Qualifications of a Sehajdhari Sikh:
The
desired qualifications of Sehajdhari Sikh were discussed by the
Dharmik Salahkar Committee which decided that the following
conditions must be fulfilled by a Sehajdhari,
(i)
He
should grow beard
(ii)
Should not expose kesh to the barber’s razor.
(iii)
Make at least one of his children a Singh.
(iv)
Should perform all ceremonies according to Gurmat.
(v)
Should not consume tobacco.
In 1973 General
House meeting of the SGPC while demanding that the so-called
Sehajdhari Sikhs be disfranchised from Sikh Gurdwara Act, adopted
the resolution that,
“At the
time of enactment of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, in the year 1925 there
were Sehajdharis in some districts of Punjab
who fulfilled the required qualifications. But after the partition
(1947) except for negligible number this sect has virtually become
extinct. Of these Sehajdharis some have become ‘Singhs’ and some
have become part of the Hindu culture.”
This stand of
the SGPC was accepted by the Government of India and on 8th
October, 2003 by Gazette Notification No.S.O.1190(E) disfranchised
the Sehajdhari Sikhs and provided that only keshadhari
would be entitled to vote in the Gurdwara elections.
In this
background to answer the latest poser “Whether or not a person
who cuts his hair and/or shaves his beard is a “Sehajdhari Sikh?”
Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee in General House
Meeting held on November 22,
2008 decided to form a seven member Committee of scholars, legal
experts and S.G.P.C representatives to give opinion, based on
historical, theological and philosophic perspectives. SGPC President
Jathedar Avtar Singh Makkar was authorized to nominate the committee
members and he nominated the following individuals:
(i)
S.
Sukhdev Singh Bhaur
(ii)
Bibi Kiranjot Kaur, Member S.G.P.C.
(iii)
S.
Dilmegh Singh Secretary
(iv)
S.
Jasbir Singh Sabar, Director Correspondence Courses, S.G.P.C.
(v)
Prof. Anurag Singh, Director Sikh History Research Board, S.G.P.C.
Amritsar.
(vi)
S.
Suba Singh, Principal Shaheed Sikh
Missionary College,
Amritsar.
(vii)
S.Gurcharanjit Singh Lamba (Advocate), Editor, Sant Sipahi,
Jalandhar.
On
November 26, 2008 the seven-member Expert Panel assembled at
Kalgidhar Niwas, Chandigarh and considered the whole issue and
decided, with six opinions to one, that the issue already stood
resolved by SGPC resolution of 12 May, 1938 that a Sehajdhari Sikh
has to be sabat soorat (with unshorn kesh).
Though the SGPC Executive Committee in its meeting of 3rd
December, 2008
accepted the report of the Sub Committee in toto yet the reports in
the Press suggested that the SGPC did not prohibit a Sehajdhari Sikh
to continue to shave and trim. This was quite contrary to
the recommendations of the Expert Panel. On 4th December,
the members of the Expert Panel brought this to the notice of the
President of SGPC who was on a tour to
Bihar. Jathedar Avtar Singh expressed dismay and categorically
stated that he had accepted the 1938 resolution and the anomaly if
any would be corrected. He then ordered another emergency meeting of
the Expert Panel, which was held the same day at Guru Nanak Niwas
Amritsar. Here in this meeting the Expert Panel endorsed its
recommendations given to the SGPC on 26th November and
reiterated in signed statement that “Hence a person cannot
claim to be a Sehajdhari by trimming/cutting his/her hair, beard or
eye-brows in any manner.” Here the resolution adopted by the
Expert Panel was signed by all the members except one.
Jathedar
Gurcharan Singh Tohra had once quipped that there are only two
qaums (nations) in the world, Sikhs and monas (clean-shaven).
But going by the latest stand of the SGPC there will be two quams in
the world, Sikhs and Sehajdhari Sikhs. Every non-Sikh or even an
anti-Sikh now can infiltrate the panth and panthic
institutions using the cloak of a Sehajdhari Sikh, courtesy SGPC.
To set the
record straight and save the Panth and Panthik
institutions from further embarrassment and irreparable damage the
Panth desires and demands that the SGPC should understand its
religious obligation and without mincing words should declare in
absolutely unambiguous terms that It honours its own gurmata
of 12 May, 1938 and in the light of this a person claiming to be
Sehajdhari Sikh has to grow his kesh and beard and under no
circumstances can cut, trim or shave, if he wants to remain a part
of the Sikh Panth.
The
author is editor of community journal Sant Sipahi and is a member of
the panel tasked by the SGPC to recommend the formulation of
definition of Sehajdhari
10 December
2008
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