|
Tankhah to Jhinda, explanation
from Prof Darshan Singh
Intra-Sikh bitter warfare binds community in strange binaries
WSN
Network
 AMRITSAR: In the
continuing intra-community bitter warfare, the top Sikh clergy that
met at Sri Akal Takht Sahib on Tuesday pronounced religious
punishment of ‘tankhwah’ upon a leader of the so-called Adhoc
Haryana SGPC, Jagdish Singh Jhinda, who is likely to serve the
sentence but seemed defiant about his stance.
In a separate
case, the clergy, led by Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh,
has also taken the unprecedented step of seeking clarification from
former Akal Takht jathedar Prof Darshan Singh for allegedly
narrating a rather objectionable tale by connecting it to the tenth
Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.
In a video of
the objectionable speech of Prof Darshan Singh that the WSN watched,
he narrated the story claiming that it found mention in the Dasam
Granth and thus wanted to prove that such a ‘granth’ cannot be the
Guru’s composition or acceptable but it turned out that the story he
narrated was a sort of cocktail of multiple stories and was in no
way connected to the tenth Sikh Master.
Both instances,
the Jagdish Singh Jhinda episode as well as the one connected with
Prof Darshan Singh, only prove what the well known Sikhism scholar
Prof Cynthiya Mahmood recently said about “insularity of (the Sikhs)
and (their) tendency towards concentration on internal dynamics”. It
is time the community thinks out of the box solutions to concentrate
working on shaping the external perception of the Sikh experience,
and learning from the comparative history of other movements for
self-determination.
Pronouncing
tankhwah Jhinda and four others, the Singh Sahbans (jathedars)
directed them to undergo 20 days’ punishment for religious
misconduct.
 Akal Takht
Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh directed Jhinda and associates
Kanwarjit Singh Ajrana, Avtar Singh, Hazoor Singh and Joga Singh to
attend “kirtan”, clean utensils and dust shoes of devotees for five
days each at Akal Takht, Takht Kesgarh Sahib, Takht Damdama Sahib
and Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevi at Kurukshetra to seek re-admission in
the community.
Earlier,
pronouncing Jhinda and others guilty of violating “maryada” by
forcibly seizing the gurdwara at Kurukshetra, the clergy had kept
the judgment pending.
While the edict
as “politically-motivated”, Jhinda and his supporters said they will
indeed undergo the tankhah but said their action in Kurukshetra was
justified and symbolic to press for their demand for a separate
gurdwara committee for Haryana.
In another
important decision, the clergy sought a written explanation from
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Paramjit Singh
Sarna within 10 days for disallowing Danga Pirat Society president
Kuldip Singh Bhogal to offer Akhand Path in a gurdwara in Delhi.
The clergy also
supported the demand of Canada-based Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation
for an apology in Parliament from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper for the Kamagata Maru incident of July 1914.
18
November 2009
|
Read Also