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Recalling the Forgotten Sikhs
Jagmohan Singh in
Sholapur
SIKHLIGAR
GHETTO,
SHOLAPUR: Meet Poonam Kaur. 12 years old, wearing a simple salwar
kameez with the dupatta over her head, demure, shy but knowledgable.
She knows that the Prime Minister of the country is Manmohan Singh.
She also knows that the young sons of
 Guru Gobind Singh were seven
and nine years old when they were bricked alive. What she does not
know is how her parents did and forefathers land up in a filthy
ghetto in the heart of this city.
Meet Sonu Singh. He studies in the eighth standard. He uses basic
water colours to paint Bolllywood stars and artistes. Besides
regular school, he attends National Cadet Corps sessions. He has no
spare time. As soon as he returns home, he does not do home work, he
works with his father to convert old drums into usable agricultural
equipment. He too does not know how his parents landed up in this
place, called Dera by the inhabitants and otherwise derogatorily
called, Basti.
 These are two of
thousands of such children of Sikhs who form part of a section of
the Sikhs, called Sikhligaar Sikhs.
In
Maharashtra
alone, their number is nearly six thousand. Just a hundred
kilometers from
Sholapur
is the hometown of Bhagat Namdev, whose Bani is included in Guru
Granth Sahib. The other two Bhagats- Bhagat Trilochan and Bhagat
Ramanand whose Bani is included in Guru Granth Sahib are also from
this region. Takht Hazur Sahib is also not very far away.
The
Tercentenary Gurta Gaddi celebrations were an opportunity for
fifteen of them to go to Hazur Sahib and partake Amrit. Some of
them proudly told me that they ‘get up at Amrit vela and do paath.”
 Living in abject
penury, far from their homeland
Punjab, with
virtually no connection with Sikh thought and the Sikh world, they
are ironsmiths who eke out a daily living by making utensils, knives
and agricultural implements. Whatever little history is available,
tells us that they were weapon-makers since the times of the sixth
Master, Guru Hargobind Sahib.
Learning the
skills through the generations, even today they produce excellent
hand crafted Kirpans and other hand-fighting gear. While it may not
be wise to categorise the martyrdom according to caste or origin, it
is said that a number of martyrs were from this section of the Sikhs
including Bhai Dayala, Makhan Shah Lubana and Bhai Mani Singh.
A ‘prosperous’
Sikh community somehow forgot them for some two hundred years or
so. They did not forget their roots. Travelling from one part of
Maharashtra to Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh to wherever they could
get a foothold, they became a nomadic tribe –unsettled, unread and
unattached.
 Significantly,
this became their strength. No amount of Christian or Brahaminical
influence could take them away from their roots. Knowing only the
name of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, they stuck to their
fundamentals –their Kesh are intact and they have the crowning glory
of Turban on their heads.
No one knows
their exact numbers. From the lakhs to the thousands –described
with various nomenclatures -nomadic tribes, scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes. Each Indian state has a different categorization
for them and the Sikh world simply calls them Sikhligar Sikhs.
The sheer
numbers have been off-putting to some. Others see it as a hope of
strengthening the demographic power of the Sikhs. Hopefully, we
will have the first-ever official census of Sikhligar, Vanjara and
Lubana Sikhs in the coming months thanks to the efforts of the
National Commission for Minorities. NCM member Harcharan Singh Josh,
told this correspondent that, “it took two years to convince the NCM
co-members that Sikhs too are poor, in fact, these Sikhs are poorest
of the poor –living below the poverty line.” Extensive field
studies have been undertaken by the NCM all over the country and a
report is expected soon.
 Poverty
and pressure of the police have known to subdue many a people in
settled societies. Not the Sikhligar Sikhs. In
Sholapur, the
police harass them whenever there is trouble even though they are
not even remotely involved in any way. In this particular ghetto,
the families living cheek by jowl under tin and thatched roofs do
not pick up fights every now and then. One of their coordinators
proudly said, “We have no police case pending against any of us.”
Their temporary
habitat is now in danger. Galloping land prices in towns and cities
due to a skewed development model of Special Economic Zones and
malls has resulted in threats to those Sikhligars who are settled in
shanties on the outskirts of cities like
Hyderabad.
Those living here too do not own the lands though living at this
particular spot for more than thirty years.
 This
chapter of Sikh history is ready by many and flipped over. Not any
more. I accompanied Balvinder Singh and Sanmeet Kaur, software
engineers from Bangalore and Kulwant Singh -a mechanical engineer
and Jaspal Singh –a lab technician from Mumbai, who are part of a
silent educational revolution for the Sikhligar brethren. They
are optimistic activists who instead of crying over and repeating
the problem ad nauseam, are part of a movement called Akhar –Service
of Humanity, initiated by young Sikh professionals from Bangalore.
Working alongside Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle Maharashtra and
Gurmat Missionary College Mumbai, these and other volunteers have
‘adopted’ this ghetto and three other localities in Jalgaon,
Ichalkaranji and Srirampur in Maharsahtra catering to the needs of
200 children.
Every few weeks,
they visit these ghettos, stay there and monitor the education and
sanitation programme launched for the kids that live in sub-human
conditions.
It is time to be
part of the solution so that as we eye 400 years of Guru Granth
Sahib, we are sure that ‘Sikhs being illiterate is a rumour.’ Would
you like to join them?
Jagmohan
Singh may be contacted at jsbigideas@gmail.com
19 November
2008
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