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The Pope & the Jathedar Sahiban
Mansukh Kaur
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At various times, the Sikh politicians, the clergy itself and
many voices in the Sikh community have compared those at the
helm of the temporal seats with papacy, but are our clerics
equipping themselves to engage with the modern world and the
emerging discourses? It is time to learn from the mistakes of
the papacy and prepare ourselves for a new world where not a
single child has ever dialed a phone and those uninitiated into
the mystery called internet will be merely seen as an oddity.
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 As the sage
said, it is always good to learn from mistakes other people make.
The Sikh clergy
will do well to study the way the
Vatican
functions, and should ponder over the way the Pope’s African visit
was mismanaged. There are many lessons to be learnt. The highest
clergy is often the face of the community and its power and
privilege to argue and position or reposition the community’s
response to long term or imminent situations imposes immense and
grave duties on those at the helm.
We are living in
a new world order and the message of Sikhism needs to be
communicated using the new technological advances made in the world.
If a Sikh Guru sent some Sikhs to far off places to learn new skills
and improve their knowledge, the message for us is simple. We must
continuously equip ourselves and be better positioned to meet the
challenges of a changing world order.
During
his recent visit to
Africa, the
papacy has come under criticism for its handling of the
reinstatement of
 Holocaust-denying bishop. The Sikhs will do well to remember that
apart from the high profile cases of ex-communication and
reinstatement into the religious fold, there are numerous cases
decided every now and then of complaints against one or the other
granthi, ragi etc. A number of cases involve the upkeep of the Sikh
holy scriptures.
Any detailed
study into such cases, and the way they are decided, is not going to
show the clergy or the administration of religious domain, in any
good light.
A little while
ago, the Shiromani Khalsa Panchayat had followed the case of a
self-styled Baba Dhanwant Singh who was accused of rape of a minor
girl. He was let off lightly by the top clergy and later accusations
had emerged that a close kin and associate of the then Akal Takht
jathedar, who acted as his PA legally and illegally at separate
times, was involved in highly objectionable deals with the culprit
baba. The same self-styled holy man was later taken to court on the
same issue and was convicted and sentenced to a ten-year jail term.
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Thankfully,
so far, the actions of the Sikh clergy are not coming under a
microscopic lens otherwise any intensive study of our clergy’s
actions and statements will bring a lot many problems in its
wake. But may we posit the same question and ask what role are
the people around the clergy playing? Whom do the clerics
consult on various actions and statements? |
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The recent
backtracking by the Akal Takht jathedar on the issue of
implementation of the Akal Takht hukumnama to get the Dera Sirsa
shops shut down is part of the pattern that the clergy has been
playing out for long. At a time when the Sikh nation’s rage seemed
spilling over, the Akal Takht hukumnama was seen as a true
representation of the community’s wishes, but as soon as the
political pressure was upped and the ruling Akali Dal seemed to need
the votes of the Dera Sirsa followers, a new interpretation of the
ways that the Sikh nation can adopt to implement the edict has been
spewed out with a straight face by the top cleric.
Jathedar
Gurbachan Singh has now said even blocking traffic is against the
traditions of Sikhism. What kind of a religious interpretation is
that for the Sikhs who so far were told that the word of the Akal
Takht is akin to the word of the Lord? And why, pray, is the Akal
Takht jathedar getting into interpreting the religious doctrine over
blockade of traffic on some godforsaken road?
For heaven’s
sake, let’s not shame ourselves.
One jathedar not
very long ago talked of “off with their heads” approach, then went
back on it, recently announced a program to send marjeevras, then
claimed he was merely announcing other people’s programme, and now
says sending marjeevras is wrong. The Akal Takht jathedar is not
only trying to stop others, he is also usurping the powers that have
not been conferred on him.
He has said that
only Akal Takht can give a programme to the Sikh community.
 It
is our considered view that our clerics must understand that they
have it in their power to articulate the community’s collective will
and plans but they must side step issues that are divisive and on
which a collective view is yet to emerge.
The Pope made
the mistake when he talked of measures to stop Aids and said that
they only aggravated the fight against Aids. His remarks about
“violent and irrational” Islam in 2006 still rankle the Muslim
world. His visit to
Cameroon
and Angola remained overshadowed due to many wrong actions and
statements. And critics are now questioning what was the Vatican
public relations team doing all this while.
Thankfully, so
far, the actions of the Sikh clergy are not coming under a
microscopic lens otherwise any intensive study of our clergy’s
actions and statements will bring a lot many problems in its wake.
But may we posit the same question and ask what role are the people
around the clergy playing? Whom do the clerics consult on various
actions and statements? In case of the Pope, it is known that the
pontiff’s remote style is responsible to some extent but that is
because he is, by nature, a shy, professorial theologian.
The Sikh
priests, at least those currently at the helm, are not. If the
footfalls heard in the papal apartment after sunset are only those
of the Pope and Father Georg Gänswein, his secretary, then the
footfalls heard around our clergy are those of Akali circle
presidents, jathedars, small time political activists and people of
sometimes questionable credentials. Virtually every journalist has
access to the topmost clergy at all times of the day and night and
we haven’t see much respect in the tone and tenor employed in
journalism when reporting on Sikh religious affairs and clergy.
A jathedar
moving around with a laptop will not necessarily make for a better
religious person but may be it will help to know that Pope
Benedict’s media operation chief Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, 67,
has now ensured that laptops enter Vatican. New media technologies
are creating a new environment, a new culture, and it is necessary
that our clergy equips itself to engage with the debates, discourses
and aspirations of the community so that it can spread the holy word
better and far and wide.
A new generation
of Sikhs is coming up, the one which has never dialed a phone. This
is the push button generation. It has no recall of people who have
no idea of the wonders of information technology. It knows no one
who does not have an email id. And it is ready to look for God on
the Facebook.
We are not
suggesting that the Jathedars be on the Facebook, please also do not
suggest that the children looking for God on the Facebook will get
frustrated and return to the traditional ways and start listening to
our jathedars. But it will certainly help if we have Jathedars who
understand the importance of their own role, position and
articulation, and could guide the community towards a better future.
One way is not to frustrate the collective will. If all the
jathedars are seen as almost affiliated with a particular political
party or a family, surely we should thank our stars that the media
does not give as much importance to the Sikh clergy as the western
media gives to the papacy. Otherwise, our jathedars are capable of
supplying so much mirth and grist to the journalistic mills that the
holy father sitting in the middle of
Rome
will find it difficult to get in a word edgewise into our
newspapers.
25 March 2009
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