I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read in the Times of India of April 27 the story about the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee ordaining that Sikhs who drink, smoke or use other intoxicants cannot keep the Guru Granth Sahib in their homes. I guess there is no such restriction on cheats, liars, robbers or politicians!

I was born a Sikh and I will die a Sikh. I trim my beard (though I don’t dye it! Does that give me a few brownie points?) and I try to live by the eternal values of Sikhism: truth, honesty and the universal brotherhood of man. My father, during his life, trimmed his beard, dyed it, drank enough whisky to drown a fair-sized battleship and carried the title of Sardar to the end. He was also the SGPC counsel in the Paonta Sahib firing inquiry commission! My brother is clean shaven and for most of his life has drunk and smoked to excess. One of the architects of the Anandpur Sahib resolution (who is no more and his name is irrelevant for the moment), who was an old friend of my father’s, drank more Indian whisky from Scotch bottles in our house than I care to remember.

My mother, who is 80, is as devout a Sikh as they come. She has read from the Granth Sahib almost every day of her adult life and shared its wisdom with us and made us better human beings. One of my most vivid childhood memories is the aroma of the karha prasad being prepared at home every day for the bhog ceremony (sacred offering to the Granth Sahib). Every evening it would be distributed to the family after the ardas. My mother, in spite of having been married to a man who lived a hedonistic life, did not abandon her Sikh values. She has done more for the spiritual and mental well-being of her family and friends than all the “holier than thou” clergymen we have fed. I am sure so have hundreds of other devout mothers be they Sikh, Hindu, Muslims or Christian.

As I said, one does not really know whether to laugh or to cry when one reads about the antics or utterings of the clergy. I remember a conversation I had with a Pakistani mini-cab driver in London many years ago. A good Punjabi from Lahore, his solution to most of the problems plaguing the world was to ship all the mullahs, the granthis and the pundits to an isolated island from where they couldn’t return. The world, he averred, would be a much more peaceful place without them. I agree.

Where was the religious advisory committee when in the name of religion thousands of men, women and children were tortured, raped and killed in Punjab? Where were the clergy when the holiest of holies, the Darbar Sahib, was desecrated by the militants? Where were our clerics when thousands of families were besides themselves with grief during the 1984 riots? How many of them came out to give succour to their flock? And now they feel they have the right to decide who can have the Granth Sahib at home and who cannot? One part of me feels they must be joking. Nobody can be so absurd. Another part of me says: Forgive them, oh Lord, they know not what they do.

They say that they will not recognise as a Sikh any member of the community who cuts his or her hair or trims his beard. My goodness, how will I survive? Thank God, the clergy have little or no influence on the lives of the 14 million Sikhs who work hard, play hard and are the backbone of the defence forces of this country. I need no recognition from the SGPC. I do not need anybody’s permission to keep at home, and to read from, any sacred text of any religion that I choose. I do not need any clergyman’s intervention to make my peace with my God who understands Punjabi, Hindi, English and every language — spoken and unspoken.

The Sikh religion is unique in that it welcomes to its fold people of all religions and creeds and recognises the fundamental truth of the teachings of all faiths. The langar (community kitchen in the gurudwara) is open to everybody irrespective of creed or length of hair. Our sacred texts have drawn from the Holy Koran, the Bhagvad Gita, as also Sufi poets and numerous sages and saints, including Kabir. Guru Nanak said: “There is no Hindu, there is no Mussulman.” Our tenth Guru enjoined on the Sikhs to take the Granth Sahib as their Guru after him. I am sure that he would have welcomed people of all faiths to his congregation. Among the Sikhs we recognise those who are keshdhari (those who wear their hair unshorn) and sahejdhari (those who trim their hair). I dare say that goodness and piety in people are not proportional to the length of their hair.

The clergy of most religions are probably in a panic that they are losing their traditional hold on the population. The extent of religiousness, as is commonly understood, is inversely proportional to the prosperity and the education levels of the population. Instead of using religion and spiritual teachings to minister to the people who need them, the clergy will probably end up alienating all right thinking people. Perhaps that is just as well. Religion would be one of man’s greatest inventions if it were not for the bigotry and hypocrisy that often go with it. Just like democracy would be undoubtedly the greatest form of government if it were not for the chicanery and lies that have become an integral part of it. But I do know that we, the people, are the only ones who can take the responsibility of preventing the clergy or the politicians from despoiling the world.

N. S. CHAWLA

This article originally appeared in The Sunday Times of India, April 7 1996