Sikhs opposed Ambedkar request to let Dalits convert to Sikhism

CAN'T DIGEST THIS 

"The Sikh leadership, including Master Tara Singh, a high caste, had been advised by Gandhi and the Brahmin leaders to reject the proposed conversion as that would shift the monopoly of power from the higher caste Sikhs to the new Dalit Sikhs. Gandhi and the Brahmins also did not want the message of casteless society advocated by Sikhism to spread to the rest of India – the land of caste, to which Gandhi and Brahminical forces subscribed." 

I don't believe Gandhi would have done it, it is the BJP schemes to undo Gandhi' and Nehru's heritage. If it was not for them, Indian would not have been India today and these dudes would not have seen the light of the day - had India gone fanatic.

Mike Ghouse

Why did Sikhs vehemently opposed Ambedkar's request to let Dalits convert to Sikhism?

Harsh Vardhan, Associate Professor

Updated Oct 17 2017 · Author has 80 answers and 29.1k answer views

Dr. Ambedkar went to Amritsar in 1936 with his proposal to convert millions of Dalits to Sikhism, his first choice religion. The Sikh leadership, including Master Tara Singh, a high caste, had been advised by Gandhi and the Brahmin leaders to reject the proposed conversion as that would shift the monopoly of power from the higher caste Sikhs to the new Dalit Sikhs. Gandhi and the Brahmins also did not want the message of caste less society advocated by Sikhism to spread to the rest of India – the land of caste, to which Gandhi and Brahminical forces subscribed.

If the Sikhs had accepted the proposal at that time, today Sikhs would have numbered 250 to 300 million, and would have had a lot of clout in all power structures, and what had happened to them in 1984 would probably never would have happened. Furthermore, if they had accepted the conversion, their demand for autonomy would have had a more realistic chance of being met. More still, the Sikh slogan “Raj Karega Khalsa” would have become real by capturing political power in the new democratic India.

Apparently, the Sikh leadership was not interested in expansion of Sikhism to India as they were blinded by their selfish interest, and not the interest of Sikhism. They feared, that they would lose all control and power to the new Dalit Sikhs. If only the Sikhs leaders had followed the true agenda of Guru Gobind Singh Ji of a new caste less society in India; the Guru had hoped that his Khalsa contagion would spread rapidly throughout India especially among victims of the caste system (the lower castes i.e. the shudra varna who form nearly 80% of India’s population).

This was a great loss to Sikhism. The Sikhs had one chance to expand their religion out of Punjab to the rest of India, and they have lost that chance. Sikhism has become a stunted religion as a result without any missionary zeal, restricted to Punjab and largely a hereditary religion with no new conversions at national or international level. This was a great achievement for the Brahminical forces as they did not want Sikhism to spread to rest of India and threaten the hegemony of Brahmins and the Brahminical system in India. The Guru’s in their infinite wisdom wanted Sikhism to be a India wide religion but the Sikh leaders at the time lacked that wisdom and had put their own agenda, above the agenda and the vision of the Guru’s.

All those who have known or know Sardar Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, ex -M.P, will agree that he was a true Sikh and a true Sikh missionary, who loved the massage of the Guru’s and Guru Granth Sahib Ji. His ultimate desire was to join the Khalsa, a caste less order. He also desired that the Dalits, who suffer so much injustice under Hinduism and its caste system, should seek refuge in Sikhism, which will give them protection against suffering and oppression.s 

India’s Thaali on her 69th Anniversary of Freedom.

Happy Independence day to Indians | MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com

My dear Fellow Indians, 

As we proudly celebrate the 69^th anniversary of our independence, we must have a full Thaali in front of us to know our motherland sufficiently. It must have every ingredient in it from khatta, meetha, peekha, teekha, khara, patla, gada, sukha, kuchcha and kadva. 

Thaali is a balanced plated meal with every ingredient in it; Sour, Sweet, saltless, tasteless, hot, liquidy, pasty, dry, wet and bitter respectively as the words in Hindi-Urdu or Urdu-Hindi translate it.

What does that mean? It simply means we have to live with good, bad and the ugly in each one of us in different proportions.

First, let’s deal with the good.  Like all of you, I am proud of my motherland India, and my homeland America, both are God’s own countries, let me tell you why.

We are a full representation of the universe. As a nation we are made up of Adivasis, Atheists, Bahais, Bos, Buddhists, Christians, Dalits, Hindus, Jains, Jewish, Muslim, Sikhs, Tribal’s, Zoroastrians and every possible grouping.

 
Our Motherland is represented by every race, nationality, ethnicity, language, culture and religion. We see God as one, none and many; and in every form; male, female, genderless and non-existent, being and non-being, nameless and with innumerable names.

We are proud of our nation, it’s a beacon of freedom to the third world, where people mind their own business and live their own lives with free will.

We have to be grateful to our founding fathers, each one of them for going to jail and getting beat up, but worked for creating a better world for us. 

Every day when I open my blog about India, I salute their utterly unselfish valor. I am not listing their names deliberately, as I don’t want to miss any, there were so many of them, but I request you to write the names that come to your mind in the comment section below, by next year, I hope we will have a complete list to work from. Believe me, I can write the names, I have passed my IAS and I know my India well. 

After the independence, we were blessed with a visionary leader Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru for nurturing and delivering a pluralistic India to our generation (born after independence). Dr. Ambedkar gave us a solid constitution that will carry us far out into the next millennium; Maulana Abul Kalam Azad laid a great foundation for education with the IIT’s that India is cherishing now. Sardar Patel, the iron man kept the nation together.  I shudder at the thought of so many other nations that have gone haywire. Despite Gandhi being shot by an extremist, we did not run amuck, and did not go the wrong way; thanks to Nehru and Patel for saving the nation and putting it on the right path.  The two legged balanced path of social cohesion and economic prosperity.  I salute all the four and others who have shaped India. 

Please remember this cycle; Nehru sought help from America to upgrade the steel plants and our infrastructure, at that time, the Americans thought we were not capable of handling the new technology.  That is when the Soviet Union jumped in and became a partner in our progress. When the Union broke, America was ready to accept India as equal partner and here we are today. Prime Ministers Morarji Desai, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh have delivered a capitalistic, ready to flourish India to Prime Minister Modi.

Modi gave a lot of hope for change and I hope we realize that, however, his eerie silence on issues is tearing the social cohesion apart, causing the nation to be a one legged nation.  We cannot be blind to it, we must acknowledge it, and all of us must join together and ask him to restore the social dharma back again. If Modi speaks, people will listen. He needs to speak tough and take us back to  “live and let live” philosophy of India.

My request to Modi is to watch for the chumchas, those who assure him that everything is alright, but everything is not alright, true followers will tell him like it is and not let him fall in to the abyss.

If you are a genuine supporter of Modi, become his critic, tolerate criticism from others, and help him fix the problems rather than bulldoze them or remain silent. Demand the release of Teesta Salvad, a great patriot of India. I would praise Modi, if he stops his chumchas from shutting a critical voice of the nation. I will guarantee you this, without the voices of Teesta, democracy will be the loser and our freedom would be the victim.  Remember Emergency rule?

We must commit ourselves to genuinely free ourselves from pettiness, free ourselves from our prejudices towards fellow beings, free ourselves from treating a fellow Indian less than ourselves and we must certainly shelve the arrogance that God favors us and not others. 

We must also commit to defend the freedom of others, we must cherish the otherness of others and let everyone freely breath, drink, eat, wear or believe whatever suits them, and crush the thoughts of forcing others to behave the way we want them to behave. No one shall be a slave in free India.

An Indian is an Indian is an Indian, period.

For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.  

We may want to consciously start thinking and acting as one people, one people within a nation and a community and one people globally.

Our combined philosophies believe in one world; Hinduism describes the world as Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum, the whole world is one family, the idea of Ek Onkar (one) in Sikhism, and idea of one family that we are all created from the same couple as Quran puts it and Jesus embraced every one regardless of who any one is... similar philosophies are grounded in all our religions.  

A few don't follow their own heritage and resort to thievery, loot, murder, terrorism, rioting, rapes, infanticide and other evils that destroy the fabric of the society,  but a majority of every group goes about their own way, living their life with struggles and ease and don't even bother others. We should build upon the 99% of population and not on the less than 1% that does not follow any principles.

On this day, and every day from here forward, make a pledge to yourselves to talk about in terms of us Indians - and not Malyalee, Gujarati, Bengali.... or Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isaee. Don't expect others to jump and say the same, give them the time and if you are consistent for at least a year, you will see others emulating you.

Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers.
 
Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility. I am proud of my heritage and am proud to be an Indian-American.

Click and enjoy:

 

Our National Anthem National Anthem 2 Twenty Patriotic songs on click India's Map

Jai Hind

Mike Ghouse

http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/

Mike is a speaker, thinker, writer, pluralist,  TV-Radio commentator and a human rights activist committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His info in 63 links at MikeGhouse.net and writings at TheGhouseDiary.com

PATRIOTIC SONGS

• Apni Azaadi ko hargiz hum
• Vande Mataram - AR Rahman
• Vande Mataram
• Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna ab
• Saray jahan say achha -1
• Saray Jahan say achha - lata
• Mere Desh Ki Dharti
• Mera rangde basanti chola
• Kar chalay hum fida,
• Jahan Daal Daal par sone
• Hum laye hain toofan say kishti
• Hai preet jahan ki reet sada
• Ganga Meri Maa ka Naam
• ai watan ai watan, tujh ko
• Ai mere pyaare watan,

• Aao bachcho tumheien sire
• A jo des hai tera - Shahrukh
• A desh hai veer jawanon ka

India's sacred text

A Page from India’s constitution – every time I look up our constitutions (India and America), a sense of reverence and admiration for the founding fathers emerges, and I thank them for this sacred document, as always, I take a few minutes to thank Nehru, Ambedkar, Patel, Azad and of course the Mahatma.  Mike Ghouse

I think of the song

Hum laye hain toofan saykishti nikal kay
es desh ko rakhna mere bachho sambhal kay

Tum hi bhavish ho mere Bharat vishaal kay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgax5HQoJ6k&feature=related

Click the picture to enlarge it. Can you identify who they are? please write in the comments. 

Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism and building cohesive societies. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net 

Out of my mind: Being a Hindu

Indeed, "Hindu religion may be tolerant, but Hindu society is intolerant and inegalitarian." the same goes with Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism,   a few bad men make the good religions look bad. Let me repeat for every Hindu ass, there is a Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist ass. I am a big admirer of Bhagvad Gita, and Mr. Desai's reference about those two verses bothered me, and I have to verify the verses Mr. Desai has quoted and read it in full, as I do with Quran or the Bible - read at least three verses before and after to get the contextual meaning.

Mike Ghouse
MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com
# # # 

OPINION: "No one should be surprised that many Dalits left Hinduism. Indeed the puzzle is that so many remained," says Lord Meghnad Desai.

Out of my mind: Being a Hindu

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/out-of-my-mind-being-a-hindu/

Written by Meghnad Desai | Published on:March 29, 2015 12:30 am

There is joy in heaven when even one sinner repents. So goes the Christian prayer. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad may not be best placed to be greeted as a Christian sinner, but the good news is that it has repented. It has finally discovered that the curse of untouchability may have been the reason Dalits preferred to abandon the Sanatana Dharma and migrate to other more egalitarian religions. Who needs ‘ghar wapsi’ if the ghar you are being invited back to treats you like dirt?

No one should be surprised that many Dalits left Hinduism. Indeed the puzzle is that so many remained. There is a fundamental misunderstanding among the champions of Hindu nationalism. We are constantly told that Hindu religion is so tolerant that secularism is in its very spirit. You don’t need to contrast a secular India with a Hindu India. This tolerance is something of a myth, but not too far from the truth.

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Hindu religion may be tolerant, but Hindu society is intolerant and inegalitarian. One may admire the contemplation of Advaita, but then how can one reconcile the contempt for the Shudra and the ati-Shudra with the assertion of a universal abstract Brahman? Hindu society mistreats the majority of its people. Even the Bhagavad Gita displays this prejudice when it contrasts the “virtues” of the two upper Varnas with the “mundane character” of Vaishyas and Shudras (Adhyaya 18, shloka 41-48). For all the spirituality and loftiness of the Vedas and Upanishads, the unassailable facts were of inhuman treatment of Dalit men and even more so of their women, who were treated as sex objects. Shudras did not do better. The Bahujan, the majority, were the losers in Hindu society.

Much of Hindutva ideology is propagated by the upper castes, particularly Brahmins. There is no discussion about how the lowly jatis felt about the mythologies and philosophies of Brahmanism. Jyotiba Phule was the first modern writer to articulate a trenchant anti-Brahminical message. Dr Balasaheb Ambedkar wrote tirelessly in a critical manner against the pretensions of Brahminical spirituality. Read his critique of the Bhagavad Gita and you will realise how different that great text of Brahmanism looks to the lower castes. He fought tirelessly against caste and Brahmanism. At the end of his life, he gave up his efforts at making fellow Hindus aware of the defect in their society and took his followers to Buddhism.

Mahatma Gandhi tried his best to convince Hindu society of the evils of untouchability. He did not want to break up the Hindu mass support for independence by dividing it on the untouchability issue as Ambedkar wanted to. Yet he failed to persuade Varna Hindus to abandon untouchability. They all paid lip service to his Harijan Seva programme, but the exploitation and contempt remained. India still needs SC/ST reservations even after 67 years because Hindu society is unreformed and unrepentant.

Hindu society was lucky that the Muslim rulers of India, through the six centuries that they ruled in North India, left the jati system undisturbed. They converted the untouchables but, throughout Muslim rule, Hindu society survived intact. Then the British did something much worse than conversion. They gave free access, regardless of caste, to modern education. This was revolutionary in a society where education was the monopoly of the top two jatis. A Shyamji Krishna Varma could never have been a Sanskrit scholar nor a Mohandas Gandhi a barrister if the British had not brought modern ideas and education to India. It was education more than Christianity which challenged Hindu society.

South India gained the most from this revolution. The anti-Brahmin movement, which the Justice Party launched, followed by the Dravida movement of the Periyar, has made South India very different from the North. It is the North which is still stuck in the past. It is the BIMARU states which are the strongholds of the Hindutva movement. South India has scores higher on the Human Development Index than North India.

The jati system fragments Hindu society. The VHP may dream of a Hindu nation, but to be a Hindu is to be divided and fragmented. That is what will save India from the VHP.