LUDHIANA, Punjab—Renowned Punjabi singer Inderjit Nikku, along with representatives of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Feruman) and the People’s Democratic Party paid visit to 83 years old Sikh activist Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa at the Dayanand Medical College & Hospital in Ludhiana on June 15.
Inderjit Nikku highly appreciated the commitment and dedication shown by Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa for the release of political Sikh prisoners. Nikku held the Union government of India, along with the Punjab Government responsible for the prolonged imprisonment of Sikh prisoners. He appealed the Government to release the Sikh detainees who have served mandatory terms of their sentences.
Representatives of Akali Dal (Feruman) also met with Bapu Ji the same say. During their meeting with Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa, these leaders said that Bapu Ji is an exemplary personality who didn’t bow head before the cruel Governments and remained adamant on his decision despite enduring severe physical and mental torture.
S. Gurkirpal Singh of the Punjab Democratic Party also met Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa at the Dayanand Medical College & Hospital in Ludhiana earlier today.
Talking with Sikh24’s correspondent, PDP’s Chief S. Gurkirpal Singh said that he spoke with Bapu Ji about his struggle for the release of political Sikh prisoners. He said that Bapu Ji is struggling against human rights abuses by the Indian government.
Lashing out at the NGOs and Human Right bodies demanding release of Indian prisoners from jails of Pakistan, S. Gurkirpal Singh said that firstly they need to have a glance on human rights abuses in their own home. “Every prisoner, irrespective of his religion, caste or creed, deserves release from prison if he has served mandatory terms of his sentence. Bapu Ji was emotional while talking about the human right abuses being faced by political Sikh prisoners,” he added.
Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa has been on hunger strike since January 16, 2015 seeking release of political prisoners who have already served mandatory terms of their sentences. Recently, Bapu Ji was again arrested from his native residence in Hassanpur and was admitted in Dayanand Medical College & Hospital of Ludhiana.
I mean the two the religion and modern state should iron our all there differences.
Religion is more to do with leading life as per the direction given by Great divine Godly people
Whereas Modern societies follow laws of Science and evolution
These societies are run by Constitution and laws which are made by the law makers of society themselves.
Again I ask you to tell me which religious doctrine of Sikhi is in conflict with science and evolution? The natural world with all of its natural laws of science are fully accounted for within the teachings of Sikhi and unlike other religious faiths we do not believe in mythical fantastical beasts or mythological stories which do contradict science (anthropologically, laws of physics etc). You would do well to look at the utterings of Guru Nanak (the founder of the faith) when he talks of ‘Waheguru having made countless lives on countless planets’ and that God has created eighty four lakh (8.4 million) species of beings which tallies with the usual 5% deviation in statistics with the scientific latest estimates of both extinct, present and possible emergent life. I would refer you and other Sikhs who may be made to think that there is some contradiction between Sikh teachings and science to Dr Hardev Singh’s book which looked at this subject: “Scientific Vision in Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Interfaith Dialogue” by Singh Brothers. There is a neat summary of his work at http://sikhinstitute.org/akal_takht08/hardsi.html. And there is also Dr H S Virk’s book ‘Scientific Vision in Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Interfaith Dialogue” published by Singh Brothers, Amritsar (2008).
I rather think your desire to relegate Sikhism to some sort of quiet thing you just do in your home behind closed doors is because it is a very socially progressive religion whose tenets directly challenge authoritarian governance and demands of its followers that they stand up against injustice – the very reason why Guru Gobind Singh turned his sparrows into hawks to ensure that they could not deny either their Sikh identity and what it stands for when confronted by force. As I have detailed to you many times just because ‘Law makers’ make societies laws and constitutions that does not automatically confer legitimacy otherwise no one would have had the right to oppose the tyranny of the Mughal government and British Government and you and your forebears would still be living as cowering slaves. When a law is unjust it is your democratic and a Sikh’s religious duty to oppose it. As for ‘modern societies follow laws of science and evolution’ (as opposed to Sikhi following morality and ethics?) that was the mantra of the Nazi’s which enabled them to pursue the concept of a Germanic superman and racial superiority which led to an entire nation turning a blind eye to the genocide of millions of Jews in Europe. The whole point of religion is that it tells a man not only why he lives his life (what science is all about) but how to live his life. I have already told you before that on does not need a ‘law’ created by modern society to tell you not to poke yourself in the eye or not to poke someone else in the eye (and by extension laws telling you not to rape and murder) as the qualities of humanity, decency and tolerance are instilled by religious teachings (certainly in Sikhi) before a person even learns how to read and write. You are extremely fortunate to have Sikhs around to preserve your liberties and you are doing India a great disservice by trying to undermine its tenets and central role in society.
Religious laws and State laws get into conflict very often.
We need to have a laws which will reconsile these differences to form modern societies.
Really no point trying to debate this with you further as you just don’t understand the virtue of religious conviction and the moral and ethical rules of conscience on how you should behave in life that flow from that font. Perhaps it would be better for you to try and detail what Sikh religious ‘laws’ (as you put it) that you find so objectionable and that should be overturned or supplanted by ‘State laws to form modern societies’ ( as you put it) as I cannot find one single stricture or tenant from Sikhi that would be more progressive in their social or rational thinking. Name one. Just one.
Correction, missed out part of my sentence. it should have read – ‘as I cannot find one single stricture or tenant from Sikhi that would be more progressive in their social or rational thinking sourced from another religion or secular school of thought. Name one. Just one.
All things will have to under go change in life including religion . It is a law of nature .
That is how Sikhism was born from its ancestorla faith.
Only those states are harsh and draconian who follow the Imperialistic laws .
Benevolent states are welfare state which have laws based on the famous principles of
By the People ,For the people and of the People .
(Abraham Lincoln)
‘Sikhism was born from its ancestral faith’? I presume you mean Hinduism but you would be overlooking Islam with which it shares its most fundamental basic truth – Ik Onkar (the very first line of Japji Sahib) There is Only One God’. It really is pointless to talk of Sikhism as being ‘born’ of an ancestral faith – we certainly don’t talk of Christianity and Islam as being ‘born of the ancestral faith’ of Judaism just because it is one of the three Abrahamic faiths. Sikhi is a distinct theology and doctrine of its own and is recognised as one of the four great monotheistic faiths of the world. As for all things have to undergo change including religion I am afraid this is the wishful thinking of a non adherent as I have already explained to you that if a religion’s doctrine is true then it must be true then, now and forever – you don’t as a secular person or someone antithetical to religious faith (which after all sets restrictions and codes for behaviour that may be inimical to your personal desires and is therefore a constant thorn in your side pricking as it must your conscience) get to decide which bits of doctrine you wish to water down or change completely. We have seen in recent months people pretending to be Sikhs like your puppets Makkar and the Badals trying to adulterate Sikhi (which has an enormously powerful moral stance in regards to the unethical and unscrupulous pocket lining and traitorous behaviours the Akali Badal and SGPC wish to engage in) such as their claims that the Guru prescribed principle of ‘Miri Piri’ is no longer needed or that the ‘Panj Pyare’ have no religious authority (despite being given it in public by Guru Gobind Singh on April 13th 1699 at Anandpur Sahib when he took pahul at their hands) and are just ’employees’ of the SGPC. The latter examples demonstrate why religious doctrine cannot be altered by men when it has been prescribed by the divinely inspired Gurus. To suggest otherwise clearly shows your antipathy towards Sikhi. If a religion’s doctrine is wrong then it can clearly be challenged and if found wanting in response you can then say well that religion (probably because of adulteration down through the centuries when men have indeed interfered with its theology as you ironically want to happen with Sikhi) cannot be a bastion of truth and is therefore hardly worth following. In my estimation as a Sikh this has happened with Christianity which with its creation myth finds it difficult to reconcile with evolution and the existence of dinosaurs and with Hinduism which prescribes a caste system which is obviously immoral to anyone with an understanding of basic human rights. Indeed with Christianity we even have a fixed point in time where its faith was adulterated by men coming together in a conclave at the Council of Nicea hundreds of years after Christ’s crucifixion when the Roman Emperor Constantine wanted a religion to patronise to hold his empire together – political interference into religious doctrine which fractured Christian theology since then allowing room for both contradiction and compromise. As for benevolent states it is obvious to me that they are more likely to be both created and sustained if they are underpinned by the morals and scruples that Sikh religion provides rather than relying upon the ‘goodwill’ of politicians and bureaucrats – both of which failed catastrophically in 1984 when politicians, policemen and judiciary turned a blind eye to the genocide of Sikhs for both political and perverted patriotic expediency. If those men like the ‘honourable’ (yes he is still referred to as such by Indian media) Kamal Nath had a true belief in Waheguru and karma they would have not readily committed themselves to murder and the denial of justice to Sikh victims. The State can never be wholly trusted – Abraham Lincoln’s speech does not prevent Americans from insisting on the right to bear arms because of their deep rooted and long term suspicion of big government interfering in their personal liberties. The first line of Japji Sahib is ‘Ik Onkar’ – ‘There is Only One God’. The second line is ‘Sat Nam’ – ‘Truth is His name’. Sikhs like Americans prefer to trust in God and His immutable strictures.
We need to have new non imperialistic laws where we can address these issues with happy endings to stories.
This constant strife between folower of modern the laws of evolving states and those followng
religion with its static laws wlll have to be reconciled and harmonized .
We need to focus our energy more into our future than delving to much into past .
You want Sikhs to give up the life of a Gurmukh to become Manmukhs – give up God to follow the ‘Do what thou wilt’ theosophy of Satanists like Aleister Crowley. I suppose that does make it easier for your ilk to perpetuate the evils of the caste system. Sikhs will NEVER give up their GURU nor will they ever turn their back on Waheguru. Best you leave Punjab Sikh homeland to the Sikhs and move to a place where there are no morals or scruples to restrict your hedonistic proclivities. Your unquestioning obsession with obeying laws and lawmakers (no matter if they are implementing obviously unjust laws) was a defence that civil servant Eichmann used in his war crimes trial as to why he wasn’t guilty of murdering Jews by the million even though he had quite proudly improved the efficiency in which their death trains carried them to the concentration camps. And this constant need to try and absolve the Indian State and its peoples of guilt by saying its all the fault of repressive laws we happened to inherit from previous foreign (this is the critical point you keeping trying to make in a Pontius Pilate ‘washing your hands of guilt’ way) regimes just isn’t factually correct – do you remember the TADA law or its equally unconstitutional and draconian replacement Prevention of Terrorist Activities law – both created by the Indian State within the last 25 years, enforced by Indians and perpetrated at Indians without the help of any ‘bad’ Westerners. Really you are like a drunk blaming the bar for serving you alcohol when the alcoholism comes from your own weak will and lack of restraint. Modern laws of evolving states are the ones allowing kidnapping of Bapu Surat Singh from his house and force feeding him denying him dignity and the democratic right to protest for the sake of others, modern law of evolving states keeps Sikhs prisoner in jails even after their dubious sentences have been served, modern laws of evolving states permits ‘precautionary’ detention of any Sikh who wishes to commemorate the attack on Durbar Sahib whilst Hinduvta extremists are free to taunt about the genocide, modern laws of evolving states allows the banning of films featuring positive imagery of Sikhs whilst passing any that denigrate them. You just don’t seem to understand the point of religion let alone Sikhism. If a religion is true then what it says was true then, now and for all time. It cannot be adulterated to ‘move with the times’ as you have said again and again because it is not a fashion garment you put on and off your body to suit your personal peccadilloes but enlightenment of the mind and liberation of the spirit from Maya. The reason why Man made laws change is because they are created by Man and by definition imperfect. The immutable higher strictures of Sikh religion are lain down by Waheguru through the enlightenment of our Gurus – that is why they too by definition cannot be changed to suit your whims and prejudices.