Byline: Arjun Sharma

In Navi Basti area on the outskirts of Dhanaula town in Sangrur district, daily wager Hardev Singh (name changed) visits the gurdwara (Sikh temple) every morning before going to work. Two kilometres away, Gurdyal Singh visits another gurudwara located in the hustle and bustle of the market area surrounded by shops.

No, they don’t visit different gurdwaras because of their proximity to their workplaces or homes. They visit different shrines because they belong to different castes — Hardev is a Dalit while Gurdyal is a Jat. All across Punjab, in both rural and urban areas, separate gurudwaras — which have similar rituals — are designated for Dalits and Jats. Casteist gurudwaras, as they are termed, also define the hierarchy of caste in the Sikh community — a practice generally followed by the Hindus. This is a matter of great irony as Guru Nanak Dev founded Sikhism on the principles of equality. “I am neither a child, a young man, nor an ancient; nor am I of any caste,” he is quoted to have said.

An incident on January 17 this year shook the conscience of the highest Sikh body — the Shri Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and goaded it into taking action against casteism. According to reports, a Dalit Sikh, Kaka Singh, and his wife Ranjit Kaur were not given utensils for the bhog (a funeral rite) of his mother at a gurudwara at Maanwala village in Sangrur district of Punjab. Soon after the incident, SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal met the victim and decided to start a campaign for ‘One village, one gurudwara’ to end casteism among Sikhs. Residents of Dhurkot village in Faridkot district have taken the lead in this campaign by merging two gurdwaras into one, while similar moves are being reported from villages located near Jagraon and Kotkapura.

It’s even more ironic that this happened in Punjab despite the fact that the state has the highest percentage of scheduled caste (SC) people in the country. Punjab accounts for 4.3% of the SC population of India. The Dalit population of the state is estimated to be around 88.60 lakh, which is 31.94% of its total population. While 73.33% of this population resides in rural areas, 26.67% resides in urban areas. SCs professing Sikhism account for 59.9%, followed by Hinduism (39.6%). The remaining 0.5% SCs are followers of Buddhism. Out of the seven SCs in Punjab, the Mazhabi, Chamar, Ad Dhami, Balmiki, and Bazigar castes together constitute 86.8% of the total SC population. At the individual level, as many as 98.5% Mazhabis are Sikhs.

Subhead: ‘Casteist gurudwaras created for political dominion’

Sikh scholars say that the founder of Sikhism and the first of the 10 Sikh masters, Guru Nanak Dev, described all humans as equals and rejected the idea of a caste system. His successors followed in his footsteps and worked to build a casteless society. In line with this, langar was established so all people gather to eat food while sitting at the same level on the floor; this is also why all Sikh men have the last name ‘Singh’ and all Sikh women are called ‘Kaur’.

But over time, casteism crept into the society. Today, in most villages in Punjab, you will come across separate gurdwaras for the high-caste Jat Sikhs and for ‘Mazhabi Sikhs’ or Dalits. (I have removed the point of Ramgharia Gurudwaras as it is very rare)

Hardev says that while visiting the gurdwara is not a “sin” for Dalits, taking part in religious ceremonies and using langar (a free meal provided in gurudwaras) utensils is a taboo. “We’ve been told since childhood that the Sikh religion is based on equality, but ironically we were taken by our parents to a separate gurudwara built especially for Dalits,” he said.

Experts say that casteism was induced in the Sikh society to establish political dominance. The idea was to create a wedge within the community by separating their place of worship. Dr Anurag Singh, former director of the Sikh Itihas (history) Research Board (a body under the SGPC), said, “Casteist Sikh temples mushroomed in Punjab mostly in the late 1960s with political leaders trying to establish their dominion by giving seed to hatred within the Sikh community. As panchayats in the state increased, these casteist shrines grew as well.” The scholar said there are villages where up to five gurudwaras have been constructed for different castes and sects. “Surprisingly, casteist gurudwaras are now a common sight even in Canada, which has a substantial Sikh population,” he added.

The issue recently took a political turn as well, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab asking the SGPC to act against casteism. Prominent Dalit leader Vijay Sampla, the Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment, said Dalits in Punjab were being discriminated against. While the BJP has considerable vote bank in some parts of urban Punjab, especially the Doaba belt, it has no base in rural areas where it depends on its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Subhead: Need to look beyond gurudwaras to erase casteism

The caste barrier in Punjab is not only confined to religious shrines. It extends to cremation grounds as well, with separate crematoriums being constructed for the Dalits and actual, physical walls being built to segregate them in death as well.

Kiranpreet Kaur, a professor of sociology at Panjab University, Chandigarh, said that different gurudwaras for various castes could be explained through the concept of dominant caste. “In Punjab, Jats are numerically more than the other castes. To establish their dominance, they build separate gurudwaras for themselves where members of lower castes are not allowed to perform religious rituals.”

The SGPC believes that the awareness campaign it has initiated against the caste system will bring results in future, if not immediately. Bhupinder Singh Bhalwan, an SGPC member from Sangrur and a Jat, said after Independence, the influence of the Jat community increased in rural Punjab. “They wanted to arrest power, and so they started looking down on lower castes. As a result, the lower castes were not allowed to enter gurudwaras meant for the higher castes,” said Bhalwan. He said, however, that the new generation understands the perils of the caste system, and that things are beginning to change for the better.

Pic caption 1: Gurudwara for members of Ravidas community at Dhanaula (Pic credit: Sukhcharan Preet/ Barnala)

Pic cap 2: Main Gurudwara of Dhanaula (Pic credit: Sukhcharan Preet/ Barnala)