INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

letters, marked with Gurus’ handwriting, or personal belongings like clothes, swords,
sandals, and other personal requisites, such as Gurus’ dattan, the bark used for cleaning
the teeth. The custodian gurdwara may claim that the Guru intentionally presented
a gift to his devotees for the purpose of being commemorated, or more randomly
lost or dropped a personal object when he passed by. The former is the case
with the Gurdwara Guru Gobind Singh Ji Daskhati Sahib in Ahraura outside Varanasi
which is named after a handwritten scripture believed to enshrine Gobind Singh’s
signature (Daskhati). The relic was initially kept in private custody and later displaced
to a gurdwara constructed only for veneration of the signature. Historical places like
this do not necessarily allege the physical presence of a Guru at a particular location,
but commemorate and provide darshan of material objects which the Gurus in some
way or another touched.
Given the significance of holding congregations in Sikhism, the Sikhs have established
community based gurdwaras wherever they have travelled and settled
down. This second category of gurdwaras may be historical in the sense of being old,
but they are in no particular way related to memorable events in the Sikh history.
Gurdwaras erected solely for congregational worship are generally termed Sangat
Sahib, “the respected congregation”, or Singh Sabha, referring to a society or “association”
(sabha) of Singhs, and not to be confused with the Sikh reform movement in the
late nineteenth century. Community gurdwaras can be constructed for a Sikh assembly
in a particular geographical area ‒ in a town, an urban neighborhood, a village, or
at a railway junction – or be designed for the professional or working community
who built it.
In Varanasi, Sikh students and teachers related to Benares Hindu University established
their own gurdwara for the academic community of Sikhs, while workers
employed by Diesel Locomotive Works in the outskirts of the city likewise set up
Singh Sabha Gurdwara for Sikh families within the industrial estate. In a similar fashion,
military regiments in India accommodated gurdwaras in cantonments and units
for Sikh members of the armed forces. 322 Yet another example of a community based
house of the Guru is the domestic gurdwaras set up in the individual or joint household
for family members and relatives. Among the respondents in my structured
interviews, eleven Sikh and Sindhi families had constructed a gurdwara for domestic
worship in special-made rooms or sections of their houses, either on the upper floor
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The custom of providing regimental gurdwaras to Sikh soldiers and officers was already
established during the Khalsa raj of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the nineteenth century, and further
developed by the British after the annexation of Punjab in 1849 and the recruitment of Sikhs to
the Native and Colonial Armies. Today a gurdwara will be found in every military unit of the
Indian force in which Sikh soldiers and officers are employed. If a unit consists of more than
fifty Sikhs it is required to employ a granthi for performance of daily services and custodianship
of the Guru Granth Sahib. In the case of warfare a separate vehicle will transport the Guru
Granth Sahib to the main base in the field where a temporary gurdwara is constructed in a
separate tent. Information provided by Captain Gurmej Singh Bajwa, Jalandhar, November
2006.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008