INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

anasi division were females. 123 An obvious explanation to the variability was the
mobility among Sikh men who were involved in military occupations and temporarily
stationed at garrisons in different parts of the district. The detailed Census table
from 1911 shows that no less than 74 percent of all the Sikhs recorded for Varanasi
city was employed in police and military services.
The major part of the soldiers belonged to the native army (215 men) which was
solely composed by Sikhs. Commissioner Blunt confirmed that “the figures show that
this increase is chiefly due to military causes. They [the Sikhs] are large only where
there are cantonments.” 124 The officers of the two following census reports in 1921
and 1931 likewise concluded that most Sikhs in the area were semi-permanent soldiers
and policemen. 125 The major part of the Sikh populations in Varanasi was men
involved in military service whereas the number of permanent Sikh residents in Varanasi
would come to little more than a hundred individuals. The census of 1911
offers a glimpse of the types of professions which these permanent residents were
involved with (See Figure 2). Apart from militaries and policemen employed in governmental
services, the larger part of the community was engaged in banking, industry,
and the business of wool, cotton, silk, fruits, spices, precious stones, petroleum,
drugs, dyes, books, musical instruments, etc., which apparently were marketable
products in a pilgrimage centre. The table informs of four Sikh “priests” or “ministers”
and seven other Sikhs, who worked in temples, with the burning ground services
or escorted pilgrims in the city. 126
To the colonial agents Varanasi remained a stronghold of Hindus. The majority
of permanent residents affiliated to the Sikh tradition were Nanak panthis, chiefly
followers of Udasin and Nirmala order, whereas those categorized as “real” Sikhs
were fewer in numbers, except for Punjabi Singhs who passed by in service of the
government. Although the typology of Sikhs and Nanak panthis proved long-lived in
official writings, 127 the demographic map of Varanasi Sikhs came to change considerably
after the departure of the British and arrival of migrants and refugees from
West Punjab in 1947.
123
Census of India 1911, Vol. XV, 1912: 792 ‒ 793.
124
Census of India 1911, Vol. XV, 1912: 116.
125
Census of India 1921, Vol. XVI, 1923: 58; Census of India 1931, Part 1, Report, 1933: 503.
126
Census of India 1911, Vol. XV, 1912: 566 ‒ 567.
127
In a district Gazetteer from 1965 the Sikh population in Varanasi is still divided into “Sikhs
and Nanakpanthis the later having their own holy men called the Nanakshahi fakirs” (Uttar
Pradesih District Gazetteers Varanasi, Esha Basanti Joshi 1965: 93 ‒ 94).
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008