INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

taught through individual reading practices. The remaining respondents (13 percent)
said they could not read nor write in Punjabi, but still claimed they were able to recite
hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib from memory or follow text recitations in religious
settings. The figures stand for the selected group of informants and cannot lay any
claim to represent the community at large. Still the responses may suggest some general
notions related to literacy. When the respondents said they “know” Punjabi and
the language of the sacred texts the majority referred to their ability of reading and
writing. Those who had not pursued knowledge of writing the Gurmukhi script, but
knew how to recite and reproduce text in speech, would likewise claim literacy. One
female respondent had in fact gone through the ceremony charni lagna, in which professional
reciters needs to prove their language skill before they can perform recitations
of the Guru Granth Sahib (See Chapter 2), even though she was unable to write
in Gurmukhi. In this case literacy and language proficiency was entirely based on the
ability to decode the sacred script and enunciate the words. The instance seems to
suggest that at least to some Sikhs the criteria for a claimed literacy of the religious
language is somewhat deviant from literacy in the secular languages used in everyday
life. Reading and enunciation of the sacred writing of the Gurus is significant in
the Sikh religious life, but the ability to write is not necessitated. To engage in the
Gurus’ words, already committed to writing, one needs merely to read and speak to
master the sacred language.
KHATRI AND PUNJABI TRADERS
The caste system in India is confusing, and in practice there is no single “system” or
pattern which can be applied to all the realities of social groups. The hierarchy of four
castes or varnas (“colors”) – Brahmins, Kshattriya, Vaisha, Shudra ‒ which according to
popular literature is supposed to constitute a fixed system with Brahmins on the top,
signifies a theoretical model drawn from Sanskrit texts and is a highly unstable
pyramid. The idea and practice of social hierarchies are not modeled after the varna
system but will vary between different districts and communities in India. In a predominantly
traditional Hindu city like Varanasi the Brahmins occupy high status
both in practices and discourses, whereas their rank and position have not been particularly
high in the Punjab where landowners and agriculturists constitute the upper
social strata. 137 The meaningful components of the social “system” are instead zat
(Punjabi) or jati (Hindi) which designates social position fixed by birth into a endogamous
community or larger grouping, such as Jat, Khatri, Rajput, Brahmin, etc.,
in which individuals will remain for the rest of their lives. Each zat will further be
divided into smaller exogamous groups of clans or sub-castes called got (Punjabi) or
gotra (Hindi). According to customary marriage and kinship rules the individual
137
See e.g. Indera P. Singh’s (1959) discussion on Sikhism versus Brahminism in his study of a
Punjabi Sikh village.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008