INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

venerated family members, who naturally will be part of personal reminiscences, two
persons in particular recurred in these narratives: the saint-like Laina Singh who
refined Sikh practices in the gurdwaras and converted Hindus to Sikhism, and the
sucessful businessman Ajit Singh Sabharwal who shaped new institutions and represented
the community to the outer world. Today these two individuals have almost
become mythogenic in the community and their remembered deeds correspond to
the Sikh ideals of a saint-soldier (sant-sipahi): one who inwardly reshaped religious
practices and beliefs, and the other who built up the institutional infrastructure and
managed outwardly struggles. Their life-stories should be briefly sketched.
Laina Singh originated from a village in Kashmir where he worked as granthi in
the local gurdwara. By a coincidence a man named Mehinder Singh visited the village
in the 1940s, and after listening to Laina’s devotional singing and preaching on Sikhism
invited him to Varanasi. Mehinder Singh introduced him to the then president of
the newly established gurdwara committee and he was consequently asked to take
charge of Gurubagh Gurdwara as a granthi ‒ a post he occupied until his death in
1973. For Laina the coming to Varanasi turned out to be a return to the ancestral
home. One of his five sons told that Laina went to Hardwar and paid 60 rupees to a
pandha, a Brahmin registrar of genealogies, to go over the ancestry chart (shajra nasab)
of their family. It was found out that Laina was the fifth generation of lineal descendants
to a learned Brahmin scholar in Varanasi named Ganga Ram. Subsequently
Laina took lessons in Sanskrit with a Nirmala sant and the family changed their gotra
name to “Pandey”. Local Sikhs come to address him as the “Pandit” ‒ the learned
scholar. Laina’s family and elderly people who still commemorate his work at Varanasi
confirmed his spiritual nature and dedication. His son recalled:
My father was totally devoted to worship reading (puja path) and did
not take interest in other things. He used to get up at 3 in the morning
and go to Ganga to take a dip and came back to do Prakash of Guru
Granth Sahib ji. Then he performed devotional music (kirtan) from 5.30
to 8 o’clock. My father was doing everything by himself. In the gurdwara
there were only three employees; one was my father, one was an
old man who played tabla and then the man preparing food. All accounts
and everything were taken care of by my father.
Elderly residents remembered that Laina Singh brought about major changes in the
ritual life of Gurubagh Gurdwara: he removed the bell and oil-lamp which the
Udasin sants have used for the Arti ceremony and instead brought a whisk (chauri)
to pay respect to the Guru Granth Sahib which now was installed daily by the
Prakash and Sukhasan ceremonies (See Chapter 2). On Sunday mornings he arranged
longer services with devotional music and distribution of blessed food (karah
prashad). As an aged man alleged, locals had never before heard of Gurpurubs ‒ festivals
honouring the Sikh Gurus ‒ which now were introduced and celebrated with
spectacular processions in the city (Nagar kirtan). Laina invited Hindus living nearby
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008