INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

thorities consequently shut up the property. Twenty years later the court case was
still pending and had turned into a protracted dispute between Brahmin solicitors
and wealthier Sikh representatives. 175 Local Hindus and Sikhs were still paying respect
to the sacred place by lighting incense and hanging flower garlands on locked
gates.
Not far away from Jaggat Ganj a colony named Cotton Mill was constructed in
the mid 1980s. Today approximately twenty-five Sikh families live in this area. In
beginning of the 1990s they jointly established an association called Dashmesh Khalsa
Seva with the primary object to organize annual commemorations of Guru Gobind
Singh’s birthday in mid-January, usually two weeks after the ordinary celebrations in
the gurdwaras. By now the program in Cotton Mill, supported by voluntary donations,
has become a local tradition and attracts Sikh families from all over the city. At
the time of my study, members of the association set up a marquee in the colony
square that acted as a temporary gurdwara for a day. They invited popular Sikh musician
groups (ragi jatha) from Delhi or the Punjab as well as local expounders
(kathakar) and propagandists (pracharak). 176 On this occasion the Guru Granth Sahib
would be taken out in procession and traverse through the neighborhood.
BENARES HINDU UNIVERSITY
About five kilometres to the south of the city center of Varanasi lies the campus of
Benares Hindu University (BHU). The university was founded in 1916 by Madan
Mohan Malviya as an extension of the Central Hindu School established by the Irish
theosophist Annie Besant in 1898. Today BHU has about 15000 students and is the
largest residential university in India.
As a result of the earlier state quota system for admission to university courses,
a significant number of students from Punjab pursued studies in Varanasi. Job opportunities
also attracted Punjabi teachers and scholars to the city. 177 To provide religious
and moral guidance to Sikh students living within the campus the Punjabi students
and teacher organized The Sikh Association BHU in the 1940s. According to an agreement,
the university granted the Sikh association 600 rupees a month to cover expenses
for religious activities and provided a room at Seth Shiva Ratan Mohta Hostel
(Rajputana Hostel) for a student gurdwara. Today an independent committee of
university employed professors and two student representatives manage the association.
The General Secretary of the association, Raghubir Singh, works as the granthi
responsible for all religious duties in the gurdwara. The number of registered student
members amounts to about 25 – 30 undergraduates and graduates who are specialized
primarily in medicine, science, and technology. Except for the holiday season in
175
Board members of the VGPC represented the Sikhs.
176
The estimated cost of the program amounted to 50000 Rupees in year 2001.
177
In the 1990s the Department of Philosophy established a temporary Guru Nanak Chair for
research in Sikh studies. Appointed to the post was Prof. Jodh Singh who was later transferred
to the Punjabi University at Patiala.
75
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008