INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

morning processions (prabhatferi) to Gurubagh and Nichibagh gurdwaras preceding
the celebrations of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh’s birthdays.
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
At the local level community members will encourage young people to take active
interest in Sikh worship and provide teaching in Gurmukhi, music, and recitations
from the Guru Granth Sahib. Prior to the introduction of the modern school systems
in the nineteenth century, the Sikh gurdwara was the primary institution of religious
teaching. 179 Even if modernization has transformed the traditional knowledge and
shifted its circulation means to schools and colleges, the gurdwara remains a significant
source for transmission of religious knowledge. Occasionally the gurdwaras at
Varanasi are referred to as “schools of the Guru’s teaching” (gurmat vidhyale). Religious
learning is, with Lave’s (1991) words, “a social phenomenon constituted in the
experiences, lived-in world, through legitimate peripheral participation in ongoing
social practices”. 180 From an early age the children are socialized into the rhythm of
the community and the perpetual sound of gurbani. Through regular and habitual
contacts with the gurdwara they are exposed to a wide range of religious activities
which make them familiar with worship acts and the words of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Another source of religious education and propaganda in modern times is the
organization of study circles and educational student unions. Today there exists numerous
local and regional Sikh organizations with various degrees of affiliation to
educational religious centers in the Punjab. At Mogul Sarai near Varanasi, for instance,
a group of thirty Sikhs have assembled in the association Khalsa Seva Dal with
the main objective to instigate Sikhs to adopt a Khalsa identity. Representatives of the
association frequently visited Varanasi for speeches in the gurdwaras and distributed
propaganda leaflets during festivals. Khalsa Seva Dal is allied to the Sikh Missionary
College in Ludhiana ‒ an institution founded in the 1980s by Sikhs in Delhi and Punjab
for the aim to train Sikh propagandists, educate the youths, and to encourage
Sikhs and non-Sikhs to join the Khalsa fold. 181 The Sikh Missionary College arranges
tuition by correspondence courses for those wishing to become missionaries, study
circles, religious tests for children, and publishes literature, magazines and booklets,
many of which are distributed free of charge to individuals and local associations
such as the one at Mogul Sarai. In connection with the annual celebration of Vaisakhi
the Khalsa Seva Dal and the congregation of Grand Trunk Road Gurdwara at Mogul
Sarai organize the Khalsa ceremony (Khande di pahul) for Sikhs in Varanasi and surrounding
districts.
179
Mann 2005: 11.
180
Lave 1991: 64.
181
See the web site at: www.sikhmissionarycollege.org.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008