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Lou Fenech: Martyrdom 85
outlines of the nation, be it the Indian nation itself or the imagined entity
of Khalistan, the so-called homeland of the Sikhs, have been plotted
through such sacrifice. 63 The blood of martyrdom in these related
contexts is indicative of ownership and power. Indeed, the maps of India
or of the proposed Khalistan become in this context martyries unto
themselves virtual representations onto which Sikhs have projected their
past, present, and their future, a future we are often told which can only
be achieved by further sacrifice.
Ultimately therefore we may suggest that this is perhaps the reason
why both McLeod’s and my statements about Guru Arjan and by
extension those others of ours which refer to subsequent Sikh martyrs
incur such displeasure. These are caricatured and made to appear as if
these encourage Sikhs not only to deny their past but to also deny them
an important place in the future of all of us.
Notes
1
W.H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1976), pp. 1-19. See also pp. 37-58.
2 A large number of texts project this standard narrative. For one see
Harbans Singh, The Heritage of the Sikhs (Delhi: Manohar, 1985).
3 W.H. McLeod, Gurū Nānak and the Sikh Religion (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1968).
4 Indubhusan Bannerjee, The Evolution of the Khalsa I (3 rd ed., Calcutta:
AMC, 1972), pp. 20-1.
5 Jagjit Singh, The Sikh Revolution: A Perspective View (New Delhi:
Kendri Singh Sabha, 1984).
6 The key word here is sustained as in McLeod’s 1995 Historical
Dictionary of Sikhism a brief definition is supplied to which we shall turn
in a moment. W.H. McLeod, Historical Dictionary of Sikhism (Landhom,
MD and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1995), pp. 192-93.
7
W.H. McLeod (ed. and trans.), The Chaupa Singh Rahit-nama
(Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1987).
8 To this end, J.S. Grewal has recently noted that
[Through his death Guru Arjan] was effectively urging
“the claims of pluralism” as a matter of conscience