Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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soms Bhaktas is doubt.
The Sikh movement was, in addition, a revolutionary movement.
The revolutionaries had to keep their vital secrets to themselves and,
because they were engaged in a life and death struggle, they could
have little time at their hands for recording history. Also, it was plebian
movement. Under the caste system all literary activities were confined
to the elite castes. Those who joined the Sikh movement were mostly
illiterate, drawn from the lower castes. Guru Gobind Singh started a
records office at Anandpur, but whatever records were there were lost
when Anandpur was beseiged and had to be abandoned. These
considerations make it plain that, in reconstructing the history of the
Sikh movement, one should not expect the detail and thoroughness
of the historical evidence one finds in European historiography. One
has to make the best of whatever is available. In any case, the paucity
of historical evidence about a point should not be used as a cover for
filling the gaps, if any, with even less plausible hypotheses.
2. Hagiographical
Another exception taken to the acceptance of Sikh tradition as
a source of historical evidence is that a part of it is of hagiographical
nature or is mixed up with religious faith. This again is a feature common
to Indian tradition where all life activities were viewed and expressed
in religious terms. Muslim historians of India were no more free of
religious bias. The accounts of India given by Chinese travellers, Huien
Thsang, Fahien and others, are full of credulous stories. Strabo calls
similar accounts given by the Greeks as lies. 2 It is not suggested that
the Sikh tradition should be accepted uncritically. All we say is that it
should not be given short shrift on this account, and the grain should
be sifted from the chaff as it is done in the case of Chinese, Greek and
Muslim accounts.
3. Originality of Tradition
It has been seen (Chapter V) that Brahminism showed
remarkable dexterity and flexibility in distorting heterodox
ideologies and weaving and presenting them into pattern which
conformed or approximated to the orthodox school and its social