Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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order. The Sikh tradition was not immune from such subtle influence;
especially so in the case of the Sikh writers who were drawn from the
Brahmin and Khatri castes and could not shake off completely the
caste prejudices they had inherited. Therefore, the Sikh tradition which
highlights anti-casteism and the pro-plebain character of the
movement is all more weighty because it survived the backlog of
the caste heritage. The anti-casteism of the Sikh tradition could
not be born out of the caste society, and the pro-plebian tradition
could never raise either out of the caste society or out of classcum-religious
domination of the Muslim polity. The only other
source of egalitarian values could be the impact of European
interpreters in his time of the Sikh canoncial writings and of these
few or none was capable of giving an English interpretation. We
have refrained from advancing testimony from Sikh sources
belonging to have been coloured by European influence. It is very
significant that the egalitarian character of movement drew more
appreciative notice in early European accounts of the Sikhs than
from medieval Muslim or Hindu historians. Hence, the anti-caste
ideology and pro-plebian Sikh tradition is the product of the Sikh
movement itself and represents it more truly. Where a Sikh writer
mixes up the true Sikh tradition with his own bias, borrowed from
his family heritage or the surrounding caste milieu, we should give
more weight to that part of his statement which reveals the
originality of the tradition. We take a particular example to illustrate
this point.
Chaupa Singh was a Brahmin before he became a Sikh. In his
Rehatnama, he writes:
“The Muktas (the liberated ones or the ideologically pure Sikh)
preached : ‘Sikhs should have marriage alliances only with Sikhs. Make
no distinctions as to whether the Sikh is Khatri, Sood or Viash. Only
ensure that the party is Sikh. Keep no consideration of caste
whatsoever’…. Since some Sikhs had mental reservations in this regard,
it was suggested that it would be better to have the instructions
endorsed by the Guru, because then persons would have no hesitation