Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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in general and the caste tradition in particular, only shows how strong
and persistent such tradition must have been to survive the ideological
pervasiveness of caste, and how close it must have been to the genuine
Sikh movement since it could not be the characterization of the
movement as a whole, where chronology is relatively not so important,
it does not, therefore, make much of a difference as to whether such
evidence was recorded contemporarily or a little later.
4. Overall view
Just as it is necessary to take an overall view of the movement,
so it is in assessing the Sikh tradition. This becomes all the more
important because the Sikh movement was in certain respects so
radically different from the Indian tradition that its full implications
were not likely to be understood by all of its participants. In deciding
about the ideological line, the hymns of the Guru, as embodied in the
Guru Granth, are the final criterion. As to the events relating to history,
one should not attach undue importance to those minor details which
are at variance with the overall character and direction of the
movement. Here also we illustrate our point with reference to two
important controversial issues.
There is a hymn in the Bichitar Natak which runs in the original
as:
‘Babe ke Babar ke Dou, ap kare Parmesar sou,
Deen sah in ko pehchano; duni pat un kao anmano.’
This hymn has been rendered by Macauliffe as:
‘The successors of both Baba Nanak and Babar
Were created by Gob Himself,
Recongize the former as a spiritual,
And the latter as a temporal king.
Babar’s successors shall seize and plunder those
Who deliver not the Guru’s money. 3
This hymn has been construed by interpreting the word
‘recognize’, to mean that Guru Gobind Singh conceded; ‘Render unto