Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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whatsoever. The cumulative result of all these developments was
that resort to arms was regarded as highly irreligious.
We do not wish to discuss theological and ethical issues in their
theoretical abstractions. For, there can be no end to hairsplitting.
Historical movements have to be viewed in the light of their social
impact. The gap between a utopian dogma and its application t a
concrete situation is illustrated in the case of Mahatma Gandhi himself.
Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru writes that there was, in Mahatma Gandhi,
‘a remarkable and astonishing change, involving suffering of the mind
and the pain of the spirit. In the conflict between the principle of
non-violence… and India’s freedom… the scales inclined to the later,
and ultimately he agreed to the Congress participation in the second
world war effort. ’31 Again, at a ‘prayer meeting the Mahatma struck an
almost Churchillian note over Kashmir’. 31a The issues before the gurus
were far too grave. One had to either resist or accept religious and
political tyranny. There are no two opinions about the humiliation the
Hindus suffered under the Mughal rule after Akbar. As the Muslim
mystic Bulleh Shah has succintly put it: “Had there been no Guru
Gobind Singh, everybody would have been circumcised, viz., forced
to become a Muslim. ’32 The Gurus never considered it moral or spiritual
to remain absorbed in seeking the so-called Moksha, and to let the
entire population suffer humiliation and degradation. This question
had to be faced squarely, because there was no effective alternative.
Guru Arjan suffered martyrdom in a peaceful manner. Though it
created cohesion and strength among the Sikhs, it led to no change of
policy by the rulers. The religious persecution of the Hindus became
intense after Jahangir. Guru Nanak, in his dialogue with the Naths,
had clearly deprecated the path of asceticism and renunciation
involving unconcern, a euphemism for callousness, towards social and
human problems. 33 As such, according to the Sikh thesis, armed
resistance to tyranny is a religious duty.
Another spacious argument advanced against the taking up
of arms for just purposes is that it defeats its own purpose, because
violence has invariably ended in violence. But, the same can be
said of all attempts to raise people above their egoistic level,
because all idealistic movements, even though peaceful,