SGPC seeks ban on booklet released by Modi, says it distorts Sikh history

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has sought a ban on a booklet released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham corridor, saying it distorts and misrepresents Sikh history.

Sri Kashi Vishwanath Dham Ka Gauravshali Itihas (The Glorious History of Kashi Vishwanath Dham) falsely claims that the Panj Pyare (Five Beloved Ones), through whom the Khalsa Panth was founded by Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru, were sent to Kashi to gain knowledge of the ‘Sanatan Dharma’, the SGPC said.

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The Sikh body said the booklet draws a connection between Sikhism and Kashi – a misrepresentation in its opinion – and wrongly claims that the Sikh faith was established to protect the Sanatan Dharma from the Mughals.

“Both these statements are devoid of facts, with illusory intentions and lack of knowledge about the mission of the Sikh faith,” SGPC media secretary Kulwinder Singh Ramdas said on Thursday.

“As a matter of fact, the Khalsa Panth was formed to protect religious values and human rights against oppression, tyranny and injustice and not to protect the Sanatan Dharma. Secondly, the five Sikhs sent to Kashi were totally different from the Panj Pyaras who offered heads at the time of the formation of the Khalsa at Sri Anandpur Sahib,” Ramdas said.

According to historians, in 1686 Gobind Singh sent five Sikhs (Bir Singh, Ganda Singh, Karam Singh, Ram Singh and Saina Singh) to Varanasi to learn Sanskrit and classical Hindu literature. This began the Nirmala tradition. After they returned to Anandpur Sahib, they were honoured by the title ‘Nirmala’ (Sanskrit for ‘unsullied’). The Nirmalas then took the Amrit initiation into the Khalsa Panth.

According to another account, dubbed “ahistorical fiction”, Gobind Singh met a scholar named Pandit Raghunath in the late 17th-century and asked him to teach Sanskrit to Sikhs. However, Raghunath refused to do so, because he did not want to teach Sanskrit to Shudras. So Gobind Singh sent some Sikhs dressed in upper-caste attire to Varanasi, where they became scholars of Indian theology and philosophy.

The Panj Pyare is the collective name given to the five men – Bhai Daya Ram (Bhai Daya Singh), Bhai Dharam Singh Dalal (Bhai Dharam Singh), Bhai Himmat Rai (Bhai Himmat Singh), Bhai Mokham Chand (Bhai Mokham Singh) and Bhai Sahib Chand (Bhai Sahib Singh) – by Gobind Singh in 1699 who formed the nucleus of the Khalsa.