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November      Last updated: Nov 20,  5:00 p.m.

30 Years Ago

Guru Nanak--Saviour of Hinduism

...FOR a clear picture of the atrocities committed by the Muslim rulers nothing would be more convincing than the unimpeachable evidence of assertions of the Muslim historians and findings of a saint like Baba Nanak.

Abdulla's account in Tarikh-e-Daudi mentions Sikander Lodhi breaking statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, giving their pieces to the butchers to be used as weights and proposing the mass massacre of the Hindus assembled at Kurukshetra on the occasion of a solar eclipse. The project was not implemented only due to the intercession of Mian Abdullah. The fearful repercussions which it would inevitably have entailed are reiterated by Farishta. Farishta also writes that the temples a Mathura were replaced by mosques and barbers were forbidden to shave Hindus. Hindus were also forbidden to bathe in the waters of the holy Yamuna. The execution of Buddhan Brahmin from Bengal is a standing testimony of Sikander's bigotry.

The barbarities of Babar

Similarly the so-called period of religious tolerance ushered in the mediaeval period of Indian History by Babar, is not based on a judicious appraisal of historical events. Even the references contained in Tuzke-Babari seem to be overlooked. The religious fanaticism and barbarity of Babar is testified to by his confession that while in the Valley of the Milamat fort, now in District Hoshiarpur of Punjab State, he ordered "the removal of his tent thrice to a different station, the ground before it being drenched with blood and encumbered with quivering carcases". In his account of the battle at Chanderi he writes : "The battle was fought within view of a small hill, near our camp. On this hillock, I directed a tower of the skulls of the infidels to be constructed." (Tuzke-Babari) .

Guru Nanak Dev condemned equally emphatically the atrocities of the Lodhis and the Mughals, on the Hindus in the following words :

(Even the nobles have suffered a moral downfall) and

(Adigranth--Majh-ki-war, Moh. I)

(Babar has come from Kabul with a new wave of tyranny and has overthrown the old tyrant, Sultan Lodhi. There is no place for moral values and modesty in the present set up, and falsehood reigns supreme. Nanak will never go near the bloodsuckers. The kings have become butchers and love for Dharma has taken wings. The moon of truth has been completely eclipsed by the pitch dark of falsehood).

Also Nanak's reference to the pitiable condition of women at the time of Babar's invasion of Sayyidpur (now Eminabad in Pakistan) establishes beyond the slightest shadow of doubt, wherein lay the sympathies of Nanak. "They who wore beautiful tresses and had the partings of their hair dyed with vermilion have their locks now shorn with scissors, and dust is thrown upon their heads". (Sikh Religion, Macauliffe, P. 112)

...If we critically analyse the sole sentence which Nanak uttered and continued uttering in response to all sorts of queries of the inhabitants of Sultanpur immediately after his enlightenment in August 1507 A.D.--"There is no Hindu, no Musslman." This Mula Mantra (basic principle) of Nanak's philosophy has been variously interpreted by scholars of mediaeval Punjab history but the fact which can never be ignored in this sentence is that Nanak has condemned both the followers of Hinduism and Islam, condemning first the Hindus and then the Muslims.

It can, with reasonable objectivity, be interpreted that the condemnation of the Hindus, as done by Nanak, a Hindu saint, in the first clause of this sentence, is with a dual motive--to condemn the perversions in contemporary Hinduism and restore the religion to its ancient glory (A Short History of the Sikhs, Pyre, P. 25) and, having done that, to take this as the operational-ground for the condemnation of Islam, which as shown above, could not be done unilaterally. Thus the condemnation of the Hindus by Nanak is an end in itself, and at the same time a means to condemn the Islamic excesses and brutalities.

This Mula Mantra of Nanak, even if interpreted to mean that there is no Hindu, no Mussalman, but all are the sons of God, and hence equal, is titled in favour of Hinduism. Equality of all meant the end of the superior position of the Muslim. And if all are equal where shall then be room for the proselytising zeal of the Muslims? Conversions thus would be against the dictates of God, and forcible conversions would amount to the commission of an unpardonable sin by the zealots.

The lower classes and the poorer sections of the Hindu society were squeezed by the theocratic state. The only way to save their skin would be to embrace Islam. But if they came to understand from Nanak's Mula Mantra that Islam and Hinduism are both good religions, there being no inherent superiority of the one over the other, then many of them could certainly resist being converted to Islam. And that is precisely what happened.

The fear of the Fearless and of the future are decidedly weightier than financial attractions for the present. Thus many Hindus who would have fallen prey to the proselytising hunger of Islam were saved by the intellectual shattering of the superiority of Islam, firmly established by its military and political wings. Where Buddhan Brahmin had failed, Nanak succeeded, and succeeded marvellously.

The author in a research paper entitled "Basis of Nanak's Philosophy" read at the Punjabi University, Patiala, on 16th March 1969, has established that the essential principles taught by Nanak are those of the Vedic religion, the oldest religion of which History gives a documentary record and evidence.