L - Gurmat Veechar

common supposition among all our relatives was that even the
Monaswere Sikhs i.e., the SehajdhariSikhs, while the Sikhs and
the Monas were Hindus only, yet, in an overall sense.
Our general belief was that every Sehajdhari family should
baptise the first born son into the Khalsa as the protector of the
Dharma. Even as late as the sixties, one of my Sikh uncles
specially brought for me the Prasadam from Rameshwaram for,
he had gone thither on a pilgrimage. When I asked if he still
believed in it, he said that in his youth, he had done piligrimage
to all the other Dhams. Now this alone was left. So he felt that
let it also be completed before he breathed his last. 'Was it
necessary to do so in this old age?' I asked him. He said he
had done so because he knew it would give solace to the soul
of his late mother. He was related to us through his mother.
But was there really no Sikh, as one could come to imagine
after reading Shah Mohammed if he were not aware of the Mona­
Sikh oneness which was a special feature of Punjab's sociology
not so long ago? No, it is not so. But Shah Mohammed used
the term Singh for all those who had unshorn Keshas on their
heads. And in the context of jangnamah, somehow they
happened to be all soldiers, fighting the battle of Dharma. Hence
all their descriptions come from the field of battle. In fact, in
the course of all the 105 baints or stanzas that this poem consists
of, there is only one mention of the word Sikh and that too in
a higWy distorted manner. That is when Shah Mohammed makes
Lord Hardinge brag as to how he would go and fight the Sikhs
and conquer Lahore in three hours. In my childhood, nobody
particulary the Sikhs, resented such distortions. In a way, it was
a measure of the sense of humour that the Sikhs had. Of all the
communities I came across in life, it was the Sikhs who had this
type of extraordinary capactiy to laugh at themselves.
Anyway, in the context of Shah Mohammed, even the
opposite is about as true. For example, there is not a single
Punjabi Hindu who fmds mention in the jangnamah in any
capacity. Even so no one should infer therefrom that the Hindus
or the Monas for that matter were insignificant in the scheme
(39)