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82 / Bhai Vir Singh
On the point Bhai Vir Singh was sensitive and here his
Singh Sabha partisanship was the dominant motive. He went
to great pains trying to make clarifications where he thought
poet Santokh Singh had departed from Sikh affirmations and
given events and doctrines a Vedantic interpretation. Even
the Hindu practices of Guru Nanak's father, Baba Kalu, at the
time of the child's birth had to be explained thus: "The Sikh
faith hadnotyetbeenpreached. Shri Kalu was a Hindu Khatri.
For him itwas natural to follow the custom of his family, to call
the Brahmin and have the horoscope cast. Here Bhai Santokh
Singh is quoting the Brahmin. These practices have nothing
to do with the Sikh teaching."l Such explanatory obiter dicta
abound. There are others more critical, philosophical and
literary in nature. They are all knowledgeably written,
documentedandcloselyreasoned. Some ofthemareextensive
indeedand could standindependentlyas goodly-sized tracts.
The one discussing, in light of Sikh teaching and history,
Santokh Singh's reference to the worship of the goddess by
Guru Gobind Singh occupies 57 pages 2 --perhaps the longest
footnote inanybook, assuggestedbyaneminentSikhscholar. 3
These notesservedto illuminate manyobscureanddisputable
points of Sikh history, drew Punjabi scholars' attention to the
finer issues of research and opened the way for further
exploration.
Bhai Vir Singh's own research was not confined to
questions arising from Santokh Singh's narrative. He made a
minute analysis of the Sikh scriptural texts as sources of
historical infonnation, worked out a thesis on philosophy of
history andthe place ofhistory inthe Sikh system andwrote a
well researched treatise on the life of Bhai Santokh Singh.
1. Gur Pratap Suraj Granth Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar, 1961, Vol. II, P.
ISS, footnote.
2. See Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, Khalsa Samachar, Amritsar, 1961, Vol.
XII, pp. 4968-5012+12.
3. Harbans Singh ed. Bhai Vir Singh Abhinandan Granth, Bhai Vir Singh
Abhinandan Granth Samiti, Dr Ganda Singh's Essay, p.2S3.
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