Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies
Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies
Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies
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111<br />
The situation is similar in Africa except that there the<br />
contradiction has been sharpened largely by the racial factor.<br />
So long as the ruling class was Christian and the suffering<br />
majority in colonies were non-Christian, the Church flourished<br />
without any qualms <strong>of</strong> conscience. But, when the oppressors<br />
aild the oppressed are both Christians the Church could no<br />
longer maintain its complacent neutrality, the contradiction<br />
being too glaring to be ignored. Hence the rise <strong>of</strong> Liberation<br />
Theology in those countries. What this section <strong>of</strong> the Church<br />
has rationally realised in the 20th century, the <strong>Sikh</strong> Gurus<br />
preached and practised 500 years earlier. All we wish to<br />
emphasise is that a religious system where God is Love must<br />
enter every field <strong>of</strong> life where men are oppressed and relieve<br />
their sufferings by all available tools given to man, including<br />
the judicious use <strong>of</strong> force. Otherwise the experience <strong>of</strong> God<br />
is Love, and religion become meaningless and look hypocritical<br />
to the downtrodden and the suffering. Who can assert today<br />
that the divorce <strong>of</strong> religion from politics or the secularisation’<br />
<strong>of</strong> life has been a blessing? “After having been undeservedly<br />
idolized for a quarter <strong>of</strong> a millennium as the good genius <strong>of</strong><br />
mankind be has now suddenly found himself undeservedly<br />
excreated as an evil genius who has released from his bottle a<br />
jinn that may perhaps destroy human life on earth. This arbitrary<br />
change in the technician’s onward fortunes is a several ordeal,<br />
but his loss <strong>of</strong> popularity has not hit him so hard as his loss <strong>of</strong><br />
confidence in himself. Till 1945 he believed without a doubt<br />
that the results <strong>of</strong> his work were wholly benificial. Since 1945<br />
he has begun to wonder whether his pr<strong>of</strong>essional success may<br />
not have been a social and a moral disaster.” 66 According to<br />
the <strong>Sikh</strong> world view the separation <strong>of</strong> religion from politics<br />
has been an unmixed evil involving a schism in the soul <strong>of</strong><br />
man and his alienation from Reality. For it means the loss <strong>of</strong><br />
the only condition in which man can feel at peace with himself<br />
and the world around him. We cannot indeed, be in