Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies

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72 this attempt, one Harnam Dass was very happy at the publication. He calls it a good work of research by which he was greately influenced, impressed, and thereby encouraged. He writes that he was emboldened to persue the kind of research made by G.B. Singh. The cat is out of bag when Harnam Dass writes that Britishers, like Macauliffe, had their own axe to grind and they wanted to create differences between Hindus and Sikhs by preaching that there were two separate communities and faiths. 94 We have seen that G.B.Singh’s views are neither based on correct facts nor on good sense. Evidently, a scholar who is neither willing to examine closely the available material about which he was writing, nor was inclined to stick to known facts, nor exhibited any regard for truth or reason, and makes baseless attacks on the foundations of a religion, could be motivated only by consideration, that were neither academic, nor moral. The very fact that his views have been found to be perverse and poisonous by a person like Jodh Singh, and in contrast have been welcomed by persons like Harnam Dass, who are not willing to accept even the independent identity of the Sikh religion, makes very clear the destructive direction of the work of G.B. Singh. The work of Jodh Singh exposed not only the crude attempt of G.B. Singh but gave a coup de grace to his views. It is not an accident that in 1975 we find that Mcleod has tried to suggest or repeat the very assertions made by G.B. Singh, namely, that there is no authentic Adi-Granth, the Kartarpuri Bir is not the Adi-Granth got written by the fifth Guru and that the Kartarpuri Bir is a copy of the Banno Bir, or a copy of its copy; and that the additional hymns found in the Banno Bir had been copied in the Kartarpuri Bir but were later deleted by hartal. All we wish to state is that the thesis propounded and the method used by Mcleod were similar to those of G.B. Singh, since, without an attempt at verification, incorrect suggestions were made about known facts regarding
73 the Kartarpuri and the Banno Birs, neither of which nor their related works he ever cared to examine closely. Mcleod had long association with the Christian Missionary Centre in Punjab and his bias is quite natural and understandable, but no one ever thought that a scholar would try to use the kind of weapon employed by him. As a scholar, Mcleod had expressed certain views including his Jat theory regarding militancy in the Sikh religion. His views were contradicted by Jagjit Singh in his book, ‘The Sikh Revolution’ both on the issue of caste in the Sikh. religion, and the appearance of Sikh militancy. In 1984 Mcleod at the instance of the University of Manchester prepared a textual source book for the Sikh religion. It is strange to find that Mcleod has completely made a black-out of standard or scholarly works on the Sikh religion and history, like (1) All five works of Dr. H.R. Gupta on the Sikh history and the Sikh Gurus; Gupta has devoted about 60 years of research on Sikh History, (2) The works of Dr. A.C. Bannerji, Professor of Sikh studies at Jadavpur Univesity; Bannerji has devoted about forty years on Sikh History; (3) ‘The Sikh Philosophy’ by Dr. Sher Singh; (4) ‘The Sikh Ethics’ by Dr. Avtar Singh, professor of philosophy, Punjabi University, Patiala; (5) Dr. Indu Bhushan Bannerji’s ‘Evolution of the Khalsa’; (6) J.D. Cunnigham’s ‘History of the Sikhs’; (7) Duncan-Greenles’s ‘Gospal of Guru Granth’ (8) Dorthy Field ‘Religion of the Sikhs’, etc., etc. including the work of Jagjit Singh. Here it is amusing to record one fact to show that Dr. Mcleod is fully aware of the work of Prof. Jagjit Singh. 95 For, when in recent years he met the Director of the Guru Nanak foundation, Delhi, he expressed high esteem for the work of Jagjit Singh on the two subjects mentioned above. And, yet, when he prepared his source book in 1984, he excluded Jagjit Singh’s work of 1981, because presumably, that opposed and contradicted his views, but included the work
Page 1 and 2:
CHAPTER 1 Introductory Sikhism is a
Page 3 and 4:
and analyse all the available mater
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Parkash (1801 A.D.) the reply of Bh
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authentic scripture of the Sikhs co
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and kept it with him as a national
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11 with the quotation of the first
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13 Kartarpuri Bir, though he had no
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15 There is no handwritten Bir the
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17 5. There is another set of corre
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19 mistakes which in their characte
Page 21 and 22: 21 been scored out or cancelled by
Page 23 and 24: 23 that the last words end where ve
Page 25 and 26: 25 been wrongly numbered as 333, 34
Page 27 and 28: 27 in the copy all the 1 to 60 Saba
Page 29 and 30: 29 It is important to understand th
Page 31 and 32: 31 contention was that the Kartarpu
Page 33 and 34: 33 pretension on the part of any on
Page 35 and 36: 35 Salok is not in the Mohan Pothie
Page 37 and 38: 37 Singh writes that the Kartarpuri
Page 39 and 40: 39 ever have been contemplated, tha
Page 41 and 42: 41 including these two verses was n
Page 43 and 44: 43 on very cogent grounds rejected
Page 45 and 46: 45 scriptural or doctrinal deviatio
Page 47 and 48: 47 Banno Granth had been tempered w
Page 49 and 50: 49 original is without any factual
Page 51 and 52: 51 was shaved. This feature is in o
Page 53 and 54: 53 can be accomodated on about 465
Page 55 and 56: 55 5. This Bir was written in Sarna
Page 57 and 58: 57 Granth having been copied on way
Page 59 and 60: 59 by the fifth Guru, and it is a C
Page 61 and 62: 61 changing it to 1659. Apart from
Page 63 and 64: 63 In his paper he records that in
Page 65 and 66: 65 suggestion, for the first time r
Page 67 and 68: 67 Pritam Singh when faced with the
Page 69 and 70: 69 need to be allowed and “the al
Page 71: 71 On the main issue we have come t
Page 75 and 76: 75 available since 1981. If it had
Page 77 and 78: 77 of the three authors or critics
Page 79 and 80: 58 ibid, pp. 119-121, 135 59 ibid,
Page 81 and 82: 81 APPENDIX A Dr. W. H. Mcleod has
Page 83 and 84: 83 Mira Bai’s hymn, as already st
Page 85 and 86: 85 done only for the utilization of
Page 87 and 88: 87 The work was in the tradition of
Page 89 and 90: 89 about the nature of the mystic e
Page 91 and 92: 91 Sikhism every other religious pr
Page 93 and 94: love. Because in the religious envi
Page 95 and 96: 95 life there is aggression or inju
Page 97 and 98: 97 causes, but also prescribed that
Page 99 and 100: 99 ALDOUS (with emphasis) : Exactly
Page 101 and 102: 101 Centuries earlier a Muslim sain
Page 103 and 104: 103 Sikh Gurus God was Love. For th
Page 105 and 106: 105 for all living, but in the purp
Page 107 and 108: 107 rationality has been called a c
Page 109 and 110: 109 constituted the unstable spirit
Page 111 and 112: 111 The situation is similar in Afr
Page 113 and 114: 113 17 ibid, pp. 26, 1091-92 18 ibi
Page 115 and 116: Essays on Authenticity of Kartarpur
Page 117: ESSAYS ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF KARTA
Page 121 and 122: PREFACE I am extremely grateful to
Page 123:
its essentials. In laying down thei
Page 126:
covered the scriptural and doctrina
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