Fundamentalism and the Sikh Religious Tradition by T.N. Madan

esistance to the attack of the Babylonians in the sixth century B.C.; but he did so,
without prepudiating the earlier interpretation, saying that God had punished the Jews in
the form of the Babylonian attack, because of their non-observance of His
commandments. In any case, the cults of Essenese and Kaballists apart, the original
interpretation of the Torah is still the Jewish canon in Israel, and Torah forms an integral
part of the Bible.
Islam is another whole-life religion; and, as is well-known, prophet Mohammad
clearly sanctions the use of sword for a righteous cause and the performance of political
functions by the man of religion. Prophet Mohammad, like Moses got the message of
God, and was both the spiritual and the political head of Islam. The two functions
continued to be combined in the earlier Caliphs as well.
We wonder, if any scholar has ever accused Judaism of having originally
introduced fundamentalism, used in a condemnatory sense, as has been done now, or has
argued that Islam, as a religion, is fundamentalist.
For outsiders, ignorance of religious classification between whole-life and
dichotomous or salvation religions, is understandable; but one's dogmatism in splitting
Sikhism (a whole-life religion, as are Judaism and Islam) into quietism of Guru Nanak
and fundamentalism of Guru Gobind Singh is, indeed, irrational, incorrect and selective.
We have shown above that it was Guru Nanak, who rejected every salient principle of the
earlier dichotomous Indian religions, and again it was he, who from the very start
organised a society criticising profusely the socio-secular life of the times, and clearly
denying the inviolable vlaue of Ahimsa.
It should be evident that all whole-life religions have four fundamental features.
First, that in each case the spiritual experience of the Prophet is that God is Love. It is so
in Judaism, Islam and Sikhism. God in each case is the True Emperor and the Controller
of the cosmos, who has a Will. The second feature is that God in each case is Destroyer
of evil doers, and it is Guru Nanak, who clearly defines God in that manner, and as one
who uses the sword for destruction of the enemy. The third feature is that God has
Attributes which form His clear commandments, described as His virtues of being
Protector, Loving, Brother, Father, Helper of the weak, and showering His grace where
the weak are helped. His altruistic Will has to be followed by the spiritual seeker. This is
the goal of the religious man in Sikhism and all whole-life religions. And, fourth, all
whole-life religions create a society, since the virtues the seeker has to practise, are social
and societal in their implications. Again, it was Guru Nanak who started the Sikh
organisation, and condemned withdrawal and asceticism, when he stated that who would
look after the well being and health of the world, if men of religion receded to the
isolation of the hills. It is extremely significant that the learned Hillel when asked to
explain the 613 commandments ofTorah, replied. "What-ever is hateful to you, do not do
to your neighbour. That is the entire Torah, the rest is commentary, go and learn it.""
Similarly, the story of Abu Ben Adam in Islam stresses the same thing by saying that the
seeker who loves man, is dearer to God than the one who loves Him. The same principle
is emphasized by Guru Nanak, when he says that 'truthful living is the highest', and that
life is a game of love'. In short, a whole-life religious system lays down that wherever
injustice and oppression are practised, the man of religion cannot remain neutral or
unconcerned, its ethos being life-affirming. Use of necessary force for a righteous cause,
social or political, becomes logical in a whole-life social system.