editorial articles reviews news & views - Institute of Sikh Studies

106
ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS
wrote the first article about Guru Nanak. Bhai Mahendra Nath also
wrote Guru Nanak’s biography - Nanak Prakash on the basis of Bala
Janamsakhi. Going through the versions of Ritendra Nath, Krishna
Kumar Mitra and Rajni Kanta, we come over to Rabindranath Tagore.
He explains Khara Sauda as a “foundation of a great concept and
spiritual power.” Tagore was the pioneer in introducing Bengali children
to Sikh culture. Sarat Kumar Roy, Rajendralal Arya’s articles, Amodini
Ghosh, Krishna Chandra Chakrabarty and Nityanand Goswami have
written poems about Guru Nanak. ‘Baba Nanak was a Muslim Faqir’,
writes Haq S Omed Ali, and Ali Ahmed Ali Eslambadi emphasised
that Guru Nanak did namaz and was respectful to Islam. Swami
Vivekananda calls Guru Gobind Singh great political leader and
spiritual organizer for Sikhs but aligns him as one of the Hindu race.
Rabindranath Tagore in a span of quarter century wrote a number
of essays and poems about Guru Gobind Singh. All these works except
one show a respectful attitude. However, in a preface to Sikh Guru or
Sikh Jati, he wrote “finale of Sikh history was very tragic and tenth
Guru bore the lion’s share of the responsibility for that.” By pointing
an accusing finger at Guru Gobind Singh, poet’s image in Sikh psyche
suffered a great dip. Even Himadri Banerjee does not justify this change
in the views of Tagore, keeping in mind the voice of protest by Punjab’s
oppressed rural peasantry. “So to criticize him (Guru Gobind Singh)
for the communal discord in eastern India in the first decade of
twentieth century is perhaps an incorrect historical formulation.”
Rabinderanath’s digs no doubt hurt Sikh intellectuals in distant Punjab,
rues the author. Jatras, Guru Gobinda in five acts by Haranath Bose,
Sikher Katha a five-act play by Jatindranath Samadar, also criticized
Guru Gobind Singh. It appears these Bengalis did not approve of
Guru’s Khalsa army taking up the arms for stemming Mughals’
oppression and wanted Gandhi’s non-violence stance.
Behold ! Subhash Chander Bose, another Bengali, did adopt armed
struggle for country’s independence. Tinkari Banerjee presented in
Guru Gobinda Singha, Guru’s life with references from Suraj Parkash
and Dasam Granth. Banerjee Basant Kumar calls the Guru ‘a spirit of
protest against oppression, a religious preacher, a creator of martial
race’. It is well nigh impossible to even enumerate the Bengali authors
of Sikh study. Japji Sahib’s Bengali translation in 1900 AD shows