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82 ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS In connection with the last days of Guru Arjun or the early ones of Guru Hargobind, Fenech talks of “Jat castes”, the “militant nature of Jats” without any authority or justification. McLeod’s own work The Evolution of the Sikh Community, 1995, containing some untenable doctrines about the Jats, had not yet been published, and it does not find mention in the bibliography. Obviously, Fenech went by direction of his guide, McLeod, whom he could not refuse, though as stated earlier, Dr. Trilochan Singh, would have us believe that Jats at the time constituted hardly five per cent of the Sikh congregation. Guru Hargobind’s battles were fought only around 1634-35; therefore, the question of “highway men and robbers” joining Guru’s army at that earlier stage of Akal Takht, Lohgarh Fort or introduction of Dhad (martial) instrument, i.e. all before 1611, does not arise. The author mistakes Guru Hargobind’s construction of a mosque at Hargobindpura with the one at Kiratpur. All the way through Fenech goes on talking about ‘tradition’, ‘tradition’ and ‘tradition’, as if the Bhat Vehis even did not make history, or he thought it inadvisable to consult them. Fenech now talks of martyrdom of the ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur as if the fifth Guru, who was earlier martyred, was not a Guru. He garbles the account. He gives reference to Guru Tegh Bahadur’s compositions, without understandings their meaning. He mentions Guru Tegh Bahadur’s month long incarceration at Delhi in 1665, but does not elaborate on the only discussion he had with Aurangzeb. He, thereafter, immediately brings in the Kashmiri Brahmin’s delegation at Makhowal, though it was after another decade that that happened. Then follows the garbled version of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom. The author brings in the peroration which later formed part of Bachitar Natak on the significance of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom as a unique act, performed for the sake of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. Fenech unnecessarily busies himself in time devoted to one Guru against another, without going into the import of what he said. However, Fenech is conscious that all the Sikh Gurus are “manifestation of the one divine light.” The word ‘tradition’ occurs several times without his conceding that Guru Gobind Singh’s writings
MCLEOD & FENECH AS SCHOLARS ON SIKHISM AND MARTYRDOM 83 do institute a different history . Without bringing in Guru Gobind Singh’s 24 years of life, 1675- 1698, the author straightway brings in the manifestation of Khalsa in 1699. He does not mention that Sehajdhari Sikhs did exist at that time. The author follows the Singh Sabha rendering of the Sikh history. He is not sure about the ‘death’ of Guru Gobind Singh at the hands of the Pathan assassin. Fenech contradicts himself grievously when he attributes to ‘tradition’; one does not know from where, Guru Gobind Singh’s finding ‘feeble hearted’ Sikhs, who read only Adi Granth. That probably gives the origin of Dasam Granth. But the composition compiled by Bhai Mani Singh does not get that title. Fenech also brings up the compositions about the battle of Bhangani and other battles entered by Guru Gobind Singh during the decade 1689-99, with Hindu hill rajas, but he fights shy of the word ‘Hindu’ for obvious reasons. Though Guru Gobind Singh does write Zafarnama to Aurangzeb, ‘tradition’ tells Fenech that it “was apparently written” for the Mughal Emperor. Fenech obviously makes a fool of himself when he realises that ‘tradition’ may here be close to history when he talks of dharm-yudh. It was at this dharm-yudh that the battle of Chamkaur was fought and Guru Gobind Singh, in the very first Gurmatta was asked to make good his escape. In the post Guru Gobind Singh era, Fenech mentions Banda Bahadur apart from Baz Singh, Bhai Tara Singh, Bota Singh, Garja Singh, Mehtab Singh, Sewa Singh, Gurbakhsh Singh and Baba Ram Singh Bedi – all in one paragraph. It is a Persian Chronicler, a Muslim who gives first information about a young Sikh boy who disowned his mother to kiss the scaffold. Then in the next paragraph follow Bhai Mani Singh, Taru Singh, Subeg Singh and Shahbaz Singh, the young boys, going upto Gurdwara reforms movement He mentions Sikh prayer of thanks at Vada Ghallughara, big holocaust. Fenech, now comes to the end of this chapter with a narration of “enormously popular” Baba “Dip Singh.” In 1757, he vowed to fight Jahandar Khan to Amritsar. At Tarn Taran, the fight was fierce and though he quotes Khushwant Singh’s A History of the Sikhs to say that
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Page 111 and 112: SRI GURU PANTH PARKASH 109 Brothers
Page 113 and 114: CONNECTING THE DOTS IN SIKH HISTORY
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Page 117 and 118: ON SIKH IDENTITY A REVIEW BY KARTAR
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