editorial articles reviews news & views - Institute of Sikh Studies

94
ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS
THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG
JARNAIL SINGH *
Reading editorial ‘Bani and Bana’ in Sikh Bulletin of February
2005 has been a personal disappointment for me. There is a little bit
of history behind it. About three years back when I was looking for a
contact to buy books by S Gurbakhsh Singh, a friend directed me
towards Hardev Singh Shergill. I bought the books and along with the
books he also sent me some free literature including audio tapes by
Veer Bhupinder Singh. He also started sending me the monthly Sikh
Bulletin. I was impressed by all this and really felt that this organization
was doing a very good job for Sikhism. I wrote a small article SSI a
Step in the Right Direction which was published in the Sikh Bulletin of
November 2003. The central idea of my writeup was the absence of
communication between the Sikhs and the World. During the times
of our Gurus there was a constant dialogue with the world at large.
But nowadays the Sikhs talk and preach to their fellow Sikhs only.
The need of the day is to listen to the world as Sikhs and speak Sikhism
to the world. I felt as if this organization was going to fill this gap.
That is why this editorial was a sort of personal disappointment for
me.
Coming back to the editorial, let us try to capture the ‘logic’ running
through its lines. The learned editor starts with an attempt to find out
the meanings of Punjabi words bani and bana. After perusing the
pages of English – Punjabi dictionary for meanings of these words,
the author discards all the meanings given in the dictionary, and
discovers with his magic band that bana means 5 kakkars (ks) 1 . Because
this is the only meaning that fits in the theory he has in his mind.
However, only a couple of lines later he contradicts himself when he
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