ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ॥ ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫ਼ਤਹਿ ॥
We hope you are all well. With the end of the academic year, we are presented with a time to reflect on this tumultuous period. For those who have graduated and will no longer be with us, we’d like to wish you all the best with your future endeavours. Please let us know if you’d like to be added to our alumni mailing list – we will also be making a new alumni Facebook group. And if we’ll see you again in Michaelmas, we’re excited to be seeing you again. And to everyone, thank you for the memories for this academic year. As our first academic year as a fully registered society, there have been plenty of challenges, but also very rewarding moments.
Our weekly Rehraas recitals will continue as normal throughout the summer, every Friday. You can find the link to the event page here. Please feel free to join in, even if it is to listen in the background and reflect.
The subject of this bulletin consists of a very difficult but necessary conversation that we as Sikhs need to have about the role of caste in our society. The creation of a hierarchy based on hereditary occupations is a system that has affected the subcontinent for centuries. It is embedded into Hinduism and Hindu thought, and as a result has permeated every level of South Asian society. However, it is deeper than purely economic placements – it is reinforced through and intersects with marriage, gender, religion, culture, and societal attitudes. It is a “system” in the complete sense and encompasses many facets of public life that reinforce this system.
Our Gurus were some of the key reformers who challenged the role of caste in society. Guru Nanak Paatshah chose to keep the company of the lower classes and found that Waheguru’s grace was amongst the downtrodden. Guru Angad Dev Ji established Gurmukhi as a way of allowing marginalised communities to have access to religious texts. And Guru Gobind Singh Maharaaj eradicated the last names of the Khalsa, instead replacing caste affiliations with “Singh” and “Kaur”, empowering all their Sikhs to see themselves as beyond this hierarchy. The Bani of Bhagat Ravidas and Bhagat Kabir contained within Sri Guru Granth Sahib also openly challenge this system. These are just some examples of how our Gurus actively seeked to challenge and eradicate caste hierarchies.
As Sikhs, therefore, it is important to understand this hierarchy and educate ourselves on the way it operates. It is very much prevalent in the present day. A very important text is Dr. B.R Ambedkar’s essay ‘The Annihilation of Caste’, which was a speech he was prevented from delivering. He openly criticizes caste practices in Hindu circles – and discusses the ways in which Buddhism and Sikhism are able to fight this caste dynamic. Kahn Singh Nabha also wrote a prominent text entitled ‘Sikhs: We are not Hindus,’ which also openly criticised the practice of caste from a Sikh perspective. There are important texts which offer insightful theoretical frameworks.
Yet in today’s world we can see the effect of caste amongst Sikhs. Dr. Ambedkar was prevented from converting to Sikhism by the Akali Dal, on the basis of his lower-caste background. We see caste reiterated in Punjabi culture and music, with the fixation of pride on Jatt identity. Alongside this we see the further disenfranchisement of people from lower castes. Often our leaders and influencers in society have this caste privilege. The reality for lower caste Dalit and Mazhabi Sikhs is clear – from exclusion from Gurdwaras, to economic marginalisation from land-owning, upper-caste Sikhs. According to the Indian census in 2011, Punjab has the highest proportion of Scheduled Castes; 31.9% of Punjabis are from these groups.
There is also a big misconception that caste is only a Panjabi problem and not one that affects the diaspora. There are several reports on the way caste-based discrimination takes place in England; and the construction of institutions such as caste-based gurdwaras and marriage practices into the same caste are examples of how it becomes entrenched into our society. Caste is a global system and has to be addressed from both a material and ideological perspective.
Please find attached below a list of texts that offer useful insight to help understand the ways in which caste functions, with a particular focus on Sikhs in the Panjab and the diaspora.
News Articles
A June 2020 article by The Caravan, discussing how resolutions have been passed in Punjab to reduce the pay of lower-caste farm workers in the Punjab in response to COVID-19
An in-depth article written this month for The New York Times, drawing parallels between the caste system and Race in America.
Another article for The Tribune drawing parallels between anti-caste movements in India and the Movement for Black Lives in the US
A 2018 Hindustan Times article following a community of Dalit Sikhs in Shillong, and how they face a ‘double dilemma’ by being minorities based on both their Punjabi identity and caste position
A 2019 Firstpost article examining why Dalit Sikhs in Bathinda are ambivalent and apathetic to the Indian political system
An article written for The Swaddle detailing the backlash from Hindu nationalists towards Punjabi music; and the history of lower-caste representation in Punjabi folk traditions
An article in Himal Magazine detailing the emergence and formation of Dalit Sikh communities, and their role in the modern history of the Punjab. Also refers to how caste also operates in Pakistani Punjabi communities
Academic Writings [accessible with Raven]
- An article following Dalit activists, outlining the inequalities they face, and the steps that they have taken to address these inequalities. A very statistical and easy approachable text.
- A report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research detailing caste discrimination in the UK, using case studies to demonstrate the way caste is prevalent within education, healthcare, and the workplace.
- A University of Leeds thesis from 1989, with first-hand research of the ways in which Caste affected Sikh groups in the North. It also has damning predictions of how caste dynamics have ended up today.
- A recent article analysing the intersections between gender and caste; and an analysis of Guru Nanak’s philosophy as a radical challenge to these hierarchies.
- A powerful chapter chronicling the history of Dalit and Mazhabi Sikh communities, and their role within Sikh History
Documentaries/Videos
A trailer for an audio series called ‘Caste in America’, which explores Caste dynamics and the extension of these dynamics to the US, featuring Harvard fellow Suraj Yengde
A clip from Katha by Bhai Jagraj Singh (Basics of Sikhi), entitled ‘Sikhs and Caste – The Truth!”
A Q&A session with Bhai Jagraj Singh, examining the creation of caste-based gurdwaras
A clip [in Punjabi with English Subtitles] from the 2007 documentary, “India Untouched”, about caste discrimination in the Punjab, with first-hand accounts from Amritsar’s Dalit Sikhs; and their exclusion from local gurdwaras
A short film from The Wire around how Dalit Sikhs are overcoming land-based discrimination. CN: mention of violent physical and sexual assault.
As Sikhs, we should always fundamentally challenge these oppressive structures, in line with the teachings of our Gurus. They have provided us with a framework of social and spiritual liberation, which should always remain at the forefront of our consciousness.
As always, we hope that this has been an interesting conversation. We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on this topic, and on future topics that you think we should cover next.
We wish all of our members and friends the very best.
Your Sikh Society Committee.