Gatha Sri Adi Granth and the Controversy.

AuthorMcLeod, W.H.

Several years ago I became aware that an academic analysis of the Sikh scriptures had led me onto some exceedingly delicate ground. I therefore decided that, as an outsider, I should refrain from such analysis and leave the task exclusively to those who were unambiguously Sikh, limiting my contribution to observation of their efforts from the safety of the sideline. This may have meant covert accusations of cowardice, but anyone with any experience of the field will surely understand my reasons. The only question was whether or not there would be any Sikhs brave enough to venture into scriptural analysis.

The history within the Sikh community during the last five or six years has shown both that there are indeed a few such Sikhs and that their experience has unfortunately been no different from that of the cautious outsider. Those few Sikhs have been compelled to endure what can only be characterized as a determined and exceedingly vituperative campaign. One of the few was Piar Singh, whose book in the English language (published in the United States) follows the suppression of his work in Punjabi. The Punjabi work was Gatha Sri Adi Granth, briefly released and then hastily withdrawn by its publisher, Gum Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, because of the noisy clamor raised against it by a group within the Panth (the Sikh community). Piar Singh explicitly identifies these opponents as a group of Chandigarh men, owning as their leader one Daljeet Singh (since deceased) and inflexibly dedicated to a particular view of the canonization of Sikh scriptures. The Adi Granth, maintain the critics of Piar Singh, consists of the actual words uttered by the Gurus and was recorded at the watchful instance of the fifth Guru, Arjan. Scripture is the uncorrupted truth and it follows that those who uphold this point of view are fundamentalists in the strict, albeit "Western," sense of the word.

The bulky manuscript of the Granth was later moved from Amritsar to Kartarpur and is accordingly known as the Kartarpur Bir (Kartarpur recension). No other manuscript, insist its defenders vehemently, has any claim to be considered a part of the canonization process; and the modern Adi Granth (or Guru Granth Sahib) replicates, precisely and absolutely, the version which is to be found in the Kartarpur Bit. The only exception consists of the works of the ninth Guru which were added subsequently.

This represents the view of the Chandigarh group and it is a view which...

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