Rev. Dr. Selvam Robertson

Nirankari Sikhs During the reign of Maha Raja Ranjit Singh , Hindus so western Punjab and Deraja came under the influence of Sikhism. Few accepted the Pahul and joined the Khalsa fraternity. Others remained Hindu, but gave up worship of Hindu gods and the recitation of Hindu Vedas They read granth and joined gurdwaras. They were half Hindus and Half Sikhs. Dayal Das (d. 18550 ) a bullion merchant/shopkeeper of Peshawar belonged to this Hindu-sikh community. He condemned idol worship, obeisance to holy men, pilgrimages and Brahmanical ritual and Hindu deities. Taught that salvation is through meditation on the   name of God Therefore, Nirankaris meet for morning worship in their dharma Salas. They accepted Nanak as Guru and Adi granth   as sacred scripture. In order to be different from Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, they threw the dead into water.   He taught that god is one and was formless (nirankar). He called himself as Nirankar...

Gurdwara Reforms Rise of the Akali Immortals Singh Sabha made the Sikhs conscious of their rights. Educated began to press for their due in services. Masses wanted to control their gurdwaras. There were no rules for the administration of Sikh shrines. Often Mahants (priests), often Hindus, asserted proprietary rights. Income of certain Gurdwaras, like Golden temple in Amritsar etc ran into several lakh per year. Many years Sikh associations carried on civil litigation against the mahants. But later more vigorous opposition started. Gurdwara Income and management: The first Sikh temple, Nanak established at Kartarpur, then a simple dharamsal (place of worship) where disciples gathered to listen him and sing. Later dharmasal became place for all religious activities (baptism, marriage, etc) There was a guru-ka-langar and a school for children. It also became pancayatghar where community disputes are settled.   For maintenance and charitable...

Singh Sabha and social reforms Movements like Nirankari could not achieve intended reforms. Caste continued Rich continued to drink and lived in debauchery Brahmanical Hinduism in the forms of gods, goddesses, Sanskrit mantras, soothsayers, astrologers etc continued. People averse to sects also prostrated before gurus other than the ten. There was moral decline and decline in the number of Sikhs. When Kalsa was in ascendency many Hindus grew their hair and beards and paid lip-worship to the Sikh gurus. After annexation they returned to Hindu fold. Sikhs who developed a friendship with Hindus either followed suit or became clean-shaven sahajdharis. Sikhs who were earlier Hindus saw the prospect of being reabsorbed in to Hinduism. The factors of the disintegration of Sikhs: Sikh body politics Christian missionaries Proselytization by Arya Samaj Rationalism 1835, an American Presbyterian Mission had been established at Ludhiana. Church Mission...

Bhoodan Movement (land gift mission started in 1951) Acharya Vinoba Bhave Vinoba was a faithful disciple of Gandhi. Studied Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, Guajarati, Bengali, Telugu, Kanarese,   Malayalam and English. Preached in many places: “walked from one to another of India’s   700,000, villages, he             asks those   who have land to share it with those who have none.”             It is more blessed to give than to receive. I have come to loot your love Vinoba called his campaign as ‘Bhoomidan Yagna’ He walked 6500 miles, distributed more than a million (thousand thousands) acres of land to the poor.   Largest single gift was 100,000 acres from a Maharaja. Not all the gifts are prompted by charitable impulse (violence of communism). Except communists, all parties accepted Raja Vinoba’s method. Bhoodan...

Sir Muhammad Iqbal Between 1876 and 1938, born in Kashmir (Sialkot). Iqbal was a poet-philosopher. For him there was interaction of political nationalism with religious nationalism in Islam. It was exemplified in the life and thought of iqbal.   He is considered as the ‘spiritual founder of Pakistan’. His poems (next to Koran) influenced the intelligentsia of Pakistan.   His poems kindled the Muslims the value of Islam. He was not interested in politics.   He had deep feeling for the unity of the Islamic world. He had great concern for the future of Muslims in India. He wrote in Urdu, Persian and English His six lectures delivered (between 1928 and 1929) in India and elsewhere,   titled the reconstruction of religious thought in Islam, created greatest impact. Nietzsche’s superman was a source of his poetic inspiration. Iqbal was against undisciplined individualism (western capitalism) He was against nationalism and preferred reli...

JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI HIND Introduction The social cl a s ses in the Muslim community, eliti s t ch a r a cter of the In dian politics and th e do m ination in the political arena have given birth to a number of Muslim political parties and groups. These organizations are partl y religious and partly   political. For them religion    is the s ource of their i d eology and political     program. It is the bigge s t            integral element of the s o- called i dentity of the community.         After Independence the Muslims were le ft with tw o Alternatives   -quasi-secular approach of Maulnna A z a d, and the communal a pproach of the fundamentali s t s . Maulana A z a d and others were exhorting the members o f their community to avoid communali s m a nd Join the      national political parti ...