DISKUS Vol. 4 No.2 (1996) Baba Balaknath : an exploration of religious identity Dr. R. A. Geaves University of Wolverhampton, UK ==================================== ABSTRACT The textbook presentation of religions in discrete categories ('Sikhism', 'Islam', 'Hinduism' etc.) may be challenged by fieldwork which reveals complexities of religious practice and belief which transcend the boundaries set by 'orthodoxy'. The article examines Sikhism and Punjabi religion in the UK and India, focusing on the eclectic Baba Balaknath cult of the Hoshiapur/ Jullundhar area of Punjab. ==================================== Introduction Participation in field research often leads the researcher in the discipline of Religious Studies to ask the question whether the religions described in academic textbooks bear any resemblance to the tradition as expressed in actual practices and beliefs within concrete social contexts. This is particularly pronounced in the case of the religious traditions of the Indian subcontinent, including the varieties of Islam found in that part of the world. In this context, Oberoi has commented that: "it is all very well for historians of religion to think, speak and write about Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism, but they rarely pause to consider if such clear-cut categories actually found expression in the consciousness, actions and cultural performances of the human actors that they describe." (Oberoi, 1994, p.1). It is quite apparent that academic textbooks generally do not reflect this viewpoint. The 'World Religions' approach insists that each tradition is neatly categorised and demarcated. The texts for each discrete tradition are then placed in their relevant section in the library where students can lay their hands on them for their explicit modules on Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism or Islam. In adopting this model for the various religious traditions we may be guilty not only of distorting reality but of actually assisting in the process of constructing artificial religious boundaries and unwittingly serving the purposes of various orthodoxies. This is certainly the case with Islam and Sikhism. Whatever the motivation, the current literature's attempts to deal with the categories of Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu as unproblematic do not do justice to, nor offer explanations for, the actual religious experience of millions of practitioners in the Indian subcontinent. This is especially true in the Punjab. This paper will focus on Sikhism, as its age, size and development make it an ideal case study. The ideas contained in the paper arise from field work undertaken in Walsall and in Punjab which I visited last April to carry out further research into the phenomenon of Baba Balaknath, widespread in the Jullundhar and Hoshiapur districts of that state. The research was centred on the village of Danda, located off the Grand Trunk Road between Jullundhar and Loudhiana. The village consists of a majority Sikh population with a small community of Hindus. I was particularly interested in Danda for two reasons. First, it contained a Baba Balaknath temple, and second, over 60% of its Sikh population had migrated to the West. Most of the village's houses had been built with the new-found wealth of the emigrants. In the Religious Studies section at the University of Wolverhampton there is a tradition of taking students on field trips to various places of worship. It is no longer a surprise to observe students hearing or seeing something that directly contradicts what they have read in 'sacrosanct' academic textbooks. My own interest in Baba Balaknath began when I took a group of first year students, studying a module entitled 'Religions in the Indian Tradition', to the Baba Balaknath Mandir* [for words marked * see Glossary below], one of the two Hindu temples in Walsall. In many ways the Baba Balaknath Mandir can be described as a Hindu place of worship. The temple contains murtis* from the Hindu pantheon which are predominantly Shaivite*, but Vaishnavite* deities are also represented. The image of Baba Balaknath resides at the highest point in the temple but below him are Radha and Krishna, Shiva and Parvati, Durga, Ganesh and Hanuman. A researcher's curiosity is likely to be aroused by the pictures of the Sikh Gurus Nanak and Gobind Singh, and the Sant* master, Ravidas. The resident priest refused to be described as a pandit but preferred to be called a Bhagat*, and he completely bewildered students when he confessed that he was not a Brahmin* but a Sikh of the Jat* caste. The previous day the students had read that Hindu temple priests are always Brahmin. There is an old tradition in India which argues that Brahmins should be categorised by knowledge rather than birth. The Bhagat differentiated between the Vedas and the Laws of Manu. He argued that the Vedas support the idea that the Brahmin varna* is not hereditary and suggested that the concept of hereditary Brahmins was recorded for the first time in the Laws of Manu. He also cited the example of Vishwamitra, who was born a Kshatriya* but acknowledged as a Brahmin. In this particular temple the Hindu caste system was severely criticised and a langar* functioned to ensure commensality. The Puranas were much more commonly used as the tradition's scriptural authority than any other sacred text of the Indian subcontinent. The exciting question provoked by the visit concerned how the priest was defining himself as 'Sikh'. He wore none of the outward signs of the Khalsa* except for the karra*. He acknowledged the ten Sikh Gurus but only as a continuation of the line of avatars eternally manifesting in the world, maintaining and continuing sanatan* dharma. He claimed that his family were Sikh but had served Baba Balaknath as priests for generations. Further visits to the Baba Balaknath mandirs in Walsall and Wolverhampton revealed that many Sikhs attended the temple and that many of them displayed the traditional outer signs of Khalsa* Sikhs. Although both Sikhs and Hindus used the mandir, the only common denominator of both groups lay in their ethnic origin. The vast majority were Punjabis originating from the Jullandhar and Hoshiapur districts. The experience of researching the Baba Balaknath groups raised interesting questions concerning the relationship between religion and ethnicity, but it also provoked questions concerning Sikh identity and the way that it is conveyed in many academic texts (Cole & Sambhi, 1978; McLeod, 1976; Thomas, 1978). In April 1996 I continued my research on the Baba Balaknath phenomenon in the Punjab. A Punjabi village in the Jullandhar district was the ideal place to continue observations into the issue of Sikh identity. Before leaving for the subcontinent I attempted to ascertain how Sikh identity was presented in various texts. Key Indicators of Sikh identity An overview of the literature on Sikhism written both by 'insiders' and 'outsiders' provides several key indicators of Sikh identity which define the limits of Sikh religious experience. An exception should be made with regard to Harjot Oberoi's 'The Contruction of Religious Boundaries - Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition'. It is necessary to examine some of these key indicators before going on to provide examples of the actual diversity of Sikh identity observed in the village of Danda that would appear to contradict them. 1. Sikhs acknowledge ten human Gurus beginning with Guru Nanak and ending with Guru Gobind Singh. 2. After Guru Gobind Singh, the Guru Granth Sahib* became the eleventh and final Guru. 3. The Gurudwara* is the Sikh place of worship. 4. Sikhs attach no importance to the worship of relics or graves. 5. Sikhs do not renounce the world or take up vows of celibacy. 6. Sikhs will put their faith in no religious book other than the Guru Granth Sahib*. 7. Sikhs do not believe in caste, untouchability, magic, amulets, omens, astrology, fasts, graves, or occult powers. 8. A Sikh is someone who accepts the baptism administered by five Sikhs in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib and adopts the five K's - kesh*, kangha*, karra, kaccha* and kirpan*. 9. Sikhism respects all other faiths but is a distinct, separate world faith in its own right, with clearly-defined religious boundaries. Alternative categories of Sikh identity Oberoi acknowledges that in 19th century Punjab, thousands of Hindus regularly went on pilgrimage to Muslim shrines, countless Muslims observed Hindu life-cycles and Sikhs attended the shrines of both Muslims and Hindus (Oberoi, 1994, pp.3-4). He cites the Census of 1881, 1891 and 1911 carried out in the Punjab as evidence of the difficulties in categorising the population into discrete religions and quotes Ibbotson, the Census Commissioner of 1881 as saying: "Among the ignorant peasantry whose creed, by whatever name it may be known, is seldom more than a superstition and a ritual, the various observances and beliefs which distinguish the followers of the several faiths in their purity are so strangely blended and intermingled, that it is often impossible to say that one prevails rather than another, or to decide in what category the people shall be classed." (Oberoi, 1994, p.9). Oberoi goes on to say that in the 1891 census in the Punjab 1,344,862 Sikhs declared themselves as Hindus (Oberoi, 1994, p.11). This apparent confusion of faith identity was not only confined to the Punjab. In Gujarat in 1911, a total of 200,000 people declared themselves as Mohammadan Hindus (Oberoi, 1994, p.11). Oberoi points out that many outside observers accuse these believers of being confused over their religous identity. He, in turn, accuses the observers of being confused in their pursuit to categorise everyone in the colour of a discrete faith tradition (Oberoi, 1994, p.11). However, Oberoi does not acknowledge that the same situation continues in the modern Punjab. He suggests that this religious eclecticism was a phenomenon of the 19th and earlier centuries. He argues that 20th century examples of such religious 'confusion' are isolated anomalies (Oberoi, 1994, p.11). My observations in the village of Danda indicate that not only is this kind of religious eclecticism still very much alive in the Punjab but that there are also many other ways of maintaining Sikh identity that are rarely mentioned in the textbooks written by scholars, Sikh or non-Sikh. I have attempted to categorise them for the sake of this paper as follows: 1. Sikhs who challenge the orthodox line of succession from the ten Sikh Gurus through to the Guru Granth Sahib, by allegiance to groups such as Namdhari*, Nirankari and Radhasoami*. 2. Sikh ascetics - eg Udasis*. 3. Sanatan Sikhs 4. Sikhs who worship miracle saints and at village sacred sites. 5. Sikhs who believe in evil spirits, witchcraft, sorcery and magical healing. 6. Sikhs who draw on the Puranas more than the Guru Granth Sahib. 7. Sikhs who do not perceive Sikh identity as a distinct religious tradition but as an ethnic identity. I would like to point out that the above are not discrete categories. Many of the examples that I observed incorporated several of these seven markers of alternative Sikh identity. I will not go into detail concerning the first two categories except to say that there are several Sikh sectarian movements such as the Namdharis that acknowledge living Gurus, or individual Sikhs who join movements that have a tradition of following living Gurus. An example of the latter is the Radhasoami Sant at Beas. On entering India from Pakistan in 1992 I was encouraged to visit Satsang Beas Ashram by the three Sikh custom officials displaying all the outer signs of khalsa. They assured me that I would receive the blessings of living holy men if I visited the ashram. Anyone who has spent any time travelling in the Punjab will know that there is no shortage of Sikh sadhus* and ascetics. Many wear their hair long and matted, carry rosaries in cotton bags, smear their bodies in ashes, and sit on a deer-skin when practising their yogic sadhana*. The Udasi* (detached) are typical of this phenomenon. They claim that Shri Chand, the son of Guru Nanak was the true successor to the Sikh guruship rather than Guru Angad Dev. Sahajdhari*s on the other hand cut their hair, have no initiation rites, sometimes believe in different versions of the line of succession from Guru Nanak and often do not accept that the Guru Granth Sahib is the present Guru of the Sikhs. Following Oberoi, I have used the term 'Sanatan' Sikhs to describe the countless numbers of the Punjabi rural population who do not make a distinction between the Sikh tradition and the preceding Hindu dharma. Sanatan Sikhs consider the Vedas, Puranas and Hindu epics to be authoritive; they associate Guru Nanak and Gobind Singh with Hindu avatars and worship Hindu images along with living gurus. They perceive the Sikh tradition as a continuation of Krishna's eternal promise to humankind enshrined in the Bhagavad Gita: "I manifest myself in a finite form. Whenever dharma declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every age to protect the good, to destroy evil and to re-establish dharma." (Tr. Easwaren,1986, pp.85-86). Oberoi provides many examples of this variety of Sikh practice and suggests it predominated over the Khalsa until the nineteenth century (Oberoi, 1994, pp. 102-104). Although I agree with Oberoi that the Khalsa is now the official mode of Sikh orthodoxy, Sanatan Sikhism is still prevalent in villages throughout the Punjab. Observations from field research in the Punjab My research in Danda confirmed all of the phenomena described above. The research focused on the following features in order to ascertain the existing diversity of Sikh identity: 1. religious imagery in the homes of Sikh families 2. The tradition of Shiva and Durga worship in Himachal Pradesh 3. The Baba Balaknath phenomenon 4. The influence of shrines 5. The impact of migration. The Punjab has always been a strong area of Shiva worship. The north eastern hill regions of the province above Hoshiapur extending into Himachal Pradesh contain thousands of Shiva temples and important shrines to the Goddess who is usually invoked as Shiva's consort, Chandi. Historically the Punjab was part of the pre-Aryan civilisation of Mohenjodaro and Harappa. Gopal Singh (1995, pp.8-9) argues that the region still displays aspects of this older culture, including the worship of Shiva rather than the later deities of classical Hinduism incorporated into Vaishnavism. He notes that even Guru Gobind Singh invoked the one God worshipped by Sikhs as Shiva and his consort (ibid. p.10). The strength of this Shaivite tradition was noticeable in the homes of both Sikhs and Hindus in Danda. The majority contained pictures or small shrines to Shiva and his consort alongside portrayals of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. Many of the Hindu families also displayed posters of Guru Nanak on their walls. This religious eclecticism is complicated by the presence of a strong tradition of the worship of Baba Balaknath in this region of the Punjab. The official cult of Baba Balaknath is centred around the guffa* in Shahtalai, north of Hoshiapur and high in the foothills of Himachal Pradesh. The temple is located on a mountain and functions as a strong regional centre of pilgrimage. There is nothing to indicate the eclecticism of Baba Balaknath's devotees at the temple itself, except for the different ethnic origins of the pilgrims. In all other aspects, the temple demonstrates its allegiance to an old tradition of Shaivite Hinduism. Baba Balaknath is identified with a later incarnation of Skanda, one of the two offspring of Lord Shiva, but as one comes down the mountains into the Punjab, the Shaivite cult of Baba Balaknath mixes with the Sant traditions of the Punjab. Most of the villages around Hoshiapur and Jullundhar contain a Baba Balaknath temple, frequented by as many Sikhs as Hindus. The Sikhs do not always identify with the official cult and they very often believe Baba Balaknath to have been a fourteenth century predecessor of Guru Nanak, noted for his healing powers. Most of the Baba Balaknath temples have been started by devotees who believe that they have been given the ability to channel this healing power. Although they acknowledge the guffa as the main centre of pilgrimage, they are completely independent of the official cult. These charismatic healers are as likely to be Sikh as Hindu. The prevalence of the worship of Baba Balaknath in the Punjab demonstrates the strength of popular religion in the region. Oberoi refers to the existence of 'an enchanted universe'. (Oberoi, 1994, pp.140-203). The province of Punjab is still essentially village culture. In Danda I observed the activities of the Baba Balaknath priest every evening after arti. Villagers, mostly women, would queue to seek solutions to the everyday problems of village life. The priest advised but also carried out magic rituals designed to ensure successful resolution of the problems brought to him. One evening I watched the healing of a child, which was performed by sweeping the earth around Baba Balaknath's shrine and then sweeping the air above the child's head. The stories of the pilgrimage indicate the prevalence of this enchanted universe. Although there is now a road to the guffa, traditionally devotees began their pilgrimage through the jungled hills by releasing a consecrated goat. They claim that the goat always led the groups of pilgrims directly to the guffa. Many devotees claim actually to have seen Baba Balaknath himself whilst at the guffa. The pilgrimage itself is an indication of the eclecticism of Punjabi religious life. It takes place during the month of March and lasts for a period of three weeks. On the way to the guffa, thousands of Punjabi pilgrims, including hundreds from Britain, visit Shiva and Durga temples and the tomb of a Sufi. Alongside the Gurudwaras and the temple of Baba Balaknath, the village of Danda contains many small shrines. Some of these are specifically Sikh shrines but at one well-frequented location on the outskirts of the village, devotees claimed to have no idea of the religious background of the holy man who is remembered there, nor did it seem to matter to them. The two most important Sikh shrines are dedicated to Banda Singh, a famous disciple of Guru Gobind Singh and to one of the panj pyares*. Both of these shrines reveal something of the relationship between village modes of popular Sikhism and the more formal, institutionalised Khalsa. The shrine to Banda Singh is maintained by an old Sikh devotee. Now a man in his nineties, he has tended the shrine since his youth. He has never married and perceives his service to the shrine as devotion to God and the Sikh Gurus. In his account of the origins of this long dedication to the shrine of Banda Singh, he claims that while passing the shrine as a young man, the shakti* of the shrine possessed him. His attitude towards the Khalsa was contemptuous. He accused them of reading the Guru Granth Sahib 'like parrots' and having no inner awareness of the truth revealed by Guru Nanak. The second shrine, to one of the panj pyares, also demonstrated the ambiguous nature of the relationship between popular shrine worship and the more formal Sikh worship in the Gurudwara. In the village of Danda a very high proportion of the Sikh population has migrated to the West. The migrants are sending considerable amounts of wealth back to the village to construct new Gurudwaras. These reflect the religious affiliation of the migrants in their new homes and demonstrate their allegiance to orthodox Khalsa Sikhism. The new Gurudwaras are run by committees of prominent Sikhs in the village. One such Gurudwara was built close to the shrine dedicated to the pyari. In spite of being a splendid new construction, the Gurudwara could not compete with the popularity of the shrine, but remained empty. Eventually the situation was resolved by rebuilding the Gurudwara on top of the old shrine's location. The influence of migrant Sikhs has reinforced the Khalsa in the villages but still compromises have to be made with traditional Sikh practice in the rural regions of the Punjab. Conclusion Most textbooks on Sikhism do not describe the complexity and variety of forms of Sikh identity but rather present the Khalsa as the definitive and discrete Sikh world religion. This is particularly true in Britain where the Khalsa is rapidly manifesting itself as the dominant form of Sikh identity and orthodoxy. It is common to find only Khalsa Sikhs allowed to be members of the management committee of a Gurudwara. The more information that I gather on people's actual religious experience, the more I am inclined to agree with Emile Durkheim when he states that, 'there are no religions which are false. All are true in their own fashion - all answer, though in different ways, to the given conditions of human existence' (Durkheim, 1976, p.3). It cannot be my decision to distinguish between the Khalsa and other forms of Sikh identity in regard to truth claims. By presenting Sikhism in a particular way, whether as a schoolteacher or a Religious Studies scholar, I am unwittingly guilty of aiding the Khalsa in representing itself as the definitive form of Sikh tradition. It may be necessary to re-examine the definition of a Sikh in order to incorporate the diversity of Sikh identity. Essentially, this definition needs to recognise the common ethnic dimension to Sikh identity which may then manifest in a variety of religious forms which should equally demand our attention. There are wider methodological implications for the study of religion as a whole. The World Religions approach is historically linked to Christian scholars who, in trying to understand other faith traditions. established a discipline based on traditional methodology in the study of Christianity. Emphasis was placed on history, scriptural study and theology. Comparative studies required that faiths were critically examined as discrete traditions. The problem of multi-faith identity is foreign to most Christians. However, there are large parts of the Eastern world where millions are perfectly at ease with religious diversity, eclecticism and syncretism. It is relatively straightforward to correct the representation of orthodoxies as the only mode of articulating a tradition, by simply presenting its full diversity. The problem of the fluidity of borders between faith traditions is more difficult to deal with when teaching students who possess little knowledge of discrete traditions, let alone awareness of the complexity which exists across the divisions and which transcends membership of a defined religious community. -------------------------------- GLOSSARY Bhagat A devotee, one who practises bhakti*. Bhakti Love or devotion. The attiitude of loving adoration to the deity or guru Brahmin The priestly caste or first of the four varnas. Guffa Punjabi for a throne. The term used for the shrine of Baba Balaknath or the seat on which a priest of the god will seat when exercising his authority. Gurudwara A Sikh temple or place of corporate worship. Literally a place where the Guru resides. Guru Granth Sahib The holy book of the Sikhs. Usually considered to be the last and final Sahib Guru after the death of Guru Gobind Singh. Jat A Sikh agricultural caste. Kaccha Symbolic undergarments worn by members of the Sikh khalsa as one of the five symbols of their faith. Kangha Symbolic wooden comb worn by members of the Sikh khalsa as one of the five symbols of their faith. Karra A steel bangle worn by members of the Sikh khalsa as one of the five symbols of their faith. Kesh The long uncut hair worn by members of the Sikh khalsa as one of the five symbols of their faith. Khalsa The Sikh brotherhood founded by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 to which Sikhs are admitted through an initiation ceremony in volving amrit - symbolic sugsred water. Kirpan A short knife carried by members of the Khalsa. as one of the five symbols of their faith. Kshatriya The second of the four Hindu varnas., the warriors or rulers. Langar The kitchen attached to a Sikh Gurudwara. Mandir A Hindu temple. Murti The consecrated image of a Hindu deity. Namdhari A sect of Sikhism created by Baba Ram Singh who do not accept the Guru Granth Sahib as guru, but maintain a line of living personal gurus.. Nirankari movement A sectarian reform movement founded by Dayal Das (1783-1855) to purify Sikhism of 'Hindu' parctices by devotion to the formless One (Nirankar). The Nirankaris or Nanak Panthis reject the Khalsa ideal and have their own line of gurus. Panj pyares Lit. the five beloved ones. The five companions of Guru Gobind Singh who, with him, founded the Khalsa in 1699. Radhasoami Founded by Baba Jaimal Singh based on a mystic interpretation of the Guru Granth Sahib. The Radhasoamis have living gurus and attract followers from Hinduism and the West. Sadhana Practice or discipline followed to achieve realisation or salvation. Sadhu A holy man or wandering monk. Sahajdhari Any Sikh who has not been through the khalsa initiation ceremony. Sanatan Lit. the eternal path or religion. Used by Hindus to define dharma their own faith tradition. Sant Saint, usually used to describe the sant tradition: a variety of poet- saints who stress the necessity of devotion through remembrance of the divine Name, (satnam), the importance of the company of saints (satsang) and the necessity of the guidance of the true guru (satguru). Shaivite The Hindu tradition that worships Shiva or his family. Shakti The energy or power of all things, the creative power of God usually associated with the female aspect of the divine or symbolised as various manifestations of the mother goddess. Udasi Sikh ascetics who follow Guru Nanak's son, Shri Chand instead of the orthodox succession. Vaishnavite The worshippers of the incarnations of Vishnu, especially Ram and Krishna. Varna The four classes or divisions of Hindu society established at the beginning of the world and absolutely immutable. END OF GLOSSARY ------------------------------------ BIBLIOGRAPHY Durkheim Emile (1976 2nd Edition), The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, tr. Swain, J, London, George Allen & Unwin. Easwaren, E. (tr.) (1985) The Bhagavad Gita, Harmondsworth, Penguin Arkana. Embree A. (1988), Sources of Indian Tradition, New York, Columbia University Press. Oberoi Harjot (1994), The Construction of Religious Boundaries, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Cole, Owen H. & Sambhi, Pyara Singh (1978), The Sikhs: their Religious Beliefs and Practices, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. Cole, Owen H., (1982), The Guru in Sikhism, London, Darton, Longman & Todd. Sidhu, G.S. (1977), A brief introduction to Sikhism, Gravesend, The Sikh Missionary Society. Singh, Gopal (1995), A History of the Sikh people, New Delhi, Allied Publishers. Singh, Trilochan (1977), The Turban and the Sword of the Sikhs, Gravesend, The Sikh Missionary Society. ---------------------------------------- This paper was delivered to the British Association for the Study of Religions' Annual Conference September 16th - 19th 1996 at University College of St. Martin, Lancaster Conference theme: Religion and Media Contact Address: Dr. R. A. Geaves University of Wolverhampton, UK Religious Studies Division Walsall Campus, Gorway Road Walsall, WS1 3BD England UK Tel: +44(0)1902 323280 Fax: +44(0)1902 323177 e-mail: R.A.Geaves@wlv.ac.uk