The Sikh Renaissance

An analytical episode on what our forefathers exactly fought for and how modernity regresses their sacrifices.

Niccolo Machiavelli, the infamous author of the equally infamous The Prince. Contrary to the popular view of his immorality, Machiavelli argues that power is amoral and only its execution can be bifurcated into immorality or morality.

The Prince is highly relevant to the Sikhs today considering their unceasing pursuit of power. What can we learn from Machiavelli as Sikhs and is the man's reputation deserved? As we say, listen to find out.

The enforced regression of Sikh societal values as a political policy and its adverse impacts on Punjabi culture, overall, are unmissable today. From ludicrous stunts on tractors costing lives unnecessarily to high-handed caveman antics abroad, Sikh youth lack the foundational cornerstone of Sikhi: Responsibility. So then what is the solution if a lack of responsibility is the problem? Listen at your own peril.

Hate it or love it, but it is fast becoming a conspicuous fact that the smarter generation of Sikhs was finished off in the 80's and by some seeming design the incompetent were allowed to escape and spread abroad. These vestiges of a fallen generation now control Gurudwaras and Panthic institutes captaining the Khalsa ship to oblivion due to their lack of guile and an even more atrocious lack of vision. How did this situation arise and what are the cures, if any? Listen at your own peril!

Would you trust a serpent to repay its dues to you after you save its life? Or would you be realistic enough to acknowledge that the serpent is venomous by nature and strikes both friend and foe alike? If the latter is your answer and not the former, then ask yourself: why would you trust individuals or communities whose beliefs emphasize your eternal damnation in hellfire because you do not conform to their way of life? Why then would you help the arbitrators and disciples of such belief systems and philosophies when they have multiple nations of their own and we Sikhs have not a single one?

In this episode we explore:

(a) Why we allow the serpent of Bhaichara to strangle us.

(b) Why we seek validation from others.

(c) The consequences of Bhaichara.

(d) A brighter future without Bhaichara.

(e) How Bhaichara fanatics are usually seeking validation for their own inferiority complex.

Listen at your own peril.

Bhaichara, a term fast devolving into a pejorative for asinine solidarity in which Sikhs suffering from inferiority complexes splurge the community's precious resources on non-Sikhs whose religious ideology emphasizes that we will burn in hell for our non-conformism to their beliefs. We are joined by the legendary historian S. Inderjeet Singh in discussing the fate of Sikhs outside Punjab and how several sections of diasporic and Punjabi Sikhs whitewash the atrocities inflicted upon them for Bhaichara or one-sided brotherhood.

In this brief episode we look at a marvellous incident from the Sri Gur Sobha of the poet Sainapati, a contemporary of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Sainapati was an eyewitness to the Guru's destruction of a village called Alsoon in the vicinity of Anandpur Sahib after the 1691 battle of Nadaun. The Sikhs had triumphed and were returning home when the Guru passed near Alsoon. He immediately ordered it destroyed with his forces driving out all inhabitants and razing it to the ground. What had the inhabitants of Alsoon done to deserve such a fate and was it justified? Listen to find out.

This idea for this episode originated after a heated debate between a team member and an evangelical zealot. The zealot in question ,Shahi 1987, adopted the position that death could not be divine and was not brought into existence by God. Such fictional mythologizing runs against the grain of reality that Sikhs accept as being Hukam, divine will. In this episode we distill the gist of what this debate taught us but also how Sikhs can answer evangelical missionaries using their own baseless scriptures.

In 1781 the fanatical Mughals attacked the Punjab for the last time. Bested by the maverick general Baghel Singh of the KaroraSinghiyaa Confederacy they were effectively routed and beat a hasty retreat never to return. But the KaroraSinghiyaa was an unique body of Khalsa men who swore to get even and in 1783 launched a massive campaign which resulted in Delhi, the subcontinental capital, being raided by the major Sikh Confederacies. Who were the KaroraSinghiyaas and what made them unique? Listen to find out!

December, a month of remembrance for the Sikhs who pay tribute to the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's family and four sons while treading the path of Guru Nanak. However, do we still retain their militant spirit?

Professor Audrey Truschke, the Hindu Right and Islamists-these three seemingly disparate entities are united in denying and disparaging the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur the ninth Sikh Guru. In this episode not only do we answer their allegation that no contemporary source exists to evince this martyrdom, but we also cite contemporary Persian sources written by those nearest to Aurangzeb substantiating the lead-up to the event and its aftermath. We are joined in this episode by eminent Sikh historian and researcher S. Inderjeet Singh (Afghan Hindus And Sikhs) who rediscovered these sources in the late 2010s.  

The Sri Gur Panth Prakash is a 19th century Sikh chronicle delineating the historic ascendance of Khalsa sovereignty in 17th-18th century Punjab. In this episode we explore all the information available on the text; discuss its history and compilation as well as refuting H.S. Chopra's specious allegations (made in 1988) that the polemic Bhai Vir Singh altered it. 

We are joined by eminent guest Dr. Joginder Singh Ji Tej Khurana who is the foremost historian of the Afghan Sikhs. An ex-serving member of the Afghan Grand Assembly, medical specialist and unrivalled intellectual-Dr. Tej Khurana charts the past, present and potential future of Afghanistan and its Sikh populace. Since the seeding of Sikhi among the Afghans, Sikhs have confronted hostility and sanguinary persecutions. Yet their unwavering faith in Sikhi has seen them surmount even the most titanic of obstacles. 

We appeal to the Sangat at large that Dr. Khurana's efforts to rescue the Afghani Sikh populace be further strengthened by contributing in any way and form to the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation in Canada which is involved in all amnesty and refuge initiatives for this community whose glorious history is unheard of today. 

Sikhi is universal. Its moralistic aspect transcends borders, nations and territories. The Sikh faith was seeded beyond Punjab by its progenitor Guru Nanak. One of the fecund regions of the subcontinent which even today has a strong and growing Sikh population which Guru Nanak graced is this very same East India. The rich history of East Indian Sikhs has only now been revealed by eminent authority Professor Jagmohan Singh Gill who joins us to discuss the vanguard of Sikhi in the East of the subcontinent which has remained pristine and untouched since the advent of Guru Nanak and his successors. 

Maharajah Ranjit Singh-maybe the most Machiavellian ruler of them all. His meteoric rise to power belied a very cunning and Machiavellian persona which unfortunately the Sikh leaders of today lack. What can we learn from Ranjit Singh and how is it relevant to today? Listen to hear more.  

The Heart Of A Warrior is a leadership principle. Akin to the Warrior stepping onto the field of battle, preparing to make sacrifices, so too does the Leader step onto their field of battle. The Warrior steels his heart and stiffens his spine; resolute in the face of death. The Leader too must steel their heart and stiffen their spines; resolute in the face of the unknown. In this episode we discuss how the Heart of a Warrior principle can alter our futures and even lives for the better and make us transformative Leaders-an ingredient found wanting in Sikhs today. 

We are joined by savvy historian/historiographer Anmol Singh Rode (Ranneeti Punjab) in debunking the outrightly fallacious claim of right wing propagandists that the Marathas entered the Punjab in the mid-18th century to save Sikhi and rebuild the sacrosanct Sikh Darbar Sahib. Relying primarily on Maratha historians (Besam, Kulkarni, Sardesai, Gordon and Sarkar) as well as contemporary material we evince that the Marathas had:

(a) No interest in being in the Punjab and only arrived when lured by the substantial booty promised by the wily Adina Beg.

(b) Left token garrisons in the region to quieten an otherwise contumacious Adina who feared their return to Pune.

(c) Were summarily annihilated by a returning Ahmad Shah Durrani.

(d) Were viewed by Sikhs and non-Sikh Punjabis as foreign oppressors. 

We also expose the genesis of the aforementioned myth; the times in which it was made and the historic facts which arm the Sikhs to battle it. 

There has been much unnecessary academic controversy ignited over the 5 K's. McLeodian allegations have included denying their origination with the tenth Guru and accusing the Singh-Sabha Lahore of concocting them. On the other hand the modern Upgrade school ludicrously proposes that the priestly class invented the K's and all evidence related to them within the span of one century and that All Sikhs fell for the bait hook, like and sinker.

The truth is somewhat different as we establish. The K's emphasize a very unique comprehensive perception of Sikhi based on the SGGS. A perception which we tend to evade today in a bid to make Sikhi more palpable to our own misassumptions. 

Gurbani identifies fear as a contagion; an illness which rapidly proliferates and takes over its host society. What exactly is fear and how does one Master it? We argue that the vilification of fear is a matter of perception and just as the occasional exposure to pathogens strengthens our immune system similarly exposure to fear emboldens us to live life wholly by transforming it from a handicap into a fuel.

Decadence and decay-the two most relevant adjectives to describe the state of society today. But why is society atrophying and what can Sikhs learn from it? Will Sikh society, if ever restored, too perish similarly? Listen to find out. 

How should we approach the question of Sikh history? How should we comprehend our Ithiaasic Granths? Through the framework of blind Sharda (faith)? Through the application of common sense? Or through careful sifting of fact from fiction and applying Gurbani as the ideological touchstone to understand each and every facet of our physical and written heritage?

Covering vast historiographical topics from the unique testaments of E.H. Carr to the categories of historians devised by G.R. Elton and applying the principles of studying historians before their written histories we focus on several narrations of Sikh history to discover and underscore the truth. 

Why is the SGGS subjected to atrocious intellectual and physical attacks? It is high time that each and every professed Sikh look within it and comprehend its words to understand that its stance on liberating Sikhs from bondage and making them true Khalsas is antithetical to political, religious and social agendas ergo its repeated targeting. 

The Ghadar Party was a majority Sikh based anti-imperialist militant nexus of globally based Sikhs aiming to forge a coalition of subcontinental provinces to overthrow the British in India and establish a subcontinent wide commonwealth. Its failure removed it from history by default with Marxists, Nationalists and Socialists misappropriating and revamping its history for their own insidious aims. In this episode we make a strong defense of Ghadar's Sikh values and Khalsa ideals arguing that Sikhi influenced it predominantly and no other ideology. 

54 Laws of Khalsa Leadership-we do not intend this to be an exhaustive list. Rather, it is a nascent start detailing what we believe to be 54 of the Khalsa's fundamental leadership laws based on our reading of Sikh history and Sikhi in action. Join us as we kick off 2022 with an exploration of Leadership as a calling and as a principle. 

The age-old question of what is right and what is wrong, election or selection? The Ancient Athenians onwards, communities and societies have often favored selection over election with the crucial difference being that selections are done by a few for the many whereas elections are done by the many for a few. In this episode we get to the bare bones of both systems and make a case for selection given that this was the historic Sikh practice. 

Irrespective of its various historic manifestations, Cancel Culture is not a Sikh phenomena nor a Sikh oriented ethic. We explain why.

A general look at the Leadership principles enshrined within the Guru Granth Sahib and how best to live them today.

We explore how current Sikh academics betray the trust reposed in them by the Sikh masses to pander to distorted perceptions of Sikh doctrines and the Sikh past with a particular focus on the fallacy of Sanataan Sikhi.

Bhai Sukha Singh (1721-1753) was an eighteenth century convert to Sikhi who became synonymous with the Khalsa military ethos during his lifetime. Stoic in the face of pain, he was a man of high dynamism who straddled both the military and political spectrums effortlessly. Famed, and somewhat stereotyped, for his sterling role in the assassination of Massa Ranghar we revisit him to see what lessons his life can impart us for living in today's times.

We define the Spartan-Testudo complex as being the entrenchment of particular cultural, political, social and other alternative traits which hamper one's mental and interactive mobility in the world today. For the Sikhs this complex is exemplified by the current wave of hyper-excessive woke liberalism as well as the polar opposite of traditional living with tradition being living as we did in the 18th century. We believe that both these clashing dichotomies are preventing the Panth's progression and argue for a third front, that of Sikh Revivalism shorn off traditionalist ossification and Upgrade dissolution of identity. 

As we somberly observe the 20th anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks (2001), we also reflect on the countless Sikhs who were targeted by xenophobes worldwide owing to their turbaned appearance. With the current Laissez-faire attitude adopted towards Sikh doctrines, it has become commonplace to criticize and even vilify those Sikhs who differentiate between themselves and fundamentalists given the turbaned appearance of both. Such disparity and self-apathy is becoming commonplace among western Sikhs owing to the promotion of self-hate academia in western educational institutes. We explore the eventual outcomes of this intellectual regression and how best to defend against it.

Nawab Kapur Singh-the charismatic but equally enigmatic 18th century Sikh leader who captained the Khalsa Panth during its darkest days in the post-Banda Singh period. What we know of him is derived from a few scant references in the Sri Gur Panth Prakash of Ratan Singh Bhangu, the oral histories of the remnant Nihang bands or the testimonies of his enemies. So who was Nawab Kapur Singh who historians told us preserved the existence of the Khalsa Panth as it faced oblivion in the face? And why is there such a silence around him?

We sit down with S. Deepinder Singh Virk and Mrs. Maninder Kaur of Bharatgarh Fort, 9th generation descendants of the Nawab's bloodline, to learn about a heroic figure who swore to die upholding Sikhi and liberate the Punjab and the subcontinent from foreign invaders. His ultimate betrayal came not during his lifetime but from those who he passed his mantle on to. 

Exactly! Who was the real Guru Nanak? A hyper-liberal pacifist? A renunciative Buddha-like Saint? A Vedic sage? Some Pooran Tam Avatar? Or was he something radically different? We are joined by Professor Balwant Singh Dhillon (GNDU) to seek out Baba Nanak's own testimony as to who he was within the Guru Granth Sahib and to prove that Baba Nanak envisioned the rise of the Khalsa and the Panth's sovereign ascendancy.  

We are joined by special guest Dr. (Prof, Retd.) Balwant Singh Dhillon of GNDU and also Retired Director of Centre For Studies in Guru Granth Sahib (Amritsar) in discussing the life and betrayal of Baba Banda Singh Ji Bahadur as per contemporary Persian sources recorded by eyewitnesses and military/political personalities conversant with the rise and fall of the first Khalsa state. Dr. Dhillon, in a career spanning three decades, has unearthed numerous primary sources in Sikh history and lent new avenues to the world of textual studies. This episode covers:

(a) Banda Singh: Pre-Sikh past.

(b) Banda Singh: Meeting with Guru Gobind Singh Ji and initiation into the Khalsa.

(c) Banda Singh: Paterfamilias of the first Khalsa state.

(d) Banda Singh: Revolutionary social engineer.

(e) Banda Singh: Betrayal.

(f) Banda Singh: Appropriation by Hindu Mahasabha.

(g) Banda Singh: Defended by Sikhs. 

A pointed discussion on the five cognitive rebirths of the Sikh upon entry into the Khalsa and what they mean in today's context. 

Sikhi is rivalled with atrophied South Asian cultural norms which are hampering its progression. One of these norms is the direction of violence against women and anyone else classified as being 'weak.' We discuss the inimical affect of this tendentious cultural nefariousness in Sikh families and how it is high time we obliterate it from within Sikh society.

The Devolution of Sikhi's emphasis on gender equity.

A wake-up call for all Sikh men: stop giving lip service to the concept of gender equality. Actually implement the gender equality which our Gurus envisioned and gifted to us! We are joined by Sikh activist Simran Kaur in this episode as we chart where we went wrong in regards to protecting our sisters' rights and why they are falling prey to grooming gangs today. 

How much selflessness is too much selflessness? And does selflessness only consist of spending consumable/financial resources for global notice? What is our overarching strategy here, and is it paying off? What is the cost to benefit ratio in everything we are doing on a worldwide scale? Or are we, Sikhs, wasting our hard earned resources as a Panth to only receive unwarranted hatred in return?

Is Reincarnation a Sikh belief? What is the rationale behind it and what is an effective alternative to both heaven-hell and Reincarnation quandaries? 

In Zameer we discuss the significance of Shahidi (martyrdom) in Sikhi and how it directly relates to Gurbani's emphasis on living a conscientious life. We answer many long-held myths about the concept in Sikhi while also providing a correct and conscience translation of the oft-mistranslated and misnomered Babur Vani which-in actuality- is a clarion call to arms for all Sikhs by Guru Nanak. 

The title says it all, are Sikhs idolaters and how does Sikhi philosophically view idolatry and are Sikhs guilty of committing the practice when they bow to the Guru Granth Sahib?