Maharshi Dayanand, in his book ‘Satyartha Prakash’[1] has savagely attacked Sikhism; and so has he attacked many other Indian religions like Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Buddhism, Jainism and the lot. He has directly personally slandered Kabir, Buddha, Guru Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh and many others, all in the name of Hinduism.
Satyarth Prakash, his book, has a chapter on Sikhism which starts with the following lines
- Page 443 (chapter IX): “The aim of Nanak was, no doubt, good; but he did not possess any learning. . . he wanted to show that he had some pretensions to the knowledge of Sanskrit . . . anxious to gain public applause, fame and glory ..
- Page 444 (chapter X) “Since he was a little vain, he may possibly have even resorted to some sort of make-believe to gain reputation and acquire fame, hence it is that in his book called the Grantha the Vedas have been praised as well as censured, because had he not done so, some one might have asked him the meaning of the Vedic Mantra and as he would not have been able to explain it he would have been lowered in the estimation of the people.” …… “The successors of Nanak wrote various treatises: some of them invented fictitious stories like those of the Puranas…
- Page 446 . . . if Sikhs were to read vedas, they would no doubt embrace vedic religion
- In the 1st edition of Satyarth Prakash he has called Guru Nanak as (dhurta) crafty and dishonest. The Sikh scriptures Granth Sahib as (Mithya) falsehood and Sikhism as (jal) a trap for the innocent.
‘Satyarth Prakash’ written by Maharshi Dayanand, as a book is against the Indian ethos of inclusion. It decries and denounces every other stream of Indian philosophies other than the Vedas. It totally denounces Sikhs as arising out of ignorance.
Before the advent of Arya Samaj in Punjab (the then greater Punjab including the areas now under Pakistan);
- Sikhs and Hindus were almost a monolithic group with porous boundaries.
- People used to identify themselves with either or both, but were respectful of each other’s core beliefs.
- Quite often the families were of mixed belief, with one son being a Sikh and the others being Hindus.
- Infact during the early Census (1891) conducted by the British, they could not arrive at a definition of Sikhism and Hinduism due to its porous nature.
Most historians underline the fact that the initiation of Arya Samaj in Punjab sowed the seeds of Hindu-Sikh segregation as separate religions. With the advent of Arya Samaj, there was a concerted effort to denounce Sikhism as a fake pretender; and the attempts of Arya Samaj were to slander Sikhism as a fake sect. As a counter-reaction of concerted efforts of Arya Samaj (and also by Sanatanists, but that is a different chapter) to denounce the followers of the ten-gurus; the Sikhs also started separating themselves from Hindus with a book ‘We are not Hindus’ by Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha in 1897.
And the above are just facts; with no personal commentary
Post Script: A rejoinder of Satyarth Prakash was written by Sir Anand Swaroop who has published a point by point rejoinder pointing out the flaws in Maharshi Dayanand’s theories – the book being called ‘Yatharth Prakash’ (in four volumes), where Sir Anand Swaroop explains the commonalities of all religious strains; a copy of Yathartha Prakash can be obtained from the Radhasoami Satsang in Dayalbagh Agra.
Footnotes
[1] http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org…
Musings 