The community, at the moment, is like a rudderless ship. It is altogether without any inspiring and guidance-providing leadership. All its leaders stand discredited. They have no vision. While the community has spread all over the world, they cannot think anything beyond the chief ministership of the Punjab. And even this puny ambition seems to elude them.

Our image as a community has been sullied. We have been studiously vilified internationally. However, in this kind of efforts by the adverse forces, our own people, like general Sparrow, were found ready to play stooges. General J. S. Bhullar, whom the community trusted with the high office of the president of the World Sikh Organization, became an agent of the government of India and left the organization in ruins. Innumerable individuals are believed to have been engaged by nefarious powers to create disturbances in our Gurdwaras everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the Gurdwara funds are being spent on litigation as a consequence of such disturbances. The community as a whole has come to be looked upon as posing law and order problem!

Threatened from within and without, we became distraught and paranoid; felt indignant and enraged. But our rage was impotent and self-destructive. We distrusted the voice of sanity because we were paranoid. But we gullibly trusted the mercenaries of the adversary.

But all this predicament is smaller than the decline in the national character that seems to have beset us. Our traditional values of honesty, charity, humility and noble valor have been greatly undermined. Arrogance, egotism and greed have emerged instead. We are in great trouble.

We have passed through such vicissitudes even before. Much worse predicaments befell us after the martyrdom of Banda Singh Bahadur. A genocide of the Sikhs was officially decreed by the emperor Bahadur Shah and followed through by Farukh Sayyar, Abdul Samad Khan, Zakaria Khan and Mir Mannu. At one stage, it had been publicly proclaimed that no turbaned-bearded Sikh had been left alive. But we survived. At that time our entire population was small and confined within India only. We were thus highly vulnerable. Nor was then a world-conscience to bridle the imperial rage. Yet we could not be finished. Much less today, when we have spread out in many countries and when the world conscience has begun to reckon state-terrorism as condemnable as folk-terrorism.

Another pervasive predicament befell us after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Within ten years of his death, the Punjab was annexed by the British. It was then predicted by British observers that the demise of the Panth was imminent. Many influential Sikhs seemed inclined to accept the gloomy view. The Sikh rulers of some states, bargaining for personal benefits from the British in return for bartering away their entire subject population to Christianity. Reasons for pervasive pessimism were as obvious then as they are today. Yet the actual outcome belied the prophets of doom. Far from slipping further into decay, the Panth was approaching a period of notable revival which eventually emerged as the great Singh Sabha movement.

Our survival through such predicaments in the past emboldens me to believe that, inspite of the precarious situation, we may also be preparing for a renaissance. Islands of requisite sensitivity have already arisen in many places. The purpose of this conference is to enhance this sensitivity, make it spread further and accelerate the possibility of a renaissance.

"Renaissance" literally means born again. In the context of nations it stands operationally for reversing the decadent trends, reviving the wavering spirit, reorganizing learning to uphold it, and inspiring social action towards that end.

The changes that a renaissance brings about may not take effect immediately. Yet, the influence of such ideas on future generations becomes tremendous. The humble beginnings of this first conference might well yield unexpected results through well planned and consistent follow up. Let us therefore seriously get about this task.

The one prerequisite for a renaissance to come about is the revival of faith. Let each one of us rekindle our faith and work towards making the islands of activity coalesce and turn it into a movement.

Let us take stock of the areas where action is required. The foremost among these relates to our institutions. I have already made a passing reference to Sri Akal Takht and our Gurdwaras. I now propose to dwell upon them in more detail.

Sri Akal Takht is the foremost among our five Takhts. A Takht means royal throne. In Sikh parlance it distinguishes the place as from where the Guru directed and supervised the mundane affairs of the community.

The Akal Takht, initially called the Akal Bunga, was established within a year, and a week after the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev. It was to signify a creed which considered sinful not only tyranny but also meekly submitting to it without resistance. Guru Har Gobind himself sat on this throne wearing the two swords of Miri and Piri, i.e. temporal and spiritual power respectively. No Guru after him sat on this throne. Only the Guru’s weapons ruled the Takht in their place.

After the martyrdom of Banda Singh Bahadur, the Sikhs, who had become leaderless, began to flock to Delhi to seek the counsel of Mata Sundari, the consort of Guru Gobind Singh. She directed them to visit the Akal Takht instead and commissioned Bhai Mani Singh to provide the Sikhs the requisite directions. It is during this time that the Sikhs began to assemble at the Akal Takht twice a year, on Diwali and Vaisakhi. In these assemblies important Panthic issues were discussed and decisions taken under the guidance of Panj Piyaras (five outstanding Sikhs). Such assemblies were called "Sarbat Khalsa" and the unanimous decisions taken therein were called Gurmattas.

Such assemblies were not required to be held during the life time of the Gurus as their authority rules supreme - both in spiritual as well mundane affairs. However, on mundane matters, the Gurus often consulted the available congregation of the Sikhs; Sarbat Khalsa can therefore be considered an enlarged version of the ‘guru sangat’ or the holy congregation.

During the times of pervasive persecution of the Sikhs, such assemblies became impossible. However, they began to be reorganized as more peaceful times returned. At that time it was possible to hold representative assemblies of the Sikhs as the community was small and geographically compact. The Guru Panth operated through their instrument as the Guru. As the Sikh population increased, and also became geographically diffused far and wide, such assemblies became impracticable. As a consequence, the Guru Panth lost its chief instrument of functioning as Guru through collective wisdom.

During recent times, to fulfill sectarian matters, Sarbat Khalsa assemblies were attempted to be convened. However, the response of the people to them was far from encouraging.

One of the tasks before the projected renaissance should be to explore the possibility of newer instruments through which the Guruship of the Panth through collective wisdom could be revived.

When Guru Gobind Singh Ji established the twin Guruship of Guru Granth and Guru Panth as his successors, it had a special significance. Religion has two aspects: one, the spiritual or mystical, and the other social or temporal. While the former is time-transcendent and inviolate, the latter is contingent on time and place and hence mutable and subject to being recast. That is why the former was subserved under the permanent Guruship of the Divine Word in the Guru Granth and the latter under the collective wisdom of the community.

How the collective wisdom of the community operated is exemplified by our "rehat maryada". None of the traditional "rehatnamas" have been authored by the Gurus. These are compilations, by certain individual Sikhs, of the socio-cultural instructions given by the Gurus from time to time. However, these records cannot be considered to be free from personal bias of the compiler. That is why there is lack of full agreement between them. Moreover there is much in them which is anachronistic and lacks universal appeal to the Sikh mind. That is why the Dharam Parchar Committee of SGPC prepared a generally acceptable version of the rehat maryada and, with the implicit approval of the Panth, made it available to all.

Let us dwell on the institution of the "Gurmatta". The first Gurmatta was passed in the presence of Guru Har Gobind himself. When he received an invitation from the emperor Jahangir to go over and meet him in Delhi, he did not take the decision by himself. Instead, he convened a special assembly of the Sikhs at the Akal Takht to deliberate on the issue and accepted the counsel rendered him.

Later, Gurmattas came to be passed during the Sarbat Khalsa assemblies that were held there. During the 18th century Sarbat Khalsa began to assemble at places other than the Akal Takht. In 1743 a Sarbat Khalsa assembly was held near Sirhind and in 1765 near Delhi. However, the Gurmattas of any such assembly could only become binding on the Sikhs if ratified by the Akal Takht and issued as a Hukamnama.

Originally Hukamnamas were brief epistles issued by the Guru and addressed to individuals or congregation of a place. They were always related to some special purpose. These Hukamnamas were received in reverence and dutifully complied with. Most of the Hukamnamas were lost during the holocausts. Many that survived were collected by Prof. Ganda Singh and published.

When and how the Hukamnamas came to be issued by the Akal Takht is not known. However, one of them (No 86 in Ganda Singh’s collection) is known to have been issued by some prominent Sikhs from Akal Takht in 1759 - some fifty years after the demise of Guru Gobind Singh. Hukamnamas issued from other Takhts are also known. Of these one (No 87 in Ganda Singh’s collection) was issued in 1862 AD Takht Sri Harmandar Sahib, Patna, addressed to the congregation of Kant Nagar.

In the book, "The History of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, 1926-1976 (edited by Shamsher Singh Ashok), it is described that the general house of the S.G.P.C. authorized its president to have a Hukamnama issued from Sri Akal Takht directing the Sikhs to give up observation of caste-distinction.

This episode merits a closer look since several implications seem to issue from it.

i) It appears that the S.G.P.C. or its president could direct the Jathedar of the Akal Takht to issue a Hukamnama. The Hukamnama sought to be issued here, no doubt, related to an important socio-cultural concern of the community. Yet, one cannot deny the theoretical possibility in this arrangement being exploited even for a less worthy purpose.

ii) The second aspect relates to the acceptance of the Hukamnamas. The above mentioned Hukamnama did get considerable response from the community; and people, by and large, began to drop off the caste denomination from their names. However, the process, in time, got reversed and the practice of appending caste-denomination to the names has re-surged. Not just that; there is evidence to suggest that with it have re-emerged caste-pride and caste-alienation in the Sikh psyche.

There is, therefore, need for creating an instrument of the Akal Takht that monitors the response of the community to its Hukamnamas so that renewed action can be taken when it becomes necessary.

Apart from the Akal Takht there are four other Takht. Out of these, three were established by Guru Gobind Singh Ji. These are Harmandar Sahib at Patna, Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur, and Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo. The fourth one, that at Abchal Nagar, Hazur Sahib was established by the Guru Panth. All these are supposed to have territorial jurisdictions but this has only vaguely been defined. The Takht at Patna Sahib has jurisdiction over Eastern India, the one at Hazur Sahib over Southern India; that at Kesgarh Sahib over Northern India and the one at Damdama Sahib over Southern Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, etc. These territories, however, have not been precisely demarcated. Nor is it clear what kind of jurisdiction precisely these Takhts enjoy. The Akal Takht is supposed to exercise suzerainty over them, but how, and in what manner, has never been defined. Besides the jurisdiction of all these Takhts put together does not go beyond the boundaries of India. Yet the Sikh community is no longer confined within India. It is already, what may be called, a multi-state nation. Under the jurisdiction of which Takht do the Sikhs outside India fall ? Are they directly under the Akal Takht, or does the Khalsa Panth need to establish additional Takhts outside India? What is the mutual interrelationship among the various Takhts? Three of the Jathedars of these Takhts are appointed by the S.G.P.C. and two are not. How does the S.G.P.C. stand with regard to those it appoints and those it does not? A horde of such questions awaits the attention of the community.

Let us now turn to our Gurdwaras. There are three kinds of Gurdwaras: i) Historical ones, associated with the lives of the Gurus; ii) Public ones, originally called Sangats, established by congregations for liturgical services; and iii) Private ones, owned and run by individuals.

The historical Gurdwaras of Punjab came under the management of S.G.P.C. by virtue of the Punjab Gurdwara act of 1925. The act came into being as a result of the Gurdwara reform movement which, after much sacrifice, succeeded in getting the self-appointed, hereditary priests, the mahants, evicted from the Gurdwaras. Their management was to be taken over by an elected body of the Sikhs, the S.G.P.C.

This, however, led to certain unforeseen consequences. One of these was that S.G.P.C. which was created purely for the management of the Gurdwaras began to be considered the religious parliament of the Sikhs, which it neither was de jure nor could function, thus de facto. An operational flaw was its incumbency on the process of election. By this process those alone can get elected who obtain a majority of votes. Among any population, truly religious people are in a minority. Temperamentally, moreover, they are disinclined to contest any elections. As a consequence ,the chances of truly religious individuals being elected becomes meager. People with weak religious faith - but adept in the process of power-struggle through elections - have a greater chance of being returned. That was bound to tarnish the religious image of the S.G.P.C. Power struggle and corrupt practices soon found their way in. Misuse of Gurdwara funds and platforms began to generate disbelief.

Another anomaly crept in. The holding of the Gurdwara elections became contingent upon the desire of the government and not the community. The secular Government of India relegated it to deferred priority. As a result no general elections of S.G.P.C. have been held for many years. A large number of the elected members of the S.G.P.C. have already passed away. If the Governmental apathy continues for another decade like this, hardly any member will be left alive. The S.G.P.C. would automatically cease to exist. What arrangement the community would then make to manage its most valuable historical Gurdwaras? This is an eventuality which we must not dismiss as improbable and we must explore what alternatives to the present arrangement the community itself would be able to forge in a self-reliant way.

I have often been asked, what is the alternative to election? Elections are alien to any religion - even to the Sikh religion. Did our Gurus hold elections to appoint their successors? Had there been elections, Guru Angad Dev could never have been elected. Guru Nanak’s entire kinship had gathered to support the claim of Baba Siri Chand. Nor could Guru Arjun have succeeded. His crafty brother would surely have succeeded. If elections were the modus operandi, nobody would have proposed the name of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Were the Panj Pyaras elected? Religious leadership cannot be provided by commoners, but by religious elite. No other religion holds any elections. A variety of other methods are available in every tradition as in our own tradition.

Unfortunately, the model of elections has percolated down from the S.G.P.C. into every Gurdwara-even to those not directly under the S.G.P.C. It has bred power struggle and corrupted the atmosphere of our Gurdwaras. The funds of the Gurdwara easily become an allurement for the power hungry. Maya seems to have vitiated the atmosphere of our Gurdwaras. I am reminded the saying of Bhai Gurdas:

From the fear of Maya we retreat to the Gurdwaras; if Maya befall us even there, where shall we go?

The corrupt and contentious atmosphere of our holy places portends doom for us. The Guru himself warns us:

The world will sink if the holy places become corrupt.

How to restore the image of the Gurdwaras to their pristine dignity is a serious concern for the community.

What we have so far considered are our concern about our traditional institutions. A renaissance not only takes stock of the traditions it also reckons the needs of the time. There are certain non-traditional challenges also that we have to meet.

Traditionally, the entire Sikh community lived in the Punjab, with compact geography and in complacent constancy. The partition of India at the time of her independence led to a wholesale forced migration of the community from the West Punjab not only to East Punjab but to many other parts of India as well. As a consequence of the Operation Blue Star, and subsequent state terrorism unleashed on the community, large sections of it have migrated to other countries, particularly the U.K., the U.S.A. and Canada. However, wherever we are, we are in a very small minority. We still have to forge the ways how we can live with dignity as a minority. We have indeed mastered how to die with dignity but we have yet to learn how to live with dignity.

As a result of migration we come in intimate contact with a variety of alien cultures. We are faced with issues relating to intellectual adjustments. Our immigrants have not left their domestic conflicts behind, but have brought them along into their new domiciles. That tarnishes our image in the eyes of the host cultures, and tends to widen their social distance from them. How to adjust meaningfully with the host cultures without compromising our own identity and dignity is what demands our collective and dispassionate thinking.

While the elders in the community still find themselves squabbling in the Gurdwaras, they are only alienating the youngsters from their own religion. This is a portentous trend.

While Sikhism, traditionally has been a non-proselytizing religion, lately a good many Westerners have become converted to it. That has raised several important issues relating to our liturgical services. Should they not use translation into their own language of our liturgical texts for their services? If ‘yes’ there would be need for elegant and faithful translations of these texts into other languages. We have the responsibility of paying attention to this aspect too.

The Sikhs have been exposed to a variety of cultures all over the world on account of their diaspora. Every culture is bound to impress some effect on them. They will also find something or other worth borrowing from every culture they come in contact with. The one community which stands an apt example for them is the Jewish community. This community is almost as small in numbers as the Sikhs; has been vilified and persecuted the world over like the Sikhs; had been yearning for a homeland of their own for long and, like the Sikhs, they also are non-proselytizing. How they have been able to accomplish what they sought to achieve easily provides a model for the Sikhs to emulate. After their genocide in Germany, they got dispersed all over the world. However, in a conference in Europe they took certain decisions for the survival and uplift of their community. They consciously pursued two of these collective decisions which have enabled them to be the important community they are. First, they decided to transmit their ancestral culture and language to their children at all costs. Second, they encouraged their children to receive the highest education in as many fields as they could. As a result, if you name the top-most name in any branch of learning, art or science today, at least half of them will be Jews. These two decisions the Sikhs need to emulate. If we revive the spring of our tradition and also refurbish the forts of scholarship and learning, these will elevate the status and image of our people in the world community most readily. These two aspects, thus, demand our immediate attention.

I have, in this address, attempted to highlight some of the most outstanding issues that any projected Sikh Renaissance will have to reckon. I have made no attempt to provide answers to the questions that I have raised. That is, because I thought, if the first Renaissance conference could identify, and clearly articulate, the problems of which solutions have to be explored, a good start would have been made. However, I am sure, that the various other speakers who have come to participate in the conference will deliberate on their respective topics even in greater detail, and not only elaborate further on these issues but also suggest answers that they may feel confident about. Forging and delineating generally acceptable solutions and working for their popular acceptance should be the tasks of subsequent conferences, and other commissions or conventions, that they may be able to generate.

Before I conclude, let me remind ourselves that no renaissance, however successful, ever achieved unexceptional consent on all issues. In general, it generates a strong group of those faithful who need to be adaptive to changing circumstances, and to new ideas. The faith they cherish, the principles they pursue, and the practices they observe - all derive from their traditional belief system. They depart much or little, consciously or inadvertently, from certain older patterns to revitalize them. Yet, there would still be some who would refuse to be moved even slightly from the faith, morality, and practices of their forefathers.

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